Jew World Order

The Israeli military has said that 2900 rockets have been fired from Gaza over the last week in one of the “most intense” barrages ever, according to our Middle East correspondent Bel Trew.

The 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has opened an emergency meeting to discuss the conflict between Israel and Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers, in the first major move among Middle East nations to address the crisis.

At the start of the meeting, Palestinian foreign minister Riad Malki of the Palestinian Authority, which administers autonomous enclaves in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, decried what he called Israel’s “cowardly attacks”.

“We are facing a long-term occupation, that’s the base of the problem. Crimes are committed against the Palestinians without consequences,” he said.

Mr Malki’s Palestinian Authority has no control over Hamas and the Gaza Strip, where the militants seized power in 2007.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu took a similarly hard line stance, adding: “Israel alone is responsible for the recent escalation in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

“Our warnings to Israel last week went unheeded.”

While hundreds of Arabs and Jews have taken the initiative to push for peace in Israel and Gaza, there are too few heroes in the ongoing conflict in the region, according to our international correspondent Borzou Daragahi.

Borzou writes:

“By and large, the most important players in the ongoing conflict have performed abysmally. Chief among the culprits is Benjamin Netanyahu. He did not create the Arab-Israeli conflict, nor the Jewish claim on East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood which sparked the latest round of violence.

“But Bibi has been Israel’s prime minister for the last 12 years, 15 years of the last quarter century. For better or worse, he has shaped contemporary Israel. And during that time, he allowed for and encouraged encroachments on Arab or properties in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israel proper as well as a deterioration of rights of Palestinian rights.”

You can find his full piece below:

The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on a main thoroughfare in Gaza City has climbed to 33, including eight children, the Gaza health ministry has said.

The ministry said another 50 people had been wounded in the strikes early on Sunday, approximately the same figure as reported earlier today.

It was the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers erupted nearly a week ago.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military on the incident, according to AP.

Amnesty International is calling upon the International Criminal Court to investigate an Israeli strike on a building housing media organisations and another where 10 people including eight children were killed, warning such attacks could be war crimes.

The human rights group said on Sunday that they were “deeply concerned over the mounting death toll” in Gaza since Monday.

It tweeted that the International Criminal Court must investigate Israel’s attack on al-Shati refugee camp, arguing that “direct attacks on civilians are war crimes.”

The group also said the attack on the media building “must also be investigated as a war crime”, adding that “the strike fits a pattern of Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinian population.”

Pope Francis has denounced the “unacceptable” spiral of violence between Israel and Gaza, warning that the deaths of children were a “sign that they don’t want to build the future but want to destroy it.”

During his Sunday blessing, Francis prayed for peace, calm and international help to open a path of dialogue in the region.

“I ask myself: this hatred and vendetta, what will it bring? Do we truly think that we can build peace by destroying the other?” the pope said.

He added: “In the name of God, who created all human beings equal in rights, duties and dignity and are called to live as brothers, I appeal for calm.”

Agence France-Presse has decided to welcome the media teams from Associated Press and Al-Jazeera to work in its offices after their premises were destroyed by an Israeli airstrike yesterday.

Médecins Sans Frontières has said one of its clinics for trauma and burn treatment in Gaza has been damaged by Israeli airstrikes.

“No one was injured in our clinic, but people were killed by the bombing,” the organisation said on Twitter.

Two people armed with knives have been arrested after they claimed to have crossed into Israel from Jordan, police have said.

An Israeli police spokesperson said the two suspects had crossed the border overnight and were being questioned by security services.

Jordanian officials were not immediately available for comment for Reuters.

Earlier this week, pro-Palestinian protesters briefly entered Israel from Lebanon after storming border fences, while hundreds from Jordan attempted to enter the country along the eastern frontier.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has condemned Israel’s “flagrant violations” of Palestinian rights and called on the international community to act urgently to put an end to military operations in the region.

Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud made his comments in televised remarks at the start of an emergency virtual meeting of the 57-member Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

The minister condemned what he called the violation of the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and “forcible” eviction of Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem.

He added that the international community needed to carry out its responsibility towards ending the “dangerous escalation” and revive peace negotiations based on a two-state solution.