Israel's macabre world records: after the number of children killed, now it's the highest number of UN fatalities *ever* recorded in a *single* conflict

[Ohlalalalala]

Israel-Palestine crisis: “Enough is enough” state UN agencies, NGOs

"Almost twenty heads of United Nations agencies and partner NGOs launched a new call on Sunday for a humanitarian ceasefire. "

"Scores of aid workers have been killed since October 7 including 88 UNRWA colleagues – the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict."

https://unric.org/en/un-israel-palestine-un-agencies-ngos/

Genuine question , how many babies have been killed by the politics done by Hamas since they’re “in power” (im not talking about the war but their actual day to day)

That doesn't make a lot of sense, but you lost me at "babies etc."

Yep I felt the same. Some of these pro-Israel posters are so coldly dismissive about Palestinian deaths.

Imagine saying ‘Yes, hostages etc’. I could not be like that.

Some posters on this thread -humans, bots or otherwise- deserve this award
as well as these

It's not really that difficult, and I am by no means discounting the value of babies. Quite the opposite, in the long run.

Seriously though, I'm often speechless at the callousness and total lack of human empathy in some posters. OVER TEN THOUSAND people, almost half of them children, killed mercilessly in less than a month... What more to say?

Any decent human being would be horrified by the sheer numbers of killings.

Do those of you who are pro Israel really think what their government are doing now is going to bring about peace? If they do eradicate hamas you think the Palestinian people are going to be happy about their murdered children, all those orphaned children are just going to be grateful? And what? Go back to living happily in an open air prison which is nothing more than waste land . Are Jewish people really going to feel safer after all that?

I just can't fucking see it , it's just made an horrific situation which has been going on for years even worse

Their actions will just spawn Hamas II and then they'll wonder why and do the victim blaming thing. This is assuming there'll actually be any Palestinian people left after this murderous carnage is finally over.

Exactly , you can't cause that much death and destruction and think they'll ever peace , not in our life times now if ever. I just don't get it . How can people have so little humanity that they think it's not a war crime

As far as hate crimes in other countries that are now happening , there are always going to be extremists , awful racists. People who are Muslim have had to deal with the racism for years too and 9/11 and brexit made that worse. I've not seen anyone on here say that they think 9/11 was justified though, or anyone being supportive of hamas really

I think this is because people feel disenfranchised from elected officials who are meant to represent them. The same happened with the Iraq war - there were many marches against that.

Polls show the majority of people across the political spectrum support a ceasefire now- polls in the states and the UK.

I can’t think of another current war where the public view about the fighting needing to stop is so discordant to the view of those representing us?

Fucking hell....

They will not wonder why. They are actively doing that because they have never wanted peace which will allow the Palestinians to have their own state. Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated because he signed the Oslo Accords.

It's not really that difficult, and I am by no means discounting the value of babies. Quite the opposite, in the long run

Reported by Aljazeera this morning. It looks like the IDF are planning to bomb a children's hospital where 1000 people are taking shelter. The warning message said "leave right now".

Within the last hour, the al-Rantisi specialised hospital for children with cancer was warned sharply by the Israeli army to evacuate immediately, which is very difficult at this time with 1,000 people there.

They have no shame. 😪

I think that, amongst all the other horrors, this situation has allowed a certain type of racist to be a lot more open about their Islamophobia. They see themselves as being supported by wealthy people in the US and elsewhere in their long-held views that certain people matter less than others and we should all shut up whining about the deaths of people who don’t matter.

My day as a doctor at Gaza’s al-Shifa Hospital | Close Up https://www.aljazeera.com/program/al-jazeera-close-up/2023/11/6/aje-onl-cu_horroratgazahospital-061123

I am disappointed and appalled at the UN. They have been funding and supplying hamas along with Iran and the proceeds of organised crime. They knew their bases were being used by hamas and they knew all along that hamas leaders were living in luxury off aid money whilst the normal garzans were suffering.
I think this conflict for me has totally shot the UN’s reputation to bits.

I think for me it has helped me to respect the UN more that they have the balls to call out the war crimes they see.

As long as those five permanent members have the right of veto, the UN will never be able to do the jobs that have to be done despite all the goodwill in the world of Guterres et al.

Catlin Johnstone (at caitoz on twitter)has been a beast advocating for Palestine, she just wrote this and I think it resonates 💐 to all those bearing witness xxx:

"I hate every goddamn fucking second of this. I crack jokes here and there to highlight the ridiculousness of the pro-Israel position, but the truth is I’ve never enjoyed this commentary job of mine less than I’ve enjoyed it this past month.

Some nights I see dead kids when I close my eyes. There’s a phenomenon called the Tetris effect where if you play the classic puzzle video game a lot you start seeing the colorful digital blocks in your mind’s eye when the lights are out. For me it’s dead Palestinian kids. That’s just my life now.

As this horror drags on one seemingly endless day after another I find myself acutely aware not just of the unfathomable suffering in Gaza but of all the other millions of people around the world who are having the same experience I’m having, staring this nightmare dead in the eyes day after day, week after week, unable to look away in good conscience.

I saw an account with the handle @exomarxi say something on Twitter that I relate to so hard right now: “I don’t want to talk about anything else. I don’t want to do work. I don’t want to do chores or go to the gym or read a book. It reminds me of that feeling you get when a loved one is in intensive care: you feel every fucking second and your adrenaline won’t settle and you can’t sit still.”

It consumes you. It becomes your life. You take short breaks here and there to get some grass under your feet and feel the wind in your hair, but you’re only doing it so that you can jump back in and wade through this thing with the attention and reverence it deserves. You can’t let yourself burn out, because if you do you won’t be able to do your own teeny tiny almost-insignificant little part to help fight this thing in whatever way you can.
But it’s more than that really. It’s more than the fight. There’s also this acute awareness that even if it turns out nothing we do can stop the slaughter in Gaza, it’s still important to bear witness to it. You feel a responsibility, just as a human being on this planet, to keep your gaze fixed on what’s happening and to not look away.

It feels… sacred. The responsibility, I mean. I don’t even really know what that word means, but that’s the only word that clicks into place and feels appropriate when I describe this responsibility to witness the mass atrocity in Gaza with eyes wide open. It’s a sacred duty that we have to our species. To the universe even, maybe.
It could be as simple as an urge to resist the calls from the powerful to look away. All the world’s most powerful institutions want us to avert our gaze, to scroll on, to dissociate, to take our attention elsewhere. We’re all engaging in a very simple act of defiance by bringing attention and awareness to the very last thing the powerful want our attention and awareness on, one pair of eyes at a time.
So we keep our gaze fixed on Gaza. No matter how much it hurts. No matter how horrifying it gets. No matter how much we cry. No matter how often we slump over and feel like we can’t do it anymore. We keep our gaze fixed on Gaza. Because what else can we do? Nothing else feels right. Nothing else feels responsible.
I don’t know when this will end, or why. I don’t know if it will end because all the opposition made it politically untenable for Israel and its powerful western allies to continue, or because there was nothing left to bomb, or no one left to kill. It kind of feels like that’s none of my business. Because I’m in this with all of me no matter what. Come what may. My life doesn’t really feel like it belongs to me anymore.
Anyways that’s enough of that for the time being. Mainly I just wanted to let everyone who’s holding this same vigil know that I see you, and I appreciate you, and I value you, and you’re not alone, and you never will be. I raise my glass to you beautiful, beautiful souls.
Thank you so much for bearing witness"
https://caitlinjohnstone.com.au/2023/11/08/we-keep-our-gaze-fixed-on-gaza/

I think this is a really interesting post in terms of how we project shit onto each other.

I’m outside the UK and don’t watch news (have no TV). I’m also, for what it’s worth, non-Jewish, non-Israeli, anti-US corporate investment bullshit.

I’ve also always had respect for Arab culture. I mean, the invention of algebra, the beauty of the written language, the celebration of the sacred feminine in music… I could go on.

When the news first broke about Nova Festival, being ignorant, I just thought something vague along the lines of “Ah yes, well, Palestine/Israel, terrible mess, bit cheeky having a peace festival in disputed land.” I vaguely understood that Palestine have long been the underdogs, and I felt an automatic antipathy towards Israel because of the US funding. I didn’t even really think hard about the kibbutzes; I mean, Middle Eastern politics are just unfathomable.

Then I learned about what had actually happened… and was sickened to my core.

Then, a week or so later, I just casually ventured into MN… and could not actually believe what I saw, and have seen ever since: Apparently, the feral viciousness that took place on 7 Oct was just letting off steam after years of oppression. The most perverse and extreme cruelty I can remember being reported in my lifetime (more than half a century), excused as understandable. Perfectly justified.

Then I learned a bit more about Hamas and their tactics. They must be laughing up their sleeve to see what happens here on MN, with a constant barrage of updates on numbers killed and the finger pointed entirely at Israel, as though this whole thing was not set up by Hamas (perhaps with Putin behind them) to destabilise the Middle East and perhaps divert US funding/supplies from the Ukraine war.

I am sorry if I come across as not giving a shit about Palestinian lives, or babies, or whatever. But it is hard in the current circumstances not to feel that every post regurgitating kill counts is just letting Hamas pull the strings, playing entirely into their propaganda game.

In our guts, we all want a ceasefire. Who wouldn’t?
But I don’t think Hamas can be reasoned with. Give them an inch and they will take a mile. And I dread to think what that looks like.

You dont think you are playing into Israeli propaganda? Or are you part of it?

And yes you come across as not giving a hit about Palestinian babies probably because you actually dont.

I think i posted it somewhere a couple of weeks back - are we so morally bankrupt that we now have to race to the bottom that babies being killed brutally by Hamas is more heinour or babies blown to smithereens by IDF more heinous?

And to all the people who say that it is okay for palestinian children's lives to be treated as collateral because Hamas uses them as human shields will you still shrug your shoulders if they were using Israeli children or civilians as human shields or will it suddenly become more a surgical strike than indiscriminate bombing just to assauge the bloodlust that has taken hold of Israel right now and is probably good for politics?

All the posters who are so sickened by Oct7 that they cant bother being affected by what has happened since then sicken me to the core. Poor excuse of a guman being.

@Alcemeg

I can appreciate your concerns. War time propaganda control is important for both sides, and it certainly helps Hamas for the world to see the horror happening in Gaza due to the intense bombing and siege by the Israeli army. I avoid looking at the photos because they are so sad and heartbreaking.

But innocent Palestinians - including children, are dying in their thousands and that deserves to be acknowledged just as much as the death of every Israeli child.

We can’t fall into the trap of dehumanising Palestinians because it doesn’t fit into our narrative of who is on the right or wrong side of this conflict.

I vaguely understood that Palestine have long been the underdogs, and I felt an automatic antipathy towards Israel because of the US funding.
Then I learned about what had actually happened… and was sickened to my core.
Fair.

Then, a week or so later, I just casually ventured into MN… and could not actually believe what I saw, and have seen ever since: Apparently, the feral viciousness that took place on 7 Oct was just letting off steam after years of oppression. The most perverse and extreme cruelty I can remember being reported in my lifetime (more than half a century), excused as understandable. Perfectly justified.
Complete nonsense

Then I learned a bit more about Hamas and their tactics. They must be laughing up their sleeve to see what happens here on MN, with a constant barrage of updates on numbers killed and the finger pointed entirely at Israel, as though this whole thing was not set up by Hamas (perhaps with Putin behind them) to destabilise the Middle East and perhaps divert US funding/supplies from the Ukraine war
I dunno* *if it would matter to them to be honest. They’re not trying to win hearts and minds. What makes you think the Russians are behind this? I mean I wouldn’t put it past them but is there any evidence for this?