“Displacement Has Been Weaponized” DemocracyNow! May 14, 2024 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/14/akram_al_satarri
*Over 450,000 Palestinians, many already internally displaced, have fled Rafah in the past week alone since Israel launched an offensive on the city. Another 100,000 have been forced to flee homes in the north of Gaza amid escalated bombing and ground attacks. Among the recently redisplaced is our guest, the Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri, who joins us from a crowded shelter outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. “Displacement has been weaponized,” al-Satarri says, citing the experiences of families who have been displaced as many as eight times since the start of Israel’s assault. “People are suffering. They are deprived of everything,” al-Satarri adds, due to Israel’s seizure and closure of the Rafah border crossing, preventing food, water, supplies or aid from reaching the famine-stricken population. “They are trying to prepare the Palestinians for full subjugation,” he continues. Life in Gaza is “unimaginable; however, Gazans are living it.”* . . . AMY GOODMAN: More than half a million Palestinians — nearly a quarter of Gaza’s population — have been displaced over the past week alone, according to the United Nations. Over 450,000 people have fled Rafah since Israel launched an offensive on the city, with another 100,000 displaced in the north amidst escalated bombing and ground attacks. Humanitarian organizations say they’re struggling to provide dwindling supplies of food, tents and blankets to the large numbers of newly displaced. In a social media post today, the U.N. refugee agency UNRWA said, quote, “People face constant exhaustion, hunger and fear. Nowhere is safe. An immediate #ceasefire is the only hope,” unquote. No food, aid or fuel has entered the two main border crossings in southern Gaza for the past week, since Israeli forces entered Rafah and took over the border crossing there. Some 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza are on the brink of starvation, and a full-blown famine is taking place in the north, according to the U.N. and the World Food Programme. . . . AKRAM AL-SATARRI: ... So, no infrastructure, no food supplies, no water supplies, no medical consumicals or medications allowed into the Gaza Strip. And people are left there to face that unconceivable situation, unconceivable situation when it comes to the access and protection. The whole population is not protected. And the whole population of 2.37 million Gazans are facing this critical problem of not being able to access anything decent, anything decent, neither the shelter nor the supplies of any kind. And they are left to do that, and the ones who are targeted are just killed. And others, tens of thousands of Gazans, are injured. And the ones who are injured are unable to go to the hospitals, because hospitals are already out of services. ... . . . AMY GOODMAN: Akram, this is going to be our last question. I just want to emphasize to people how rare it is to hear a reporter inside Gaza, so we thank you so much for this report. Now, you have moved out of Rafah. Is this the full ground invasion of Rafah that we’re witnessing? And also, can you comment on the Civil Defense group that held a news conference today saying that Israel is targeting their heavy machinery that helps to get people out of the rubble, that they are increasingly unable, also not having fuel, to save people from the rubble, where it’s expected over these months there are over 10,000 people, at least, buried, but continuing each day? . . . *'Changed Circumstances’ – South Africa Asks ICJ to Order Israel’s Withdrawal from Rafah* Palestine Chronicle Staff, May 11, 2024 https://www.palestinechronicle.com/changed-circumstances-south-africa-asks-icj-to-order-israels-withdrawal-from-rafah/ The Israeli army on Tuesday stormed and occupied the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing with Egypt, closing Palestinians’ only gateway to the world. South Africa filed an “urgent request” on Friday with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for additional measures amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza, particularly in the city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinians are taking shelter. . . . "(The) situation brought about by the Israeli assault on Rafah, and the extreme risk it poses to humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza, to the survival of the Palestinian medical system, and to the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group, is not only an escalation of the prevailing situation, but gives rise to new facts that are causing irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people in Gaza,” South Africa said in its request, according to the ICJ. . . . -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. 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