CARTOON: Gaza Horrors Triggers New Democratic Campaign Slogan!
"There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place," said one survivor. "The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights."
Cartoon by Mark Taylor / DeMOCKracy.ink
Progressives Call On Biden To Stop Enabling 'This Evil Genocide,' After Grotesque Israeli Atrocities
"What we're seeing now in Gaza looks like the depths of hell with reports day after day of attacks on children and families."
People attempt to extinguish a fire at the site of an Israeli airstrike on tents sheltering displaced people in Deir Al-Balah, Gaza Strip, on October 14, 2024. (Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
By Jake Johnson
Common Dreams (10/14/24)
Humanitarian groups, United Nations experts, and lawmakers on Monday expressed horror and demanded action from the international community—and the United States in particular—following the latest flurry of atrocities by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, including the deadly bombing of a hospital complex filled with tent camps housing scores of displaced Palestinian families.
A spokesperson for the Biden administration, which has sent Israel more than 50,000 tons of military equipment since the Hamas-led October 7 attack last year, said in response to the hospital strike that the White House has "made our concerns clear to the Israeli government."
U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) retorted that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "clearly doesn't care about our concerns."
"The only time he's ever changed behavior is when we've exerted our leverage," Jacobs wrote on social media. "It's time to do that now."
"There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place. The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights."
U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), deputy chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), specifically called for "cutting off military aid" to the Israeli government, which has repeatedly used American-made weapons to attack civilians in the Gaza Strip as well as the occupied West Bank and Lebanon.
"Netanyahu is committing human rights abuses over and over again—bombing hospitals, burning Palestinians alive, blocking food aid, and killing aid workers," said Omar. "This evil genocide must end and President Biden has to stop enabling it."
Another CPC member, U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), wrote that the images emerging from the hospital compound bombing "are horrific and gut-wrenching."
"Displaced families being burned alive. Where is the humanity?" she asked. "This has been going on for over a year now. The U.S. must stop sending bombs and we desperately need a cease-fire."
At least four people were killed and dozens injured Monday by the Israeli airstrike on the premises of al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza. The Israeli military claimed without evidence that it was targeting a Hamas "command and control center in the area."
"There were so many burned and charred bodies all over the place," said one survivor. "The amount of fire and explosions was enormous. We witnessed one of the most horrible and brutal nights."
‘The depths of hell’
Jeremy Stoner, Middle East regional director for Save the Children, said in a statement that "what we're seeing now in Gaza looks like the depths of hell, with reports day after day of attacks on children and families."
"Nowhere is safe," Stoner added. "What military goals could justify such mass-scale slaughter of civilians? The notion of collateral damage must never be used to excuse the predictable killing of children."
Stoner went on to condemn countries whose "only impactful action" in the face of such atrocities has been "to send the weapons being used to kill children and burn patients and families in hospitals and tents."
"Humanity has lost its way if those with the ability—and legal obligation—to stop this slaughter choose not to," said Stoner.
Joyce Msuya, acting under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the U.N., said that "there seems to be no end to the horrors that Palestinians in Gaza are forced to endure."
"At least four people were burned to death. Scores of others, including women and children, are suffering severe burns," said Msuya. "Just hours earlier, another strike on a school turned shelter in Nuseirat killed more than 20 people and injured scores of others, according to local sources. There really is no safe place in Gaza for people to go."
"These atrocities must end," Msuya continued. "Civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be protected."
VIDEO REPORT: Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital Rescuers Scrambling To Save People As They Struggle To Contain Major Fire
Aljazeera (10/14/24)
At least four people have been killed and dozens of others wounded in an Israeli air attack on a hospital complex in central Gaza where displaced Palestinians sought shelter from Israel’s assault on the besieged territory.
The attack in the early hours of Monday struck the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital complex in Deir el-Balah and sent flames sweeping through a packed tent camp.
Videos shared on social media showed rescuers scrambling to save people as they struggled to contain the fire.
Israeli military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said the air force carried out an attack on a “command and control centre” used by the Palestinian armed group Hamas, without providing evidence. …
Link to story and 10-minute video
Shaban al-Dalou, The Palestinian Young Man Burnt Alive By Israeli Air Strike On Tents In Gaza
Middle East Eye (10/15/24)
Shaban al-Dalou, a 19-year-old Palestinian, was burnt alive after an Israeli air strike engulfed tents for the displaced at the Al Aqsa Hospital in flames. Shaban was killed alongside his mother in the tent he had built for his family, after they were forcibly displaced from Gaza City last year.
His brother said Shaban had survived an earlier Israeli strike on October 6, which had targeted the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Mosque, where he had been sleeping.
"They came out as charred skeletons," Maha al-Sarsak, a displaced Palestinian sheltering at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, told MEE. "I saw death with my own eyes. It was terrifying," she said tearfully.
Maha said her mother had heard a drone in the sky at 1 a.m. "As soon as we laid down, the strike hit the hospital's courtyard," she told MEE. "About seven minutes later, there was a fire."
3-minute video
200 Arrested At Jewish Voice For Peace Protest At NY Stock Exchange — “Stop Profiting Off Genocide”
Democracy Now! (10/15/24)
“There is nothing antisemitic about fighting for people’s right to live,” says Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Elena Stein, who on Monday joined hundreds of protesters arrested to block entrances to the New York Stock Exchange. We discuss the historic mass protest, which called for an Israeli arms embargo and an end to war profiteering by companies like Raytheon and Lockheed Martin.
“We are filled with horror beyond words and are attempting to embody just an ounce of that refusal,” Stein says of the moral urgency of protesting Israel’s actions in the Middle East, which she describes as a “war of extermination … done with U.S. cover.” She says JVP chose the stock exchange in order to draw attention to the role of U.S. financial and corporate interests in arming the Israeli military.
“Last week hurricane Helene ravaged communities across Appalachia, killing hundreds of people, displacing thousands. This is just one week before hurricane Milton ravaged Florida, and before the wreckage could even be accounted for after Hurricane Helene FEMA reported a $9 billion shortfall. At the exact same time President Biden announced that he'd be releasing another $8.7 billion in military funding to the Israeli military. This is almost the exact same amount of money, so what we are seeing is that quite literally the United States government is choosing to massacre in mass Palestinians over supporting our communities here in the United States who are trying to recover from this devastating climate crisis, as well as the chronic disinvestment from their communities.”
— Jewish Voice for Peace organizer Elena Stein
18-minute video
Well, The Evil Empire Has Its Priorities…
Words are powerless to describe the irrepressible nausea and oppression that grip us at the sight of this sinister spectacle, this debauchery of cruelty and violence, a veritable descent into hell, all these acts are accomplished with the support (at least tacit) of the Israeli population, victim of a profound sociopathy and the indifference, even the condescension, sarcasm and contempt of a complicit international community. It is certainly easy to overcome the protests of a few dozen or even hundreds of demonstrators who legitimately protest against these horrors, by a militarized police apparatus, part of which has benefited from the lessons of crowd management by Israeli experts. Is it not time for millions of citizens, yes, millions, to take to the streets of American cities and demand accountability, to demand that this scandal like no other be put to an end? Is it not time to stop this downward spiral which is, without a doubt, only the prelude to other tragedies, other violence, of a completely different magnitude? Warnings are flying from all sides! No one can claim that they did not know!…
To be fair, "shut up and fall in line" has been the Dems slogan since at least 2016.