Israel-Hamas War 2023

[crazy canuck]

Reports Israel shelled one of the routes south that they had designated as safe, killing over 70.  Mostly women and children.

I mean that seems really evil so I would probably want confirmation.

But...why not? Nothing seems beyond the pale in this conflict.

I have not seen any confirmations and the CBC stopped running that story - so I think its better to assume that did not happen.

But here is something that is certainly happening - as reported by the Globe and Mail.

And for those of you who heard the interview with Dr. Byers - this is the very thing he was talking about. 

Israel-Hamas war: Water running out in Gaza as UN warns of 'death sentence' to hospital patients
GEOFFREY YORK, MARK MACKINNON AND NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
JERUSALEM, TEL AVIV AND BEIRUT
PUBLISHED 4 HOURS AGO
UPDATED 52 MINUTES AGO

Water supplies in Gaza are rapidly dwindling and thousands of hospital patients are in severe danger as Israel's nine-day blockade and bombing campaign triggers a growing humanitarian catastrophe for the 2.3 million people of the Palestinian territory.

Israel launched the air strikes last week after Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip killed more than 1,400 people in southern Israel, according to the Israeli government, and abducted more than 120.

The bombing has intensified in recent days, with more than 300 people killed on Saturday and Sunday morning, making it the deadliest 24-hour period since the attacks began and bringing the total death toll to more than 2,300, according to Gaza's health ministry.

The air strikes, coupled with Israel's continuing blockade of Gaza's supplies of food, water, fuel and medicine, have created a humanitarian disaster that has sparked growing international concern. "Gaza is one of the worst places on Earth to be right now," Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly told a media briefing on Saturday.

Nearly half of Gaza's people have been forced to flee from their homes. "Morgues are overflowing," United Nations emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths said in a weekend statement.

"Entire residential neighbourhoods have been razed to the ground. The humanitarian situation in Gaza, already critical, is fast becoming untenable."

The UN warned that Gazans will soon begin dying of severe dehydration if the blockade of water and fuel continues. Some are already forced to drink dirty water, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases, the UN said.

Israel has told the entire population of northern Gaza, about 1.1. million people, including hospital staff and patients, to move to the southern half of the enclave as it prepares for an expected ground invasion of the enclave. Some humanitarian workers have described this as "forcible transfer" – a war crime under international law – and most hospitals are defying the order.

The evacuation orders to 22 hospitals in northern Gaza are "a death sentence for the sick and injured," the World Health Organization said in a statement on the weekend.

More than 2,000 patients are at risk because the overcrowded hospitals in southern Gaza are already at maximum capacity and would be unable to cope with a dramatic rise in patients, it said.


"The lives of many critically ill and fragile patients hang in the balance: those in intensive care or who rely on life support; patients undergoing hemodialysis; newborns in incubators; women with complications of pregnancy, and others all face imminent deterioration of their condition or death if they are forced to move and are cut off from life-saving medical attention while being evacuated," the WHO said.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said it will not evacuate the hospitals where it operates in northern Gaza. "PRCS will continue saving lives and will not abandon those who are facing death threats," it said in a social media post on the weekend.

Hussam Abu Safiya, a doctor at the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, said his hospital is seeing 15 to 20 fatality cases every day. "We are working under stress, we are working under bombing," he told The Globe and Mail.

"The situation in our hospital is very bad, very bad. Any minute many people can come to our emergency room due to Israeli bombing. Most of the people are children and women, children of young age presenting to our ER with different injuries, mostly people with bad or critical general conditions. We have a shortage of medications. We can't help these people for many more days because we don't have the medical supplies."

By Sunday, hospital fuel supplies had dwindled to roughly two days, said Isam Hammad, the top importer of medical equipment to Gaza, who works closely with local medical facilities.

After that, "generators will stop and hospitals will go out of service," he said, although any problem with the generators could hasten that moment. Once generators are out, intensive care equipment "will work on internal batteries for a few hours, then it will stop," he said.

Medical supplies are dwindling, and the mass evacuation of patients is not possible, he told The Globe. "We are talking about five main hospitals full of critical cases. Will there be bed capacity in the south? Of course not."

South Gaza is no haven, he said. In fact, he has been told that people who initially left the north have subsequently returned home, "simply because there is no electricity and no water in all places north and south."

Meanwhile, bombing continues. "It is death everywhere," Mr. Hammad said.

Because of the lack of fuel, water cannot be pumped, and sewage systems will flood, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned on the weekend.

The lack of water supplies "has become a matter of life and death," with two million people at risk, the UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA, said in a statement.

"Clean water is running out in the Gaza Strip, after its water plant and public water networks stopped working," it said. "People are now forced to use dirty water from wells."

Three water desalination plants, previously producing 21 million liters of drinking water per day, have halted operations, UNRWA said. Drinking water supply from Israel was cut last Monday, causing a severe shortage for more than 650,000 people.

"We need to truck fuel into Gaza now," said the agency's commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini. "Fuel is the only way for people to have safe drinking water. If not, people will start dying of severe dehydration, among them young children, the elderly and women."

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, in a statement on Saturday, said he was deeply concerned by the "dire humanitarian situation" in Gaza. "The rapid and unimpeded access of relief via a humanitarian corridor is essential to address the urgent needs of civilians in Gaza," he said.

About 150 Canadians are still trapped in Gaza after the cancellation of an earlier agreement to allow foreign nationals to depart from Gaza through the Rafah crossing to Egypt. They had hoped to leave on Saturday, but by Sunday afternoon there was still no signs of movement at the Rafah crossing.

[The Brain]

My impression is that Gaza's decision to go to full active war with Israel by attacking civilians in a very controversial way was a poor one by conventional standards. How do you protect actors against making poor decisions?

[crazy canuck]

My impression is that Gaza's decision to go to full active war with Israel by attacking civilians in a very controversial way was a poor one by conventional standards. How do you protect actors against making poor decisions?

As far as undedicated impressions go, that is a right up there.

[Legbiter]

If that story is true most gazans will be dead in 5 to 6 days. If they're not we'll know the story was false.

[The Brain]

My impression is that Gaza's decision to go to full active war with Israel by attacking civilians in a very controversial way was a poor one by conventional standards. How do you protect actors against making poor decisions?

As far as undedicated impressions go, that is a right up there.

You think it wasn't a poor decision?

[Hamilcar]

Every single protester saying "from the river to the sea" must be arrested, deported and banned forever from the civilized world. Fucking genocidal monsters declaring their intentions publicly across Europe. Every last one must go.

[Hamilcar]

Every single protester saying "from the river to the sea" must be arrested, deported and banned forever from the civilized world. Fucking genocidal monsters declaring their intentions publicly across Europe. Every last one must go.

If they have dual citizenship, their European passport must be revoked instantly and then they can be deported.

At least some German politicians agree with me: https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/csu-fordert-knallhart-kurs-sechs-monate-haft-fuer-israel-hasser-85742950.bild.html

[Jacob]

If that story is true most gazans will be dead in 5 to 6 days. If they're not we'll know the story was false.

Presumably a bunch of them will drink dirty and untreated water from wells (like the story says), with the health consequences that entails.

[Jacob]

Every single protester saying "from the river to the sea" must be arrested, deported and banned forever from the civilized world. Fucking genocidal monsters declaring their intentions publicly across Europe. Every last one must go.

If they have dual citizenship, their European passport must be revoked instantly and then they can be deported.

At least some German politicians agree with me: https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/csu-fordert-knallhart-kurs-sechs-monate-haft-fuer-israel-hasser-85742950.bild.html

Revoking citizenship for speech?

[Hamilcar]

Every single protester saying "from the river to the sea" must be arrested, deported and banned forever from the civilized world. Fucking genocidal monsters declaring their intentions publicly across Europe. Every last one must go.

If they have dual citizenship, their European passport must be revoked instantly and then they can be deported.

At least some German politicians agree with me: https://www.bild.de/politik/inland/politik-inland/csu-fordert-knallhart-kurs-sechs-monate-haft-fuer-israel-hasser-85742950.bild.html

Revoking citizenship for speech?

Revoke citizenship for advocating genocide, absolutely. You have proven that you don't share the fundamental values of your adopted home. You lied when you were naturalized. Same principle as the Nazis who lied on their immigration forms in the US and Canada.

[HVC]

What of those born there?

[Hamilcar]

What of those born there?

Jail. Straight to jail. Seem my link above, German conservative proposes 6 month jail sentence.

[Jacob]

Revoke citizenship for advocating genocide, absolutely. You have proven that you don't share the fundamental values of your adopted home. You lied when you were naturalized. Same principle as the Nazis who lied on their immigration forms in the US and Canada.

1. So this doesn't apply to people who were born in the country and have citizenship? If I said such a thing I'd still keep my Danish citizenship, and you'd still keep your Swiss?

2. One difference is that the US citizenship/ visa applications explicitly asks about membership and revocation happens as a result of lying. That is different than revoking citizenship for utterances you disapprove of, that were not mentioned during the application process.

[HVC]

What of those born there?

Jail. Straight to jail. Seem my link above, German conservative proposes 6 month jail sentence.

And those cheering on Palestinian deaths, deportation and jail for them too?

[Hamilcar]

Revoke citizenship for advocating genocide, absolutely. You have proven that you don't share the fundamental values of your adopted home. You lied when you were naturalized. Same principle as the Nazis who lied on their immigration forms in the US and Canada.

1. So this doesn't apply to people who were born in the country and have citizenship? If I said such a thing I'd still keep my Danish citizenship, and you'd still keep your Swiss?

2. One difference is that the US citizenship/ visa applications explicitly asks about membership and revocation happens as a result of lying. That is different than revoking citizenship for utterances you disapprove of, that were not mentioned during the application process.

1. If the Western citizenship is the only thing you have then all that's left is punishment.

2. Most western countries require you to pledge to respect the laws and values of their society when you naturalize. By advocating genocide you demonstrate that you lied during your pledge.