Headlines
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 18, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/18/headlines
Israel Kills Hamas Leader Yahya Sinwar, Says It Will Continue War on Gaza
Oct 18, 2024
Israel announced Thursday it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza. A senior member of Hamas’s political bureau told the AFP, “Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement … these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine.” The Israeli military released a video allegedly showing Sinwar’s final moments in which he appears to throw a stick or piece of debris at the Israeli military drone filming him. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “this is not the end of the war in Gaza” and that Israel would continue its assault until “Hamas lays down its arms and returns our hostages.” It appears Sinwar was not killed as part of a targeted strike, but in the course of Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip.
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined other leaders in calling for Sinwar’s death to propel a ceasefire. But inside Gaza, Palestinians say past killings of Hamas and other resistance leaders have not ended Israel’s brutality.
Kamal Abou Ajwa: “They did not only assassinate Sinwar. They also assassinated Haniyeh. They assassinated Hassan Nasrallah. And the war did not stop. We are urging for the war to stop. We are not asking for them to assassinate this person or that. They have assassinated most of our leaders, and the war has not stopped. We are calling for the war to stop.”
Yahya Sinwar became the chief of Hamas’s political operations after Israel assassinated his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran in July.
Press Groups Demand Israel Allow for Evacuation of Critically Injured Al Jazeera Reporters
Oct 18, 2024
In other news from Gaza, Al Jazeera camera operator Fadi al-Wahidi remains in a coma after he was shot in the neck by an Israeli sniper while reporting in Jabaliya earlier this month. Israeli authorities have blocked the evacuation of al-Wahidi from Gaza, as well as that of fellow Al Jazeera cameraperson Ali al-Attar, to receive urgently needed medical treatment. Press freedom groups are demanding that the two Al Jazeera camerapeople be allowed out of Gaza in order to survive.
Israeli Soldier Kills 59-Year-Old Palestinian as She Harvested Olives on Her Land
Oct 18, 2024
In the occupied West Bank, mourners gathered for the funeral of Hanan Salameh, a 59-year-old Palestinian woman who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers as she harvested olives on her land in the village of Faqqua near Jenin. At least 757 West Bank Palestinians have been killed by Israel since October 7 of last year. Hanan Salameh’s son described his mother’s killing.
Faris Salameh: “We were picking olives, and Israeli authorities had previously given us a permit to harvest the olives on the condition that we stay away from the fence 100 meters. We were farther than around 100 meters. And when they started shooting, we started packing our stuff and leaving. She was martyred. She was shot by the tractor. We were by the end of the area, far from the fence, and they shot her in cold blood. This is what happened.”
Earlier today, the U.N. said it’s recorded at least 32 attacks by Israeli settlers targeting Palestinians harvesting olives since the start of October. Thirty-nine Palestinians have been injured, and some 600 Palestinian olive trees and saplings were “vandalized, sawed off, or stolen.”
UNIFIL Says Israel Has Used White Phosphorus as Israeli Military Continues to Attack Its Forces
Oct 18, 2024
The U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon has reiterated it will remain in place despite ongoing, deliberate attacks against its members by Israeli forces. UNIFIL also said it found evidence of possible use of white phosphorus weapons near one of its bases. The use of white phosphorus is illegal. This comes as Hezbollah says it’s entering a “new phase” of its fight against Israeli forces that have invaded Lebanon, including the introduction of new weapons. Israel has killed at least 2,400 people in Lebanon and forcibly displaced over 1.34 million people over the past month.
Biden Praises Killing of Sinwar in Berlin as Western Leaders Renew Calls for Ceasefire
Oct 18, 2024
President Biden has arrived in Berlin for talks with Western leaders. During brief remarks after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Biden said his trip was aimed at ensuring that NATO remains strong and that Ukraine prevails in its war against Russian occupation. Biden also hailed Israel’s killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar. Biden’s final trip to Europe as president comes as several European lawmakers have called for sanctions against Israel over its bloody assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.
European Leaders Split over Response to Israel; Spanish Lawmaker Calls Out Sánchez Hypocrisy
Oct 18, 2024
On Tuesday, far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni revealed that Italy has effectively had an arms embargo against Israel in place since its invasion of Gaza last year, with arms export licenses consistently denied. Meanwhile, Ireland’s leader Simon Harris said he’s looking at ways to immediately impose trade sanctions on Israel, following a call by Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on the European Commission to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel. That drew accusations of hypocrisy from some Spanish lawmakers, who pointed to Spain’s weapons deals with Israel since October 7 worth one billion euros. This is Spanish parliamentarian Ione Belarra, who addressed the Spanish parliament Wednesday while holding a picture of the Palestinian student Sha’ban al-Dalou, who was burned to death in Israel’s attack this week on Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza.
Ione Belarra: “Last Sunday, Israel did this: They burned dozens of people alive in tents while they were taking refuge in a hospital. What is the difference between this and the Nazi gas chambers? I am asking you all, Mr. President. There is no difference. And we are complicit as a country in this genocide.”
Sha’ban al-Dalou’s younger brother Abdul Ruhman succumbed to his burn wounds earlier today. We’ll go to Gaza later in the broadcast to speak with Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed about Sha’ban al-Dalou and his family.
College Students at Brown, Northwestern Protest to Demand End to Gaza Genocide
Oct 18, 2024
Gaza solidarity protests are continuing across U.S. college campuses. In Rhode Island, students from across the state are traveling to Providence today to join Brown University students in a protest against their school’s rejection of their call to divest from Israeli companies complicit in war and occupation.
In Illinois, Northwestern University sent in campus police to tear down a sukkah set up by Jewish students that they dedicated to the people of Gaza. A sukkah is a temporary booth or hut constructed during the weeklong festival of Sukkot. Jewish Voice for Peace Northwestern said, “We will not allow our traditions to be exploited by those who seek death and destruction. Our ancestors, many of whom endured genocide and ethnic cleansing, taught us never to be bystanders in the face of injustice.”
In more protest news, earlier this week peace activists again blockaded the entrance to the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada to oppose the role of U.S. drones in Israel’s war on Gaza. One activist was arrested.
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Tareq Baconi on Death of Hamas Chief Sinwar & Why Killing Palestinian Leaders Won’t Pacify Resistance
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 18, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/18 ... transcript
Hamas has confirmed Israel killed the organization’s leader, Yahya Sinwar, marking what could be a turning point in its yearlong war. Sinwar was apparently not killed as part of a targeted strike, but in the course of Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip. “It’s not a war that’s happening against Hamas … This is an Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people,” says Palestinian analyst Tareq Baconi, author of Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. “The removal of someone like Yahya Sinwar will not stop the Netanyahu government from carrying out its genocide in the Gaza Strip.”
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: The head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Khalil al-Hayya, has confirmed in a televised address that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was killed by Israeli forces earlier this week. Al-Hayya could succeed Sinwar. This comes after Israel announced Thursday it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, marking what could be a turning point in Israel’s assault on Gaza. Sinwar was apparently not killed as part of a targeted strike, but in the course of Israel’s indiscriminate assault on the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli military released a video they say shows Sinwar moments before his death after they attacked the building he was in, in Rafah. In Sinwar’s final moments, he appears to throw a stick or debris at the Israeli military drone filming him.
Hostage families called for Israel to now focus on negotiating a deal to free the hostages. Many of them protested in Tel Aviv.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a video statement after the killing.
PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU: [translated] Today we clarified again what happens to those who hurt us. Today we once again showed the world the victory of good over evil. But the war, my dears, is not over yet.
AMY GOODMAN: After Israel’s announcement, Basem Naim, a senior member of Hamas’s political bureau, told the AFP, quote, “Hamas is a liberation movement led by people looking for freedom and dignity … It seems that Israel believes that killing our leaders means the end of our movement … these leaders became an icon for future generations to continue the journey towards a free Palestine,” unquote.
This is a displaced Palestinian in Gaza City responding to news of Sinwar’s death.
KAMAL ABOU AJWA: [translated] We are urging for the war to stop. We are not asking for them to assassinate this person or that. They have assassinated most of our leaders, and the war has not stopped. We are calling for the war to stop.
AMY GOODMAN: Back in the United States, President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris joined other world leaders in calling for Sinwar’s killing to propel a ceasefire. This is presidential candidate Vice President Harris.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated. This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. And it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin.
AMY GOODMAN: Yahya Sinwar was appointed head of Hamas in July after the previous leader Ismail Haniyeh’s assassination in Tehran on the day that the Iranian president was inaugurated.
For more, we go to Cape Town, South Africa, where we’re joined by Tareq Baconi, a Palestinian analyst and writer. The Palestinian Policy Network, he’s president of its board, Al-Shabaka. He is the author of the book Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. His recent piece for The New York Review of Books is headlined “Accounts of the Struggle.”
Tareq, welcome back to Democracy Now! First, if you can respond to Israel’s announcement that they’ve killed Yahya Sinwar, how you understand he was killed, apparently in Rafah, and Hamas stopping short but looking like they are confirming, in fact, the Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar is dead?
TAREQ BACONI: Hi, Amy. It’s good to be back.
Yes, so, we’ve seen the footage now that was released by the Israelis yesterday. And just as I was coming onto the show today, the confirmation came in from Hamas that the leader, Yahya Sinwar, had been executed. Now, the footage that came out shows how unusual this situation had been. This was, as you said on the show, not an operation that was planned. It appears to have been an accidental stumbling of this unit that was training in the Gaza Strip on the group that included Yahya Sinwar.
Now, the footage that’s been circulating is one that I believe that the Israeli military will come to regret one day, because it’s showing a man in military fatigues who is fighting until his last breath. This is a leader who they had long claimed was in hiding, surrounded by hostages and preventing — or, cowering in fear from the Israeli military. And, in fact, here is a leader who’s aboveground, not surrounded by any of the captives, fighting. Now, this is going to be something that will certainly shape the way that Yahya Sinwar is remembered and the legacy that he will be thought as having made before his execution.
AMY GOODMAN: So, if you can talk about who Yahya Sinwar is? And talk about his rise to power and what you think the significance of this moment is.
TAREQ BACONI: Well, Yahya Sinwar really is a strategist. He’s someone who has gone up through the ranks of Hamas from its earliest days of the establishment around the founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. He was part of that early group of leaders. And so he has been a part of Hamas and Hamas’s organizational structure in the Gaza Strip for decades.
He’s, as is well known now, someone who also served time in Israeli prisons, which meant that he was also exposed to Israeli military officials and prison wardens and had used that time to learn Hebrew, to educate himself about Israeli politics, before returning to the Gaza Strip with the prisoner exchange deal that freed Gilad Shalit in return for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.
He came back into the Gaza Strip and slowly made his way up through the ranks in the military wing. And certainly, then, after Ismail Haniyeh was moved to Doha, he became Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip, as well. Now, this is someone who is very calculated and has always maintained a very clear and decisive position that Hamas is engaged in a war of liberation, is engaged in resistance, and not just armed resistance, but also popular resistance, against Israeli apartheid.
Now, his killing, there’s been a lot of talk about what his killing will mean for Palestinians in Gaza and for what’s happening today. And one of the things that’s really important to note is that this is a war that’s happening against the Palestinian people. It’s not a war that’s happening against Hamas, despite the framing being of a war against Hamas in the West. This is an Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people. The removal of someone like Yahya Sinwar will not stop the Netanyahu government from carrying out its genocide in the Gaza Strip. As far as Hamas is concerned, this is not a movement that is dependent on a singular leader. It’s a movement that has a collective approach to decision-making. We’ll have to wait and see who they elect as a new leader, but I don’t necessarily foresee a significant change in the reality on the ground in the immediate future.
AMY GOODMAN: You know, after Israel assassinated Nasrallah in Lebanon, thousands of Lebanese Israel has killed. Do you see the same thing happening now in Gaza? I mean, you have President Biden. You have Vice President Kamala Harris You have the families of hostages in Tel Aviv. They are continuing to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. And you have Harris saying now they should move forward in that direction.
TAREQ BACONI: Well, a ceasefire in Gaza has been possible for many months now. It’s been on the table for many months. And despite all of this false equalization that it was — that the obstacles to the ceasefire were both Sinwar and Netanyahu, the reality is that Sinwar has accepted, Hamas has officially accepted a ceasefire in which the hostages would be released in return for the Palestinian prisoners who are held in Israeli jails and a permanent cessation of violence. What the Netanyahu government has time and again said, that they will only accept a release or that exchange of captives for prisoners if the ceasefire is temporary, which means that after that exchange happens, they would plan to go back in and carry out the genocide. Now, it’s not clear how they think that that would be something that Hamas would be willing to accept, giving up the captives in return for only temporary reprieve. So, the obstacle to getting a permanent ceasefire in Gaza has always been the Netanyahu government.
The U.S. administration has time and again suggested that they’re putting pressure on the Netanyahu government to achieve a ceasefire. But that’s absolutely not in line with what the American administration has done in practice, which is to arm Israel and enable it to maintain a genocide against the Palestinian people. So I think all the rhetoric that comes out from either Harris or Biden at the moment has to be seen only as political theater. I think in the best-case scenario, we have an American administration that’s been entirely coopted by the Netanyahu government and is being led into becoming complicit in genocide against its best interests and the interests of the Palestinian people. And at worst, we have an American administration that has fully embraced Netanyahu’s ideological view of exterminating the Palestinian people, regime change in the region, and carrying out that ideological project through American arms and money. So I don’t think that the obstacle to a ceasefire has ever been Sinwar and that now the removal of Sinwar is suddenly going to lead us into a ceasefire.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to President Joe Biden — he just arrived in Berlin — speaking with Western leaders as he addressed the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: The death of the leader of Hamas represents a moment of justice. He had the blood of Americans and Israelis, Palestinians and Germans and so many others on his hands. I told the prime minister of Israel yesterday, “Let’s also make this moment an opportunity to seek a path to peace, a better future in Gaza without Hamas.” And I look forward to discussing Iran.
AMY GOODMAN: “A path to peace,” he says. And he ends by saying, “I look forward to discussing Iran.” Your thoughts, Tareq?
TAREQ BACONI: Well, I mean, I think this is a continuation of the same, of the same positioning that the Biden administration has been in, which is really that they’re not making any of the decisions, or at least that they’re not making any of the decisions to end a ceasefire. They’re actively making the decisions to further support the Netanyahu government and to align American interests with Israeli interests in the way that it’s understood by Israel, which is to maintain a genocide in Gaza and to expand the war in the region.
I think it’s very clear that the Netanyahu government is thinking about completely destabilizing Lebanon, of possibly carrying out some kind of operation in Iran that could lead to a regime change. What we’re seeing today is an attempt by Israel to remake the Middle East in such a way that they can maintain their reality as an apartheid state unchallenged in the region. And the Biden administration is fully accepting of that reality and hasn’t made any moves to really counter or put pressure on the Netanyahu government to either end its genocide or rethink these policies.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to a clip of Yahya Sinwar himself. We recently had Hind Hassan on Democracy Now! talking about her new documentary, Starving Gaza. But two years ago, it’s believed she was the last person to interview on video Sinwar when she was working for Vice News. This was in Gaza in 2021.
YAHYA SINWAR: [translated] Israel, which possesses a complete arsenal of weaponry, state-of-the-art equipment and aircraft, intentionally bombs and kills our children and women. And they do that on purpose. You can’t compare that to those who resist and defend themselves with weapons that look primitive in comparison. If we had the capabilities to launch precision missiles that targeted military targets, we wouldn’t have used the rockets that we did. Does the world expect us to be well-behaved victims while we’re getting killed? For us to be slaughtered without making a noise? That’s impossible.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, that was Yahya Sinwar back in 2021 speaking to Hind Hassan. Tareq Baconi, speak more about what he’s saying and also about the decades he spent in an Israeli prison.
TAREQ BACONI: Well, I mean, what he’s saying, Amy, is something that many Palestinians would intrinsically and immediately agree with, which is that the expectation from the Israeli side is that Palestinians really just roll over and die, that any kind of resistance, armed or otherwise, is fundamentally unacceptable. The idea from the Israeli side is that Israeli Jews should be living in peace and security even as they maintain a brutal, violent regime of apartheid against Palestinians. Palestinians really are expected to be out of sight, out of mind.
I mean, this interview was in 2021. If you think three years before that, Palestinians engaged in one of the broadest forms of popular mobilization in Gaza, calling for return. This was the Great March of Return of 2018. And it was met by Israelis snipering off Palestinians, killing medics and journalists. More than 200 Palestinians were killed, and more than 36,000 were injured. And yet no one in the international community really engaged with this to question what this architecture of apartheid was, what it meant that 2 million Palestinians were held in Gaza behind a brutal regime blockade that was systematically a form of collective punishment against the Palestinians there.
So, the expectation is, as Sinwar is saying, that Palestinians should not resist that, that Palestinians should acquiesce to that reality. And then any resistance, whether armed or otherwise, is met with immediate condemnation from the West, a reassertion of Israel’s right to defend itself and, as we see today, a carte blanche to carry out horrific violence, the kind of sadistic violence that we’ve been watching happen in Gaza over the course of the past year.
So, I think what’s really important for us to go away with is that we have to delink the genocide that’s happening in Gaza from October 7th. October 7th might have been the trigger, and that might have been the framing for Israel to claim that it’s retaliating. But what we’re seeing in Gaza is the actualization of genocidal policies that have been in the making for years, that Israeli officials have been talking about a second Nakba for years. Palestinians like myself have been warning for years that Israel is planning ethnic cleansing to complete the Nakba, to carry out mass killing in order to end the issue of Palestine. They want to maintain a positionality of unchallenged apartheid in Palestine and across the region without any kind of resistance. And I think this is what we’re seeing today. Israel’s ability to do that with full impunity is at full display.
AMY GOODMAN: And finally, Tareq Baconi, if you could talk about, before October 7th, the Qatari government asking Netanyahu if they wanted Qatar to continue sending millions of dollars to Hamas — men would actually bring suitcases of money into Gaza — or if they should stop this? And according to the reports of a number of newspapers, they told them — he told them to continue. And also the role of the U.S. in asking Qatar to be the host of Hamas in order for it to negotiate?
TAREQ BACONI: Well, I mean, it’s precisely the point I was making. Now the Israeli media, Benjamin Netanyahu, certainly American media — obviously, with the exception of this platform — is on a rampage of trying to position Hamas as, and Yahya Sinwar specifically, as this image of evil, of this demon, the embodiment of evil that must be removed in order to maintain goodness in the world.
But as you say, go back just over a year, and the Israeli government was very happy to be actively engaged with maintaining Hamas as a government in the Gaza Strip, because their issue was never Hamas. Their issue was: How do they maintain Gaza as an enclave of more than 2 million Palestinians in a state of calm and in a state that does not challenge Israeli security? So the structure of apartheid, the architecture of apartheid, the blockade itself, was never in question. The question was: How do we stabilize the Gaza Strip so that it’s not a threat to Israel?
And so, that really — that goes to the heart of how Israel has been thinking about Palestinians, both in terms of the Netanyahu government and long before, which is that they have to be pacified, they have to be defanged, and they have to accept their lot that they’re living under apartheid indefinitely. Now, in order to achieve that, they worked with various Palestinian political leadership in this instance, including Hamas, to stabilize Palestinian enclaves under overarching Israeli rule. And the U.S. was not only happy with that, it was so convinced that this pacification of Palestinians was sustainable that they —
AMY GOODMAN: We have 20 seconds, Tareq.
TAREQ BACONI: — that they allowed Israel to sort of pursue negotiation agreements and ingratiate itself with the region. It was never an issue of dealing with the political demands at the heart of Palestinian liberation.
AMY GOODMAN: Tareq Baconi, Palestinian analyst and writer, president of the board of Al-Shabaka: The Palestinian Policy Network, author of the book Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance. We’ll link to your recent piece in The New York Review headlined “Accounts of the Struggle.”
When we come back, we go to Tel Aviv to speak with Israeli journalist Gideon Levy. Back in 20 seconds.
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Gideon Levy: Death of Sinwar Won’t End Israel’s War While U.S. Gives Netanyahu Free Rein in Gaza
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 18, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/18 ... transcript
Israel announced Thursday it had killed Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar in Gaza, releasing a video allegedly showing Sinwar’s final moments before his death after Israeli forces in Rafah attacked the building he was in. After the announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared “this is not the end of the war in Gaza.” In Tel Aviv, Israeli families called for Netanyahu to refocus efforts on negotiating a deal to free the hostages. “They are torn because they are clever enough to understand that the killing of Sinwar does not mean the release of their loved ones,” says Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist and author, who says Netanyahu will continue to act through sheer force as he sets his sights on Iran with the full support of the United States.
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz is reporting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is meeting today with ministers and heads of security agencies at the military headquarters in Tel Aviv.
For more, we go to Tel Aviv, where we’re joined by Gideon Levy, award-winning Israeli journalist and author, columnist for the newspaper Haaretz, where he’s also a member of the editorial board.
Gideon, welcome back to Democracy Now! Can you talk about the response in Israel to Israel’s killing of the Hamas leader, Yahya Sinwar?
GIDEON LEVY: As you can imagine, Amy, there is a lot of sense of joy and pride. The media is encouraging it, obviously. The main headline of the most popular newspaper in Israel, Yedioth Ahronoth, says, “The Satan was assassinated.” The mood is of big content and of really feeling that justice prevailed and this Hitler was assassinated. Nobody asks what will be the day after. Nobody asks what did Israel benefit out of it. We are all celebrating the killing of the Satan.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what the families of hostages are saying, where you are, in the city of Tel Aviv? It seems like there wasn’t — they didn’t skip a beat yesterday in their protest of Netanyahu as they demanded a ceasefire.
GIDEON LEVY: Yeah, they are torn, because they are clever enough to understand that the killing of Sinwar does not mean the release of their beloved ones. On the contrary, it might even postpone it or maybe even miss it totally, because as long as Sinwar was alive, there was a partner. Now with whom will Israel deal about any kind of hostage deal, if Israel is at all interested in?
The feeling is that Netanyahu, now he’s boosted by much more support in Israel after this success, this military success of assassinating Sinwar. For him, the hostages were and still are not the first priority. And why would it now happen after it didn’t happen for a whole year? I doubt it. Why would Hamas go for it now? When it’s so beaten and there is so little to lose, why would they now care about releasing the hostages, almost their last asset? So, I understand that the families — they don’t speak in one voice, and it shouldn’t be one voice. But at least part of them are really in anxiety that maybe the last chance for releasing their beloved one was missed.
AMY GOODMAN: Can you talk about what we understand of how Yahya Sinwar was killed? He was not in the tunnels. The video that Israel is putting out of him sitting in a chair, he was in Rafah. Who the forces were who moved into that place, and the significance of that, Gideon Levy?
GIDEON LEVY: First of all, it was totally incidental. I must praise the Israeli information system of propaganda, or hasbara, as they call it. At least they admitted that it was not planned. They didn’t try to show it as if it was a very planned operation. It wasn’t. And he was killed. First they bombed this house where he was, and then a drone got into the house and showed him in his last moments. Quite pathetic video. And then they shot him in his head, as we saw, twice at least, because there are two holes in his head. And they killed him. He was masked, as you saw, trying to hide from being recognized.
But in any case, it doesn’t matter much. The fact is that Israeli intelligence couldn’t find him for one year. The fact is that Israeli intelligence couldn’t find the hostages for one year in a very small piece of land, Gaza Strip, where Israel is controlling now for one year. And finally, they found him. I mean, it was so expected. How couldn’t he be found finally, when Israel is searching after him for so long and really destructing every building and every street in Gaza? So, finally, they succeeded, obviously. It’s not a hell of a success, but in Israel they are quite happy about it. And I can understand the sentiment.
AMY GOODMAN: So, where does what Israel plans to do with Iran fit into this story?
GIDEON LEVY: I hope it doesn’t fit. And I’m very afraid that it does fit, because Netanyahu now feels much more secure. Those last so-called, or not so-called, military successes and achievements started with the beepers and the pagers and continued with the assassinations of all the leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah. All those things just give him a boost to continue the same way that he believes in, the only way he believes in, namely, doing everything by force, doing everything throughout aggressive attacks on the rival, on the enemy.
And he might think the same now about Iran, because Iran is the next object. When the United States is so passive, so passive, really in a shameful way, he feels he has a free carte blanche to continue. And he has a carte blanche to continue, because the United States never stopped him, even not for a moment. He totally ignored the advices of the American administration, rightly so. Why would he bother about presidential advices if the arms continue to flow and the ammunition continues to flow? So, I’m very afraid that this will encourage him also to go to all kind of [inaudible] operations, grand operations also in Iran. And then it can be really frightening, because the outcome might be really catastrophe. And maybe he will succeed. Who knows? I mean, until now, we were all scared of invading Rafah. And look, he invaded Rafah, and nothing happened.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris praising the assassination of Sinwar as progress toward the elimination of Hamas. She spoke in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where she was campaigning Thursday.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Hamas is decimated, and its leadership is eliminated. This moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. And it must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination. And it is time for the day after to begin.
AMY GOODMAN: As we wrap up, Gideon Levy, if you can talk about this? I mean, in a letter, apparently, from Biden saying that they will end arms sales or limit them after 30 days — a top former State Department official said, “Where is it in the law to say if they are starving Gaza, stopping humanitarian aid to Gaza, that you wait 30 days?”
GIDEON LEVY: Even before the 30 days, whatever Vice President Kamala Harris said are wonderful words. I could sign on each word and word that she said. This is really a noble idea to stop this war, to let the Palestinians have dignity and freedom and security, and to let Israel’s security — it’s wonderful. The question is: What did the American administration do to promote those things in the recent year or years? And the answer is nothing, because whatever the administration said was in total contradiction to its deeds. When you continue to supply in an unconditioned way arms and ammunition to Israel, it means you want it to use it. And what is the use of it? Killing 17,000 children in Gaza. That’s the use of the American ammunition. So —
AMY GOODMAN: Gideon Levy, we’re going to have to leave it there. I thank you so much for being with us, award-winning Israeli journalist and author, columnist with Haaretz and on its editorial board.
When we come back, we go to Gaza. Sha’ban al-Dalou would have turned 20 years old this week, but he died in a fireball when Israel attacked Al-Aqsa Hospital, setting off a massive fire in a makeshift tent area housing displaced Palestinians. Back in 20 seconds.
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“I Could Be the Next Sha’ban”: 21-Year-Old Journalist from Gaza Reports on Teenager Burned Alive
by Amy Goodman
DemocracyNow
October 18, 2024
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/10/18 ... transcript
Tributes have poured in from across the globe for 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, a software engineering student who burned to death after Israel bombed Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah on Monday. Photographs and footage of his final moments shocked millions around the world as Sha’ban laid in a hospital bed with an IV attached to his arm as the flames engulfed him. His mother and youngest brother have also reportedly succumbed to their burns, and his two sisters are on the verge of dying from their injuries. “Another family is going to be wiped off the civil record,” says Abubaker Abed, a 21-year-old journalist reporting live from outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital who interviewed al-Dalou’s family and friends. Abed once dreamed of becoming a football commentator and is struggling to find food and supplies while Israel enacts a near-complete siege on Gaza. “We are young men that have nothing to do with this war. … But we are very daily being subjected to sheer violence and brutality,” says Abed. “I could be the next Sha’ban. Anyone could be the next Sha’ban, because Israel is allowed to do anything.”
Transcript
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AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.
Tributes have poured in from across the globe for 19-year-old Sha’ban al-Dalou, a software engineering student who burned to death after Israel bombed Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Deir al-Balah early Monday morning. The bombing set off a massive fire in an area packed with makeshift tents housing displaced Palestinians who had sought safety at the hospital, including Sha’ban’s family. He was an engineering student at Gaza’s Al-Azhar University who had just started his studies in September of last year. He built the tent shelter his family was living in when Israel bombed them. Photographs and footage of his final moments shocked millions around the world as Sha’ban laid in a hospital bed with an IV attached to his arm as the flames engulfed him.
This is a video of Sha’ban al-Dalou in his own words, posted as part of a fundraising campaign to evacuate him from Gaza with his family.
SHA’BAN AL-DALOU: From the tent where we reside, I’m Sha’ban Ahmed, 19 years old. I’m a student studying software engineer. In this barbaric starvation war, we have displaced five times so far. Now we are in Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the middle of Gaza, Deir al-Balah. I’m taking care of my family, as I’m the oldest. I have two sisters and two little brothers and my parents. We live in a very hard circumstances, suffering from various things such as homelessness and limited food and extremely limited medicine. And the only thing between us and the freezing temperature is this tent that we constructed by ourselves.
AMY GOODMAN: Sha’ban was at Al-Aqsa Hospital receiving care after he survived the earlier Israeli strike. Sha’ban al-Dalou would have turned 20 this week.
We go now to Gaza, where we’re joined by Abubaker Abed, a 21-year-old journalist from Deir al-Balah in Gaza. He used to be a football, or soccer, commentator, but now, as he says, he’s an “accidental” war correspondent. His new report for Drop Site News is titled “Shaaban Al-Dalou, Burned Alive in Gaza, Would Have Been 20 Today.” Sha’ban, burned alive alongside his mother, who was also killed on Monday morning. And we’ve just learned his little brother has succumbed to his injuries.
Abubaker, you wrote in your piece, “'He was then immolated along with his mother. We couldn't identify which charred body was him. But then, we searched for a gold necklace his mother used to wear. We found it on one body and knew it was her. Then, we buried them in one grave.’” You also shared the tragic news that Sha’ban’s youngest brother Abdul Ruhman has succumbed to his burn wounds. He was 10 years old. Abubaker Abed, you were about the same age as Sha’ban. Talk about how you learned of his story, and the importance of you writing it.
ABUBAKER ABED: First, thank you so much for having me.
But let me just start by saying that Sha’ban’s — after his youngest brother succumbed to his injuries and burns today early in the morning, now the other two sisters are facing the same fate. They are being treated here at Gaza’s hospitals, which lack every basic necessity inside them. So, they are on the verge of also being killed and passing away. So, we’re talking about an entire family that is going to be wiped out. Another family is going to be wiped off the civil record, which is incredibly harrowing.
Regarding the story of Sha’ban, you know, I just live a few steps away from the hospital. I’m here. I’m an original resident of Deir al-Balah. And then, pre-dawn, or before dawn exactly, an attack happened, and I was harshly awakened, as this is the norm over the course of time since this genocide started. So, when the footage and the videos really went viral on social media and everywhere, then I saw — I was just looking at the photos and the videos, and there was someone inside engulfed by flames, being burned alive in front of millions of people. That was, to me, something special, because I could not really comprehend it. I could not really stay silent. It’s my duty to honor such a memory, particularly because when I knew for the very first time that he was going to be — or, he was 19 years old, and just two days ago he turned 20, if he would have been alive, then I felt that this is my story, because no one else across the globe would really have done this story in the way I could.
We are about the same age, as you mentioned. He memorized the Qur’an. I memorized the Qur’an. He dreamt of completing his studies. I also dream of completing my studies. And our message is very clear from here. We are young men that have nothing to do with this war. We’re not a party to this war. We have no connection with Hamas. But we are very daily being subjected to sheer violence and brutality that has nothing to do with this war. It just keeps going on and on, and without any stop, even after the news of the killing of the Hamas leader. There seems to be no stop, which is incredibly devastating for us. What more should we really endure and go through so this war can stop?
So, the life of Sha’ban should be honored. I’m so proud, I’m so honored, I’m so privileged to have honored his memory, because he had a life once. Israel destroyed his house, reduced his university to rubble. He just started his university studies two years ago. And then, an entire life, a university human, just reduced to ashes. This is the barbarity and brutality of what Israel is about.
AMY GOODMAN: Abubaker, I want to tell the audience around the world who’s watching now, the noise behind you. You are right and front of Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah, where Sha’ban ultimately died of his injuries. Explain how he built this tent, where he had come from for his family. You also spoke to his father, and you spoke to his cousin, who was also named Sha’ban.
ABUBAKER ABED: Yes, it’s just devastating. They are now appealing to everyone on outside, the world, that we want to help the entire family. We want to help the other members that are still surviving their burns. But, unfortunately, there seems to be no end. People over all around me, they are heading to hospitals because they think hospitals are probably or are seemingly the safest places here in Gaza. But the fact is that there is no safe place in Gaza. Sha’ban fled his home from the al-Nasr neighborhood in Gaza City to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital from the very first days of this incredibly harsh genocide. And he sought refuge here, but, unfortunately, he was killed. He was immolated alongside his mother, and now his brother, his youngest brother, has passed away. We’re now talking about a very high possibility that the other two sisters of Sha’ban will join them.
Now, it’s just incredibly devastating and disappointing to hear about such innocent souls being taken, being stolen, loads of dreams and loads of things. And it’s the same fate. They are being treated now inside hospitals in Gaza, these hospitals. As Israel continues its blockade of medical aid entering the strip, the closure of the two crossings in Gaza, Karem Abu Salem and Rafah crossings, are making things very difficult to treat many patients, even here inside the facility of the hospital here. We’re talking about, like, funerals after funerals, you know, a lot of people wailing over the bodies of their loved ones. Mothers are crying and suffering in pain. Children don’t have food.
And it’s the same story for me. I just have — you know, I’m just being starved. I’m incredibly going through such a devastating and harsh time, where I can’t find anything, any means of life. It’s been a year. These people’s wounds haven’t yet been healed up. We want to talk about that, that even time doesn’t heal their wounds. We just want to bring to the world, conjure up to the world the idea that or the many reasons why this world should push for a ceasefire, should make the ceasefire, should trigger a ceasefire deal very soon. Because it seems incredibly heartbreaking, what we are seeing on a very daily basis. Even just minutes before I’m talking to you, I mean, the Israeli military has ratcheted up its attacks in central Gaza and the northern parts and here in our city. So, the overall situation we talked about is just getting dire and deteriorating every single day.
Why? The main question is: Why? What does Israel want to achieve here in Gaza after nearly obliterating every meter of Gaza? This seems incredibly and unbelievably heartbreaking.
AMY GOODMAN: Abubaker, I wanted to play Sha’ban’s uncle, Abdulhay al-Dalou.
ABDULHAY AL-DALOU: [translated] The occupation is the incinerator. The most difficult thing for a person is to be burned. This is a message to the world. I wish the world look at it and see the reactions of people regarding this burning of a Palestinian person who is being tortured day and night. Nobody looks at the Palestinian person with mercy, neither the Arab countries nor the Western countries, nor the countries of the international community.
AMY GOODMAN: Again, that is Sha’ban al-Dalou’s uncle, Abdulhay al-Dalou, talking after Sha’ban died. Sha’ban was 19. Our guest right now, Abubaker Abed, is 21. As we were showing video of Sha’ban, Abubaker, I couldn’t help think how much he looks like you. You’re similar ages. There you are in front of the hospital. And I also couldn’t help notice how skinny you are. How are you getting food? And how is your own family getting food?
ABUBAKER ABED: Honestly, as I told you, as Israel continues closing the two crossings across the besieged territory, there is no food being allowed into the strip. We just mainly depend on some loaves of bread, which is our daily struggle, to get food. I don’t know where else across the globe, across the entirety of the globe, getting food and looking for some water is an arduous journey. We are struggling. We are, you know, exerting so much efforts to just get a sip of water and then some food.
I dream — I’m talking about myself here, as someone who is struggling with my weak immune system. There’s nothing to do with this war in particular. I haven’t got any, since this genocide started, any food, any fresh food that I can really help myself with. I’m most of the time fatigued, which is a result and a symptom of Israel’s continued genocide. It’s the same thing. My family are the same. My parents are sick. We haven’t been able to provide my parents with any medications, with any needed medications over the course of the past time. So, it’s not only my struggle. It’s the struggle of every single one here in Gaza.
And because we are talking about Sha’ban, Sha’ban was starved. He was immunocompromised, as well. And he had gone through many times of — you know, many times of gastroenteritis, hepatitis A virus, before even being injured inside Al-Aqsa Martyrs Mosque, when he was injured and his head was stitched up by 20 sutures.
I don’t know when this barbarity and insanity will stop, but it just continues. And we could be — again, my message to the world is that I could be the next Sha’ban. Anyone could be the next Sha’ban, because Israel is allowed to do anything. There are no international laws that can prevent Israel from doing — from continuing its open war crimes in Gaza. There is no law. And even my understanding is that the international laws and the rights of living, rights of freedom for every human being around the world are enshrined into humanity, into our globe, as we call it, but the claim to humanity we’re talking about has just been exposed when this genocide started, because the double standards of the Western community are extremely devastating and also disgusting and just took —
AMY GOODMAN: Abubaker —
ABUBAKER ABED: They just took the lives of many, many and thousands of people.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you so much for being with us.
ABUBAKER ABED: We need to talk about this.
AMY GOODMAN: I hate to cut you off. Thank you so much for being with us. Abubaker Abed writes that he looks at pictures of food on the internet. He’s a 21-year-old journalist from Deir al-Balah in Gaza, standing outside the hospital where Sha’ban burned to death. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for joining us.