Jabaliya is destroyed; Palestinian paramedics targeted; heart-wrenching video “Dad is gone”; women at risk; UNRWA as “terrorist organization”; two more State Department officials resign over Gaza; horrors across the West Bank; police clear out pro-Palestine protesters at Wayne State U in Detroit; Faiza Shaheen ousted from UK party over “likes,” more
By IAK staff, from reports.
‘The devastation is colossal’: Jabaliya in ruins after Israeli withdrawal
The scene in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp is one of total destruction after Israeli troops withdrew to the east after 20 days of military operations.
Residents in Jabaliya spoke of their shock and loss after seeing the extensive damage of their homes and public infrastructure. Video shows decomposing bodies on the streets after the Israeli army bulldozed a makeshift graveyard in the al-Faluja area and scattered the corpses.
“The devastation is colossal. The destruction is massive, beyond description. No words can describe the scale of the damage. The entire area is unlivable – a ghost city. In addition, there is no food or water,” one man from Jabaliya told Al Jazeera.
“I don’t know where the displaced will go. There are no places now for people in northern Gaza.”
“I returned to Jabalia camp to get food and the special needs of four disabled people I have at home … we now live in a shelter school in Beit Lahiya,” said Asma Al-Masri.
“There is no longer Jabalia camp, there are no schools and hospitals, the scale of destruction is so great that no one imagines, and the destruction cannot be counted,” she said.
Israeli forces directly hit paramedics, prevented rescue: PRCS
A paramedic with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) described how the Israeli military targeted and killed two colleagues in Rafah.
He said emergency responders found one of their ambulances on fire when they arrived at the scene to help PRCS members Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, who were killed.
“My colleague and I attempted to extinguish the fire, but we were heavily targeted by the shooting of the occupation. Given the gravity of the situation, we were forced to withdraw from the area.”
Paramedics eventually managed to recover the charred bodies of their colleagues after several hours.
Israeli air force conducted 50 strikes on Gaza over the past day
The Israeli military says it is currently conducting operations in northern, central and southern Gaza.
This includes Rafah, the area where the ICJ has ordered Israel to halt military operations.
It also stated that over the past day, the Israeli air force has struck more than 50 targets in the Gaza Strip.
UN Population Fund: women in Gaza face “unprecedented suffering”
Report: The devastating crisis in Gaza intensified even further as a terrifying Israeli ground military operation in Rafah started on May 6, which has to date led to the displacement of 900,000 people from Rafah. Families and communities are being shattered again, having to move for a sixth or seventh time as they live atop rubble and sand, plagued by hunger and pain. These families are crammed into increasingly smaller and overcrowded areas where infrastructure is dwindling and basic necessities are scarce. Everything, from shelter to food, sanitation, and clean water, is in short supply and unaffordable, intensifying their unprecedented suffering.
Pregnant and breastfeeding women have been living in an unrelenting nightmare. Exhausted, traumatized, dehydrated, and malnourished, many face the looming threat of famine and lack even the basics for survival. Around 18,500 pregnant women have fled Rafah to areas like Al-Mawasi and Deir al-Balah. Maternal Healthcare access is minimal for these women.
Women and girls in Gaza are increasingly vulnerable to protection risks including sexual and gender based violence. Services and support structures have collapsed, they are separated from their communities and families, and are forced to seek refuge in overcrowded shelters and informal settlements.
Humanitarian efforts face significant challenges due to profound insecurity compounded by the continuous closure of crossings, leading to critical shortages of aid and basic services for the desperate and terrified population. Aid workers including UNFPA staff are mentally and emotionally exhausted, hindered by safety fears, logistical hurdles, limited resources, and social disorder. There’s almost nothing left to distribute in Gaza, and what does arrive is nowhere near enough, forcing difficult choices and partial rations that try to prioritize the most vulnerable.
(Read the full report here.)
In the past two days, over 32,000 people have fled #Rafah
Families look for safety, but damage & destruction is their only horizon in the #GazaStrip. No place is safe from endless bombardment.
People forced to leave everything behind; their lives at risk every day #CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/Mw4n0l6S5F
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) May 30, 2024
More damage to hospitals, schools as Israel takes control of Philadelphi Corridor
The Israeli military is continuing to carry out air strikes and artillery shelling on Rafah city.
At the same time, it is quietly taking over the Philadelphi Corridor in what looks like part of its strategy of building a buffer zone, a demilitarized area on the Egyptian border.
We’re looking at a depth of at least 1km (0.6 miles), extending from the northern part of the Philadelphi Corridor into Rafah city.
This means the majority of residential buildings and public facilities there, including schools, hospitals and privately owned clinics, will be destroyed for this demilitarized area.
MSF: Israel’s proposal to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organization an outrageous attack on humanitarian assistance
Médecins Sans Frontières Statement: “The Israeli Knesset’s preliminary bill to designate UNRWA as a terrorist organisation is an outrageous attack on humanitarian assistance, and an act of collective punishment against the Palestinian people. We strongly condemn the proposed designation, and stand in solidarity with UNRWA, which serves as a lifeline, providing essential relief to millions of Palestinians and acting as the backbone of aid delivery to the people in Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and the region.
“By branding the UN agency created to aid Palestinian refugees as a terrorist entity, Israeli authorities would be perpetuating a narrative that vilifies and marginalises an entire population and those who provide them with assistance.
“This follows months of intimidation against UNRWA, including an attack on its offices in Jerusalem. It is the culmination of the continuous, systematic obstruction of vital humanitarian aid, including into the Strip, effectively choking Gaza.
Humanitarian workers must always be protected, and civilians spared.
“Israel’s allies, which are all members of the United Nations, must stand against this move to criminalize humanitarian assistance and ensure that UNRWA can continue its essential work. These governments must pressure Israel to stop the bloodshed and provide assistance to Gaza.”
UNRWA has ‘not received’ letter from Israel to vacate East Jerusalem:
A UN spokesperson says a letter allegedly sent by Israel to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees to vacate its headquarters in occupied East Jerusalem has yet to be received.
“Well, we’ve seen the media reports. I spoke to my colleagues at UNRWA who have not received anything, any official written communication. And I can tell you that they see this as the ongoing pattern of harassment of UNRWA, its workers and its facilities,” Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
His remarks came after the Israel Land Authority ordered UNRWA to evacuate its headquarters within 30 days.
According to The Times of Israel, the authority said the UN agency owes it “$7,326,711.19 for operating on land belonging to Israel without consent for the last seven years”.
Two more US officials resign over Biden admin’s position on Gaza war
The Guardian reports: Two more US officials have resigned over the Gaza war, saying that the Biden administration is not telling the truth about Israeli obstruction of humanitarian assistance to more than two million Palestinians trapped and starving in the tiny coastal strip.
Alexander Smith, a contractor for the US Agency for International Development (USAID), said he was given a choice between resignation and dismissal after preparing a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians, which was cancelled at the last minute by USAID leadership last week.
Smith, a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health, and nutrition chose to resign on Monday after four years at USAID.
“I cannot do my job in an environment in which specific people cannot be acknowledged as fully human, or where gender and human rights principles apply to some, but not to others, depending on their race,” he wrote in his resignation letter to the agency’s head, Samantha Power.
In another resignation on Tuesday, a state department official from the bureau of population, refugees and migration, Stacy Gilbert, sent an email to colleagues explaining that she was leaving because of an official finding by the department that Israel was not deliberately obstructing the flow of food or other aid into Gaza (read her story here).
West Bank: Palestinian shot dead, 5 others injured, in an Israeli raid of Ramallah
A Palestinian young man, Wajeeh Ramahi, age 20, was shot dead and five others were injured this evening during an invasion by Israeli occupation forces into the city of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to medical sources.
Among the other persons injured, one was shot in the abdomen, and is in a moderate to serious condition, while two others were hit in their lower limbs.
Israel releases Palestinian prisoner Wafaa Jarrar after amputating her legs
Middle East Monitor reports: Israel released injured prisoner, Wafaa Jarrar, from Jenin in the northern Occupied West Bank on Thursday, after amputating her legs at a hospital because of injuries she sustained during her arrest.
“My wounded mother, Wafaa Jarrar, has just arrived at Ibn Sina Specialist Hospital in Jenin after being transferred from Afula Hospital in Israel,” Wafaa’s son, Huthaifa Jarrar. “My mother, 49, was brought with both legs amputated, and she is currently undergoing medical examinations to receive necessary treatment.”
The Palestinian Prisoners Affairs Authority and the Palestinian Prisoners Club said Jarrar underwent the surgery “due to injuries sustained during her arrest by Occupation forces on 21 May”.
At first, according to her attorney, Israel issued an administrative detention order against her in spite of the injuries she had sustained, then decided to release her.
Her son blamed Israel not only for his mother’s injuries, but also its failure to fulfill its obligations to treat her.
Mahajneh noted that an administrative detention order was issued against her despite her difficult condition.
Her husband, Abdel-Jabbar Jarrar, 58, has also been under administrative detention since February.
NOTE: Israel is currently holding 9,300 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 250 of them are children, 78 are women, and over 3,400 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.
This is Rasha. A Palestinian citizen of Israel. She’s a beauty shop owner in very north of Israel who couldn’t be further from Gaza in Majd al-Krum.
Her crime? A social media post expressing sadness and solidarity with Palestinians in Rafah after the tent massacre.
Via… pic.twitter.com/2D0U08bm95
— Rafael Shimunov (@rafaelshimunov) May 29, 2024
Ramallah vegetable market ‘in ruins’ after Israeli military raid, fire
We are now at the vegetable market, where civil defense teams are still trying to put out a fire that erupted after Israeli forces raided this area.
They raided the area at about midnight, throwing tear gas and stun grenades, causing fire to erupt. No one was able to get to the area until the Israeli raid was over. They are still putting it out after hours and hours.
Vendors usually come here every day to work. For some of them, it is their only source of income. Now it’s all in ruins.
In addition to the vegetable market, buildings nearby were also affected. A civil defense crew member is warning us that they expect one of the buildings to fall down.
🔴 طواقم الدفاع المدني تقوم بإطفاء الحريق المشتعل داخل سوق الحسبة برام الله جراء قنابل الاحتلال#فلسطيـن pic.twitter.com/zn3J4mHv6J
— ساحات – عاجل 🇵🇸 (@Sa7atPlBreaking) May 30, 2024
Translation: Civil Defense crews extinguish the fire burning inside al-Hisbah Market in Ramallah as a result of occupation bombs.
🚨 TODAY Israeli Occupying Forces raided #Jenin, occupied West Bank
According to our field researcher:
🔴 IOF were present in busy streets & markets causing widespread panic among citizens.
🔴 6 injuries reported by the Ministry of Health
🔴Significant damage to infrastructure pic.twitter.com/RRgxj1tjOS— Al-Haq الحق (@alhaq_org) May 30, 2024
Israeli minister: ‘We will ruin the West Bank like Gaza’
On a visit to Bat Hefer near the illegal Separation Wall today, far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich threatened Palestinians living in the occupied West Bank with total destruction if they continue to resist… pic.twitter.com/VHOS5QKNGL
— Middle East Monitor (@MiddleEastMnt) May 30, 2024
NOTE: Nearly 1,500 Palestinians have been unlawfully killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank in the past 16 years – 98 percent of them civilians, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The frequency of the killings have spiked in recent years with Israel killing 509 Palestinians in 2023. That is more than double the number recorded by OCHA in any previous year.
In the first three months of this year, 131 Palestinians were killed, a higher rate of killing than the previous year, according to Human Rights Watch.
The statistics do not include killings in the war in Gaza.
Riot police dismantle pro-Palestinian camp at university in Detroit
Associate Press reports: Police have broken up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Wayne State University in Detroit and arrested at least 12 people after organizers turned down offers to meet with school officials and refused to leave.
Video shows Wayne State and Detroit police in riot gear tearing down fencing and breaking down tents erected on May 23 on green space near the undergraduate library.
The protesters chanted: “There’s no riot here. Why are you in riot gear?”
University President Kimberly Andrews Espy cited health and safety concerns and disruptions to campus operations for the police deployment. The camp, she said, “created an environment of exclusion – one in which some members of our campus community felt unwelcome and unable to fully participate in campus life”.
NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is to pressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more. Typically, any move that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by an apology like the one Sonoma State University’s president Mike Lee issued – an apology that recognizes only the sentiments of pro-Israel students and ignoring the actual issues of free speech and divestment from Israel.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful and non-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewish students. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.
The silencing of pro-Palestine campus protest violates students’ and professors’ rights to free speech.
“Britain’s AOC” Faiza Shaheen Banned From Election Over Jon Stewart Israel Jokes
Daily Beast reports: A political candidate running in Britain’s general election appears to have been dropped by the Labour Party over her activity on social media, with one of her alleged transgressions relating to a like on a post containing a Jon Stewart sketch—prompting the comedian to weigh in in her defense on Wednesday night.
The row involving Shaheen began with reports in Britain’s rightwing press alleging that she had liked a post on X which said that anyone who said anything “even mildly critical of Israel” is “immediately assailed by scores of hysterical people” who will make claims of antisemitism.
The post also said such people are “mobilized by professional organizations” and talked about “the Israel lobby.”
The post also contained a clip from a Jon Stewart sketch in which he is repeatedly shouted down while trying to talk about Israel and its war against Gaza.
Appearing on the BBC’s Newsnight on Wednesday, a visibly distressed Shaheen said she’d been called to a meeting the day before to discuss “14 tweets since 2014” and had since been told her candidacy had been blocked, according to the broadcaster.
