Features Archives - Page 8 of 20

Israel is Killing Gaza’s Professional Sector

CrossFireArabia
December 17, 2024

In the current genocide on Gaza Israel has been deliberately targeting and killing all members of society including those from the professional sector, including lawyers, judges, doctors, teachers, artists and much more.

Euro-Med Monitor’s review of the Israeli military’s targeting records and victim lists reveals a systematic, widespread policy of killing and assassinating Palestinian elites and those with competencies in various sectors.

The number of Palestinian medical personnel who have been killed since 7 October 2023 is 1,057, and more than 135 scientists and academics have also been killed. Professor Abdel Salam Abu Zaida is the latest of these victims, having been killed along with six other Palestinians in an Israeli raid on Gaza City’s Al-Malash building Wednesday evening, 11 December, 2024.

The lists of targeted elites also include journalists, 196 of whom have been killed since 7 October 2023, as well as people with knowledge of computer engineering, programming, and information technology, plus other influential people in these crucial spheres of society.

Breaking : Israel has killed Dr. Hassan Al-Baba, Ph.D. in international law.
He now joins his mother, sister, and her two young children ,, all killed by Israeli army’s just two weeks ago in #Gaza ! pic.twitter.com/v75BiUb1tl
— Nour Naim| نُور (@NourNaim88) October 27, 2024

Israel’s crimes, which include the targeted and intentional killing of Palestinian intellectual elites and talents as well as the widespread and intentional destruction of businesses and infrastructure, are likely to impede the advancement of Palestinian society in the Gaza Strip overall; threaten its scientific, educational, and economic system; and deprive its vital sectors of prestigious and specialised cadres that will be difficult to replace in the near future, the Monitor explained. The killings are also bound to instill fear among the remaining talents.

These crimes occur in the context of overt Israeli policies that seek to render the Gaza Strip uninhabitable by eradicating basic life structures and individuals with valuable competencies. Given the magnitude and breadth of Israel’s efforts, its crimes could immoblise Palestinian society in the Strip by preventing it from developing, building, or recovering from this genocide.

The United Nations and all nations must therefore carry out their international legal duties to prevent the continuation of Israel’s crime of genocide in the Gaza Strip; impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel; hold it responsible and punish it for all of its crimes; take all necessary steps to protect Palestinian civilians in the Strip; defend medical personnel and health facilities in the enclave from any further targeting; and act swiftly, without hindrance, and in a way that satisfies the needs of all residents of the Gaza Strip, especially those in the northern areas. The complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation army from the entire Gaza Strip must be ensured.

Features

Devastation in Gaza is Staggering – WFP Official

CrossFireArabia
December 12, 2024

Describing the level of devastation across the Gaza Strip as “absolutely staggering”, the Head of Emergency Communications for the World Food Programme (WFP) has told UN News in an interview that civilians are desperate for lifesaving aid and there’s a growing risk of widespread famine.

Speaking from Gaza, Jonathan Dumont said many people have been displaced multiple times, and that families are living either in tents or in the rubble of collapsed buildings, with no access to electricity or running water.

The text has been edited for length and clarity.

UN News: How do you describe the situation on the ground in Gaza, after more than a year since the war erupted there?

Jonathan Dumont: The devastation is absolutely staggering. This year, I’ve been to Goma, Port au Prince, Khartoum, a lot of different places where people have issues getting food or have been displaced. But in Gaza, I haven’t met anyone who hasn’t been displaced at least two or three times, due to military activity.

Almost everyone has lost their home. In the south, a lot of people are living in tents, and with the winter coming, you have rain and wind blowing them over, flooding them. Most kids don’t have shoes.

A lot of people feel they have no choice but to go back to their homes, which are quite frequently, literally rubble. I met a few families who are living in basically the cement blocks that have collapsed over them, and there’s no electricity, running water or sewage. This is the second winter for many of them that they’re homeless.

People walk on destroyed buildings in Gaza.

UN News: What is the most striking story you’ve heard from people in Gaza?

Jonathan Dumont: When we were moving to Gaza City, we had to pass a checkpoint, and there were some bodies on a bridge in this sort of no man’s land area, and there were dogs eating the bodies. It was an horrific scene.

Some of our colleagues were tasked to pick up the bodies, and we couldn’t stop, but a bit later we came across two women and some children who were walking south, due to the intense military activity in the north. What struck me the most in that moment was that those children were going to come across the same scene of the dogs eating corpses, and I kept thinking about the impact that it might have on them.

UN News: You’ve been to the northern part of Gaza. Can you tell us more about what you saw there?

Jonathan Dumont: I’ve been to Gaza City, although I didn’t go to the areas in the far north. Gaza City is a huge city but many of the buildings have been destroyed. Before you had villas, beach cabanas and a fishing port, and now it is just a ghost town.

Much of Gaza has been destroyed in the ongoing conflict.

WFP is able to reach that area, so there’s some food there, but the food prices of what’s not coming from the international community, or from WFP, are through the roof. There was someone selling peppers for 195 dollars…five dollars for one pepper. People can’t afford that.

Bakeries are being treated as banks – with metal slots and a metal corridor to channel people through because people are desperate, and they don’t want people to get injured or crushed trying to get food.

In Khan Yunis, where we are distributing hot meals, people get really desperate – you can see it in their faces, in their eyes.

UN News: The IPC report warned of the acute hunger and maybe some of people are on the verge of famine. Do you think the food insecurity is getting worse in Gaza?

Jonathan Dumont: The problem is that there’s been a total breakdown of society here, there’s no police, no infrastructure or any of the structures of society. As a result, what we’ve had in the southern part of Gaza is that gangs are emerging. We’ve had our trucks coming in from the south looted, and our drivers beaten.

We are trying to find solutions to have a consistent flow of food in. Obviously, the easiest way to do that would be if there was a ceasefire, which we are always hopeful will happen. In the absence of that, we need to find a way of getting all the food that we have outside Gaza into the country so that people can access it. We need to make sure people have access to food.

UN News: Many of the bakeries are not functioning. How many of them are working at full capacity?

Jonathan Dumont: In the south there is none of the WFP’s bakeries which are big volume bakeries. In the north there are some, but in the south, there are just small bakeries, so people are improvising when they have some flour.

Bread is the staple here, bread is life.

UN News

Features

‘Stalingrad of Palestine’ – Jabalia, Steadfast in The Face of Genocide

CrossFireArabia
December 11, 2024

The recent Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, north Gaza Strip, which resulted in the killing of 3 Israeli soldiers and the wounding of 18 others, including two seriously, is a message of steadfastness and determination, written by the camp, 431 days after the genocidal war on the Strip.

The Israeli occupation army admitted in a statement that “the incident that occurred in Jabalia resulted from Palestinian gunmen firing an anti-tank missile at the soldiers.”

Israel’s Channel 14 said “10 gunmen attacked an army force using missiles and automatic weapons while it was on leave.”

‘Stalingrad of Palestine‘

The qualitative operation comes 66 days after the current Israeli occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip, armed with its military arsenal, amidst bombing, destruction, siege and starvation.

And so Arab activists and bloggers on the social media are now calling the steadfast Jabalia as the “Stalingrad of Palestine”.

“Stalingrad” is one of the major battles in history and a pivotal turning point in World War II, which took place between Germany (and its allies from the Axis powers) and the Soviet Union to control the Soviet city of Stalingrad (today called Volgograd) between the summer of 1942 and February 1943.

The battle ended with the surrender of the German Sixth Army, and marked the beginning of the end of Germany’s advance in this war.

Political researcher Saeed Ziad was an example of those who praised the heroism of the Jabalia Camp and its resistance that came out to break the back of the occupation, and wrote on his page on the X platform “Stalingrad, Jabalia”.

#جباليا_ستالينغراد_فلسطين https://t.co/gwOxIMFdsu
— Saeed Ziad | سعيد زياد (@saeedziad) December 9, 2024

Under the hashtag “Jabalia, the Stalingrad of Palestine”, activist Baraa Rayyan wrote: “The steadfastness of Stalingrad was the beginning of the defeat of the Nazi invasion of Russia, and then the defeat of Nazism. Perhaps Jabalia’s steadfastness and fighting for 15 months, the last 3 of which were under a tight siege, will be the beginning of the defeat of the enemy and the expulsion of the aggression from beloved Gaza.”

كان صمود ستالينغراد بداية انكسار الغزو النازيّ لروسيا ثم هزيمة النازية عموما
لعلّ صمود جباليا وقتالها خمسة عشر شهرا، آخر ثلاثة شهور منها تحت حصار مطبق، يكون بداية انكسار العدو ودحر العدوان عن غزة الحبيبة.
اليوم وفق الله المجاهدين لضربة نوعية بمعسكر جباليا استهدفت شاحنة متفجرات…
— براء نزار ريان (@BaraaNezarRayan) December 9, 2024

Activist Anwar Qassem praised the Palestinian resistance operation in Jabalia, saying that “after 429 days of war and 66 days of a tight siege in the third battle (the occupation army’s attack on the northern Gaza Strip), Jabalia deserves the title of the Stalingrad of Palestine.”

Under the same hashtag, activist Muhammad al-Najjar praised Jabalia camp, “whose youth inherit the banner of fighting generation after generation and do not know the word surrender in their dictionary.”

He added in a tweet on his account: “Jabalia, 37 years after the outbreak of the first intifada from its alleys, and after 429 days with the Battle of the Flood of Al-Aqsa, and after 65 days of its siege in its third battle, a qualitative operation is being carried out.”

Another opinion refused to compare Jabalia to any other spot in the world, and considered that what is happening in the camp and the Gaza Strip is unlike any other spot in the world.

‘Jabalia is Jabalia’

In this regard, activist Ghazi Al-Majdalawi wrote: “I refuse to call Jabalia the Stalingrad of Palestine or any other name, Jabalia is Jabalia. Neither Stalingrad nor any spot in the world has what is happening in Jabalia happened in it, and no one in the world is more heroic than the people of Jabalia for us to emulate them.”

Activists considered that “Jabalia is unlike anyone”, and that “no force on earth, no matter how arrogant and tyrannical, can break the faith, will and belief of the people of the land,” stressing that “Jabalia and Gaza are two unique cases of steadfastness and faith.”

On 6 October, the Israeli occupation army launched a new and third military operation in the northern Gaza Strip under the pretext of “preventing the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas from regaining its strength in the area.”

Late last month, Israeli Channel 13 described the fighting in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps, north of the Strip, as “harmful and difficult,” and estimated that there were about 200 Hamas fighters in Jabalia “fighting till death.”

According to Israeli army data, 816 officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the war, including 384 since the large-scale ground operation in the Gaza Strip on 27 October, 2023, while resistance factions say that the occupation’s losses far exceed that in terms of soldiers and vehicles.

According to the same data, 33 Israeli officers and soldiers have been killed since the beginning of the current military operation in the northern Gaza Strip according to Al Jazeera.

Features

Gazan Woman Narrates Ordeal as Israeli Army Dog Attacks Her

CrossFireArabia
December 11, 2024

Despite the weeks since she was attacked and bitten by an Israeli occupation dog, Umm Hassan continues to suffer from the physical and psychological pain of such a harrowing experience.

Umm Hassan has three children and lives in Khan Yunis, and her house was subjected to artillery shelling by the Israeli occupation army, which made it impossible to live in.

She recalls the details of her tragedy on 24 October, when the Israeli army launched a surprise attack on her residential area in the Al-Manara neighborhood of Khan Yunis.

She said: “Unbelievably and indescribably, we began to hear the sounds of tank tracks and quadcopters surround our homes which were packed with families at the time according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.

On that day, the occupation army began shelling these houses with artillery shells and warplanes, including the Al-Farra family’s house next to Umm Hassan’s home, where 13 people were killed, most of them children.

She continued: The occupation bombed the second floor of our house, we were about 20 laying on the ground floor with my children, husband, my brothers and my husband’s family.

We were besieged in the house, and due to the intensity of the continuous artillery shelling, we hid in the bathroom, and remained there till late evening.

هذا ما يسميه جيش الاحتلال “معارك وجهاً لوجه”.

توثيق مثير يظهر إرسال الجيش الإسرائيلي، كعادته عند اقتحام أي مكان، كلباً لاستكشاف مبنى في جنوب لبنان.
عاد الكلب مقتولاً، وفي النهاية تقرر قصف المكان جواً . pic.twitter.com/7DRA97z6vJ
— Tamer | تامر (@tamerqdh) November 3, 2024

But suddenly, the occupation forces brought in a dog equipped with a camera to search the house. It stopped in front of us and headed towards us, and then bit my 17-year-old sister who is married and pregnant.

Soon after that the dog came at me and bit me in the thigh causing deep wounds and severe bleeding. I was already nine months pregnant.

Umm Hassan’s husband tried to shoo the dog away but the animal wouldn’t let go, amid the screams of her terrified young children.

“Then the dog dragged me 15 meters from the bathroom whilst holding my feet tightly. I felt the flesh come out. My feet started to bleed profusely as the whole family in the house looked on in terror. The dog held my feet tightly for about 10 minutes and no one was able to pull its jaw off…

Soon we heard the sound of many soldiers ascending the stairs of the house whilst three of them came to pull the dog’s jaw out. But they could not do that until the fourth soldier, who was in charge, came and pulled the jaw out forcefully.”

Horrific

Her foot was mutliated. The wound was so deep, going all up to her thigh with an eight-centimeter-gash abd 12 centimeters long, the doctors later told her.

مسعفة في مسشتفى "كمان العدوان: كلاب الاحتلال نهشوا عجوزًا مقعدًا داخل المستشفى#فيديو #حرب_غزة pic.twitter.com/syfCTW8CK6
— الجزيرة فلسطين (@AJA_Palestine) December 17, 2023

“The sight was horrific. I felt as if my feet were going to be cut off due to the severity of the wound. It seemed like the dog was chewing on flesh from my thigh. The floor was drenshed in blood. I was screaming in pain, and I felt I might lose my unborn child.

The soldiers occupied the house and took full control, climbing the roof in large numbers whilst shooting randomly in all directions with the artillery shelling continuing non-stop from the moment they stormed in until they left, seven hours later.

Umm Hassan said there was a total siege of the area: “We did not know the fate of the neighboring families, whether they made it alive or killed.

She said the Israeli soldiers isolated the men in a room and put the women and children who were in great distress, shouting and screaming, in another.

I was in pain and bleeding, and I slowly began to lose consciousness. The officer came again and told me if I spoke about what happened to anyone that the soldiers were the ones who released the dog on me, they would come and torture me, and kill my children and my entire family, threatening to get to me wherever I maybe, I thought they were going to kill me.

However at 2:30 am, the occupation forces withdrew from the house. They arrested Umm Hassan’s husband with a young man from the Al-Farra family, and left under artillery shelling that continued incessantly.

The children began to cry and scream again for their father. Their mother did not know anything about her husband until 7 am in the morning when they began to hear the sounds of ambulances. They learned then the army withdrew from the neighborhood, so family went to the Nasser Hospital.

While I was leaving, I was surprised at the large number of martyrs, including children, women and elderly people on the ground, with neighbors pulling out their martyrs, with pproximately 35 dead from the Abu Abdeen, Awida and Al-Farra families.

In hospital, the doctors were shocked by the severity of her wound, says Umm Hassan, and worried about her pregnancy.

After examining me, they told me I had high blood pressure and I was in the stage of preeclampsia due to the severe bleeding and the dog bite. The doctors told me the wound was very deep and needed urgent surgery to save my foot. Initially they were unable to treat the wound properly due to the lack of medicines, disinfectants, gauze and sterilizers and transferred me to the Mubarak Hospital on 28 October, 2024; their the doctors decided to perform an urgent caesarean section.

I entered the operating room at 9 am, and I waited for a doctor until 6:30 pm, the place was in a pitiful state and no suitable bed for delivery and after the caesarean section, I unfortunately lost the baby.

Three hours later, the doctors told her that she needed an urgent operation for the wound in her foot. Due to the lack of hospital resources, the operation was performed in the same operating room where she gave birth in.

An hour after the operation, Umm Hassan was transferred to intensive care at the Nasser Hospital, where she stayed there for a week. On 4 November, 2024, the occupation released her husband after 10 days, and told them he was taken to the border area with Egypt in Rafah where he was interrogated.

I still suffer from very difficult psychological conditions, and I become hysterical because of the threats I received from the officer and the physical pain I went through. I cannot forget the horror I experienced and my children were exposed to, especially my daughter Sham, who still suffers from extreme fear and involuntary urination due to the psychological trauma she was exposed to. I am still unable to walk or move normally, and I need to change the bandages twice a day so that the wound wouldn’t get infected.

Her husband’s arrest was not his first. On 13 November, 2023, Umm Hassan says the Israeli occupation army arrested him with workers in Qalqilya, and transferred him to Anatot prison, but he was released and returned to them safely after five days through the Kerem Shalom crossing.

Before this incident, Umm Hassan suffered from repeated displacement from her home in Khan Yunis to Rafah and back to Mawasi, where they experienced hunger, cold and the heat of tents before returning to their home to find themselves facing new sufferings and a life of hardship.

Features

Entering The Baath Torture Chambers

CrossFireArabia
December 11, 2024

During the rule of the collapsed Baath regime in Syria, thousands were subjected to torture in dozens of centers beyond Sednaya prison.

Since the uprising began in March 2011, the fallen Baath regime reportedly tortured and killed thousands. However, it is feared that the undocumented numbers reach tens of thousands.

According to the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR), regime forces detained at least 1.2 million Syrians during the civil war and subjected them to various torture methods.

7/8 Testimonies
“In Saydnaya, it felt like the purpose of torture and beatings was death, some form of natural selection to get rid of the weak as soon as they arrive”

“I felt we had entered a slaughterhouse”

“Anyone who is left in that prison is dead, I am sure of it” pic.twitter.com/MmXApjKo1Q
— Falasteen (@falastineisme) December 8, 2024

Although the regime announced over 20 so-called amnesty decisions during the war, international human rights organizations state that the regime continued detaining Syrians.

Numerous reports from international organizations emphasize that detainees were killed through torture.

Anadolu compiled details of torture centers and methods under the collapsed Baath regime, which ruled Syria for 61 years.

According to an exclusive SNHR report for Anadolu, the regime’s torture centers were categorized as civilian prisons, military prisons, secret unofficial detention centers, and security unit interrogation centers.

There were more than 50 such centers across almost all provinces in the country.

Prisons under Interior Ministry

In cities taken over by groups that toppled the Baath regime, their first action was to rescue detainees, most of whom were opposition members.

Prisoners were freed from major prisons, including Aleppo Central Prison, Hama Central Prison, Adra Central Prison in Damascus, Homs Central Prison, and Suwayda Central Prison.

Prisoners in the central prisons of Tartus and Latakia, however, are still awaiting release.

Centers of crime

Tens of thousands of people were tortured for years in military prisons under the Defense Ministry.

Among these, Sednaya, Mezzeh, and Qaboun in Damascus, and Al-Balloon and Tadmur in Homs, stood out as centers of severe torture. Many detainees held there were never heard from again.

Inside #Assad notorious #صيدنايا Prison, torture and execution.
Source: BBC#HumanRights #Syrien pic.twitter.com/Q07A4SczVq
— رِهـَـــــاد (@RhadWrd93303) December 10, 2024

After armed groups brought down the regime, prisoners in Mezzeh and Kabun were also freed.

Mezzeh prison, located at the military airport in Damascus’s Mezze district, was managed by military intelligence units under the Defense Ministry.

Secret and unofficial detention centers

There were also centers where the regime detained its opponents, but these centers were practically secret.

According to SNHR and other human rights organizations, the purpose of establishing these secret detention centers was to carry out even more severe torture. Those who ended up in these torture dens had no chance of survival.

These facilities operated under the Fourth Division, commanded by Assad’s brother, Maher Assad.

In early 2012, the regime also turned houses, villas, and stadiums into detention centers. One such facility was Deir Shmeil Camp in northwestern Hama.

Detention, torture centers

Security units tied to the regime also played an active role in operating interrogation and detention centers.

The security apparatus consisted of four main intelligence services: the Military Intelligence Service (known as “military security”), the Political Security Service, the General Intelligence Directorate (known as “state security”), and the Air Intelligence Directorate.

The Military Intelligence Service, with the largest network in the country, had at least 20 branches.

The Political Security Service maintained branches in most provinces, while the General Intelligence Directorate operated six main headquarters in Damascus.

The Air Intelligence Directorate ranked second in detentions after the Military Intelligence Service. With branches in nearly every province, the directorate was particularly active in areas with military airports.

These units were placed under the Syrian National Security Bureau, established in 2012. The Military Intelligence Service, under the Defense Ministry, functioned as the primary body responsible for detentions.

Those detained in these branches were typically transferred to main centers in Damascus after several days, where they could be held for years.

Across the country, security units operated more than 45 detention branches, with 18 of them located in Damascus.

Regime used 72 different torture methods

According to the SNHR report, the Baath regime employed 72 torture methods involving physical, psychological, and sexual violence.

The regime also subjected detainees to forced labor and solitary confinement, violating basic human rights.

Physical torture included pouring boiling water on victims’ bodies, simulating drowning by submerging heads in water, electrocuting individuals with electric batons, and placing them naked on electrified metal chairs. Other inhumane practices involved melting plastic bags onto bodies, extinguishing cigarettes on skin, and burning fingers, hair, and ears with lighters.

The regime also used brutal methods such as pulling out fingernails with pliers, tearing out hair, amputating body parts—including ears and genitalia—with sharp tools, and driving nails into sensitive areas like hands, tongues, and noses.

Spotlight on Sednaya prison

Sednaya prison, where tens of thousands are believed to be held, has the worst reputation of all.

After protests in March 2011, Sednaya became a center of torture, holding tens of thousands of political detainees.

Following the collapse of the 61-year-old Baath regime on 8 December, 2024, attention turned to the situation of prisoners in Sednaya.

Some detainees reportedly appeared on security cameras but could not be found in accessible areas, raising the possibility that they may be in secret compartments underground.

As teams continue to dig tunnels and break down walls, Syrians who have not heard from loved ones for years are flocking to the prison, searching for traces of their relatives.

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Israel is Killing Gaza’s Professional Sector

Devastation in Gaza is Staggering – WFP Official

‘Stalingrad of Palestine’ – Jabalia, Steadfast in The Face of Genocide

Gazan Woman Narrates Ordeal as Israeli Army Dog Attacks Her

Entering The Baath Torture Chambers

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