still 200,000 other buildings where it might be 
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There were calls to cancel the visit during the last days in light of Erdoganâs comments and Turkeyâs continuous support of Hamas. There are good arguments for a cancellation or postponement, but the arguments for active diplomatic exchange at the highest level are also good and they prevailed.
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Pulitzer Prize-winning poet, essayist, and poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine, Anne Boyer, has resigned from her post, writing in her resignation letter that âthe Israeli stateâs U.S.-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyoneâ and that she âwonât write about poetry amid the âreasonableâ tones of those who aim to acclimatize us to this unreasonable suffering.â . . .
I have resigned as poetry editor of the New York Times Magazine.
The Israeli stateâs U.S-backed war against the people of Gaza is not a war for anyone. There is no safety in it or from it, not for Israel, not for the United States or Europe, and especially not for the many Jewish people slandered by those who claim falsely to fight in their names. Its only profit is the deadly profit of oil interests and weapon manufacturers.
The world, the future, our heartsâeverything grows smaller and harder from this war. It is not only a war of missiles and land invasions. It is an ongoing war against the people of Palestine, people who have resisted throughout decades of occupation, forced dislocation, deprivation, surveillance, siege, imprisonment, and torture.
Because our status quo is self-expression, sometimes the most effective mode of protest for artists is to refuse.
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Philippe Lazzarini is Commissioner-General of UNRWA.
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These assholes are fucking ghouls.
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From the Guardian liveblog:
Thousands of demonstrators, including family members of hostages kidnapped by Hamas, marched into Jerusalem on Saturday in angry calls for the Israeli government to do more to bring their relatives home.
The Associated Press reports:
The march capped a five-day trek from Tel Aviv and represented the largest protest on behalf of the hostages since they were dragged into Gaza by Hamas on Oct. 7 as part of the militantsâ deadly attack in southern Israel. About 1,200 people were killed in Israel on the day of the surprise Hamas assault.
On Saturday, the marchers carried Israeli flags and photos of the hostages as they finished the 70-kilometer (45-mile) walk to Jerusalem and slowly converged on Netanyahuâs office.
Netanyahu has not yet agreed to meet with them, provoking fury among the demonstrators. Other members of Israelâs war cabinet â former opposition leader Benny Gantz and former army chief Gadi Eisenkot â were set to sit down Saturday evening with representatives of the hostage families.
âWe are here today with many families walking up to Jerusalem to keep the awareness of the hostage issue as a top priority for the government of Israel,â said Ruby Chen, whose 19-year old son is a hostage.
âWe are gathered here from all across the nation to support the families of the kidnapped and to send a direct message to the government,â marcher Hvihy Hanina said. âThese hostages must be set free. They belong with us. They belong with their families.â
The protest came amid widespread Israeli media speculation that the war cabinet is considering a Qatari-brokered deal to win the release of the women and children among the hostages. In exchange, Israel would agree to a cease-fire of several days and release several dozen of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners it is holding.
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WHO leads very high-risk joint humanitarian mission to Al-Shifa Hospital in #Gaza
Earlier today, a joint UN humanitarian assessment team, led by WHO, accessed Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza to assess the situation on the ground, conduct a rapid situational analysis, assess medical priorities, and establish logistics options for further missions. The team included public health experts, logistics officers, and security staff from
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and WHO.The mission was deconflicted with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to ensure safe passage along the agreed route. However, this was a high-risk operation in an active conflict zone, with heavy fighting ongoing in close proximity to the hospital.
Earlier in the day, the IDF had issued evacuation orders to the remaining 2,500 internally displaced people who had been seeking refuge on the hospital grounds. They, along with a number of mobile patients and hospital staff, had already vacated the facility by the time of the teamâs arrival.
Due to time limits associated with the security situation, the team was able to spend only one hour inside the hospital, which they described as a âdeath zone" and the situation as âdesperate.â Signs of shelling and gunfire were evident. The team saw a mass grave at the entrance of the hospital and was told more than 80 people were buried there.
Lack of clean water, fuel, medicines, food and other essential aid over the last six weeks have caused Al-Shifa Hospitalâonce the largest, most advanced, and best equipped referral hospital in Gazaâto essentially stop functioning as a medical facility. The team observed that, due to the security situation, it has been impossible for the staff to carry out effective waste management in the hospital.
Corridors and the hospital grounds were filled with medical and solid waste, increasing the risk of infection. Patients and health staff with whom they spoke were terrified for their safety and health and pleaded for evacuation. Al-Shifa Hospital can no longer admit patients, with the injured and sick now being directed to the seriously overwhelmed and barely functioning Indonesian Hospital.
There are 25 health workers and 291 patients remaining in Al-Shifa, with several patient deaths having occurred over the previous 2 to 3 days due to the shutting down of medical services. Patients include 32 babies in extremely critical condition, two people in intensive care without ventilation, and 22 dialysis patients whose access to life-saving treatment has been severely compromised.
The vast majority of patients are victims of war trauma, including many with complex fractures and amputations, head injuries, burns, chest and abdominal trauma, and 29 patients with serious spinal injuries who are unable to move without medical assistance. Many trauma patients have severely infected wounds due to lack of infection control measures in the hospital and unavailability of antibiotics.
Given the current state of the hospital, which is no longer operational or admitting new patients, the team was requested to evacuate health workers and patients to other facilities. WHO and partners are urgently developing plans for the immediate evacuation of the remaining patients, staff and their families.
Over the next 24â72 hours, pending guarantees of safe passage by parties to the conflict, additional missions are being arranged to urgently transport patients from Al-Shifa to Nasser Medical Complex and European Gaza Hospital in the south of Gaza. However, these hospitals are already working beyond capacity, and new referrals from Al-Shifa Hospital will further strain overburdened health staff and resources.
WHO is deeply concerned about the safety and health needs of patients, health workers and internally displaced people sheltering at the few remaining partially functional hospitals in the north, which are facing the risk of closure due to a lack of fuel, water, medical supplies, food, and the intense hostilities. Immediate efforts must be made to restore the functionality of Al-Shifa and all other hospitals to provide urgently needed health care services in Gaza.
WHO reiterates its plea for collective efforts to bring an end to the hostilities and humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. We call for an immediate ceasefire, the sustained flow of humanitarian assistance at scale, unhindered humanitarian access to all of those in need, the unconditional release of all hostages, and the cessation of attacks on health care and other vital infrastructure.
The extreme suffering of the people of Gaza demands that we respond immediately and concretely with humanity and compassion.
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The release, which could begin within the next several days â barring last-minute hitches â could lead to the first sustained pause in conflict in Gaza, according to people familiar with its provisions.
Under the terms of a detailed, six-page agreement, all parties to the conflict would freeze combat operations for at least five days while an initial 50 or more of what are believed to be a total 239 hostages are released in batches every 24 hours. Overhead surveillance would monitor movement on the ground to police the pause.
The stop in fighting is also intended to allow a significant increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance, including fuel, to enter the besieged enclave from Egypt.
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So I just re-watched a video from 2007 this week. I remembered it after hearing talk like this.
I guess when youâre a far-right bigot who hates both Jewish people and Muslim people this kind of tragedy looks like a win-win.
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What about when youâre a normal human who doesnât hate either people?
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I heard somewhere that Gazan children donât have PTSD as the P is yet to comeâŚ
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