ISRAELI occupation forces committed four massacres against families in the Gaza Strip over 24 hours yesterday, resulting in the tragic killing of 40 Palestinians and leaving 150 others injured.
Medical sources confirmed that the death toll from the Israeli onslaught since October 7th has now risen to 36,479 reported Palestinian fatalities, with an additional 82,777 injured.
The number of victims is expected to increase further as rescue and emergency teams face challenges in accessing the affected areas, with hundreds more feared still buried under the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa and his Jordanian counterpart Bisher Al-Khasawneh yesterday affirmed that the two-state solution is the only way for stability and peace.
This came in a joint press conference in the Jordanian capital, Amman, held on the sidelines of the meeting of the Joint Jordanian-Palestinian Higher Committee.
Mustafa said that what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank does not only affect the economy and commercial activity, but also affects stability and security of the whole region.
This requires engaging in a serious political process leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Mustafa confirmed: ‘The gateway to all of these issues lies in ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state.’
He stressed the necessity of an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip in light of the great humanitarian catastrophe it is facing in order to move to real, integrated relief and to begin organising the situation and preparing for reconstruction after the destruction.
The Prime Minister also stressed that 14 agreements had been signed with Jordan in several fields, ‘through which we will be able to move to a new and advanced level in the joint relationship between the two countries.’
Regarding the financial situation, Mustafa confirmed that he had received a promise of financial support in the next stage during the international partners’ conferences in Brussels.
British government refusing visas for Palestinian children needing treatment
THE British government is refusing to issue visas for Palestinian children seeking treatment in the UK but accepts injured Ukrainian minors, a report has shown.
The Middle East Eye (MEE) news and analysis website carried the report last Thursday, citing British doctors and organisations that have been trying unsuccessfully since January to bring five Palestinian children over here for medical treatment.
The children were injured in the genocidal war that the Israeli regime has been waging against the Gaza Strip since last October.
According to the Palestinian health ministry in Gaza, the war has so far claimed the lives of 36,479 civilians, mostly women and children, and injured 82,777 others.
‘We have not asked the UK to take all of them or the majority of them, but just to play its part as a wealthy nation with incredible medical expertise,’ said Krish Kandiah, founder of the UK-based Sanctuary Foundation, which supports Ukrainian and Afghan refugees, among others.
‘We made many, many attempts to try to get a visa for these children and, sadly, despite many good-hearted civil servants, when it got to the highest level, we just heard nothing back,’ he said.
This is while, according to Dr Omar Abdel-Mannan, a British-Egyptian paediatric neurologist at the Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, it alone is currently providing treatment for more than 100 Ukrainian children.
The MEE also cited a case in 2022, when the NHS brought Ukrainian children with cancer over to England for treatment.
‘The double standards are very clear for anyone to see. I’m sad to see that my own NHS, which is helping patients day in and day out, is unable to do this, not because of (a lack of) willpower from medics, but at a political level,’ Abdel-Mannan said.