Category: 2. World

Recent attacks have been particularly devastating in the Az Zaytoun neighbourhood, where airstrikes, artillery shelling and gunfire are continuous and intense, causing a high number of civilian casualties and the large-scale destruction of residential buildings and public facilities, the UN human rights office, OHCHR, in the Occupied Palestinian Territory said in a statement.

Since 8 August, the office has recorded 54 attacks on residential buildings and entire blocks in Gaza City, killing 87 Palestinians, including at least 25 children and entire families.

It also recorded attacks on shelters for internally displaced people, including tents and schools, killing at least 14.

These casualty figures “indicate that the systematic destruction of Gaza City is already underway,” the statement said.

However, OHCHR stressed that these devastating figures are only a portion of the actual toll due to underreporting in such dire circumstances.

Impact of attacks

As a result of recent attacks, hundreds of families have been forced to flee, with nowhere safe to go amid dire humanitarian conditions across the Gaza Strip.

However, those who remain trapped are completely cut off from food, water and medical supplies.

OHCHR emphasised that “Israel’s reported decision to take full control of Gaza City and to forcibly displace its population will lead to mass killings of civilians and destruction of infrastructure vital to the survival of the population.”

The office is seeing the Israeli military repeat means of warfare that caused mass killings, serious injuries, forced displacement, arbitrary detention, starvation and extensive destruction in previous operations in North Gaza and Rafah.

To reportedly prepare for the offensive, the Israeli military has repeatedly called on Palestinians to move to Al Mawasi, west of Khan Younis.

However, Israel has repeatedly struck tents of the displaced in Al Mawasi, where people are struggling to survive with barely any access to food, water and other necessities.

Violations of international law

Under international law, Israel must not destroy civilian property unless it is rendered necessary by military operations. Yet, the widespread destruction of residential buildings in Gaza City is not seen as an imperative military necessity.

Additionally, by forcing the entire population of Gaza City and those remaining in North Gaza into displacement – with no shelter, food or medical provisions and no indication for allowing them to return to their homes in the future – OHCHR is concerned that these are grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Thus, the office is urging States party to the Geneva Conventions to follow their obligation “to exert maximum pressure on Israel to immediately halt this offensive, which risks triggering an unprecedented, life-threatening humanitarian crisis and permanently extinguishing the Palestinian presence in Gaza’s largest urban area.”

Worst-case famine

Meanwhile, the World Food Programme (WFP) welcomed Japan’s life-saving contribution of 500 million yen ($3.3 million) to provide emergency food and nutrition assistance to Palestinians as they face severe food insecurity.

Adding to the assistance, on 4 August, limited commercial truck entries resumed, containing mainly dry food items and a small amount of fresh produce, according to the UN aid coordination office, OCHA.

However, the risk of spoilage and infestation of food supplies has drastically increased due to being stranded for months, heat and impending expiration dates.

Furthermore, cooking gas has not entered Gaza for over five months, and firewood has become increasingly unaffordable, forcing many to use waste and scrap wood as alternative cooking sources, exacerbating health and environmental risks.

Due to such limited aid, WFP underscored that the latest Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report finds that the worst-case scenario of famine is currently occurring in the Gaza Strip.

“I meet families who have lost everything and don’t know where their next meal will come from.” said Antoine Renard, WFP Representative and Country Director in Palestine.

But thanks to this support from Japan, he continued, “WFP can continue procuring life-saving food assistance, but we urgently need a ceasefire and sustained access to reach those most at risk and prevent a full-scale famine.” 

Reuters

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The Danish government has announced it will abolish a 25% sales tax on books, in an effort to combat a “reading crisis”.

The tax is is one of the highest in the world. Culture Minister Jacob Engel-Schmidt says he hopes scrapping it will lead to more books flying off the shelves.

The measure is expected to cost about 330 million kroner ($50m, £38m) a year.

Data from the OECD, an intergovernmental think tank, shows that a quarter of Danish 15-year-olds cannot understand a simple text.

“The reading crisis has unfortunately been spreading in recent years,” said Engel-Schmidt. He added that he was “incredibly proud” of the move to scrap the tax.

He said “massive money should be spent on investing in the consumption and culture” of the Danish people.

In Finland, Sweden and Norway – which also have a standard Value Added Tax (VAT) of 25% like Denmark – the VAT on books is 14%, 6% and 0% respectively. In the UK, books are also VAT-free.

Surveys have shown declining levels of reading and comprehension among Danish teenagers, said Mads Rosendahl Thomsen, vice-chair of the government’s working group on literature.

Younger children can easily improve their reading skills “but at 15 the ability to understand a text is pretty important”, he told the BBC.

The numbers were “pretty shocking,” he said, referring to the OECD research.

Young people struggle with reading because they have “so many options” and can be “easily distracted”.

He said removing VAT on books was not a complete solution, but it would make books “more accessible”.

The government’s working group on literature also looked into ways to export Danish literature, the digitalisation of the book market and the impact on authors’ pay.

Israel is “killing all prospects” for peace in the Middle East, Jordan’s foreign minister has said amid escalating international outrage over Israel’s plans for a new large-scale offensive in Gaza City and its intention to massively expand Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Ayman Safadi made his remarks during a visit to Moscow on the same day that the Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, approved a plan to conquer Gaza City, an urban area that is home to hundreds of thousands of people in the north of the Palestinian territory.

Echoing the sentiment, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said that the proposed new Gaza offensive would lead to “true disaster” and drag the region into “permanent war”.

Katz’s announcement, which will lead to the mobilisation of an extra 60,000 Israeli troops, was also condemned by Germany, historically one of Israel’s closest allies in Europe, which said it “rejects the escalation” of Israel’s campaign in Gaza.

Germany said it found it “increasingly difficult to understand how these actions will lead to the freeing of all the hostages, or to a ceasefire”, the government spokesperson Steffen Meyer told reporters.

Katz announced that he had approved the plan to conquer Gaza City despite the decision earlier this week by Hamas and other Palestinian factions in Gaza to accept a ceasefire proposal which in most of its most significant details aligns with a proposal already previously agreed by Israel. Israel has yet to formally respond.

Separately on Wednesday, Israel announced that plans to build a large new illegal settlement block had been approved. The block would split the West Bank into two with the deliberate intention – according to far-right finance minster, Bezalel Smotrich – of killing off any prospect of the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Amid credible evidence that Israel’s policies in Gaza have led to conditions of mass starvation, and accusations of genocide, Israel has doubled down on its defiance of outraged international opinion that it is threatening to turn Israel into a pariah state, even as a growing number of countries have said they plan to recognise Palestinian statehood.

The new call-up of 60,000 reservists and extension of the service for an additional 20,000 Israeli troops took place days after hundreds of thousands in the country rallied for a ceasefire.

A growing campaign of exhausted reservists has accused the government of perpetuating the war for political reasons and failing to bring home remaining hostages.

The families of the hostages and former army and intelligence chiefs have also expressed opposition to the expanded operation in Gaza City. Most of the families of the hostages want an immediate ceasefire and worry an expanded assault could imperil efforts to bring home the 50 hostages still in Gaza. Israel believes that 20 are still alive.

A military official, speaking on the condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, said that troops would operate in parts of Gaza City where they have not yet been deployed and where Israel believes Hamas is still active.

Gaza City is both Hamas’s military and governing stronghold and one of the last places of refuge in northern Gaza, where hundreds of thousands are sheltering. Israeli troops will be targeting Hamas’s vast underground tunnel network there, the official added.

It remains unclear when the operation will begin, but it could be a matter of days and such a mobilisation of reservists is the largest in months.

Israel’s top planning committee approved plans for the so-called E1 settlement in an area of land east of Jerusalem that critics have said would undermine hopes for a contiguous Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Last week, Smotrich backed plans to build 3,400 homes on a contentious parcel of land that lies between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim.

António Guterres, the UN secretary general, warned that constructing Israeli homes there would “put an end to” hopes for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Guy Yifrach, the mayor of Maale Adumim, said on Wednesday: “I am pleased to announce that just a short while ago, the civil administration approved the planning for the construction of the E1 neighbourhood.”

All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have Israeli planning permission.

Aviv Tatarsky, a researcher at the Israeli anti-settlement organisation Ir Amim, said: “Today’s approval demonstrates how determined Israel is in pursuing what Minister Smotrich has described as a strategic programme to bury the possibility of a Palestinian state and to effectively annexe the West Bank.

“This is a conscious Israeli choice to implement an apartheid regime,” he added, calling on the international community to take urgent and effective measures against the move.