Gaza conflict is a ‘war on women,’ says UN official 

1 / 3
Women sits by the tombs of a family members after corpses were unearthed from temporary graves at the al-Amal hospital in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, and handed over to their families for burial, on July 18, 2024. (AFP)
2 / 3
Palestinian woman mourn a family member killed in Israeli bombardment, at al-Maamadani Hospital in Gaza City on July 17, 2024. (AFP)
3 / 3
A mother hugs the body of a boy who died in Israeli bombardment at Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 16, 2024. (AFP)
Short Url
Updated 18 July 2024
Follow

Gaza conflict is a ‘war on women,’ says UN official 

  • UN Women’s representative in Occupied Palestinian Territories unprepared ‘for the total destruction and inhumanity that I saw’ during visit to enclave this week 
  • A million women and girls are bearing ‘the worst brunt of nine months of war,’ she says, and ‘there are no safe places to be a woman in Gaza’ 

NEW YORK CITY: Returning from a mission to the Gaza strip, an official from UN Women said that despite more 50 visits to the enclave in the six years since she took up her position, including one during the 2021 war, “nothing prepared me for the total destruction and inhumanity that I saw.” 

Speaking in Jerusalem on Thursday, Maryse Guimond, the agency’s representative in the Occupied Palestinian Territories said that what she witnessed exceeded her worst fears about the plight of women and girls living in Gaza, some of whom she has worked with for many years. 

“It was unbearable to witness the daily escalation of violence and destruction of a war on women, with no end in sight,” Guimond said, her voice choked by emotion. 

She said wars are never gender-neutral and that is “undoubtedly” the case in Gaza, where a million women and girls are bearing “the worst brunt of nine months of war.” 

Guimond added: “They are losing their lives. They are sick, hungry, exhausted, holding families together despite their constant fear and loss. Each woman I met has a story of loss.” 

UN Women said more than 10,000 Palestinian women have lost their lives in the war, which is now in its 10th month, more than 6,000 families have lost their mothers, and nearly a million women and girls have lost loved ones and “their life memories.” 

“Gaza is more than 2 million stories of loss,” said Guimond. “Women in Gaza are living in constant movement, constant fear, being constantly chased. 

“There are no safe places to be a woman in Gaza, where nine out of 10 people are displaced.” 




UN Women infographic

Almost a million women and girls have been displaced several times, forced to move to ever-smaller areas where they become targets of attacks and bombings, she added. 

“They move with no cash, with no possessions and with no clue how and where they’re going to live,” said Guimond. 

“Many women told me that they will not move again, as it does not make a difference for their safety or survival.” 

Gazans have endured 18 waves of displacements, with no guarantee of any safety for anyone, she added. 

When she arrived in the battered Strip on her latest visit, Guimond said she did not recognize it as the Gaza she once knew. 

“I entered the world of devastation and total deprivation; mosques, hospitals, shops, schools, universities have been destroyed,” she said. 

“Crowds of men, women and children trying to survive in makeshift tents and overcrowded shelters surrounded by rubble and total destruction, amid the continued sounds of fighting and drones.” 

She said she barely recognized women she had known before the war: “The last nine months are embedded on their faces, on their bodies.” 

UN Women estimates 557,000 Palestinian women are suffering from acute food insecurity. Guimond said that these women are “eating the last and the least” among their families, and “skipping meals and not eating healthy food for months and months.” 

She praised the women of Gaza for their “remarkable strength and humanity in their struggle to survive with hope and solidarity, despite the devastation. 

“I have met amazing women who are taking care of their families and their community in the face of starvation, of death and disease, of displacement.” 

She called on the international community to support the work of women-led organizations in Gaza, and ensure there are places for women at the table when decisions are being made. 

“The question is not what women need, the question should be what they don’t need,” said Guimond. “Women don’t want to die. They don’t want to bury their loved ones. They don’t want to be left alone to suffer.” 

She also echoed calls by UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the opening of all land crossings to grant full access to the territory for the delivery of humanitarian aid, and for all Israeli hostages to be released. 


Israel releases video of a Gaza tunnel where it says militants killed 6 hostages

Updated 6 sec ago
Follow

Israel releases video of a Gaza tunnel where it says militants killed 6 hostages

The release of the new video could add to the pressure on Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military has released video footage of a Gaza tunnel where it says six hostages were recently killed by Hamas.
The video shows a low, narrow passageway deep underground that had no bathroom and poor ventilation.
The discovery of the hostages’ bodies last month sparked a mass outpouring of anger in Israel and the release of the new video could add to the pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a ceasefire deal with Hamas to bring the remaining hostages home.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said Tuesday the footage of the Gaza tunnel had been shown to the hostages’ families, and that it “was very hard for them to see how their loved ones survived in those conditions.”

Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

Israel close to completing Gaza missions, focus on north, defense minister says

  • “The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops
  • “These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate“

JERUSALEM: Israeli forces are near to fulfilling their mission in Gaza and their focus will turn to the country’s northern border with Lebanon as daily exchanges of fire with Hezbollah take place, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said on Tuesday
“The center of gravity is moving northward, we are near to completing our tasks in the south, but our mission here is not yet done,” Gallant told troops on Israel’s northern border in a video sent by his office.
Gallant was attending a ground combat drill, his office said.
“These instructions that you are waiting for here today, I gave in the south and saw the forces operate,” Gallant said referring to Israel’s ground invasion of the Gaza Strip three weeks after the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that triggered the war.
The Lebanese group Hezbollah began firing rockets into Israel on Oct. 8 and the two sides have been trading fire since, with tens of thousands of civilians displaced on both sides of the border.
Israeli leaders have said they would prefer to resolve the conflict through an agreement that would push Iran-backed Hezbollah away from the border. Hezbollah has said that it will continue fighting Israel as long as the war in Gaza is ongoing.
In separate remarks to journalists on Tuesday, Gallant said:
“While we pursue an agreement, I have directed the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) to prepare for every scenario, including directing our attention to the northern arena. We are committed to changing the security situation on the northern front and to bringing our citizens home safely.”
The Israeli military on Tuesday said it killed a commander in Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. The group confirmed his death but not his role and said it fired rockets at Israeli army targets across the border in retaliation.


Israel strike on Lebanon kills Hezbollah commander: source, army

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

Israel strike on Lebanon kills Hezbollah commander: source, army

  • Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer, “a field commander” in the group’s elite Radwan Force, “was targeted in an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the Bekaa” Valley
  • Hezbollah earlier announced Shaer had been killed by Israeli fire, but did not refer to him as a commander

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike Tuesday on eastern Lebanon killed a Hezbollah commander, a source close to the group and the Israeli military said, the latest in near-daily exchanges throughout the Gaza war.
The Iran-backed Lebanese group has traded fire with Israeli forces in support of ally Hamas since the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack triggered war in the Gaza Strip, with repeated escalations during more than 11 months of the cross-border violence.
A source close to Hezbollah told AFP that Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer, “a field commander” in the group’s elite Radwan Force, “was targeted in an Israeli strike on a motorcycle in the Bekaa” Valley in Lebanon’s east, far from the Israeli border.
Hezbollah earlier announced Shaer had been killed by Israeli fire, but did not refer to him as a commander.
The Israeli military said its air force had “eliminated the terrorist Mohammad Qassem Al-Shaer in the area of Qaraoun,” in the Bekaa Valley.
It referred to Shaer as “a Hezbollah Radwan Force commander.”
Elsewhere in Lebanon, the health ministry said an “Israeli enemy” strike on a building in the southern city of Nabatiyeh “caused light injuries to nine people.”
The cross-border violence since early October has killed some 615 people in Lebanon, mostly fighters but also including 138 civilians, according to an AFP tally.
On the Israeli side, including in the annexed Golan Heights, authorities have announced the deaths of at least 24 soldiers and 26 civilians.


Cousin of Israeli slain in captivity says military pressure is killing the hostages

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

Cousin of Israeli slain in captivity says military pressure is killing the hostages

  • Gat’s body and those of five fellow hostages were recovered by Israeli troops on Sept 1, triggering an outpouring of grief and mass protests among Israelis demanding a hostage deal
  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said increased military pressure would ultimately bring the hostages home

JERUSALEM: Gil Dickmann’s worst nightmare came true when he was told his cousin Carmel Gat, who had survived 11 months in Hamas captivity, had been killed in a tunnel in Gaza just before Israeli forces arrived.
“She was so close to hugging her father,” Dickmann, 32, told Reuters outside the Israeli Knesset, where he was lobbying lawmakers to push for a deal to secure the hostages’ release.
“We failed as a country, we failed as a community.”
Gat’s body and those of five fellow hostages were recovered by Israeli troops on Sept 1, triggering an outpouring of grief and mass protests among Israelis demanding a hostage deal.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly said increased military pressure would ultimately bring the hostages home.
An autopsy revealed that Gat and the other five hostages had been shot in the back of the head at close range, less than 48 hours before Israeli forces recovered the bodies in a tunnel under Gaza.
“Military pressure kills the hostages,” said Dickman. “We know that for a fact.”
Hamas has said in separate statements that Israel is responsible for killing the hostages, or that Netanyahu is responsible for killing them by obstructing a ceasefire agreement.
Oct. 7 was the deadliest day for Israel in its 75 year history, with around 1,200 people killed and some 250 seized and taken as hostages into Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Hamas released 105 hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in a hostage deal in November.
Carmel Gat was taken hostage on October 7th, while staying at her parents’ home in Kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel.
Talks to bring the hostages back and end the fighting in Gaza, where Israel’s campaign to crush Hamas has destroyed much of the Gaza Strip and killed more than 40,000 people according to Palestinian figures, have stalled.
Esther Buchshtav, whose son Yagev was killed in captivity earlier this year, said on Monday at a meeting in Israel’s parliament that a military investigation found her son had been executed by Hamas when soldiers came close to where he was being held.
Dickmann has become one of the most recognizable faces in the movement to push for a hostage deal. He has appeared often on Israeli nightly news shows and clips have circulated widely on social media showing him in screaming matches with Israeli lawmakers and giving passionate speeches in Israel’s Knesset.
Last month, he went to Israel’s southern border along with a group of hostage families who ran toward the border in an effort to gather sympathy for their cause.
The high volume of protesters who demonstrated after Gat’s death, Dickmann said, showed that the Israeli government is disconnected from the will of the people.
“The Israeli people want life,” Dickmann said. “We fight for the lives of the hostages. We don’t fight for revenge.”


Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

Updated 10 September 2024
Follow

Arab League’s chief calls for Denmark’s recognition of Palestinian state

  • Ahmed Aboul Gheit expresses appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions
  • Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine

CAIRO: Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit has called on Denmark to recognize the state of Palestine.

Aboul Gheit made the remarks as he received Lars Lokke Rasmussen, Denmark’s minister of foreign affairs, at the headquarters of the General Secretariat in Cairo.

Gamal Roshdy, a spokesman for the secretary-general, said that the meeting between the two focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation in areas of mutual interest.

Aboul Gheit expressed appreciation for Denmark’s supportive positions on the Palestinian cause.

Aboul Gheit spoke of his confidence that Denmark would continue to play a constructive role in promoting peace, security, and stability in the Arab region — particularly in light of Copenhagen’s recent success in securing a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2025-2026 term.

The Arab League’s chief urged Denmark to follow the lead of several European countries that had recently recognized the independent state of Palestine within the borders of June 4, 1967, and with East Jerusalem as its capital.

He stressed that such recognition was crucial to realizing the two-state solution.

The foreign minister reaffirmed his country’s support for Arab issues and concerns and outlined Denmark’s current foreign policy priorities.

He also stressed his country’s keen interest in strengthening relations with Arab nations across all sectors.