Pregnant women in Gaza describe malnutrition and extreme distress caused by Israel's blockade

An entire post of strawmen!

And you, please do keep arguing with strawmen if it helps you feel like you're achieving something. I can't see what you get out of it but I guess you must get something?

Meanwhile the rest of us can discuss actual points raised.

So many women and girls around the world live with horrifying levels of sexual violence. War always makes it worse.

That is always the answer. The racism of low expectations.

We can't expect them to behave. They're only terrorists.

And just to make sure of the point-

46 % of women reported husbands used force and brutality during sex.

17% said husbands beat them to have sex.

35% said husbands threatened and intimidated them into having sex.

Heartbreaking statistics.

"A survey on violence against women in Gaza conducted by the Women’s Affairs Center in 2001 revealed that 46.7 percent of the 670 women interviewed reported that their husbands used “force and brutality” during sexual intercourse; 17.4 percent reported that their husbands beat them to have sex; and 35.9 percent said that their husbands threatened and intimidated them into submission."

And rape within marriage is not illegal. I think it is in the WB so why has Hamas held out?

Agree @dairydebris I posted before I saw your posts.

But I note you're only interested in rape by IDF soldiers without mention of rape and coercion within the Palestinian community. So as usual, not caring about women't experience, just a stick to beat Israel with.

Rape and coercion have been mentioned numerous times on this thread. We were told we were disgusting and despicable for mentioning it.

I'm still absolutely disgusted with this post so I'm putting this here. Its an extract from a HRW report into sexual violence in Palestinian society. I can provide the full link if you wish- its on another thread on here.

I think you only care about Palestinian women in as much as you can use them as an argument to hate Israel with.

Theres a conversation to be had around the issues raised on this thread- but we're not actually having it are we?

And finally- Palestinian men for Gods sake consider pulling out.

"As noted at the start of this chapter, a Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics survey published in early 2006 found that 23.3 percent of married women in the West Bank and Gaza said that they had been victims of domestic violence in 2005 while 61.7 percent reported that they were victims of psychological violence during the same year.101 Several Palestinian women’s organizations have also reported a rise in already high levels of violence against women following the second intifada. According to a 2002 poll by the Refugee Women’s Resource Project, close to 90 percent of respondents stated that violence against women had “significantly or somewhat increased as a result of changing political, economic, and social conditions in the Palestinian Territories.”102 There is also evidence that marital rape is prevalent in the OPT. A survey on violence against women in Gaza conducted by the Women’s Affairs Center in 2001 revealed that 46.7 percent of the 670 women interviewed reported that their husbands used “force and brutality” during sexual intercourse; 17.4 percent reported that their husbands beat them to have sex; and 35.9 percent said that their husbands threatened and intimidated them into submission..."

Oh god I've read it all now.

You just blamed Israel for Palestinian pregnancies?

You literally couldnt make it up.

This thread is an absolute low.

I see the GHF is delivering 1.5 million meals a day now for a population of 2 million.

It isn’t 1.5m meals per day- that was just on one good day. The aid distribution centres are not open every day. In fact, they distribute an average of 2.3m meals per week, which is pretty much 1 meal per week per person in Gaza.

How far do people have to travel outside of the famine zone to get to an aid distribution site does anyone know? Many kilometres on foot and through active combat zones to reach the tiny number of GHF distribution sites which is totally unacceptable and not at all how any legitimate humanitarian aid program is ever run. It is also why more Palestinians have been killed trying to get aid at GHF sites than all the Israelis killed on Oct 7th.

Dealing with Hamas could and should be part of the international community's approach to this conflict.

From my perspective, this has been the international community’s approach to the conflict. However it appears that every time Hamas agrees to a ceasefire & surrender proposal, Israel either rejects it outright or egregiously violates it soon after it starts.

I don’t know how/why you think no one who is for ending the war has not also been dealing with Hamas or putting pressure on them.

Huge baby booms after the Rape of Nanking and the Rape of Berlin too…many WWII “baby booms” were not due to consensual sex.

Did you miss the UN report stating they have credible evidence that the IDF are raping Palestinians in Gaza? How utterly naive that you think women in war zones have the choice to not have sex. At least, I hope you are naive and are saying the same thing about pregnant Ukrainian and Sudanese women and aren’t being deliberately obtuse.

And to add. Don't tell me you care about Palestinians if you aren't prepared to do something about Hamas.

My deleted post pointed out that you were twisting people's words. Nobody has suggested we 'sit around and watch'. Everyone agrees increased aid is needed.
And actually we do have leverage with Hamas. Qatar is a big arms trade partner for the UK and Qatar has leverage with Hamas. Qatar is a much bigger arms partner than Israel. If Hamas's income streams and cosy places to hideout and regroup were cut off they would be finished. Turkey has leverage with Hamas. The are in Nato. Saudi has levetage with Hamas. One of the UK's biggests arms partners. Noone's buying the argument that nothing can be done about Hamas or that only Israel should carry that burden.
Dealing with Hamas could and should be part of the international community's approach to this conflict. And anyone anywhere can write to their elected reps and say so. Stick it on a banner and march for it too,if you really think that sort of thing works.

I see the GHF is delivering 1.5 million meals a day now for a population of 2 million.

That is just the GHF, not the UN who are actually responsible for the main aid distribution.

Surely the UN have enough aid to get food to the other 0.5 million people in Gaza?

Why are they letting most of it be looted? Why are they not asking for help to protect it?

How far do people have to travel outside of the famine zone to get to an aid distribution site does anyone know?

Gaza is tiny, why are the UN not setting up aid convoys to Gaza city for those who can’t get there?

You just quoted me then deliberately twisted what you quoted.

I do think the quickest way for this war to end is for Hamas to release the hostages.

You appear to be exonerating Hamas from participating in the end to this war I think because they are a terrorist organisation so can’t be influenced or bargained with. Is that correct? As Israel is the only entity a government can impose sanctions on, they are entirely responsible for everything. Let Hamas do what they want because we can’t send them sternly worded letters or place trade embargo’s on them. You’re right though. Hamas don’t need us because they have Qatar and Iran and all the other states/organisations that fund and support them.

You may want to examine why you’re so keen to see Israel “on its knees” but aren’t putting as much energy into seeing Hamas removed from power.

If you want to stop the starvation in Israel immediately, why aren’t you demanding the UN works with the GHF to deliver the 000s of tons of aid currently sitting in Gaza? They could surely get over their dislike of GHF in order to help those starving Palestinians? How about getting the Palestinians who have food to share that around? Why not force them to buy an extra crepe and give it away? (NB that is a throughly facetious and ridiculous question but you seem to be either unaware or deliberately ignoring the fact that there are plenty of places in Gaza that could provide food to these starving mums but seem to lack the compassion to do so. You’d rather bring Israel to its knees than deal with the the issue that there is food in Gaza that isn’t being shared equally by the Gazans).

This is painful. You can write to your representatives to apply pressure in the correct places. You dont need to live in Qatar or Turkey or Israel or Gaza to ask your representatives, wherever they are, to formulate effective foreign and trade policy.

Well personally I don't live in Turkey so can't write to my representatives there. I don't live in a NATO country so nothing I can do there. I don't live in a country that deals arms to anybody because we are one the most peaceful countries in the world and don't fuel wars, so can't lobby my representatives there. The EU doesn't sell arms either so can't do anything there.

You agree that there should be more aid, you don't agree with sitting around and doing nothing maybe you can share what you have done then so that people who also share your view that Israel just letting more aid in and not purposefully starving mums and babies isn't the answer can also do something.

"Some think writing to MPs to call for sanctions against Israel is going or marches is the best solution, others think releasing the hostages or Hamas surrendering is the best, and quickest, solution.*

So we just sit around and watch Israel starve pregnant women and children until Hamas surrender? You genuinely think that that is 'the quickest way' to sit around and let Israel use food as a weapon of war until Hamas surrender?

In the absence of Hamas surrendering absolutely Israel allowing aid agencies to feed people is the answer. That is something that our governments can have some control over. They don't trade with Hamas, they have no leverage with Hamas whatsoever. Without the EU, their biggest trading partner, Israel will be on its knees. Israel need us, Hamas don't. So absolutely we can make Israel allow pregnant women to have food and absolutely when there is a way to do that, to ease the suffering of the most vulnerable people in Gaza, there should be a moral imperative on us to do so. Israel signed an agreement with us and they broke it. So ask your Meps to take action. Stop trade with Israel until they stop starving mums and babies. They can stop it tomorrow, they just don't want to, so let's force them to.