ISRAELI occupation forces committed four massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over the last 24 hours, resulting in the documented killing of at least 60 Palestinians and the injury of 220 others, according to medical sources.
Local health authorities confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7th has risen to 36,439 reported fatalities, with an additional 82,627 individuals sustaining injuries. The majority of the victims are women and children.
Meanwhile, ambulance and rescue teams are still unable to reach many casualties and dead bodies trapped under the rubble or scattered on roads across the war-torn enclave, as Israeli occupation forces continue to obstruct the movement of ambulance and civil defence teams.
Meanwhile, US Senator Bernie Sanders has criticised the congressional leaders who invited the ‘war criminal’ Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint meeting of the US Congress.
‘It is a very sad day for our country that prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been invited – by leaders from both parties – to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress,’ said Sanders, who is an Independent left wing lawmaker. ‘Netanyahu is a war criminal. He should not be invited to address a joint meeting of Congress. I certainly will not attend.’
On Friday, congressional leaders from both sides of the aisles – Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell – invited the war-mongering Israeli prime minister to deliver a speech at the joint session of the bicameral Congress, which Netanyahu reportedly accepted.
Netanyahu’s address to the Congress is expected to take place ‘as soon as the next eight weeks or soon after the August recess.’
Meanwhile, the International Court of Justice, the top United Nations court, has ordered Israel to halt its offensive in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah. It is no surprise that its orders have been completely ignored.
Sanders stressed that the Israeli regime forces have for months been unlawfully killing tens of thousands of innocent people since they launched the genocidal war on the Palestinians trapped in the besieged Gaza Strip.
‘Israel does not have the right to kill more than 34,000 civilians and wound over 80,000 – 5 per cent of the population of Gaza. It does not have the right to orphan 19,000 children. It does not have the right to displace 75 per cent of the people of Gaza from their homes,’ he said.
He also emphasised of the Israeli regime: ‘It most certainly does not have the right to block humanitarian aid – food and medical supplies – from coming to the desperate people of Gaza, creating the conditions for starvation and famine.’
Meanwhile, a former contractor with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) said he was forced to resign after his presentation focusing on declining maternal health in Gaza was cancelled by the leadership. Alexander Smith worked as a senior adviser on gender, maternal health, child health and nutrition at USAID until last week, when he was set to deliver a presentation on maternal and child mortality among Palestinians.
One day before he was scheduled to present his report, the USAID leadership cancelled his presentation. Smith says he got a call from the company that contracted his position with USAID and was then given a choice between resignation and dismissal.
He was told he could either resign or be terminated over ‘personality differences’. Smith, who is also a lawyer, had worked for USAID for four years.
The United States government is now seeking a deal with the Netanyahu regime to continue with its rule and to attempt to negotiate the freeing of the remaining hostages held by Hamas, before proceeding with even more savage tactics against the forces of the Palestinian revolution.
The greatest fear of President Biden is that he has already lost the Presidential election because of his complete failure to defeat Hamas, which now has the support of millions of US youth, as well as the working class of the world.
He is now playing for some time to desperately try to repair his fortunes.
His current manoeuvres constitute too little too late. The working people of the US, UK and the EU must respond to the US crisis by launching general strikes to bring down their governments to make a real peace with the masses of Palestine and the masses of Asia!