76% of Gaza Schools in Ruin

Over three-quarters of schools in the Gaza Strip need to be rebuilt or restored before they can be used for teaching, maintains UN agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA, Friday according to Anadolu.

“In Gaza, over 76% of schools need reconstructing or require major rehabilitation to be functional again,” UNRWA quoted a statement by the Global Education Cluster as saying.

Established in 2017, the Global Education Cluster is a coordinating mechanism between aid organizations working in the field of education in the cases of internal displacement caused by conflicts. It is co-led by UNICEF and Save the Children.

UNRWA added that despite the ongoing war on Gaza, its teams “continue to reach children with play and learning activities,” stressing that “education is a fundamental human right” and reiterating the need for a cease-fire in the enclave reports the Turkish news agency.

Most schools in the Palestinian enclave have been turned into shelters for hundreds of thousands of people seeking refuge from the ongoing Israeli bombardment, with many completely destroyed or badly damaged in the onslaught that has continued since Oct. 7 last year.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since the 7 Octtober, 2023 attack by Hamas.

The Palestinian death toll from relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since last October has exceeded 37,400, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave.

More than 85,600 people have also been injured in the onslaught, the ministry added.

Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, which in its latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6 concludes Anadolu.

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Armenia Recognizes Palestinian State

The republic of Armenia is the latest country to recognize the independent state of Palestine.

“Always being a support of two-state solution in Israeli-Palestinian conflict Armenia made a decision to recognize the independent state of Palestine,” wrote the Armenian Deputy Foreign Minister Vohan Kostanyan on his X account.

This recognition follows similar declarations last month by Slovenia, Spain, Norway and Ireland further bolstering international support for Palestinian statehood, reported Wafa.

The official recognition by Armenia raises the number of countries that recognize Palestinian statehood to 149 out of 193 member states of the UN General Assembly added the Palestinian news agency.

“The catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and the ongoing military conflict is one of the primary issues on the international political agenda that requires resolution,” said the MFA in a statement.

“The Republic of Armenia categorically rejects the targeting of civilian infrastructures, violence against the civilian population and the hostage-taking and capture of civilians during the armed conflict and joins the demands of the international community for their release without preconditions,” it added.

In response to the recognition, Israel’s Foreign Ministry summond the Armenian Ambassador to Israel for a “stern reprimand, according to the Jerusalem Post.

The ministry said Armenia earlier supported the UN General Assembly resolutions calling for an immediate cease-fire in the Gaza Strip, where Israel has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians since last October as reported in Anadolu.

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Salim Al Shara Joins 152 Journalists Killed by Israel

The Israeli war on journalists in the Gaza Strip continues unabated. Salim Al Sharafa, a broadcaster for Al Aqsa Satellite TV becomes journalist no 152 to have been killed by the relentless Israeli bombing on the enclave.

His name is trending on the social media. Since the war begun soon after 7 October, Israel has consistently targeted journalists, TV anchors and media workers throughout the Gaza Strip.

The Government Media Office in Gaza confirmed the killing of Al Sharafa.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the war in Gaza has become “the deadliest for journalists” since it began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992, according to Anadolu.

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Sidoti: ‘The Israeli Army is One of The Most Criminal Armies in The World’

Chris Sidoti is a of the members of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, speaking on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva. The Committee headed by Navi Pillay, was presenting its findings to the UN Council, Wednesday, 19 June, 2024 and looked on the legality of the Israeli army’s conduct in Gaza. He said:

“…You mention the Israeli army is the most moral army in the world. I mean this is something that is said repeatedly by the current prime minister of Israel, [Benjamin] Netanyahu. On one recent occasion, he walked it back a bit and he said one of the most moral armies in the world.”

Now I don’t have the expertise and I don’t have the authority to make assessments of morality. Netanyahu may, but I don’t.

…I don’t know whether its’s one of the most moral armies in the world or not but what I do have expertise in, and what I do have an authority to do is make assessments of criminal conduct.

https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/6/19/the-israeli-army-is-one-of-the-most-criminal-in-the-world-says-un-expert

And we’ve done that in relation to the recent events and you can see that in the report. And the only conclusion you can draw is that the Israeli army is one of the most criminal armies in the world,” he concluded.

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Americans Are Not Happy With Netanyahu But…

The video of Benjamin Netanyahu, especially made by the Israeli Prime Minister calling on US President Joe Biden to resume the supplies of 2000-pound bombs to Israel has been getting mixed receptions from those on the social media and US politicians.

One sees Netanyahu as “begging” for the re-supply of the destructive MK86 buster bombs, initially and willingly provided by the United States, so that Israel can drop on different parts of Gaza.

Back in May Biden said he would put a “pause” on the supply of these bombs because Netanyahu was in the process of ordering his troops to enter Gaza and to give him these kinds of bombs would literally obliterate the southern city as he did elsewhere in the Gaza Strip.

Another blogger sees Netanyahu as a “genocidal monster” who is accusing Biden of withholding the mass weapons and quoting him in the video as “I say: Give us the tools and we will finish the job a lot faster.”  

Netanyahu is definitely ungracious in his approach, he overlooks the fact that if it wasn’t for the United States the war on Gaza would have long finished. Despite this however, many argue the Israeli army is in a state of “lethargy” because of the high number of deaths among its ranks and the destruction of its military hardware with tank and convoy losses.  

The blogger says Israel has used 70,000 tons of bombs to drop on Gaza in the past eight months. These are more than the combined total of bombs dropped on Dresden, Hamburg and London in World War II. And it is thanks to American air- and sea-supplies of planes bombs and missiles that maintained the slaughter on Gaza going.

Another blogger says Netanyahu is upset because Biden “temporarily” held up one shipment of these massive bombs. “He needs them because there are still some civilians left in Gaza that he hasn’t slaughtered yet.”

The video has appeared to upset many Americans as well. One former US Ambassador to Israel says two things must be done now: Congressional leaders must cancel their invitation to Netanyahu to speak in front of the US Congress; and this invitation must be conditional on an apology he must make to the Biden administration.

Yet another American doctor says “I really don’t know why Biden puts up with Netanyahu at all. He’s a thug who did his best to undermine Obama and is doing the same to Biden. A pity the Israeli lobby is so strong in the US.”

Another blast however comes from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez who says “this man should not be addressing Congress. He is a war criminal. And he certainly has no regard for US law, which is explicitly designed to prevent US weapons from facilitating human rights abuses. He is invitation should be revoked. It should’ve never been sent in the first place.

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