- Highlighted updates
- Mass graves in Gaza, the European Commission calls for an independent investigation
Hostage on video, ‘we are in hell, Shame on Netanyahu’
Sitting in front of a white wall, his face worn out and his arm amputated, the Israeli-American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who appears in the latest propaganda video released by Hamas, addresses himself – like other hostages in the past in similar videos – directly to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu and his government: «You must be ashamed, because you abandoned us like thousands of citizens, because you left us for 200 days while all the army’s efforts failed, because the air force bombs killed about 70 prisoners like me. And for turning down every deal they offered you. Don’t you want this nightmare to end?” asks the boy, according to the transcript of the video released by the Hostages’ Families Forum. Then, still addressing Netanyahu and his ministers, he continues: “While you are at the table with your families, think to us prisoners in the underground hell, without water, without food, nor sun nor medicines that I need so much” and shows his amputated arm, a young man, kidnapped at the Nova festival in Reim and who turned 24 in captivity, asks finally to the prime minister and the government: “Do what you have to do to bring us home immediately.” It is not possible to trace the date on which the video was shot with certainty, but Goldberg-Polin speaks of “200 days” of imprisonment and in the end. wishes the family a happy Passover, the Jewish Passover, which began last Monday for a week. Around 250 people were kidnapped by Hamas in the attack on 7 October: after an initial agreement for an exchange of prisoners which took place at the end of November, they were kidnapped. 129 hostages are still in the Gaza Strip, of which 34 are dead, according to the Israeli army
Hamas releases video of an Israeli-American hostage
Hamas published a video of the Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin on Telegram. According to Al Jazeera, in the video, the date of which is not known, the 23-year-old young man “denounces the negligence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government towards the hostages and asks that action be taken for his release”
The Speaker of the US House: President of Columbia must go
House Speaker Mike Johnson wants Columbia University President Minouche Shafik to resign. Johnson said he will formalize the request today at a meeting in Columbia with groups of Jewish students. In an interview before leaving for New York, the Speaker said that Shafik was a “weak and inept” leader and added: “They can’t even guarantee the safety of Jewish students? What do you expect them to do? That they run away and stay home and skip class? It’s madness”
Media: Israeli army ready to enter Rafah
The Israeli army has conducted all the necessary preparations to enter Rafah, which it considers the last bastion of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and will be able to launch an operation as soon as it has obtained government approval: Haaretz reports this, reporting international media citing a senior defense official
Mass graves in Gaza, the European Commission calls for an independent investigation
The European Commission “calls for an independent investigation into all suspicions and all circumstances” relating to the mass graves discovered in the main hospitals of the Gaza Strip “because all this creates the impression that violations of international human rights may have been committed”. EU executive spokesperson Peter Stano said this during the daily meeting with the press. The Commission, he added, is “deeply concerned”.
FAO: “Food crisis at catastrophe level in Gaza”
By July 2024, half of the population in these territories (around 1.1 million people) is expected to suffer from Catastrophe (IPC Phase 5) levels of severe food insecurity, reaching 70% in the northern areas. Estimates speak of almost a third of children in a state of acute malnutrition since March when, as reported in the dossier, an imminent famine was already foreseen in the governorates of Gaza and North Gaza in Palestine, due to ongoing hostilities and the lack of access to essential supplies and services. As for the other countries mapped, in Haiti high levels of serious food insecurity are expected between March and June for almost 5 million people, or half of the population analysed; a sharp increase compared to August 2023 projections that reflects the escalation of armed gang violence that limits the movement of goods and people, causing internal displacement and driving up food prices. In southern Africa, the presidents of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe declared national disasters in March due to the impact of El Niño-induced drought on agricultural production.
Missiles from Lebanon hit houses in northern Israel
Two private homes in the northern Israeli community of Avivim were hit by anti-tank missiles launched from Lebanon. Local authorities report that there was also a fire but no injuries. The Times of Israel reports it. Following the rocket attack, the Israeli army said that mortar shelling was underway in southern Lebanon against the positions from which the shots fired towards Israel.
After months of announcements and slowdowns, Israel seems to be once again accelerating its ground incursion into Rafah, the last bastion of Hamas in the south of the Gaza Strip, where over a million Palestinians fleeing the war have been displaced and where, according to Jewish state, the last pockets of resistance of the Islamic faction are hiding, including the elusive military leader Yahya Sinwar.
Six months after the October 7 attack, the Israeli army is therefore preparing to finish the job on two fronts: in the south, in the Strip now almost razed to the ground, and in the north of Israel, constantly targeted by Hezbollah rockets from southern Lebanon: Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced the start of “offensive action” on the border, with dozens of air raids and artillery attacks that hit “40 targets”, and claimed responsibility for the killing ” of half the commanders of pro-Iranian Shiite militiamen in the area. And so, despite the warning from the United States and other Western allies not to attack Rafah without first evacuating the displaced people (an operation which would require another 4-5 weeks, according to American sources on Kan TV), the IDF made it known that it was ready to enter the city on the border with Egypt and just wait for the government’s green light. So much so that, press sources report, the director of the Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, and the chief of staff, Herzl Halevi, went to Cairo to meet the head of Egyptian intelligence and other military officials to discuss plans for the the imminent offensive in Rafah (which Egypt also opposes for fear of an uncontrolled exodus of Palestinians on its territory), as well as efforts to restart negotiations for an agreement on the release of the hostages still in the hands of Hamas. And precisely to fuel the anxiety of the family members about their fate and press on the discontent of the Israelis towards the Netanyahu government, the Al Qassam Brigades have released a new video on Telegram of one of the hostages, the Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 24 years old in captivity. Kidnapped on 7 October from the Nova festival in Reim, the boy was injured by a terrorist grenade which cost him the amputation of an arm. “Netanyahu and your ministers, you must be ashamed”, is the cry of the young man, visibly tired and emaciated. “While you are at the table with your families, think of us prisoners in the hell underground, without water, without food, nor sun, nor medicines that I needed so much,” adds Goldberg-Polin, showing his amputated arm in the video which is not possible to date but in which it refers to “200 days” of imprisonment and the Passover celebration which is underway in these days. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also returned to attacking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in his opinion is guilty of “endangering the security of the entire region, as well as that of his own citizens, just to extend his political career”. An invitation to resign also came from the doyen of US politics, the Democrat Nancy Pelosi, on the day in which President Joe Biden signed the aid package for Israel, which also provides for a “significant increase in humanitarian assistance to Gaza”, and he once again urged the Jewish State to “ensure that aid reaches the Palestinians without delay”. The humanitarian situation in the Strip appears increasingly catastrophic: even the FAO has defined it as the most serious food crisis in the history of the food security scale. Meanwhile, concern is growing over the accusations leveled against Israel in the case of the bodies buried in mass graves near hospitals in Gaza. The Jewish State continues to deny its responsibility, explaining that the army dug up, “treating them with dignity”, previously buried corpses while searching for the bodies of killed hostages. The EU has also joined the chorus of calling for “a independent investigation into all suspicions and all circumstances” relating to the mass graves “because all this creates the impression that violations of international human rights may have been committed”
Rafah, Israel’s attack is ready: a tent city has been set up to house a million refugees
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