The Israeli-Gaza War in the Light of Israel’s First State-Dependent President-Democracy Plan
Israel is intensifying air strikes on Gaza after the weekend’s surprise air, land and sea attack by Hamas, in which militants killed 1,300 Israelis and took some 150 as hostages.
Eyewitnesses described widespread destruction of neighborhoods in Gaza City from the Israeli strikes. Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have to savesay savesay to escape, leaving around a tenth of Gaza’s population homeless. The Palestinians have been blockaded by Israel and Egypt for more than a decade.
There are talks between the Biden administration and the U.S. World Food Program to make a safe corridor for civilians.
The death toll continued to climb in the Israel-Gaza war. The media in Israel said at least 1,200 Israelis have been killed by Hamas. Palestinian officials say at least 960 Palestinians were killed in Gaza.
The first shipment of U.S. weapons arrived in Israel, as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to Israel to deliver a message of solidarity and support, the State Department announced.
On Tuesday, in Washington, President Biden promised to make sure Israel has what it needs to take care of itself and called the attack on Israel by Hamas a pure evil.
Biden said more than 20 Americans are missing and 14 of them were killed in Israel. In an interview on NPR’s All Things Considered, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said there are some Americans among dozens of those held hostage by Hamas but called it “a very small number of Americans that we know of.”
“There’s also a larger number of Americans that are just unaccounted for. Some of them may end up in a hostage pool. We don’t know. Kirby said that they were trying to get as much information as they could.
Hamas in Gaza. The Story of a Thousand Years of War, and Its Tragic Implications for the Future of Israel
The start of the bloodshed began a day after the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Yom Kippur War, when Israel came under attack by Arab countries.
The militant group Hamas launched an attack on Israel’s southern border on Saturday, just a few years after they took control of Gaza. Paragliders, motorbikes and boats were used to enter Israel’s border.
Without electricity, you can’t have a internet or connection to the outside world. Sewage is flooding the streets of Gaza and waste treatment facilities are without electricity. The water supply has been cut. I passed several UN schools-turned-shelters on Monday, which were jampacked with displaced people. I know the worst is yet to come, and that’s why I’m scared.
Over 2,300 Israelis and Palestinians have been killed so far, the majority of them civilians. I am very sad by the killing of civilians. I know that the pain of an Israeli parent is no different from the anguish of a mother or father in Gaza. Yet I’m not surprised that we have found ourselves at this bloody point of no return.
The fighters who went through those walls are probably about a few years older than Ali, many of them were born during the second intifada. Their entire experience has been Israeli military occupation, siege and devastating military assault upon assault in an enclave of 140 square miles, with unemployment and poverty rates of approximately 50 percent. This is the history, and these are the conditions that have shaped so many in Gaza, not a justification. Israel helped create these fighters by starving them of hope, dignity and a future.
The embassy in Gaza is attempting to get about 100 U.S. citizens out, according to an NPR report.
He had not been back to Gaza since he moved to the US seven years ago. When exactly Abuzayda and her American husband would be going to visit had been a topic of discussion.
“We changed our tickets like three to four times … and then we decided to come to Gaza at this time,” she said. “And our short vacation just turned into a nightmare.”
Abuzayda, her husband Abood and their one-and-a-half year old son Yousef traveled from Massachusetts for what was supposed to be a two-week trip. They don’t know when they’ll be able to go home — and not for lack of trying.
Abuzayda told Morning Edition’s Leila Fadel that she called the U.S. embassy for help multiple times a day starting immediately after the attack on Saturday. They told her that they didn’t have any new information. She tried to get in touch with the embassy, but couldn’t.
“We tell them we’re running out of milk, diapers, we’re not safe, we’re citizens — they’re not doing anything,” she said. They keep posting stuff about the U.S. citizens in Israel. Every five minutes they keep reminding the people in Israel to get out of Israel.”
And there are many others struggling to leave, since major U.S. airlines have halted flights in and out of the country. The total number is unknown, but New York Rep. Mike Lawler said his district alone has “hundreds of constituents in Israel trying to get home.”
The U.S. increased the travel advisory for Israel and the West Bank on Wednesday to level three, or “reconsider travel.” The advisory for Gaza remains at level four, “do not travel.”
The family of Abuzayda’s sister-in-law and her three kids tried to cross the border but were turned back after an Israeli airstrike.
An American family trapped in Gaza: “It was a nightmare,” a mother-of-two told a neighbor of her son’s mother
She said it’s not safe inside or outside. The markets themselves are running low on supplies. She’s trying to make the most of the milk and diapers she has left — and keep Yousef not only safe but in good spirits.
She said it was the hardest thing to hide her fear and still be positive for her son. He thinks that this is fireworks because he doesn’t know anything. And every time I tell him, while I’m crying, ‘okay mommy, clap clap this is a fireworks, it’s nothing.’ Sometimes he will jump, he will be scared and freaking out if I’m not next to him.”
A Palestinian journalist stranded in the darkness: Why Israel is killing every inch of our home and killing everybody, and why are we doing what we do?
She cried, “please, please save us.” “Please. I got a one-and-a-half year old after six times of IVF. We have been trying to call the embassy since Saturday. Nobody is helping us or getting back to us. Please save us.
The infrastructure, already weakened by a 16-year blockade and four previous wars since 2008, is now being crushed. It’s something Palestinians say they’ve never seen before.
Last night he found himself stranded in the darkness outside the main hospital. Abu Zarefeh says it was too dark for people to move, and fuel is running out for transportation.
“We are trying to survive,” he said. “The Israeli attacks are at every inch of the Gaza Strip so there are no safe places, nowhere to escape and to run.”
The journalist said his neighborhood is too dangerous to go back to now. The communications were cut off so he lost touch with some of his children.
“This conflict is between Hamas and Israel. So why is Israel destroying our homes? It’s killing entire neighborhoods? Abu Zarafeh said. “This is collective punishment.”
The story of every family in Gaza is his. After fleeing one bombarded area, they find the airstrikes following them to the next neighborhood.
“I took them from the house, and I started to just think, where am I going to take them? I don’t know where to hide them. Is there any safe place in Gaza?” He said something over the phone.
He said people are pondering how to stay alive. We are within this world, we are human. We are a part of this civilization. Don’t forget us.”