Media Reports – October 16. 2023
Six-year-old American-Palestinian boy fatally stabbed 26 times by landlord
A six-year-old American-Palestinian Muslim boy was fatally stabbed and his mother seriously injured when their landlord entered their home with a 12-inch military knife on Saturday in Chicago.
Suburban Chicago has a large Palestinian-American community, including an area with many Arab restaurants and shops that some refer to as Little Palestine.
According to the police, the family was targeted because of their Islamic beliefs and in reaction to the violence in Palestine and Israel. "Detectives were able to determine that both victims in this brutal attack were targeted by the suspect due to them being Muslim and the ongoing Middle Eastern conflict involving Hamas and the Israelis," the Will County Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted to social media.
On Sunday, authorities arrested 71-year-old Joseph Czuba accusing him of a hate crime. He was charged with first-degree murder, attempted murder in the first degree, two counts of hate crime, and aggravated battery with a deadly weapon.
Czuba, who rented the mother and son the ground floor of his building for two years, was found on Saturday "sitting upright outside on the ground near the driveway of the residence" with a cut on his forehead, police said.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, said in a statement that “to take a 6-year-old child’s life in the name of bigotry is nothing short of evil”. “Wadea should be heading to school in the morning,” Mr Pritzker said. “Instead, his parents will wake up without their son.”
President Joe Biden said in a statement Sunday night that he was “shocked and sickened” by the attack. “The child’s Palestinian Muslim family came to America seeking what we all seek – a refuge to live, learn and pray in peace,” he said. “This horrific act of hate has no place in America, and stands against our fundamental values: freedom from fear for how we pray, what we believe and who we are.”
Illinois congressman Abdelnasser Rashid, said: “We need to understand that the killing of this six-year-old boy was directly connected to what’s happening in Israel and Palestine. If we want to see these attacks stop, and see any semblance of justice we have to call out not just this heinous crime, but call for a ceasefire and deescalation and forge a path forward for peace in Israel and Palestine based on humanity and based on human rights.”
The Council on American–Islamic Relations
The Council on American–Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading civil rights advocacy group, said the landlord entered the home and proceeded to choke and stab 32-year-old Hanaan Shahin. She went into the bathroom and called 911. When she came back out, she found her six-year-old son Wadea Al-Fayoume with a knife stuck in his tiny body, stabbed 26 times with a 12-inch serrated military knife with a seven-inch blade. In texts to her husband, she wrote that the landlord reportedly yelled "You Muslims must die!"
She remains in hospital in serious condition. Her son, who had recently turned six and loved "everyone and everything", has died.
The CAIR called the crime “our worst nightmare” and part of a disturbing spike in hate calls and emails since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. The group cited text messages exchanged among family members that showed the attacker had made disparaging remarks about Muslims.
“Palestinians basically, again, with their hearts broken over what’s happening to their people,” said Ahmed Rehab, the group’s executive director, “have to also worry about the immediate safety of life and limb living here in this most free of democracies in the world.”
"I ask all people of conscience, to what extent have we created an atmosphere in which someone who may not have committed such an act this senseless, this meaningless... to what extent was this person radicalised and brainwashed by this lopsided, one-sided atmosphere that fans the flames of hatred of Muslims and Palestinians?" he said.
"What level of blind hatred can cause such an act?"
Rehab warned about not recreating the same atmosphere that followed the 11 September attacks in 2001, but said that he believed that is exactly where the country is headed. "Wadea had no clue about these larger issues happening in the world, but he was made to pay for it," Rehab said.
According to the Middle East Eye, acts of violence have been occurring all throughout the US in the past week. On 11 October, a group of men waving Israeli flags physically assaulted an 18-year-old Palestinian man in Brooklyn. They shouted anti-Palestinian statements before getting out of their car and punching him.
The same night, in another part of Brooklyn, two men approached two other men holding Palestinian flags, grabbed one of the flags, hit one man over the head with it and then ran away, police say. No arrests have been made.
Daily Sabah – October 15, 2023
Gaza death toll nears 2,400, thousands at risk in packed hospitals
The Palestinian death toll from brutal Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip neared 2,400 Sunday, while medics sounded alarms that thousands more could die at its packed hospitals.
The Gaza Health Ministry revised the number of Palestinians killed in Israeli air attacks to 2,329, while the number of wounded has also risen to 9,042.
The death toll on Sunday surpassed that of the 2014 Israel-Palestinian conflict, when 2,251 Palestinians, including 1,462 civilians, were killed, according to U.N. figures.
That war lasted six weeks, and 74 people were killed on the Israeli side, including six civilians.
In the meanwhile, the outbreak of violence has also taken its toll on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where a total of 56 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire since last week, the Gaza-based Health Ministry said Sunday.
The latest casualty was a Palestinian man shot by Israeli soldiers in the northern West Bank.
The recent violence broke out on Oct. 7 when Israeli forces launched an indiscriminate air assault on the Gaza Strip, in response to a surprise incursion of neighboring Israeli territories by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Thousands at risk
Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies under Israel's "complete siege."
Israeli forces, supported by a growing deployment of U.S. warships in the region, positioned themselves along Gaza’s border and drilled for what Israel said would be a broad campaign to dismantle the resistance group.
Hospitals are expected to run out of generator fuel within two days, according to the U.N., which said that that would endanger the lives of thousands of patients. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down for lack of fuel after Israel completely sealed off the 40-kilometer-long (25-mile-long) territory following the Hamas attack.
In Nasser Hospital, in the southern town of Khan Younis, intensive care rooms are packed with wounded patients, most of them children under the age of 3. Hundreds of people with severe blast injuries have come to the hospital, where fuel is expected to run out by Monday, said Dr. Mohammed Qandeel, a consultant at the critical care complex.
There are 35 patients in the ICU who require ventilators and another 60 on dialysis. If fuel runs out, "it means the whole health system will be shut down,” he said, as children moaned in pain in the background. "All these patients are in danger of death if the electricity is cut off."
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of pediatrics at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, said it did not evacuate despite Israeli orders. There are seven newborns in the ICU hooked up to ventilators, he said. "We cannot evacuate, that would mean death for them and other patients under our care.”
Patients keep arriving with severed limbs, severe burns and other life-threatening injuries. "It’s frightening," he said.
The Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the territory's largest, said it would bury 100 bodies in a mass grave as an emergency measure after its morgue overflowed, with relatives unable to bury their loved ones. Tens of thousands of people seeking safety have gathered in the hospital compound.
Gaza was already in a humanitarian crisis due to a growing shortage of water and medical supplies caused by the Israeli siege. With some bakeries closing, residents said they were unable to buy bread. Israel has also cut off water, forcing many to rely on brackish wells.
Israel has ordered more than 1 million Palestinians – almost half the territory’s population – to move south. The military says it is trying to clear away civilians ahead of a major campaign against Hamas in the north.
The U.N. and aid groups say the mass exodus within Gaza, along with Israel’s complete siege, will cause untold human suffering. The World Health Organization said the evacuation "could be tantamount to a death sentence" for the more than 2,000 patients in northern hospitals.
The military said Sunday that it would not target a single route south between 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., again urging Palestinians to leave the north en masse. The military offered two corridors and a longer window the day before. It says hundreds of thousands have already fled south.
The U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees says an estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in a single week.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/gaza-death-toll-nears-2400-thousands-at-risk-in-packed-hospitals
The Daily Sabah – October 16, 2023
De-Palestinization of the Gaza Strip!
BY BURHANETTIN DURAN
Last Friday, Israel asked the United Nations to relocate 1.1 million Palestinians to the south of Gaza within 24 hours. Although the U.N. warned that such an evacuation was impossible and likely to entail devastating humanitarian issues, the Israeli army continues to prepare for a ground operation after a weeklong heavy bombardment. Driving the Palestinians to the south is widely seen as Israel’s multistep plan to completely eliminate Hamas’ entire capacity – including its tunnels. Experts argue that Tel Aviv made that decision to make up an excuse to kill civilians and reach its actual goal of making Gaza unhabitable. There is talk of the possibility of Israel forcing all Palestinians to move from Gaza, which it has blockaded for 16 years, to Egypt. It goes without saying that such a development would not only put Egypt in an extremely difficult position but also trigger humanitarian crises and radicalization in the region. Let us recall that the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, along with its decision to turn a blind eye to the humanitarian tragedy in Syria, helped various radical organizations to emerge or grow stronger.
Having dealt with occupation and exile for 75 years, the vast majority of Palestinians are unlikely to end their resistance and leave Gaza. Indeed, a story that Bloomberg published on Friday summarized the plight of the Palestinians in Gaza: The vast majority of Gaza’s residents consists of refugees from towns and villages in Israel and the West Bank. They are afraid that they won’t be able to return to the last remaining piece of their homeland.
Tragedy to be ashamed of
Asking the Palestinians in Gaza to choose between dying in an aerial bombardment and being forced into exile represents a tragedy of which the international community must be ashamed. Countries referring to Israel’s right to self-defense need to make a more active diplomatic effort to protect the Palestinians’ human rights – starting with the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom and Russia. The Biden administration, which deployed two aircraft carriers to the region, should heed the U.N.’s warning and stop civilian casualties and the total destruction of Gaza. Supporting Israel’s national security must not automatically mean escalating violence or disregarding exile and massacre.
That is why President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s criticism of the U.S. has highlighted those obligations. Some countries might benefit from this latest conflict in the Middle East with the potential to start a new period of violence and uncertainty. Russia and Iran immediately come to mind. Commentators argue that Moscow welcomes the opportunity to act more freely in Ukraine and Tehran enjoys having halted normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel. Does the U.S. benefit from conflict? Let’s just say that a new wave of conflict, which threatens to shift Washington’s focus from the Pacific to the Middle East, won’t serve U.S. interests.
Deterrence is key
The Biden administration’s reluctance to blame Iran for the Oct. 7 attacks suggests that the U.S. does not want violence to spread. It is important to note, however, that deterrence is key to preventing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict’s spread to Lebanon, Syria, Iran and beyond. In this sense, Tel Aviv needs to hear a different version of the warnings issued to Hezbollah and Tehran. That is no easy task in a region where violence erupts frequently and there are clashing interests all around. Hence the need to support Türkiye, which was the first country to send humanitarian aid to Gaza by plane, in its efforts to contact both parties and any stakeholders with potential influence over the crisis. The U.S. – and, more broadly, the West – must keep in mind that they will be blamed for any civilian deaths caused by Israel.
Forcing the Palestinians out of Gaza won’t address Israel’s security issues. If anything, it will make them worse.
Burhanettin Duran is General Coordinator of SETA Foundation and a professor at Social Sciences University of Ankara. He is also a member of Turkish Presidency Security and Foreign Policies Council.
https://www.dailysabah.com/opinion/columns/de-palestinization-of-the-gaza
Which countries have criticised Israeli attacks on Gaza?
From South Africa to Norway, the Middle East to Southeast Asia, calls for an end to the siege of Gaza are growing.
Following Hamas’s unprecedented surprise attack on Israel more than a week ago, much of the international community rushed to voice its concern about the escalation in tensions.
However, as Israel continues to bomb Gaza and attack Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, several governments have started to turn critical of Israel’s actions — some more directly than others.
Here is a list of countries that have called on Israel to stop its aggression and move towards a ceasefire.
Algeria: The Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed deep concern over Israel’s attacks on Gaza, accusing it of violating international humanitarian law.
Algeria has also called for immediate international intervention to protect the Palestinian people, whose rights it has described as central to the resolution of the conflict.
African Union: The Chairperson of the African Union Moussa Faki Mahamat has highlighted the denial of the fundamental rights of the Palestinian people as the main cause of the current tensions. The AU appealed to both parties to end military hostilities and return to the negotiating table.
Belize: Belize has decried the hostilities between Hamas and Israel and called for immediate de-escalation while supporting a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and demanding the right of return for Palestinians displaced from their ancestral homeland.
Brazil: Brazil’s Foreign Minister Mauro Luiz Iecker Vieira said on Friday that his country has “received with dismay the news that Israeli forces called for all civilians — more than one million — living in northern Gaza to leave within 24 hours”.
Veira, who was speaking in New York after a United Nations Security Council meeting, referred to the UN’s assessment that such a large-scale move of people could lead to “unprecedented levels of misery” for civilians while calling for an end to violence on both sides.
Colombia: Colombian President Gustavo Petro emphasised the need for Israel and Palestine to come to the negotiation table and work towards a two-state solution. He drew historical comparisons between the situation in Gaza and past atrocities.
In a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, he said: “Gaza today appears as destroyed or more so than the Warsaw ghetto after it was destroyed by Nazi barbarity in response to the Jewish and socialist insurrection in that concentration camp.”
Cuba: Cuba has condemned the violence in Israel and Palestine, attributing it to the long-standing violation of Palestinian rights.
Indonesia: Indonesia has urged an immediate end to violence to prevent further casualties, also arguing that the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel was the root cause of the conflict as the occupation.
Iraq: Iraq has likewise called the attacks on Gaza a continuation of the oppression of Palestinians under Israel’s occupation.
Iran: Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani has described Palestinian resistance as a natural reaction to Israel’s provocations.
Ireland: Ireland’s Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has condemned Israel’s actions of cutting off power, fuel supplies and water, calling it a violation of international humanitarian law and collective punishment.
Kuwait: Kuwait’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed concern over the escalation in Gaza, calling on the international community to stop the violence, protect the Palestinian people, and end Israel’s provocations. It has warned that the continuation of violence without deterrence would undermine peace efforts and the prospects of a two-state solution.
Morocco: Morocco, which is moving towards full diplomatic ties with Israel under the Abraham Accords, has voiced deep concern over the situation in Gaza and called for an immediate cessation of violence and a return to calm. The country emphasised the importance of dialogue and negotiations as the way to reach a two-state solution.
In an Arab League session, Morocco’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Nasser Bourita, emphasised Morocco’s “full and unwavering support” for Palestine.
Malaysia: Malaysia has called for an end to the violence in the Gaza Strip, highlighting the prolonged occupation and suffering of the Palestinian people, and the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque as the root cause of the conflict.
Maldives: The Maldivian government has expressed concern about the escalating violence in the Gaza Strip and reiterated its solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Its government has said that lasting peace in the Middle East can only be achieved through a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine.
Norway: Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt has criticised the total blockade of Gaza as unacceptable and emphasised that Israel’s right to self-defence must adhere to international law.
“The establishment of a full blockade, including on access to electricity, water, food, and other goods that are indispensable for the survival of the civilian population in Gaza, is unacceptable,” Huitfeldt said in a statement.
“The scale of destruction in Gaza is enormous. A large number of civilians have been killed. Given a full blockade by Israel, closed border crossings, and continued Israeli attacks, I fear that the civilian population in Gaza will face even greater hardship in the days to come,” she added.
Oman: Oman’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed concern over the ongoing escalation between Palestinians and Israelis, emphasising the need for both parties to exercise restraint, and calling for international intervention to stop the escalation.
Stressing the importance of adhering to international law, Oman highlighted the strategic necessity of finding a just, comprehensive, and lasting solution to the Palestinian issue based on the two-state solution.
Qatar: Qatar has called for all parties to de-escalate and exercise restraint amid the escalating situation in Gaza, holding Israel responsible for the escalation due to its violations of Palestinian rights, particularly incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged the international community to compel Israel to respect international law and the historical rights of the Palestinian people and prevent further violence against Palestinian civilians. Qatar has reiterated its firm position in support of the Palestinian cause, including the establishment of an independent state based on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Russia: Russia stressed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict cannot be resolved by force but through political and diplomatic means. Russia called for an immediate ceasefire, renouncing violence, and a negotiation process with international community assistance to establish lasting peace in the Middle East.
President Vladimir Putin has emphasised the “creation of an independent Palestine state with East Jerusalem as its capital” to resolve the issue.
Moscow has also refused to list Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation following similar steps taken by France and the European Union earlier this week.
Syria: Syria has praised the Palestinian resistance factions behind last the October 7 attack, while criticising Israel’s occupation and siege.
South Africa: South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Saturday underscored his country’s historic support for the “just struggle” of Palestinians in a public statement, standing with a keffiyeh around his shoulders in front of people holding aloft small Palestinian flags.
“All of us standing here pledge our solidarity with the people of Palestine,” he said.
He described Israel as an “oppressive regime” and pointed to what many human rights groups have described as Israel’s apartheid-like policies towards Palestinians.
Venezuela: The Government of Venezuela voiced its anxiety concerning the situation in the Gaza Strip and called for the end of violence throughout Palestinian territory through direct dialogue and compliance with UN Security Council resolution 2334. Venezuela urged the United Nations to fulfil its role as a guarantor of international peace and legality.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/15/which-countries-have-criticised-israeli-attacks-on-gaza
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