Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude

6/12/2024

least sexy male movie star?

mike asked me if i could note the above. hell, yes. there's only 1 diana ross. and she's a living legend coming off 1 of her finest albums (the grammy nominated 'thank you') and on a tour that's killing. and i typed that last night and then went to bed. so we'll open with it today.

carla had an interesting question in an e-mail. who is the least sexy male movie star?

are we talking living? if not, e-mail me again and i'll answer that.

but of the living, it comes down to 2.

timothee chalamat is just ugly. flat out ugly. i'm not sure we can call him a movie star. he's like pamela tiffen in that he appears in popular films but can't really sell tickets. if the concept is interesting enough to lure in an audience, it's a hit. if they have to count on him to pull ticket buyers in, the film flops.

so i'll leave him at number 2 - a term i'm sure has been applied to him and his performances very often.

so that leaves us with?

chris pratt.

he tries awful hard to not look so fat. but he can't help it. not only is it in his genes but he really does favor carrol o'conner (archie bunker).

he's 45 later this month. you can see him fighting the pounds - and losing. you can see the skin getting looser and looser around his face and jaw. he has butt hole eyes. they convey nothing and they don't welcome you in.

he's married to a woman a decade younger. this after dumping 1st wife anna farris.

he's just your typical trash male who is attractive in the right light - and only in the right light - who dumps his wife for a woman over 10 years younger than him.

he can't act.

we're all enduring andy from 'parks and recreation' in every bad film he stars in.

there's nothing sexy about him. and his ass is a joke. but his whole body is. that's why 'passengers' failed. no 1 wanted to see him naked - and, after they did, they especially wanted to warn every 1 they knew not to see the film.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Wednesday, June 12, 2024. ALJAZEERA broadcasts War Crimes carried out by the Israeli government, this as the UN issues a report on War Crimes and as a G& summit starts in Italy.

This morning, ALJAZEERA broadcasts War Crimes carried out against Palestinians.

Of the above video, ALJAZEERA notes:

Al Jazeera has obtained footage from Gaza that appears to show Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian people.

The videos were captured around al-Rashid Street, a coastal road connecting north and south Gaza. Israel had designated it a safe zone for Palestinians wanting to move between those areas.

Footage from June 1 shows a person walking along the beach before Israeli soldiers appear to have stopped them. Moments later, the person is shot.

Another video appears to show a group of Palestinians walking north on May 17. One of them steps out of the group and raises their hands in the air, apparently showing they are unarmed. They are shot within minutes. Soldiers are then seen coming in to take the person’s body away.

How important is the video? Important enough to result in the news aggregator GOOGLE NEWS pulling ALJAZEERA from their feed this morning.

You have to go back 10 hours to find any Gaza news on GOOGLE NEWS from ALJAZEERA.

Remember when GOOGLE's motto was "Don't do evil"? Those days are long gone.

April 12th, Billy Perrigo (TIME magazine) reported:

Google provides cloud computing services to the Israeli Ministry of Defense, and the tech giant has negotiated deepening its partnership during Israel’s war in Gaza, a company document viewed by TIME shows.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense, according to the document, has its own “landing zone” into Google Cloud—a secure entry point to Google-provided computing infrastructure, which would allow the ministry to store and process data, and access AI services.

The ministry sought consulting assistance from Google to expand its Google Cloud access, seeking to allow “multiple units” to access automation technologies, according to a draft contract dated March 27, 2024. The contract shows Google billing the Israeli Ministry of Defense over $1 million for the consulting service.

The version of the contract viewed by TIME was not signed by Google or the Ministry of Defense. But a March 27 comment on the document, by a Google employee requesting an executable copy of the contract, said the signatures would be “completed offline as it’s an Israel/Nimbus deal.” Google also gave the ministry a 15% discount on the original price of consulting fees as a result of the “Nimbus framework,” the document says.

April 23rd, Kelvin Chan and Wyatte Grantham-Philips (AP) reported, "Google fired at least 20 more workers in the aftermath of protests over technology the company is supplying the Israeli government amid the Gaza war, bringing the total number of terminated staff to more than 50, a group representing the workers said."

On the issue of War Crimes, the United Nations issued the following this morning:

12 June 2024 Human Rights

Palestinian armed groups and Israeli authorities have both committed war crimes and crimes against humanity during the attack on 7 October and the subsequent military operations, according to a new report by a UN independent human rights body.

This was among the conclusions listed in the report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, released on Wednesday.

“Amid months of losses and despair, retribution and atrocities, the only tangible result has been compounding the immense suffering of both Palestinians and Israelis, with civilians, yet again, bearing the brunt of decisions by those in power,” the Commission said, stressing the impact on women and children.

Clear turning point

The brutal attack of 7 October by Hamas on communities in southern Israel marked a “clear turning point” for both Israelis and Palestinians and presents a “watershed moment” that can change the direction of the conflict, with a real risk of further solidifying and expanding the occupation, the Commission said.

For Israelis, the attack was unprecedented in scale in its modern history, when in one single day hundreds of people were killed and abducted, invoking painful trauma of past persecution not only for Israeli Jews but for Jewish people everywhere.

For Palestinians, Israel’s military operation and attack in Gaza have been the longest, largest and bloodiest since 1948, causing immense damage and loss of life and triggered for many Palestinians traumatic memories of the Nakba and other Israeli incursions.

Stop recurring cycles of violence

The Commission emphasized that both the attack in Israel and Israel’s subsequent military operation in Gaza should not be seen in isolation.

“The only way to stop the recurring cycles of violence, including aggression and retribution by both sides, is to ensure strict adherence to international law,” it stressed.

“That includes ending the unlawful Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory; discrimination, oppression and the denial of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people, and guaranteeing peace and security for Jews and Palestinians.”

Deliberate targeting by Hamas

The Commission further noted that in relation to the attack of 7 October in Israel, members of the military wings of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, as well as Palestinian civilians who were directly participating in the hostilities, deliberately killed, injured, mistreated, took hostages and committed sexual and gender-based against civilians, including Israeli citizens and foreign nationals.

Such acts were also committed against members of the Israeli Security Forces (ISF), including soldiers considered hors de combat – such as injured soldiers.

“These actions constitute war crimes and violations and abuses of international humanitarian law and international human rights law,” it said.

The Commission also identified patterns indicative of sexual violence in several locations and concluded that Israeli women were disproportionally subjected to these crimes.

Failure to protect civilians

It also noted that Israeli authorities “failed to protect civilians in southern Israel on almost every front”, including failing to swiftly deploy sufficient security forces to protect civilians and evacuate them from civilian locations on 7 October.

In several locations, ISF applied the so-called ‘Hannibal Directive’ and killed at least 14 Israeli civilians. That Directive is reportedly a procedure to prevent capture of ISF members by enemy forces and was alleged to have been directed against Israeli civilians on 7 October.

“Israeli authorities also failed to ensure that forensic evidence was systematically collected by concerned authorities and first responders, particularly in relation to allegations of sexual violence, undermining the possibility of future judicial proceedings, accountability and justice,” the Commission added.

Violations by Israeli military

The independent Commission, established by the UN Human Rights Council, also concluded that, in relation to Israel’s military operations in Gaza, Israel committed war crimes, crimes against humanity and violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.

The Commission further concluded that the immense numbers of civilian casualties and widespread destruction of civilian objects and vital civilian infrastructure were the “inevitable results of Israel’s chosen strategy for the use of force” during these hostilities, undertaken with intent to cause maximum damage, disregarding distinction, proportionality and adequate precautions, and thus unlawful.

“ISF’s intentional use of heavy weapons with large destructive capacity in densely populated areas constitutes an intentional and direct attack on the civilian population, particularly affecting women and children,” the Commission said, adding that this was confirmed by the substantial and increasing numbers of casualties, over weeks and months, with “no change in Israeli policies or military strategies”.

Recommendations

Among its recommendations, the Commission report called on the Government of Israel to immediately end attacks resulting in the killing and maiming of civilians in Gaza, end the siege on Gaza, implement a ceasefire, ensure that those whose property has been unlawfully destroyed receive reparations, and ensure that necessities crucial for the health and well-being of the civilian population immediately reach those in need.

It also called on the Government of the State of Palestine and the de-facto authorities in Gaza to ensure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held in the enclave; ensure their protection, including from sexual and gender-based violence; report on their state of health and wellbeing; allow visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), contact with families and medical attention, and ensure their treatment in compliance with international humanitarian and human rights laws.

“Stop all indiscriminate firing of rockets, mortars and other munitions towards civilian populations,” it added.

Australia's ABC notes, "Sometimes, the evidence gathered by such UN mandated bodies has formed the basis for war crimes prosecutions and could be drawn on by the International Criminal Court." Will the report have any impact on the Israeli government? Probably not. At TRUTHOUT, Sharon Zhang observes:

As the UN Security Council passed a binding U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza on Monday, Israel continued to slaughter Palestinians in Gaza — despite U.S. officials’ insistence that the ceasefire is backed by Israeli officials.

The resolution passed 14 to 0. Russia abstained from the vote because its representative said it is unclear whether or not Israel has actually signed on to the resolution, with conflicting accounts from U.S. and Israeli officials on Israel’s stance.

The proposal is similar to previous ones introduced by the U.S., with the first phase consisting of “immediate, full, and complete ceasefire” with the exchange of some Palestinians who are being imprisoned by Israel and some Israeli hostages, including women, the elderly and the wounded, according to a UN report on the vote.

Let's note this from yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.

In Gaza, the healthcare system is barely functioning, eight months into Israel’s devastating assault. In a statement Monday, Gaza’s Health Ministry warned the few remaining hospitals still partially functioning could completely shut down if diesel generators needed for electricity are not replaced or maintained soon. The ministry said it expected a number of generators at hospitals to fail because Israel is preventing the entry of necessary spare parts. Health facilities that supply things like oxygen and refrigeration for medicine are facing a complete shutdown, which the Health Ministry said in a statement, quote, “means certain death for the sick and injured and the complete end of health services,” end-quote.

In addition to severe shortages of electricity, medical supplies and equipment as a result of the Israeli blockade, Gaza’s hospitals have been hit by Israeli airstrikes repeatedly over the last eight months. The World Health Organization said this week, since October 7th there have been more than 460 Israeli attacks on Gaza’s healthcare system, affecting over 100 health facilities.

More than 37,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s war on Gaza, with thousands more missing under the rubble and presumed dead. A staggering 85,000 people have been wounded.

For more, we’re joined by Dr. James Smith, emergency medical doctor just back from Gaza, spent nearly two months there treating patients at trauma stabilization points in al-Mawasi and Rafah, also worked in the emergency rooms of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah and Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. He left Gaza Friday. He joins us today.

We welcome you to Democracy Now! If you can start off, Dr. Smith, by talking about the situation that you’re hearing from the doctors even in the few days since you have left, particularly after the attack on Nuseirat, which was considered the worst killing in six months, over 270 Palestinians killed this weekend, so many of them were brought to — so many others who were injured, it’s believed something like 700, brought to the hospital where you worked, to Al-Aqsa?

DR. JAMES SMITH: Thanks, Amy.

The situation in Gaza, and certainly in the middle area of Gaza, where I was working up until the 5th of June, remains catastrophic. The intensity of violence that Israel has meted out against the Palestinian people, the barbarity of it all, continues to — you know, you feel that you’ve seen the absolute worst, and the very next day it gets worse again. The massacre in Nuseirat on Saturday was certainly the worst of the violence that those neighborhoods have seen since the start of the genocide back in the beginning of October, 274 dead — killed, rather, as you’ve mentioned, approximately 700 injured. I would expect that in the coming days we will hear of more people who have died, who have succumbed to injuries that were sustained as a result of Israeli airstrikes and the Israeli ground incursion in that area, as a result of the collapsed healthcare system. As you mentioned, there are no fully functional hospitals any longer in Gaza and no health facilities that are able to absorb the sheer scale of need now.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Dr. Smith, your second trip now to Gaza, this one lasted nearly two months. Could you talk about how conditions changed over that period of time? Has there been any improvement in the arrival of supplies to these hospitals or the food situation? Give us a sense of what you saw.

DR. JAMES SMITH: So, to be absolutely clear, the situation deteriorates day on day. This is the sort of fallacy of humanitarian access, or the veneer of a humanitarian system. There is no improvement in any conditions in Gaza. This overfixation on the number of trucks that are entering into Gaza — or, rather, the number of trucks that the Israeli state has permitted to enter into Gaza — is a distraction from the violence and its many manifestations. We have almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip now forcibly displaced. The majority of those people no longer have homes to return to; entire cities — and I have seen them myself — Khan Younis, Gaza City, other neighborhoods, parts of Rafah now — that have been completely destroyed; homes, schools, clinics that have been vaporized to dust, concrete and sand. There has been absolutely no improvement in any of the basic conditions that are required to sustain human life in Gaza at the present time.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And how are you able to even administer, especially for those who require emergency surgery, of the wounded who come in? Talk to us about your direct experience with these kinds of — this kind of medical support.

DR. JAMES SMITH: Perhaps if I speak to you about my last day in Gaza at Al-Aqsa Hospital on the 5th of June. So, I was working in the emergency room that day. We had several electricity blackouts during that time. We were treating patients on the floor of the emergency room by torchlight. We had one young boy who came into the ER with an open femoral facture, bleeding profusely from his left upper leg, very, very severe injury. He had been injured as a result of an Israeli airstrike. The orthopedic surgeon, a junior doctor, very competent, but nevertheless still a junior doctor, came down to treat him, and without any anesthesia, because there wasn’t any, had to pull and splint his leg in order to stabilize him and to sustain his life long enough to get him into the OR.

The hospital now has five ORs, but you have a surgical team or several surgical teams that are working 24/7. There is no rest for the surgeons in these hospitals, and the scrub nurses working alongside them, phenomenally difficult conditions. We have an emergency team that are, frankly, the most dedicated doctors, nurses and allied health professionals that I have ever had the privilege of working with. But the conditions in which they are working were unsustainable eight months ago. Now it is just a testament to the sheer determination of the Palestinian people and the desire of Palestinian healthcare workers to administer care to the Palestinian people that these hospitals are able to function in any way whatsoever.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. Smith, you’ve been talking about the effects of the bombing of people who survived and been brought into the hospital. What about the issue of hunger? UNICEF just came out with a report saying nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip are experiencing severe food shortages. If you can talk about what that means and how that affects them long-term, if they survive, and also the lack of clean water and drinking sewage water, leading to diseases like, for example, cholera?

DR. JAMES SMITH: So, hunger is rife across the Gaza Strip. There is a fixation of sorts among epidemiologists and distant public health experts in the terms of malnutrition. But hunger is rife. As I’ve mentioned already, Israel maintains complete control over what and who enters into and out of Gaza. They are able to manufacture the conditions of life — or, rather, of death in Gaza. And they have complete control over how much food aid or how much food enters into Gaza.

In my final weeks in Gaza, I was struck that commercial trucks from Israel were given precedence of access over the humanitarian aid trucks. So, in the south of Gaza, we saw several markets in which there were several fresh fruit and fresh vegetable commodities bearing the slogans of Israeli companies, but very limited food aid that was able to enter into Gaza. On several occasions, the big U.N. agencies said that they would have to stop food aid distributions. It was incredible to me that the very state that was starving people and inflicting such violence upon them was then bringing in food that, of course, people can’t afford to buy anymore, and that people, those who could, were having to pay for food from, as I say, the very state, the very economy that is trying to strangle the Palestinian people.

To your other point about access to clean water and sanitary conditions, the smell of sewage was rife throughout every camp that I passed through in Gaza, from Rafah to Khan Younis and into Gaza City, several instances of sewage overflowing onto the streets. In all of the locations I worked across Gaza and all of the hospitals I visited, including in the north of Gaza, in Gaza City, we saw patients who were suffering from very severe bouts of acute watery diarrhea, a major outbreak of hepatitis A, which is spread as a result of poor sanitary conditions. And, of course, all of those things together — hunger, lack of access to nutritious food, the impact of a lack of clean, drinkable water on physical health — is catastrophic. It will certainly have a major impact on all those people who are suffering as a result other health or trauma-related problems, as well.

AMY GOODMAN: Juan, we’re not able to hear you.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Dr. Smith, can you hear me?

AMY GOODMAN: Yes, we can.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah.

DR. JAMES SMITH: Yes, I can hear you.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yeah, you mentioned that you traveled all around the different parts of Gaza. Did you have any interactions at all with the Israeli Defense Forces? Did they enter into the hospitals? Or did you have any interactions with them at checkpoints?

DR. JAMES SMITH: We had to pass via the checkpoints that the Israelis have constructed, that have now severed across the north and south of Gaza from the east to the west. We interacted with the Israeli occupation forces during those movements. They were incredibly frightening experiences. During one of those convoy movements, one of the Palestinian drivers that was working for a U.N. agency was detained, stripped naked and taken away by the Israeli occupation forces. Very, very frightening, very unpleasant. And, yes, I saw and have heard stories of incredibly horrific encounters between the Israeli ground forces at those checkpoints and the Palestinian people, some of whom are still trying to move from north to south.

AMY GOODMAN: And finally, doctors who have died. We interviewed Dr. Hammam Alloh months ago, who was — when I asked him why he didn’t leave, as he talked about the intense bombing, he said he didn’t get his medical degree to desert his patients. He went home to help his family, and his house was bombed. You then have Dr. Adnan al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, who was arrested and died in an Israeli prison. As we wrap up, Dr. Smith, as you leave Gaza after two months, what about the doctors being imprisoned, doctors and nurses and staff being killed?

DR. JAMES SMITH: These are all the most egregious and horrific war crimes. And as I’ve mentioned, it was phenomenal to see the determination of my Palestinian colleagues, who will not abandon the Palestinian people or Palestine at this most horrific moment in their history. It’s tragic, beyond tragic, that so many Palestinian healthcare workers, that so many Palestinians have been killed during the course of this ongoing genocide. And it’s even more horrific that this violence is allowed to continue.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. James Smith, we thank you for being with us. In 20 seconds, the U.N. Security Council has just passed a resolution put forward by the U.S. for a ceasefire. Hamas has just accepted. U.S. said Israel was accepting, though Netanyahu has said other things about that. Your message to the world?

DR. JAMES SMITH: I think I said this back in January when I spoke to you, Amy. The violence must end. And once the violence has ended, the real work of the pursuit of peace and justice for the Palestinian people must continue.

AMY GOODMAN: Dr. James Smith, emergency room doctor, just out of Gaza, spent nearly two months in Gaza treating patients at trauma stabilization points in al-Mawasi and Rafah, also worked in emergency rooms at Al-Aqsa Hospital and Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat. He was speaking to us from Istanbul, Turkey.

We’ll be joined next by a Jewish American Army major named Harrison Mann. He’s the first military and intelligence officer to publicly resign over President Biden’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza. Back in 20 seconds.

Today, a 3-day G7 summit started in Italy. Friday, Pope Francis is scheduled to address the G7 -- he will be the first pope to do so. The G7 is made up of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. Italy holds the presidency (through the end of this calendar year) and the G7 website notes:

In line with previous G7 fora, representatives of a number of States and International Organizations will take part in the sessions, invited by the Nation that holds the Presidency.

Nations and International organizations

· African Development Bank – Akinwumi Adesina, President

· Algeria – Abdelmadjid Tebboune, President

· Argentina – Javier Milei, President

· Brazil – Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, President (G20 Presidency)

· Holy See – Pope Francis

· India – Narendra Modi, Prime Minister

· International Monetary Fund – Kristalina Georgieva, Chief Operating Officer

· Jordan – Abdallah II, King

· Kenya – William Ruto, President

· Mauritania – Mohamed Ould Ghazouani, President (Chair of the African Union)

· OECD – Mathias Cormann, Secretary General

· Tunisia – Kaïs Saïed, President

· Türkiye – Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, President

· United Nations – Antònio Guterres, Secretary General

· United Arab Emirates – Mohammed bin Zayed, President

· World Bank – Ajay Banga, President

Virginia Pietromarchi (ALJAZEERA) notes:

On June 13, discussions will kick off at 11am (09:00 GMT) with a session on Africa, climate change and development.
This will be followed by a session on the Middle East, where Israel’s war on Gaza is expected to dominate discussions.
A lunch break follows — visiting leaders might want to try Apulia’s famous le orecchiette pasta while they’re in the region. Right after lunch, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is expected to arrive for two sessions on Ukraine.
On June 14, key topics of discussion will include migration, Asia Pacific and economic security. Sessions on artificial intelligence, energy and the Mediterranean are also on the agenda. At 6:45pm (16:45 GMT) there will be the closing session with the adoption of the G7 Summit Communique.
On June 15, the host, Italy, will hold a news conference.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 250 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,202 with 84,932 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

April 11th, Sharon Zhang (TRUTHOUT) reported, "In addition to the over 34,000 Palestinians who have been counted as killed in Israel’s genocidal assault so far, there are 13,000 Palestinians in Gaza who are missing, a humanitarian aid group has estimated, either buried in rubble or mass graves or disappeared into Israeli prisons. In a report released Thursday, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that the estimate is based on initial reports and that the actual number of people missing is likely even higher."

As for the area itself? Isabele Debre (AP) reveals, "Israel’s military offensive has turned much of northern Gaza into an uninhabitable moonscape. Whole neighborhoods have been erased. Homes, schools and hospitals have been blasted by airstrikes and scorched by tank fire. Some buildings are still standing, but most are battered shells." Kieron Monks (I NEWS) reports, "More than 40 per cent of the buildings in northern Gaza have been damaged or destroyed, according to a new study of satellite imagery by US researchers Jamon Van Den Hoek from Oregon State University and Corey Scher at the City University of New York. The UN gave a figure of 45 per cent of housing destroyed or damaged across the strip in less than six weeks. The rate of destruction is among the highest of any conflict since the Second World War."

We'll wind down with this from Nada AlTaher's report for THE NATIONAL:

After 21 years working at the UN Development Programme in Gaza, Basel Nasser now faces the task of assisting his birthplace on a scale unlike anything he has ever experienced before.

Eight months into Israel's military offensive in the Palestinian enclave, more than 37,000 residents have been killed, nearly 85,000 injured and most of its population of more than two million displaced by strikes and a ground offensive that have destroyed more than half of its buildings.

“The numbers don't even remotely reflect the reality,” Mr Nasser told The National before taking part in the UN emergency conference on Gaza's humanitarian needs, hosted by Jordan at the Dead Sea on Tuesday.

As Minister of Relief Affairs in the Palestinian Authority's newly appointed government – a position created in light of the war in Gaza – Mr Nasser is already planning for the rehabilitation of Gaza and its people once the war ends.

Unlike previous conflicts between Israel and Hamas in the coastal strip, “virtually the entire population of Gaza will require aid” this time, he said.

He pointed out that the death toll provided by Gaza's health authorities does not include those who have died from hunger or from the lack of proper medical care in the Strip.

Gaza's residents have faced acute food shortages created by strict Israeli controls on the delivery of aid since the war began, with UN and aid groups warning that the territory faces the risk of famine.

There are no fully functioning hospitals after most were destroyed in raids and bombardments by the Israeli military, while the few that are still in partial service struggle with shortages of medical supplies and fuel to run their generators.

Israel dropped about 70,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip between the start of the war on October 7 and April 24, according to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

The following sites updated:

6/10/2024

a practical magic sequel?

'practical magic' is supposedly getting a sequel.

i never saw the film on t.v. but i did see it 3 times when it was at the movies.

sandra bullock and nicole kidman star as sisters raised by their aunts dianne wiest and stockard channing.

other than those 4? only aidan quinn might ought to come back.

sorry, the child actors were lousy. let's not be stuck with them now - especially since nicole's daughter - the oldest - turned out to be so ugly looking.

i don't need that crap and i'm the audience for this film. i'm some 1 who would show up opening weekend and come back at least 2 more times for the core four women.

it doesn't even have to be a good film. i'd love it if it were, but i'd see it even if wasn't that good.

the original is not that good and that's because they hired a lousy director - griffin dunner is overrated as an actor and he's even worse as a director. he had meg ryan, matthew broadrick and kelly preston for a romantic comedy ('addicted to love') and he did nothing. the three actors performed beautifully but griffin did nothing to shape the scenes or to make a film. he knows how to say 'action' and how to say 'cut' but that's all he knows how to do.

if they bring that asshole back as the director, the film will do poorly. everything he's ever directed has performed poorly at the box office. and for his contribution to 'movie 43,' he won the golden raspberry for worst director - he directs the segment at the grocery store.

he is untalented and a hack. and he was that before they hired him to direct 1998's practical magic - that movie succeeds without a director. with a real director, it would have been a box office hit.

let's close with c.i.'s 'Iraq snapshot:'

Monday, June 10, 2025. Famine and starvation deepen in Gaza as the world reels from an Israeli attack that lefts hundreds dead in Gaza.

Starting with this:

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary has sent us an update from Deir el-Balah’s Al-Aqsa Hospital, where she says an extra emergency department has been opened to deal with the massive influx of injured patients.

The hospital, running on just one generator, remains flooded with sick and injured patients, and is performing surgeries on an “hourly basis”, she said.

At the same time, the flow of aid into Gaza has remained scarce, with many people now eating “only one meal per day”.

“This is not only in the south, but also in the north” of Gaza, said Khoudary, adding that markets are largely empty and what food available is hard to afford for most people.

This is from yesterday's FACE THE NATION (CBS).

MARGARET BRENNAN: We're joined now by the executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, Cindy McCain, good to have you here in person.

U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR CINDY MCCAIN: Thank you.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Now overnight, we learned that that U.S. pier off of Gaza that was set up by the military has reopened. It had stopped functioning for a bit. How is it going? Because I know you are helping to oversee distribution.

MCCAIN: Well, right now we're paused because I'm concerned about the safety of our people after the incidents yesterday. We also- two of our warehouses- warehouse complex, were rocketed yesterday, so we've stepped back just for the moment to make sure that we're in- on safe terms and on safe ground before, before we'll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We're doing- we're doing everything we can in the north and the south.

MARGARET BRENNAN: How did your locations get rocketed? I imagine you do de-conflict and share your locations with the Israeli military.

MCCAIN: We are de conflicted. I don't know. That's a- it's a good question.

MARGARET BRENNAN: Did you lose any of your–

MCCAIN: We had one man injured, but everything else is fine. Nobody else is hurt. But indeed, it's- it's the kind of thing that's why a ceasefire is necessary. That's why we need to stop this so that we can get in at scale with our aid and other and other aid from other organizations as well. We can't continue this in a way, because what almost happened in the north with famine could happen in the south. And so that's what we're trying to avoid right now. And it's been very difficult, just because of the- of what's going on. You know, we've had looting inside the country, we've had, you know, various problems around with it. You know, there's always something going on. It's very difficult to operate there.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You mentioned just now the full blown famine in the north. When you said that [on FACE THE NATION's May 3rd broadcast], it got a lot of attention. Prime Minister Netanyahu was asked about your comments by NBC and said quote "Cindy McCain, unfortunately, is misinformed." The Israeli government's been putting out pictures of food being brought into Gaza. They dispute there is famine. How does that square with what you are seeing on the ground?

MCCAIN: When I made that comment, my people had seen it on the ground, not only evidence of it, but the actual impact of it. Since then, they've allowed us to get more trucks into the north, and so we're getting much more food in- in up there, and that will stave it off, but- but listen, the bottom line here is- is I make choices every day to take food from the hungry to give to the starving. We need a ceasefire, we need it now so we can feed and this doesn't happen in the south. We're right on the edge in the south of the same thing occurring.

MARGARET BRENNAN: You're on the edge of famine in the south of Gaza?

MCCAIN: Yes. There's- there's people that are very hungry and can't- don't have access because of the danger, because of- because they've been pushed, you know, into the center again. So we want to make sure that we can- can not just get in and feed, but do it at scale. They need more than food, too. It's water, it's sanitation, it's medicine, so it's all of the above, because famine is not just about starving, it's about all the other things too.

MARGARET BRENNAN: And I know how difficult I've heard it is to help a child with stunted growth. You just said you're- you're taking from the hungry to feed the starving.

The Israeli government has been carrying out its assault on Gaza for eight months now. Around the world, people are objecting and calling for a cease fire. On Saturday, citizens protested outside the White House.

Megan Lebowitz (NBC NEWS) reports:

Thousands of people from cities across the country gathered outside the White House on Saturday to protest the Biden administration’s policies toward the Israel-Hamas war, many dressed in keffiyehs and red clothes to symbolize what they say is a red line that Israel crossed.

Hundreds of protesters held a red banner that stretched around the White House, urging President Joe Biden to change his approach to the war in Gaza.

“Biden, Biden you can’t hide, we are your red line,” protesters chanted.

The red line is in reference to remarks made by the White House and Joe last month that Israel would be in serious trouble, for real this time, no kidding!!!!

Strong words that never had any follow up. THE HINDUSTAN TIMES notes, "Holding Palestinian flags and chanting 'From DC to Palestine, we are the red line,' the protestors demonstrated placards and banners with names of the Palestinians killed during Israeli offensive during the last nine months." Grace Newton (WTOP) reminds that "the president says Israel hasn’t crossed that line yet." In the supposed land of the free, the police attacked the peaceful protesters. Gloria Oladipo (GUARDIAN) reports:

Footage posted to social media showed police using pepper spray on protesters, who faced arrest at the mass demonstration.

At least one demonstrator also held a canister that released green and white smoke near the southern side of the White House.

The demonstrator, who was dressed as the superhero character Spiderman, shouted along with a crowd: “Biden, Biden, we can’t wait! We’ll see you at the Hague!”

The Hague is the Dutch city that is home to the international criminal court that prosecutes war crimes.

Joe Biden and other ineffectual leaders around the world have done nothing. Well, they've flapped their gums. It has been left to students to demonstrate leadership and we saw that take off at Columbia University and then spread around the world. Apparently, jealousy on the part of the do-nothings led to attacks on the students. Well the do-nothings and the media attacked. When not smearing the protesters, the media pulled their other option out of their tool box -- ignore reality. Last Thursday, Sarah Baum wrote about the media at THE PROGRESSIVE:

The night the riot police came to Columbia University, those of us still standing at the City College of New York (CCNY) pro-Palestine encampment watched in horror, in real time via live stream, as police brutalized students en masse. I’d spent the week oscillating between the two camps documenting the movement. CCNY is a mere twenty-minute walk, or a couple subway stops, from Columbia.

Word somehow got back to us that the thick, dark wall of police, with their riot gear and paddy wagons, were making their way uptown. We knew CCNY’s encampment would be their next stop.

Sure enough, just minutes before midnight on May Day, the NYPD burst through the gates, lights flashing, batons ready to meet the few dozen unarmed protestors left—throughout the night, the police had reportedly deployed tasers on anti-war demonstrators, shattered their teeth, and broke their bones. Iqra, a recent Hunter College graduate and organizer in her twenties, recalls how protestors were dragged to the precinct and left for hours without proper food, water or medical attention.

But what shocked her most were the headlines the next day.

From the May 1 cover of the New York Daily News: “Cops Crush Columbia Takeover.” From the New York Post: “Hundreds of NYPD officers stormed Columbia University.” From the front page of The Wall Street Journal: “Police Move to End Protests at Columbia.”

Notably absent from every one of these front-page spreads is any mention of CCNY—even as the encampment saw the largest amount of single-day arrests of any pro-Palestine encampment at the time, with more than 170 people detained. This surpassed the number of students arrested on the same night from Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, by dozens. (Only the University of California-Los Angeles has since topped this record.)

“We were arrested the same night [as Columbia students], from the same neighborhood, taken to the same jail,” Iqra tells The Progressive. “However, the media coverage [of CCNY] was so vastly different. And by vastly different, I mean almost non-existent.”

Although anti-war organizers had camped out on the lawn of City College, calling it “the City College encampment” is misleading. Organizers from across the City University of New York (CUNY) system stood at the helm. CUNY is the largest public higher education system in the country, hosting more than twenty-five individual colleges (including Iqra’s alma mater, Hunter) and serving more than 250,000 students per year.

“CUNY is the key to the city of New York,” Jordan, an organizer, Ph.D. student, and adjunct professor at CUNY, says. “Students come out and they go into a lot of unionized jobs, a lot of jobs in the city that have a lot of people power attached to them.”

Also covering the media, Naomi LaChance (FAIR) notes:

Across corporate media, journalists and pundits introduced conspiracy theories to discredit the pro-Palestine student protest movement, particularly that they are funded by foreign countries or “outside agitators.”

MSNBC‘s Joe Scarborough (5/9/24) went on a rant about the college students who have been staging the protests, suggesting to guest Hillary Clinton that they were influenced by China or Qatar:

I’m going to talk about radicalism on college campuses. The sort of radicalism that has mainstream students getting propaganda, whether it’s from their professors or whether it’s from Communist Chinese government through TikTok, calling the president of the United States “Genocide Joe.” Calling you and President Clinton war criminals.

Eventually, he called the students “extremists—I’m sorry—funded by Qatar.”

Clinton responded: “You raised things that need to be vented about.”

Scarborough’s claim that Qatar funds the students likely comes from a Jerusalem Post article (4/30/24), which called the protests “despicable.” The story reported, “Qatar has invested $5.6 billion in 81 American universities since 2007, including the most prestigious ones: Harvard, Yale, Cornell and Stanford.” Of course, funding universities is not the same as funding student protests; the university administrations that actually received the Qatari funding have often been quite hostile to the protesters.

House Speaker Emeritus Nancy Pelosi (D–Calif.) suggested on CNN’s State of the Union (1/28/24) that Russia has played a role in the protests:

And what we have to do is try to stop the suffering and gossip….. But for them to call for a ceasefire is Mr. Putin’s message…. I think some of these protesters are spontaneous and organic and sincere. Some I think are connected to Russia.

CNN’s Dana Bash asked, “you think some of these protests are Russian plants?” Pelosi responded: “I don’t think they’re plants; I think some financing should be investigated.”

Like MSNBC, Fox News (5/2/24) has also pushed the narrative suggesting that China is behind the protests: “China may be playing a significant role in the anti-Israel protests by using TikTok to foment division on college campuses,” Alicia Warren wrote.

Gordon Chang, a senior fellow at the far-right, anti-Muslim Gatestone Institute, told Fox that “China is using the curation algorithm of TikTok to instigate protests.”

The presence of pro-Palestinian advocacy on TikTok has been cited by lawmakers as a justification for censoring the social media platform (FAIR.org, 5/8/24). But the messages on TikTok, which is popular among younger people, may simply reflect public opinion among that demographic. According to the Pew Research Center, “Younger adults are much less supportive of the US providing military aid to Israel than are older people.”

In a story headlined, “Campus Protests Give Russia, China and Iran Fuel to Exploit US Divide,” the New York Times (5/2/24) described “overt and covert efforts by the countries to amplify the protests.” The story included some speculation about foreign influence: “There is little evidence—at least so far—that the countries have provided material or organizational support to the protests,” Steven Lee Myers and Tiffany Hsu wrote. If there was any evidence, they did not present it.

The journalists blamed the protests for having “allowed” these “foreign influence campaigns…to shift their propaganda to focus on the Biden administration’s strong support for Israel.”

This morning at IN THESE TIMES Sarah Jaffe writes:

The weekend’s news touted safety for four hostages held in Gaza, the success of a “rescue” operation celebrated across the front pages of U.S. and Israeli newspapers. The fact that “scores” of Palestinian civilians in Nuseirat refugee camp—274 according to one count — were killed in the process, that the soldiers came in on disguised aid vehicles, almost an afterthought. Yet these disproportionate numbers are once again a reminder that the calculation is being made day after day that hundreds of civilian deaths are permissible if the Israeli state is the one doing the killing.

That more hostages have been freed through negotiations than battle, that hostages may have died during the raid, makes it seem as though safety is not the point, after all.

The students who built the encampments knew well their relative safety compared to the people in Gaza whose updates they watched on smartphones for eight months. They knew they would also face crackdowns from their universities, assaults by police and right-wing counterprotesters, because they had faced them already for those eight months.

But within the tents they raised on campuses around the country — I spoke to students, faculty and community members from 11 universities and visited two encampments and the site of one’s dismantling — they built a space of temporary safety and community, turning the lessons of past movements to the growing Palestine solidarity campaigns across the United States and across the world, applying pressure to the institutions that turn their tuition dollars into prestige and profits and yes, risking their own safety when those institutions brought in the riot police.

Within the spaces of the encampments, students enacted the vision on that “We Keep Us Safe” banner at DePaul. They did their best to keep one another safe, and to provide for all of their basic needs.

“It was really beautiful,” said Christopher Iacovetti, a graduate student at the University of Chicago. “It was especially encouraging to me to see how many people from so many different backgrounds came to support, to mobilize, to provide supplies almost on the drop of a hat.”

Marie Adele Grosso, an undergraduate at Barnard College in New York, said the Columbia-Barnard encampment created “the strongest sense of community people have felt in quite a few years on campus.”

“While we were on campus and while we were all together, we were making all of the decisions together,” Grosso said. “Organizers did just such an amazing job of bringing in the beauty of Palestine.” There was dance and music and teach-ins and conversation with people in Gaza at the moment.

The weekend? Saturday, the Israeli government launched a supposed 'rescue' mission in which they killed over 200 Palestinians. Citing hospital workers, CNN's Jonny Hallam and Kareem Khadder note the death toll has risen to 236. THE TIMES OF INDIA notes, "Israel has heavily bombed Nuseirat, a historic Palestinian refugee camp." ALJAZEERA notes:

In a post on social media, Francesca Albanese said she was “relieved” for the four Israeli captives, but added that Israel “could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table”.
“Israel refused in order to continue to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians as a people,” Albanese said.
“This genocidal intent turned into action,” she said.
“Israel has used hostages to legitimise killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatising Palestinians in Gaza.”

The White House praised the mass killing on Saturday. "Praised" -- past tense. Ben Samuels (HAARETZ) observes, "After the Biden administration's initial full-throated praise of Israel's dramatic hostage-rescue operation in a Gaza refugee camp, rhetoric from senior U.S. officials has slightly shifted to acknowledge the reportedly significant Palestinian death toll." And the death toll has risen.

AP notes, "At least 274 Palestinians, including dozens of children, were killed, and hundreds more were wounded, in the Israeli raid that rescued four hostages held by Hamas, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Sunday." Malak A Tantesh, Aseel Mousa and Emma Graham-Harrison (GUARDIAN) quote some of the survivors:

“The Nuseirat market is always crowded, but now more than usual because of the many displaced people,” said Haroun, 29, who is now staying with an uncle. She was looking at outfits for the girls when the first Israeli airstrikes hit, and almost without thinking raced out of the door to go to them.

Outside, she found a scene “like the horrors of judgment day”, as panicked crowds tried to escape the coming onslaught. Helicopters and quadcopter drones would soon join the assault that left hundreds dead, and shattered bodies scattered along the streets, images from the area show.

“Everyone was screaming, terrified,” she said. “The street I was on was only 50 metres long, but it was packed with hundreds of people, all running. A woman next to me fainted from terror, and I saw vendors abandoning their goods on the roadside to flee.”

Survivors provide eye witness testimony to CNN here. The deaths pushed the death toll since October to over 37,000. Thomas Mackintosh (BBC NEWS) observes Saturday was "one of the deadliest days of the conflict so far." Pope Francis spoke Sunday on the issue of Gaza.

Pope Francis noted the upcoming conference ("the day after tomorrow") on Tuesday that Jordan is hosting calling for humanitarian solutions to end the assault on Gaza. The Pope declared, "I encourage the international community to act urgently, with all means, to come to the aid of the people of Gaza, worn out by the war." Khaled Yacoub Oweis (THE NATIONAL) explains:

The "humanitarian summit" at a Dead Sea venue, a few kilometres from Israel, is aimed at enhancing "the response of the international community to the human disaster in Gaza”, Jordan said.

It is being held under the auspices of Egypt, Jordan and the UN. Egypt, a main player in ceasefire talks, is on guard over concerns the Israeli military will move deeper into the Rafah border area, driving Palestinian refugees into Egyptian territory.

Following Saturday's massacre, a member of Benjamin Netanyahu resigned. Thomas Helm (THE NATIONAL) reports:

High-profile Israeli politician Benny Gantz has withdrawn his party from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wartime unity government, saying he made the decision "with a heavy heart, yet wholeheartedly".

One of three war cabinet ministers, Mr Gantz, who has become increasingly critical of Mr Netanyahu’s war strategy in recent months, said “Netanyahu is preventing [Israel] from progressing towards a true victory”.

In particular, he and his allies, along with a growing segment of Israeli society, accuse Mr Netanyahu of not prioritising the release of Israeli hostages.

"I want to ask the hostages' families for forgiveness," Mr Gantz said in his address. "We did a lot but we failed.

Claire Gilbody Dickerson (SKY NEWS) notes, "The popular former military chief's resignation had been expected after he gave Mr Netanyahu an 8 June deadline to present a clear day-after plan for the conflict in Gaza." ALJAZEERA explains, "Gantz last month threatened to leave the emergency government – formed last year to oversee the war on Gaza -- if Netanyahu failed to present a post-war plan for the besieged and bombarded Palestinian territory, where Israel is continuing a ground and aerial bombardment campaign that has killed more than 37,000 people since October 7, according to Gaza health officials." Gantz is calling for early elections.

Does that mean change is about to happen? No. Last week on DEMOCRACY NOW!, Amy Goodman spoke with Daniel Levy ("president of the U.S./Middle East Project, former Israeli peace negotiator under Prime Ministers Ehud Barak and Yitzhak Rabin") and the issue of whether resignations could toppled Netanyahu's government was raised:

AMY GOODMAN: And also, even if Smotrich and Ben-Gvir — Ben-Gvir, who was not only charged with, but convicted of terrorism and supporting a terrorist group and inciting anti-Palestinian hatred — even if they were to leave the government, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the survivor, Netanyahu, would fall, which has often been said — right? — if the other parties came to his support.

DANIEL LEVY: Right. So, that’s a lot to unpack. [. . .] On the Netanyahu side, he now has an equation to deal with. As you say, he could conceivably have a majority in parliament, because Gantz’s party and Lapid’s party have both said they will provide a safety net for Netanyahu if he takes the deal, and that gives him the numbers. However, and let’s be clear, Gantz and Lapid have supported this war throughout. They’ve had no qualms about any of the violations of international law that it’s committed — just so we correctly characterize those folks. But they have said they will offer a safety net for this deal, and that’s important. However, that makes Netanyahu dependent on people who want to bring him down, who want him out of power, as well they should as the leaders, putatively, of the opposition. Therefore, if he wants governmental stability, he needs to stick with the original coalition that he formed, that was in power until October 7th, that continues to be in power, which includes his own party, many of whom have opposed this deal, and which includes these characters from the extreme right, alongside his own extremists, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. And Netanyahu, therefore — this is the crucial thing, Amy — he, therefore, looks at the proposal and says, “Is it more risky politically for me to say no to Biden or to say no to Ben-Gvir and Smotrich?”

Jake Lapham (BBC NEWS) observes of the resignation, "The move will not topple the Israeli government, since Mr Netanyahu will still hold a comfortable majority of 64 in the 120-seat Knesset."

This morning, THE NATIONAL reports:

Five people were killed and at least 30 others wounded in Israeli strikes on Rafah and Khan Younis on Monday, the official Wafa news agency has reported.

The dead and wounded were taken to Nasser Medical Complex following several strikes on Rafah, where "continuous shelling" stuck western parts of the city.

Strikes were also reported on Al Mawasi, a so-called "safe zone" near Khan Younis.

Gaza remains under assault. Day 248 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 37,124, with 84,712 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:

The following sites updated:

Sana Azem (KATU) notes:

The 8-month-old conflict became the most destructive conflict of the 21st century, the Associated Press reported, with tens of thousands killed, most of them being women and children. The war left many parts of the city in ruins, leading to a collapse in its healthcare system, leaving 10 out of 36 of Gaza’s main hospitals somewhat functional, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported.

Israel’s bombardment has leveled and destroyed over 60% of Gaza’s homes, forcing over 1.7 million Palestinians to flee, the Associated Press reported.

“How many more homes have to be destroyed, how many children need to be killed, until this [United States] government takes definitive action to stop Israel’s war crimes,” said Celine Qussiny of the Palestinian Youth Movement.

The following sites updated: