Protests mark 70th anniversary of Nakba as Palestinians take part in burials following Monday’s killings in Gaza.
Laila Anwar al-Ghandour, an eight-month-old baby girl, died of tear-gas inhalation at dawn, Gaza’s Ministry of Health says, highlighting international outrage over the killings by Israeli soldiers of 60 Palestinians who joined in a massive protest against the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem.
Laila was the youngest fatality of the demonstrations on Monday, which were held in the run up to the 70th anniversary on Tuesday of the Nakba, or Catastrophe, the day the state of Israel was established on May 15, 1948, forcing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes.
The 59th victim of Israel’s brutal repression against Palestinians in Gaza today was Leila Anwar al-Ghandour. She was 8 months old. https://t.co/Nr9oNCsXAP pic.twitter.com/WvT3q2V7y0
— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) May 15, 2018
According to the Palestine Network for Dialogue, Laila and the al-Ghandour family are residents of the al-Shati district, also known as Beach Camp, in western Gaza.
At least eight Palestinians under the age of 18 were among the dead in the protest on Monday.On Tuesday, the activist group posted images of the al-Ghandour family bidding farewell to Laila.
On Tuesday, Talal Adel, a 16-year-old, died after sustaining severe injuries on Monday.
#صور وداع الشهيدة الرضيعة ليلى انور الغندور (8 شهور) التي ارتقت اثر استنشاقها للغاز الذي تلقيه قوات الاحتلال على المتظاهرين شرق #غزة. pic.twitter.com/c6L64l6Vhv
— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) May 15, 2018
The Israeli military has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on the Gaza Strip for more than a decade, cutting the Palestinian territory off from the outside world and leaving many of its residents impoverished, including the al-Ghandour family.
For the past seven weeks, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been protesting as part of a campaign demanding the right of return for Palestinian refugees to the areas they were forcibly expelled from in 1948.
Since the protests began on March 30, Israeli forces have killed at least 108 Palestinians in the coastal enclave and wounded about 12,000 people.
The bloodshed in Gaza contrasted with the events in Jerusalem on Monday, as US President Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, joined Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in inaugurating the US embassy.
Images broadcast on television and splashed all over the internet and social media underlined the sharp visual disparity of the two news events.
Left: #Jerusalem
Right: #Gaza
(Pictures taken at the same time this afternoon) pic.twitter.com/0ySzaGjQC9
— Patrick Galey (@patrickgaley) May 14, 2018
Another image that has been widely circulating on social media showed a double-amputee, sitting in a wheelchair and holding a slingshot.
But the person in the photo was incorrectly identified as Fadi Abu Salah, who was killed during the protest on Monday.
The person in the AFP news agency photo has been identified as Saber al-Ashqar, not Abu Salah, who is also a double-amputee. That photo was taken on May 11 at a separate protest in Gaza.
Abu Salah was killed by Israeli snipers east of Khan Younis on Monday.
Images posted on Twitter showed hundreds of people attending Abu Salah’s funeral on Tuesday.
#صور.. تشييع جثمان الشهيد المُقعد فادي أبو صلاح الذي ارتقى برصاص الاحتلال أمس شرق خانيونس.pic.twitter.com/lnAiMVra8T
— شبكة فلسطين للحوار (@paldf) May 15, 2018
Monday was the deadliest day for Palestinians since the Israeli war on Gaza in 2014, a 50-day assault that saw at least 2,251 Palestinians killed. Most of the fatalities were civilians, including 551 children. At least 73 Israelis were also killed, 67 of whom were soldiers.
This was the deadliest day in Gaza since the 2014 war. pic.twitter.com/IYDLV7rMcg
— AJ+ (@ajplus) May 15, 2018
At least 2,771 protesters were reported injured as of Tuesday, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health.
“The hospital smells like blood, there is blood everywhere,” Maram Humaid told Al Jazeera from the Indonesia Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip. “Those wounded are lying on the floor – there are no more beds to accomodate them. The hospitals are overflowing.” #Gaza
— Nadeem Muaddi (@nmuaddi) May 14, 2018
Also on Tuesday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called on residents across the occupied West Bank to hold a general strike in honour of those killed in Gaza.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan led international condemnation of the deaths, accusing Israel of “state terror” and “genocide”, according to state-run Anadolu news agency.
Erdogan has declared three days of national mourning in honour of those who were killed.
In the US, Bernie Sanders, former Democratic presidential candidate and senator from Vermont, urged Washington to bring the adversaries together “to address Gaza’s humanitarian crisis and stop this escalating violence”.
Over 50 killed in Gaza today and 2,000 wounded, on top of the 41 killed and more than 9,000 wounded over the past weeks. This is a staggering toll. Hamas violence does not justify Israel firing on unarmed protesters.
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) May 14, 2018
Jeremy Corbyn, Britain’s opposition leader and head of the Labour Party, also joined in the condemnation of the violence in Gaza, saying: “We cannot turn a blind eye to such wanton disregard for international law”.
In a post on social media, Corbyn wrote that his party is committed to reviewing the UK’s arms sales to Israel “while these violations continue”.
“The international community must at last put its collective authority and weight behind achieving a lasting settlement that delivers peace, justice and security for both Israelis and Palestinians, who have waited so long to achieve their rights.”
The killing of dozens of unarmed protesters and wounding of many more by Israeli forces in Gaza, on the day President Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem, is an outrage that demands not just international condemnation, but action.https://t.co/qUDmcDe2xv
— Jeremy Corbyn (@jeremycorbyn) May 14, 2018
In response, the Trump administration said Hamas, the Palestinian group governing the Gaza Strip, was to blame for the violence.
In a social media post, Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch, said that “by blaming solely Hamas for the Gaza border killings, Trump gives the Israeli snipers a green light to keep killing”.
Zeid Ra’ad al Hussein, the high commissioner of the UN human rights office, said that international law on the use of force appeared “to be ignored again and again”.
“It seems anyone is liable to be shot dead or injured: women, children, press, first responders, bystanders, and at almost any point up to 700m from the fence.”
.@UNHumanRights condemns the appalling, deadly violence in #Gaza yesterday during which 58 Palestinians were killed and almost 1,360 demonstrators were injured with live ammunition by Israeli security forces. pic.twitter.com/rn1bztRLMS
— UN Human Rights (@UNHumanRights) May 15, 2018
Inside Gaza, residents and activists have also made their collective voice heard on social media against the Israeli occupation and the latest violence.
As the protest raged on Monday, Mohammed Said Nashwan, a Gaza-based social activist, wrote in Arabic that Jerusalem is “the eternal capital of Palestine, and always will be”.
“I swear the bloodshed will not be in vain.”
His post on Twitter was retweeted at least 1,400 times.
#القدس_عاصمة_فلسطين_الأبدية ستبقى وستظل
والله لن تنعموا بها كثيرا
والله هذه الدماء لا تضيع هدرا
والله سيأتي اليوم الذي ستعود فيه #القدس لأهلها
لا يهمنا المتخاذلين من حولنا
— محمد سعيد نشوان #فلسطين (@MohamdNashwan) May 14, 2018
On Tuesday, the UK government called for an independent investigation into the deadly Gaza protest.
Philip Luther, of the human rights group Amnesty International, said in a statement on Tuesday that the killings of Palestinian protesters were “a violation of international standards, in some instances committing what appear to be wilful killings constituting war crimes”.
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War Crimes and Collective Punishment: Gina Haspel, Torture, and the Massacre in Gaza
Intercepted
As Jared and Ivanka partied, Palestinian civilians were being slaughtered. This week on Intercepted: Blacklisted academic Norman Finkelstein discusses his meticulous, scholarly documentation of the collective punishment of Gaza, “the largest concentration camp in the world.”
The son of two Nazi concentration camp survivors, Finkelstein is an incendiary academic whose work has infuriated the Israeli government for decades. His latest book, “Gaza: An Inquest Into its Martyrdom,” has not been reviewed in a single U.S. newspaper. He talks about the latest massacre in Gaza, the history of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes, and why he believes Iran is out-maneuvering Netanyahu.
Palestinian nursing student Yousef Mema gives an on-the-ground report from Gaza and shares what he witnessed at Shifa hospital. Some Democratic senators are joining the Republicans in publicly backing Gina Haspel for CIA director.
Sen. Ron Wyden, a longtime member of the Intelligence Committee, blasts the CIA propaganda campaign in support of Haspel and accuses the Republicans of engaging in a secret confirmation process.
Jeremy also asks Wyden if he believes CIA personnel involved with torture should be criminally prosecuted, what he thinks of Edward Snowden, and why the known liar James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, was never charged with perjury. Plus, Jared Kushner speaks a little too much truth at the Jerusalem embassy.
This item was originally published by “Intercepted” –
This is Leila al-Ghandour, an 8-month-old Palestinian baby murdered by Israeli forces #FreePalestine pic.twitter.com/1vzTYHfTJq
— Press TV (@PressTV) May 16, 2018
Al Jazeera
The 21st Century