Israel’s Ongoing Genocide in Gaza
Palestinian Resistance Continues Against Israeli Occupation Forces
Palestinians in the occupied West Bank observed a day-long strike on Wednesday 1 November in protest against the continued Israeli genocide in Gaza and other occupied territories.
Over 8,610 Palestinians have been killed and over 23,000 have been wounded in the Israeli attacks on Gaza and other occupied territories since 7 October, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The majority of those killed were women and children.
Israeli warplanes bombarded an entire neighborhood inside the densely populated Jabayla refugee camp in Gaza, killing and wounding over 400 Palestinians on Tuesday, 31 October in their latest round of massacre.
The bombs used to strike the camp were US made and weighed a total of over six tons according to a report by the Palestinian Wafa news agency.
According to Al-Jazeera, Jabalya was hit again, the second time within less than 24 hours, on Wednesday by Israeli forces, killing dozens.
Israel began launching its indiscriminate bombings inside the besieged Gaza strip following the Palestinian resistance offensive on7 October. It has since imposed a complete blockade on the supply of all essential commodities such as food, medicine and fuel, endangering all 2.3 million people in the territory.
More than 1.4 million Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced according to the UNRWA, taking shelter in hospitals, schools and tents erected by the relief agencies. Some are forced to sleep under the open sky, as the bombs continue to rain down.
The only hospital that treats cancer on the Strip, the Turkish Friendship Hospital, has been forced to close down due to bombings and lack of fuel. The lives of 70 cancer patients of the hospital are now in jeopardy, as well as the lives of the at least 2,000 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip.
Gaza officials issued an urgent appeal for the supply of fuel to the al-Shifa and Indonesian hospitals. The Palestinian Minister of Health announced on 1 November that Al-Shifa will stop operating within 24 hours due to fuel depletion. Al-Shifa is the largest hospital in the Gaza strip and struggling to keep functioning despite the shortage of fuel and medicine since the Israeli blockade, to the supply of essential commodities to the besieged territory imposed on 9 October.
There have been reports of rising starvation in Gaza due to lack of food amid the Israeli blockade.
Israeli occupation forces also killed three more Palestinians on Wednesday morning in one of its largest raids on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. The IOF also arrested over 50 more Palestinians from across the territory. The total number of Palestinians killed by the Israeli forces inside the occupied West Bank now is close to 130 with close to 2,000 wounded and around the same number being illegally detained.
On Wednesday, Palestinian telecommunication company Paltel announced that Israel has cut internet and telecommunications services across the besieged Gaza yet again. Israel had imposed a complete blackout of the territory for 36 hours this past weekend.
Regional and international solidarity with Palestine
Craig Mokhiber, director of New York office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights announced that he was resigning from his post over the UN’s failure to stop Israel’s genocide of Palestinians. He had cited the complicity of the US, the UK and most European countries in this genocide.
The UN General Assembly had passed a resolution on 27 October demanding a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza. The resolution was supported by over 120 countries, and yet Israel has refused to implement it.
The UN Security Council has failed to agree on a resolution demanding a ceasefire in Gaza at least four times since 7 October due to explicit pro-Israeli positions taken by the US, the UK and France, three permanent members with veto powers=.
Bolivia announced on Tuesday that it is cutting all diplomatic ties with Israel and recalled its ambassador. Chile and Colombia also recalled their ambassadors.
Bolivia said that it is deciding to cut ties with Israel to prioritize saving lives and to “repudiate and condemn the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive in Gaza, as well as the threat to international peace and security.”
On Tuesday, the Belgian Transport Workers Unions called all their workers to refuse to handle military equipment sent to Israel to be used in the war in Gaza.
In a joint statement issued by four major unions, the ACV Puls, BTB, BBTK and ACV-Transcom said that “while a genocide is underway in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium are seeing arms shipments in the direction of the war zone,” and asked their members and other workers to refuse to continue this practice. They demanded that the government in Belgium not allow the use of its airports for any such shipments.
Meanwhile, Yemen’s Ansar Allah (Houthi) group announced that their country is at war with Israel. Hours following the announcement, Israel claimed it intercepted one missile and two drones from the Red Sea and was forced to deploy its forces in the region, the Times of Israel reported.
The Houthis run the government in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital. Announcing his country’s decision to declare war on Israel, Yahya Saree, Yemen’s military spokesperson affirmed “that the position of Yemeni people towards the Palestine issue is firm and principled, and that the Palestinian people have the full right to self defense and to restore their full legitimate rights.”
Saree blamed “Zionist enemy entity” Israel for destabilizing the region and expanding the circle of conflict by persistence in “committing crimes.”
The US military bases across the West Asia region have come under repeated attacks in the last few weeks due to its participation in the Israeli genocide in Gaza.
The US’s illegal military base in Syria’s al-Tanf came under another round of drone attacks on Tuesday. This was the second such attack in less than 24 hours inside Syria. Earlier at least three different attacks have been reported on a couple of US bases in different eastern provinces of Syria by Al-Mayadeen.
According to Al-Mayadeen, an Iraqi group took the responsibility for the attack at al-Tanf.
Rafah border crossing with Egypt was opened on Wednesday for the first time since the Israeli war began on 7 October to allow foreign passport holders to leave the territory. Around 500 people have been cleared to leave the territory.