That's Isaiah's THE WORLD TODAY JUST NUTS "A Message From Governor Greg Asshole" which went up tonight.
An e-mail tonight from someone who is not a community member but wanted to share, "I don't think you get your due."
Okay, well thanks.
He then went on to attack C.I. because she did not note my "Moron Jill Stein" from last night in today's "Iraq snapshot."
First off, she doesn't have to note me. Second, she repeatedly does -- and my post is noted at the bottom of the snapshot.
Second of all, she had planned to but then a major assault took place. Here's some of C.I. covering that in the snapshot:
Gaza's media office also strongly rejected Israel claims.
“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the office, told Reuters.
That's seven sources she's pulling from before she gets to videos and then Tweets. That's a lot of work especially when it's a breaking story.
Here's Amy Goodman covering it in headines on today's Democracy Now!
In Gaza, an Israeli attack on an UNRWA school and shelter has killed at least 40 Palestinians, including 14 children, in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Dozens of people were injured in the attack. The school was being used to house displaced Palestinians. One survivor said he had sought refuge at the school after being displaced first from Gaza City, then Khan Younis and then Rafah. Survivors described the school as being shelled with a belt of fire.
Abu Zuhri Abu Daher: “We were sleeping when we suddenly saw a rocket falling on us. On the second floor, there were martyrs, and on the first floor, there were injured. That’s all we saw. Only God can help us. … I was asleep when I found myself covered in rubble. The rocket hit. It came through the second floor. We came out to help people and the martyrs.”
An Al Jazeera reporter at the scene said a large number of women, children and the elderly were among the victims. Israel claimed members of Hamas were at the U.N. school, but provided no evidence to back this up.
It's an important story. She'll work the topic I covered into a snapshot when she can.
This is C.I.'s "Iraq snapshot:"
Gaza's media office also strongly rejected Israel claims.
“The occupation uses lying to the public opinion through false fabricated stories to justify the brutal crime it conducted against dozens of displaced people,” Ismail al-Thawabta, the director of the office, told Reuters.
Some Tweets about the slaughter.
US-made munitions were used in a deadly Israeli airstrike on a United Nations-run school in central Gaza on Thursday where Palestinians were sheltering, a CNN analysis of video from the scene and review by an explosive weapons expert has found.
At least 45 people died in strike on the school in the Nuseirat refugee camp, a spokesperson for Gaza's Ministry of Health told CNN.
CNN identified fragments of at least two US-made GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB) in video filmed at the scene by a journalist working for CNN.
[. . .]
US munitions again used: This incident is the second time in two weeks that CNN has been able to verify the use of US-manufactured munitions in deadly Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinians.
At least 45 people were killed and more than 200 others injured on May 26 after a fire broke out following an IDF strike on a displacement camp in Rafah, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza Health Ministry and Palestinian medics.
AMY GOODMAN: Israeli forces began an escalated offensive on areas of central Gaza today, with airstrikes and ground forces moving into parts of Deir al-Balah, including the Bureij refugee camp. Al Jazeera reports at least 75 people have been killed in the past 24 hours in central Gaza, and the partially functioning hospitals in the area are struggling to cope with the surge in casualties.
Meanwhile, Israeli troops are continuing their offensive on Rafah in the south, where more than 1 million people have fled over the past few weeks, many of them heading back toward central Gaza. Airstrikes are also continuing in the north, as well. Over the past eight months, Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced over and over again, as they flee from one area to the next in a desperate search for safety.
Today we look at one young Palestinian story. He’s 19-year-old Helmi Hirez. He’s from Gaza City in northern Gaza. As Israel escalated its attacks on Gaza City, he fled south to Rafah with his parents and identical twin brother. A few days after they left, an Israeli airstrike hit their family home in Gaza City, killing 14 members of their family. Helmi spent three months sheltering in Rafah, until an airstrike slammed into the building next to where he was staying, burying him, his parents and his twin brother under the rubble. His mother was killed in that attack. Helmi then relocated yet again, this time to al-Mawasi, a coastal plot of land east of Khan Younis.
Helmi joins us now to tell his story. He’s joining us from Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, and there is a very long delay between when we ask the question and he’ll be able to answer it.
But, Helmi, welcome to Democracy Now! If you can start off by telling us your story? Talk about your journey from Gaza City and what has happened to your family all along the way.
HELMI HIREZ: OK. OK. Thank you, Amy, for having me.
Well, as you can see, I’m now in Deir al-Balah, in al-Shuhada al-Aqsa Hospital. And it’s super crowded here, because several bombings have happened in the last two hours. The hospital is super crowded, and many injured people are here.
To start, I’m Helmi Hirez, 19 years old, from Gaza City, al-Rimal neighborhood, near Al-Shifa Hospital. Me and my family got out of Gaza on November 11th. After Al-Shifa Hospital and the entire Rimal neighborhood got invaded, we went into Rafah city, walking five kilometers on foot, while the Israeli army was pointing guns at us. And sometimes in this long road — I mean Salah al-Din Street road — sometimes we needed to jump over dead bodies just to don’t walk on them, dead bodies that were left intentionally to create this horrifying mental effect. After one week of our department from Gaza, our house in al-Rimal neighborhood got bombed with two rockets, exactly on November 18th, and 14 beloved family members were killed there. In that day, November 18th, Israel killed over than 1,000 Palestinians.
After that, we spent three months in Rafah city. And on February 12th, the building next to us got bombed. And we were in the center of Rafah city in two-floors building, and the building next to us was four-floors building. And the spaces between the houses in the center of Rafah city is sometimes less than one meter. So, when that building was bombed with four rockets, we got buried with the rubble. And I was able to get myself out of the rubble, and my twin brother and my father, and start digging over my mother. We dug over than one meter of rubble, and we got our mother breathing. And some guys took her to the hospital as fast as possible. And we kept digging over our sister. We got our sister awake, but not aware. She was vomiting blood. We went to a near house, and we hid there. And unfortunately, my mother suffered from internal bleeding, and she didn’t make it.
After that, we went to al-Mawasi area, living in a tent. After two months in al-Mawasi area, a near place in less than 200 meters — a near place in less than 200 meters where our camp was got bombed with two rockets also, and which destroyed our entire camp, killing over than four people, and it burned our tent. And we needed to buy a new one and to move to another area in al-Mawasi.
And this is just my continuous journey of displacement from one place to another, my continuous journey of loss from one place to another. We now live in al-Mawasi area, in less than two kilometers far from where the Israeli army exists. We are super worried. And all we are in al-Mawasi area are super worried that the Israeli army may come again to Khan Younis city or may invade al-Mawasi area. There is a lot of rumors about that. And whenever you walk in al-Mawasi, people are always looking towards the south, where the fire and the flames are coming out of Rafah city. And we can hear the sounds of the shelling and the bombing in Rafah city all day long and all night long.
We really don’t know where we can go. It’s very hard to know where the safe place is. I mean, we’re now in a green area, and you can hear the bombing every 10 or 15 minutes. In al-Mawasi, we’re in a green area also, and you can hear the bombing all day long, and you can be targeted in any minute. We now live in a tent, which is super hard for me and my family. Because al-Mawasi and Rafah city has kind of a desert climate, because we are near to Sinai Desert, it is super hot. And living in a tent is exactly like living in an oven. Sometimes, in some hours in the day, like 1 p.m., you need to get out of the tent so you can be able to breathe. You get out of the tent, sitting in the sun, just so you can be able to breathe. Cooking on fire and all of these hard life conditions isn’t suitable, isn’t working for us. Me and my twin brother are programmers, and we would never experience this kind of hard lifestyle.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Helmi —
HELMI HIREZ: Well, I also want to talk about that I started a campaign to help my family. Can you hear me?
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Helmi, I wanted to ask you — you were a — first of all, condolences again for the loss of so many members of your family. Before the war, you and your twin brother were students. Could you talk to us about what you were studying and what your hopes were for your own future before the war?
HELMI HIREZ: Yes. Yes. I’m a computer engineering student, and my brother is an AI engineering student. I learned programming since the age of 10 years old. And I have worked for so many projects and so many companies. I got pro in the field, and I learned so many skills. And my brother is a brilliant AI engineer. He developed so many great inventions. In coronavirus crisis, he developed a system so all the malls and all the public places can identify by camera if this person is wearing a mask or not, allow him to enter the building or not, and to limit the disease transportation. And it actually helped a lot in Gaza City. Most public places in Gaza City took his invention and used it.
I was talking also about that I started a campaign to help my family, because my father was working in Israel before the war. He has permission to work in Tel Aviv. And when this war started, he lost his job. And after three months, we lost our mother, who was a digital marketing agent, so we lost our sole source of income. And we suffered a lot to provide the needed things for our family. So I started a GoFundMe campaign in hopes to help us, like, hold the living experiences of the war, and, after that, at least to rent an apartment and to help me and my brother to our college tuitions to finish our education, after we lost all of our sources of income.
AMY GOODMAN: You’re talking about your FundMe page, donate to help a twin. We’re showing a photograph right now — we’ve been showing it — of you and your identical twin brother Mohammed. You’re both, what, AI-tech twins, because you’re known for working on AI. But I also wanted to comment on the noise behind you. Our radio audience cannot see this, but we have seen dead bodies behind you wrapped in shrouds, because the place you are right now, right nearby, these attacks have taken place, just in the last 24 hours, so there’s a lot of chaos behind you. But we think it’s worth working hard to hear what you have to say, given your incredible journey. And again, our condolences on the loss of so many of your family members, including your mother. I’m wondering, Helmi, if you can tell us more about your mother, the picture of you and your brother in your graduation gowns with your mom, with that lovely smile, and what her aspirations were for you, and where you plan to go to now, given that the place you have moved to for, I don’t know how many times, is now the site of Israeli bombing.
HELMI HIREZ: Yes. About the picture, this picture was taken last year in my high school graduation in my last year in high school. The person on the left is me, Helmi. My name in Arabic means “my dream.” My mother named me. The person in the middle is my mother, Ibtisam, which means “smile.” And she always smiled. And the person on the left is my identical twin brother Mohammed.
We don’t really know where we can go right now, because there is no safe place in Gaza. I mean, we went to Rafah city. Since the day one of the war, they told us, they throw from the plane, they throw papers from the plane saying, “Go to Rafah city. Go to this specific area.” And they drew it on the map. We went there since the beginning of the war. And eventually, they got orders to get out of this area. So, we didn’t know where to go. Especially in this time of the war, people don’t know where to go. They are afraid from going to Deir al-Balah, and because the Israeli army didn’t invade Deir al-Balah before, so they may invade it now. They don’t know where to go. They can’t go to al-Mawasi. I mean, it’s very close to Rafah city, where the Israeli army exists. And they may invade it from this area. Now we’re just squeezed in the middle.
And, I mean, you can see the place I’m in right now. Every single second, you can see an ambulance coming here. And I’m still under shock, because just two minutes before this interview starts, I saw a shattered dead body. And it was a super horrifying scene. I still can’t, like, process that. After all I went through, I still can’t process seeing this kind of destructive.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Helmi, what would you — if you could reach out and tell the rest of the world, the people outside of Gaza, what you’re hoping the world can do to assist you and the other Palestinians in Gaza right now?
HELMI HIREZ: Well, they can raise their voices to ask for the stop of the genocide that is happening in Gaza. And I can’t find any other word that describes what is happening other than “genocide.” They can donate to help the people of Gaza and donate to help build in Gaza all over again, where the destruction in Gaza has removed the entire city, just make it sands over sands. Two days ago, I was in Khan Younis city. And, well, as far as your eye can see, it is only sands. The city does not exist anymore.
AMY GOODMAN: Helmi Hirez, we want to thank you so much for —
HELMI HIREZ: For me personally, you can help me by donating to my GoFundMe and my campaign to help my family.
AMY GOODMAN: Helmi, thank you so much for joining us in this extremely difficult, difficult time. We can’t say enough how much we send our condolences to your entire family. Helmi Hirez is a 19-year-old Palestinian, originally from Gaza City, 14 members of his family killed in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, just after he, his mom and his dad, his twin brother and sister left and went to Rafah, where they were then struck in an airstrike, struck into the rubble, his mother killed. We will continue to follow Helmi’s story and bring you more later.
Next up, the board of directors at the Columbia Law Review shuts down the law review’s website after student editors published an article by a Palestinian legal scholar on establishing Nakba as a formal legal concept. Stay with us.
Gaza remains under assault. Day 244 of the assault in the wave that began in October. Binoy Kampmark (DISSIDENT VOICE) points out, "Bloodletting as form; murder as fashion. The ongoing campaign in Gaza by Israel’s Defence Forces continues without stalling and restriction. But the burgeoning number of corpses is starting to become a challenge for the propaganda outlets: How to justify it? Fortunately for Israel, the United States, its unqualified defender, is happy to provide cover for murder covered in the sheath of self-defence." CNN has explained, "The Gaza Strip is 'the most dangerous place' in the world to be a child, according to the executive director of the United Nations Children's Fund." ABC NEWS quotes UNICEF's December 9th statement, ""The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. Scores of children are reportedly being killed and injured on a daily basis. Entire neighborhoods, where children used to play and go to school have been turned into stacks of rubble, with no life in them." NBC NEWS notes, "Strong majorities of all voters in the U.S. disapprove of President Joe Biden’s handling of foreign policy and the Israel-Hamas war, according to the latest national NBC News poll. The erosion is most pronounced among Democrats, a majority of whom believe Israel has gone too far in its military action in Gaza." The slaughter continues. It has displaced over 1 million people per the US Congressional Research Service. Jessica Corbett (COMMON DREAMS) points out, "Academics and legal experts around the world, including Holocaust scholars, have condemned the six-week Israeli assault of Gaza as genocide." The death toll of Palestinians in Gaza is grows higher and higher. United Nations Women noted, "More than 1.9 million people -- 85 per cent of the total population of Gaza -- have been displaced, including what UN Women estimates to be nearly 1 million women and girls. The entire population of Gaza -- roughly 2.2 million people -- are in crisis levels of acute food insecurity or worse." THE NATIONAL notes, "Gaza death toll reaches 36,654, with 83,309 injured." Months ago, AP noted, "About 4,000 people are reported missing." February 7th, Jeremy Scahill explained on DEMOCRACY NOW! that "there’s an estimated 7,000 or 8,000 Palestinians missing, many of them in graves that are the rubble of their former home." February 5th, the United Nations' Phillipe Lazzarini Tweeted:
The UN children's agency said on Thursday that nine out of 10 children in Gaza could not get nutrients from enough food groups to ensure their healthy growth and development.
"In the Gaza Strip, months of hostilities and restrictions on humanitarian aid have collapsed the food and health systems, resulting in catastrophic consequences for children and their families," Unicef said.
It said that five sets of data collected between December 2023 and April 2024 had found that nine out of 10 children in the Gaza Strip, which has been pounded by an Israeli offensive since last October, are suffering from severe food poverty.
This means they are surviving on at most two food groups a day.
"This is evidence of the horrific impact the conflict and restrictions are having on families' ability to meet children's food needs – and the speed at which it places children at risk of life-threatening malnutrition," Unicef said.