Middle East War Expands

John Day
Participant
Israeli spokesperson denies reports of ‘full blown famine’ in Gaza [Have a listen…]
In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya English’s Riz Khan, spokesperson of the Israeli prime minister rejected reports of a “full blown famine” in northern Gaza.
https://english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-east/2024/05/08/israeli-spokesperson-denies-reports-of-full-blown-famine-in-gaza
Gaza rescue teams discover third mass grave in ruins of Al-Shifa Hospital
Seven mass graves holding hundreds of bodies have so far been discovered in three hospitals that were decimated by the Israeli army
The chairman of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Ramy Abdu, said that the grave contains the bodies of “dozens of Palestinians, including women, children, and patients, executed by Israel.” https://thecradle.co/articles/gaza-rescue-teams-discover-third-mass-grave-in-ruins-of-al-shifa-hospital
Rafah’s main maternity hospital stops admitting patients due to Israeli operation
The agency said that the hospital had been handling about 85 out of a daily total of 180 births in Gaza prior to an escalation of fighting on the outskirts of Rafah https://tass.com/world/1785775
What it’s like to be used as a human shield by the Israeli army
Israeli soldiers rounded up Ahmad Safi and his male family members in Khan Younis and made them stand atop a sand dune for 12 hours as the soldiers took cover behind them during a firefight with Palestinian resistance fighters. This is their story. https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/what-its-like-to-be-used-as-a-human-shield-by-the-israeli-army/
Israeli Jews are only united by killing Palestinains now. The real reason Israel is invading Rafah
“The Zionist entity is faced with hard choices on all sides,” Odetallah told Mondoweiss. “It has no clear vision for the war, it hasn’t been able to achieve any of its stated goals, and there are no achievable goals in Rafah. Given the effect of the October 7 events, this has a deep effect on Zionist society altogether.”
“Netanyahu is only a small part of the picture,” Odetallah explains. “All of Zionist society is faced with a difficult reality — it has built itself in the past years around the idea that it had no serious external threats left. Even the internal divisions that had started before October 7 were part of Israel’s impulse of having achieved some sense of superiority and stability, all of which has been shattered.”
“All of this has pushed ‘Israel’ to try and reinvent itself and the entire Zionist project, similar to 1948,” Odetallah details, arguing that Israel will try to “regenerate its own society,” of which the army is a reflection, “by projecting force” onto it enemies, which in practice means “displacing large numbers of Palestinians.”…
..Israel has continued to refuse the return of all displaced Palestinians to the ruins of their homes in the north of the Strip, while Israeli settler groups have been pressing for resettling Gaza, with the vociferous support of Ben-Gvir.
“The displacement of Palestinians as a precursor to settling in their place, as well as the projection of military superiority over the region, are both essential parts of how ‘Israel’ defines itself,” Odetallah told Mondoweiss. “Yet, the regional and international atmosphere seems to be unready to accept the mass displacement of Gaza’s people. In light of this new reality, and with no way out of it, the Zionist entity has no other choice but to continue the war, moving forward without a horizon.”
Meanwhile, leaked reports indicated that the proposed deal that Hamas accepted was essentially the same proposal that the U.S. had previously adopted. On Tuesday, the U.S. announced it had put a shipment of offensive arms to Israel on hold as a reaction to the invasion of Rafah…
..“But this moment is a challenge to the very nature of the century-long Zionist experiment. This is why it needs to reinvent itself, and why the war will not stop even if a ceasefire is actually reached in Gaza.” “The Zionist entity will most probably continue this war in different rounds,” Odetallah concludes. “It won’t be limited to Gaza, but will extend it to its northern front with Lebanon, and even to other parts of Palestine’s geography, like the West Bank.”
Odetallah expects that “the war might take on different forms, but all of them will be equally bloody.” “Since it is now incapable of restoring its previous sense of security and superiority,” he says. “The entity’s only choice seems to be blood, blood, and more blood.” https://mondoweiss.net/2024/05/the-real-reason-israel-is-invading-rafah/