GAZA’S Government Media Office (GMO) has denounced Israel’s allegations of Hamas looting an aid truck in southern Gaza, as ‘entirely false and fabricated’.
‘This accusation is part of a deliberate misinformation campaign aimed at discrediting Palestinian police forces, who are fulfilling their national and humanitarian duties by safeguarding aid and protecting relief convoys,’ GMO said.
GMO highlighted that several international organisations have already affirmed that Gaza’s police forces were not involved in any looting incident and in fact played a clear role in preventing thefts.
In contrast: ‘The Israeli occupation forces systematically targeted police personnel and volunteer security guards in an apparent effort to sow chaos and enable looting across the Gaza Strip,’ the GMO added.
Forty humanitarian groups have accused Israel of obstructing aid deliveries through using a new registration system for international NGOs, leaving tens of millions of dollars of aid stranded outside Gaza.
The organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Oxfam, People in Need and the Norwegian Refugee Council, say that Israel denied 99 requests to deliver aid to Gaza in the first 12 days of the ceasefire.
UNRWA says winter shelter supplies sufficient for one million people remain stockpiled in warehouses and are barred by Israel from entering Gaza.
Aladdin al-Batta, Khan Younis mayor and deputy head of the Union of Gaza Strip Municipalities, warns: ‘Thousands of displaced Palestinians are living in dilapidated tents that offer no protection from winter cold or summer heat.’
Batta said that these displaced citizens are living in camps without access to basic services, including water and sanitation. Official figures show 93% of Gaza’s tents are not suitable for habitation.
The death toll from the Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which started on October 7th, 2023, has surged to 68,865, the health ministry said yesterday, adding that the total number of the wounded also surged to 170,670 people.
- Several areas of the occupied West Bank witnessed a wave of attacks on Saturday targeting Palestinian farmers, foreign activists, vehicles, and property, including a school.
Three Palestinian women suffered injuries on Saturday evening when a horde of settlers savagely attacked them in Tal village, west of Nablus.
The Red Crescent said that its paramedics provided first aid for the wounded women before transporting them to the hospital.
Another group of settlers hurled stones at Palestinian cars on a road near the illegal settlement of Yitzhar, damaging a number of them and causing traffic congestion.
Those settlers also launched a stone-throwing attack on homes in a nearby area, according to the head of the Madama village council, Abdullah Ziyadah.
Other settlers, under the protection of Israeli forces, assaulted farmers and foreign activists during an olive-picking event on Mount Qammas, east of Beita town in Nablus. They set fire to several olive trees and stole bags of harvested olives.
Downfall of Balfour Declaration inevitable
On the 108th anniversary of the infamous Balfour Declaration (Balfour’s promise in Arabic) yesterday, Sunday 2nd November, the Hamas Movement’s Popular Affairs Office in Lebanon affirmed that the Palestinian cause has regained its place at the forefront of global attention.
‘The downfall of the Balfour Declaration and the Israeli entity, which was established as a result of that promise, is inevitable.
‘The Palestinian people continue to suffer the consequences of that promise, which laid the foundations for the establishment of the terrorist Zionist entity on Palestinian land, prevented the creation of an independent Palestinian state, and plunged the region into ongoing conflict and systematic crimes of extermination against the Palestinian people, as seen most recently in Gaza following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood,’ Hamas underscored.
‘The Operation (Al-Aqsa Flood) and the Palestinian people’s steadfastness in the face of Israeli aggression have sent a clear message to the world that Palestinians have the full right to liberate themselves from occupation, establish their independent state on all of their national soil, and achieve the return of refugees to their homes,’ Hamas said.
Hamas concluded its statement by affirming: ‘The Palestinian people will continue their resistance and struggle until they reclaim all their legitimate and historical rights in Palestine.’
Prisoners for Palestine hunger strike
YESTERDAY, Sunday 2nd November, London for a Free Palestine, said: ‘Prisoners for Palestine across Britain begin an open-ended hunger strike today with five clear demands on the UK government:
1. An end to censorship and surveillance of communications.
2. Immediate release on bail for all prisoners on remand.
3. A fair trial and full disclosure of government and arms export records.
4. De-proscribe Palestine Action and end the use of counter-terrorism laws.
5. The permanent shutdown of Elbit Systems sites in the UK.
‘London for a Free Palestine stands in full solidarity with the hunger strikers, endorses their demands, and uplifts the struggles of prisoners from Britain to Palestine and beyond.
‘Now is the time for a popular cradle of support for prisoners to form here in the imperial core.’
