RSS
Israel Is Not ‘Deliberately Starving’ Palestinians
Trucks carrying aid are seen near the Rafah border in Gaza after entering from Egypt, October 10, 2023. Photo: Sinai for Human Rights/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo
Mere days after Israel was falsely accused of killing more than 100 Palestinians in a “strike” on crowds waiting for humanitarian aid in Gaza City, media outlets are once again promoting a vicious and unsubstantiated allegation: Israel is perpetrating a “campaign of starvation” against Palestinians.
According to a statement signed by a group of so-called “UN experts,” “Israel has been intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October” and it is now “targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.”
As reported by The Guardian:
UN experts have condemned the violence they say was unleashed by Israeli forces last week on Palestinians gathered in Gaza City to collect flour as a ‘massacre’.
In a statement, a group of UN special rapporteurs accused Israel of ‘intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza since 8 October,’ adding: ‘Now it is targeting civilians seeking humanitarian aid and humanitarian convoys.’
‘Israel must end its campaign of starvation and targeting of civilians,’ said the UN experts, who warned there was mounting evidence of famine in the Gaza Strip.”
The piece, by the outlet’s senior US reporter, Nina Lakhani, goes on to claim that “Israel has targeted Palestinian food sources and agriculture — bakeries, orchards and greenhouses — as well as blocked humanitarian supplies” since the start of the war.
“The number of trucks allowed to enter the Gaza Strip has since fallen to 57 a day — compared with an average of 147 a day before the ICJ ruling,” Lakhani adds.
This, however, is a tissue of lies — and nothing more than propaganda masquerading as news.
To set the record straight, despite the implications made by Lakhani or any other journalist, Israel has not imposed restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
Indeed, since Hamas launched its horrific attack on Israel on October 7, thousands of aid trucks have entered the enclave, bringing shelter supplies, medical equipment, and mobile water desalination filters.
Over the last 2 weeks, an average of 102 food trucks entered Gaza daily.
This is 46% more food trucks entering Gaza on a daily basis, compared to before October 7th.
There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can enter Gaza. pic.twitter.com/e8d16TnV65
— COGAT (@cogatonline) March 6, 2024
Aside from the litany of falsehoods that comprise the bulk of the article, it is also worrying that Lakhani only identifies one of the seven “UN experts” who signed the letter — the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese.
As per usual, Albanese’s ugly history of antisemitism and support for Palestinian terrorism, which has included her comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, claiming America is being subjugated by a “Jewish lobby,” and insisting that Hamas has a “right to resist,” is completely omitted.
Just who are some of the “UN experts” quoted by the international media claiming Israel is “intentionally starving the Palestinian people?”
They may use the imprimatur of the UN but, in reality, they aren’t the credible, impartial sources you or the media may think. pic.twitter.com/IgeHxmLBeM
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) March 6, 2024
Another signatory is Michael Fakhri, the special rapporteur on the “right to food,” who is an outspoken supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which seeks to economically strangle, and eventually dismantle the Jewish state, and signed an academics’ petition that claims, “the Palestinian struggle as an indigenous liberation movement confronting a settler colonial state.”
And then there is Reem Alsalem, who is the special rapporteur on violence against women and girls.
Unfortunately, Alsalem appears to have something of a blindspot when it comes to violence directed at women and girls when the perpetrators are Palestinian terrorists and their victims are Jewish women.
After all, why else would Alsalem pretend she was “unaware” of Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks, and claim that she had not seen enough evidence to say Hamas terrorists raped women on October 7?
The Guardian has not been alone in pushing the demonstrably false claim that Israel is deliberately starving Palestinians and maliciously withholding humanitarian aid.
CNN also published a piece that failed to name any of the letter’s signees, while confidently printing the accusations of a “Palestinian Ministry of Health spokesperson” without saying Hamas runs the ministry.
The allegation that Israel has a policy of restricting essential humanitarian aid to Gaza is a lie.
And the repetition of a lie does not make it the truth.
The author is a contributor to HonestReporting, a Jerusalem-based media watchdog with a focus on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias — where a version of this article first appeared.
The post Israel Is Not ‘Deliberately Starving’ Palestinians first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
The post Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
The post Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
The post Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages first appeared on Algemeiner.com.