Updates
2 November 2023
“We see death at night,” writes Ruwaida Amer from Gaza. “And during the day, the world sees genocide. It does nothing to stop it.”
As the UK continues its support for the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza, British schools have been urged to play their part in complying with the murderous narrative by stifling debate.
Rana al-Shorbaji, recently married and now living in Qatar, wishes she could return to Gaza. “All I want is to be there so I can die with my family,” she writes.
“As a 13 year-old child, this war has destroyed me psychologically,” writes Abdallah Ayman from Gaza. “One of the worst scenarios I fear is my family being killed and I surviving.”
Basma Almaza, a Palestinian studying in Malaysia, hasn’t heard from her family in Gaza for three weeks. “I have no knowledge about how they are, even if they are alive,” she writes.
“A sip of water”: a poem by Marah Hatoum in Gaza.
Weapons makers are treating genocide as a business opportunity, with NATO aiding the obliteration of Gaza. Boeing is among the American companies profiting from the holocaust being inflicted on Palestinians.
Palestinians gather next to carts loaded with tanks of water for sale as drinking water and fuel become increasingly scarce, Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip, 2 November.
APA images
Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt opened for the movement of people for the second consecutive day, “allowing the evacuation of about 60 wounded Palestinians to an Egyptian field hospital, alongside some 400 foreign passport holders,” according to the UN. More than 100 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza via Rafah, but Israel continues to ban the transfer of fuel. “The available aid remains insufficient to cover people’s basic needs,” the UN added.
The main electricity generator at the Indonesian hospital in northern Gaza was no longer operating due to lack of fuel, the Palestinian health ministry in the territory said. “This hospital has been receiving hundreds of people injured during the recent hostilities in Jabaliya camp,” according to the UN. A shutdown of hospital services exposes “hundreds of patients with serious injuries to imminent risk of death or lifelong disabilities,” the UN said. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza is meanwhile “reportedly almost out of fuel.”
Israel confirmed that 19 of its soldiers have been killed during the military’s ground operation in Gaza.
MQ-9 Reaper drones operated by US Special Operations forces have been flying over Gaza since at least 28 October, US officials confirmed. While the US Air Force classifies the Reaper as a “hunter-killer” drone, in this case, they are ostensibly part of the effort to locate American captives in Gaza using surveillance, the US officials said. The drones news comes on the heels of significant military support from the US to Israel, including two aircraft carrier strike groups, the Marine Corps expeditionary unit, the senior US urban warfare generals sent by the Pentagon as advisors to Tel Aviv, along with numerous advanced air defense systems and hundreds of thousands of shells and bombs and continuous heavy airlifts of weapons. The MQ-9 Reaper is the latest part of a very visible, very integrated US role in the Israeli battle plan.
Four UNRWA facilities hosting nearly 20,000 internally displaced people were hit, killing at least 23 and injuring dozens, the UN agency for Palestine refugees reported. “Since the start of hostilities, nearly 50 UNRWA facilities have been damaged and 72 staff have been killed,” according to the UN.
The Palestinian Civil Defense are struggling to carry out their rescue missions due to a lack of fuel, the UN said. “This is particularly concerning as thousands are estimated to be trapped under rubble. The Palestine Red Crescent Society announced that, due to the lack of fuel, it had been forced to reduce the number of ambulances it operates.”
Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, said in an audio message that the group can hardly count their fighters’ operations during the defense of Gaza, they are so many. Abu Obeida said Qassam fighters “have destroyed what amounts to a battalion of tanks” and killed more soldiers than the Israeli military command is announcing so far.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said that the Israeli military had perpetrated 15 massacres in the past 24 hours, with more than 250 fatalities. More than 9,000 people, including 3,760 children, have been killed in the territory since 7 October and more than 2,000 people are missing under the rubble, including 1,150 children.