Statement from Chicago Antiwar Coalition (CAWC), November 13, 2023
As of November 13, the number of people killed in Gaza since the beginning of the Zionist regime’s devastating genocidal campaign on October 7 is 11,078 people, including 4,506 children and 3,027 women. A child is killed on average every 10 minutes in the Gaza Strip, the Director-General World Health Organization Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told The Guardian newspaper. The situation is very dire and getting worse.
The regional directors of the United Nations Children’s Agency (UNICEF), UN Population Fund (UNFPA), and the World Health Organization (WHO) made an appeal in a joint statement on Sunday, November 12 calling for urgent international action to end Israel’s ongoing attacks on hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip. They said they were appalled by the regime’s attacks targeting either the main buildings or the periphery of hospitals located in Gaza City, including al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital, al-Shifa and al-Quds hospitals, and other hospitals located in the north of the blockaded territory. Over the past 36 days, the WHO has recorded at least 137 Israeli attacks on health care facilities in Gaza, resulting in the killing of 521 people and the injury of 686 others, including the killing of 16 members of the health staff and the wounding of 38 others, the UN officials said in their statement. “The world cannot stand silent while hospitals, which should be safe havens, are transformed into scenes of death, devastation, and despair. Decisive international action is needed now to secure an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, prevent further loss of life, and preserve what’s left of the health care system in Gaza,” the statement said. “Unimpeded, safe, and sustained access is needed now to provide fuel, medical supplies, and water for these lifesaving services,” it added.
It is also worth noting that with its siege of the Gaza Strip that began October 9, Israel has also cut off the flow of basic supplies, such as water, electricity, medicines, and fuel to one of the world’s most densely-populated territories that houses over 2 million Palestinians. According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 21 of the 35 hospitals with inpatient facilities have stopped functioning, either due to damage from Israeli shelling and airstrikes or lack of fuel.
The Palestinian Red Crescent reports that al-Quds hospital has been under intense gunfire. Israeli military vehicles continue to surround the building, trapping patients and injured people, who have no food, water or power. Al-Quds is out of service because of power outages and fuel shortages, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said, adding that it is unable to evacuate the 300 remaining patients and medical employees due to Israeli bombardments and gunfire.
Israel attempts to legitimize its war crimes by writing up stories alleging that militants are blending in with civilians attempting to escape the hospital and firing rocket-propelled grenade and anti-tank weapons from the hospital entrance. Even if that were the case, which no UN or other agency such as Red Cross or Red Crescent corroborates, Israeli assaults on hospitals would still constitute a war crime. Gaza’s largest hospital, al-Shifa, is also “not functioning as a hospital anymore,” (see a first person report on Al Shifa assault here) the Director General of the WHO said, as a result of the Israelis cutting off power, water and medicine supplies to the hospital amid bombardment in the area. The hospital is surrounded by Israeli troops and at least 32 people — including three children from the intensive care unit — have died in the past three days, a Gaza health official said.
Hamas called on the Secretary-General of the UN to form an international committee to visit Gaza hospitals and verify the Israeli false narrative about their use for resistance activities. Israel claims that Hamas has constructed tunnels beneath the buildings and uses this claim to justify its attacks on hospitals and schools, the latest being the Qatari and Indonesian hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip.” This is just a lie to cover up the Israeli crimes committed against injured people and civilians,” Hamas said. It also confirmed that the Israeli allegation about a tunnel entrance under the Indonesian hospital is, in fact, a fuel store for the facility, while the alleged tunnel beneath Hamad Hospital is just a room for pumps and electricity generators. Israel has targeted more than 100 hospitals and medical centres and put about 16 hospitals out of service. The Israeli army spokesman’s allegations are self-serving and unconscionable in any case.
On November 8, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 1.5 million Palestinians are internally displaced – 710,275 people are sheltering in 149 facilities run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA); 122,000 are in hospitals, churches, and public buildings; 109,755 are in 89 non-UNRWA schools; and the remainder are residing with host families. Since then, the Israeli destruction of hospitals and UNWRA facilities has been stepped up. Many of those facilities have been bombed and subjected to sniper fire.
West Bank settler violence is increasing exponentially, accompanied by actions of the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF). At least 111 Palestinian households comprising 905 people, including 356 children, have been displaced in the occupied West Bank because of Israeli settler violence and access restrictions, the UN says. “An additional 120 Palestinians, including 55 children, have been displaced since 7 October following demolitions in Area C and East Jerusalem, due to lack of permits, and another 23, including 13 children, following punitive demolitions,” OCHA added.
Israeli Minister of Heritage Amichai Eliyahu said that “dropping a nuclear bomb on the Gaza Strip is one of the solutions.” Hamas responded in a statement saying the international community, the UN and relevant international courts “are urged to take the statement of this terrorist Nazi criminal” and the statements of other Israeli leaders seriously and to take urgent measures to stop this entity from committing a genocide in the Gaza Strip. Hamas demanded that “the leaders of this entity be held accountable for their heinous crimes.” It warned that international silence and inaction would encourage “these terrorist killers to continue the massacre of the century and the genocidal war against our people.” This would threaten “an uncontrollable explosion of the entire region and the world at large,” Hamas said.
The only thing the U.S. has achieved to save any lives is that “Over the last several days, through pretty intensive negotiations with all sides relevant to this conflict, we have been able to get out more than 300 Americans, lawful permanent residents, and their family members,” White House Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer told CBS News. The U.S. believes there are still “a number” of U.S. citizens and residents remaining in the besieged Palestinian territory, he said. The evacuation of U.S. people was given priority even over the citizens of Egypt. Canada’s negotiation power is clearly a lot less and Canadians had to wait several more days.
The calls for a ceasefire and opposition to U.S. involvement in the Israeli massacres and the support for what Israel is doing by governments of countries like Britain and Canada continues to grow. An important development is the fact that hundreds of officials from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have endorsed a November 3 letter calling on President Joe Biden to push for a ceasefire. According to a copy of the letter obtained by the Washington Post, USAID employees stated that they were “alarmed and disheartened at the numerous violations of international law; laws which aim to protect civilians, medical and media personnel, as well as schools, hospitals, and places of worship.” The letter has reportedly been endorsed by over 630 employees of the agency, which is said to be independent of the U.S. government and responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance to developing nations.
Resistance in Gaza
An investigation conducted by Al-Jazeera Network, and reported in Palestine Chronicle, analyzed recent satellite images to reveal data about Israel’s ground operation in the Gaza Strip. The images showed the exact number of Israeli occupation army vehicles in the Strip, their stationing locations, and advancing lines. It revealed among other things that on November 8, the total number of military vehicles amounted to 295. This is a decrease of 88 vehicles compared to November 3, when the number of military vehicles reached 383. The images appear to corroborate recent statements of the resistance forces declaring that in the past week alone 136 Israeli military vehicles had been completely destroyed or rendered unusable.
The images also showed that the Israeli armed forces are positioning vehicles to ensure maximum damage to civilian infrastructure. For example, the Israeli army’s armoured vehicles were located in seven schools, namely Ibn Sina, Khaled Al-Alami basic schools for boys, Sami Al-Alami, Al-Awda, Sarafand, Al-Zahawi, and Ashdod. The Israeli army positioned an average of 10 to 15 vehicles in each school.
The military spokesman for the al-Qassam Brigades Abu Obeida said on Saturday, November 11 that “Israeli tanks face fierce resistance and intense clashes, forcing them to retreat and change the course of their incursion.” Referring to the failure of advancing Israeli forces to hold any permanent position inside Gaza City, the spokesperson added that more than 25 military vehicles were either fully or partially destroyed in Resistance attacks in the last 48 hours alone. The statement was backed up with videos documenting the targeting of Israeli tanks by homemade anti-artillery defences.
The spokesperson added: “The American-backed [Israeli] war machine is destroying everything in front of them before advancing, but it faces resistance that destroys their armoured vehicles and their soldiers’ fortified positions and assembly areas.”
The press statement continued: “Bombing hospitals, schools, and civilian facilities are the achievements of the occupier to have an achievement over the sea of innocent blood. The enemy’s massacres in Gaza are the only achievement in the war. We announce that we have documented the complete or partial destruction of more than 160 Zionist military vehicles since the beginning of the ground aggression, including more than 25 vehicles in the last 48 hours.”
Israel’s National Security Minister: Advocate of Genocide
and Convicted Terrorist
Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir reiterated statements on behalf of the Israeli government that amount to outright advocacy of genocide. He said that anyone who supports Hamas should be “eliminated,” Anadolu Agency reported. During an interview with the Israeli Channel 12, Ben-Gvir said “To be clear, when they say that Hamas needs to be eliminated, it also means those who sing, those who support and those who distribute candy, all of these are terrorists.” The Minister added, “They should all be eliminated.”
While Israel is accusing the Palestinian resistance of being “terrorist,” the Israeli National Security Minister Ben-Gvir is himself a convicted terrorist as a former member of the racist Kahane movement which Israel banned in 1998 for terrorist acts and the U.S. also designated as a terrorist organization. Ben-Gvir was exempted from military service due to the particularly extremist nature of his beliefs. These were 53 indictments prepared for charges against the Israeli minister such as “hate, provocative speech and racism.” He was convicted of “racism and supporting a terrorist organization” in 2007. Despite all of this, Ben-Gvir was appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Ministry of National Security, responsible for law enforcement in the country.
U.S. Involvement in War Crimes in Gaza
More and more direct evidence of U.S. military engagement in committing war crimes in Gaza is coming to light. Numerous sources have concluded that U.S.-made AGM-114R9X Hellfire missiles were used to strike Gaza’s main hospital, al-Shifa, where a number of Palestinian patients were killed and wounded. A U.S. military source told Press TV on November 12 that U.S. Hellfire missiles were used in the attack on the evening of November 10. Other online sources also reported that it is highly likely U.S. Hellfire missiles were used to strike the hospital. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a U.S. military analyst argued that based on the trajectory and eight-kilometre range required to effectively use laser targeting, it is most likely that the launch platform for the missile attack on the hospital could only have been a U.S. unmanned drone. It “likely points to the involvement of U.S. assets,” the analyst said. Meanwhile, the U.S. European Command announced that a U.S. military aircraft crashed in the eastern Mediterranean on November 10 attributing it to an accident “purely related to training.”
Public disclosure of a highly confidential audio recording of David Petraeus, former U.S. general, former director of the CIA and current board member of NATO’s Atlantic Council and many other U.S. security organizations points to direct U.S. involvement in Israeli ground operations and the orchestration of a narrative to whitewash Israeli crimes. The full text of the confidential audio file is published in an article in the MEHR News Agency, entitled “General Petraeus meeting with Zionists audio file disclosed.” First off Petraeus says, “I think that it [Hamas] has to be destroyed. Destruction means in military terms that you are rendering an enemy incapable of accomplishing his mission without reconstitution. Keep in mind the reconstitution piece, because this is a huge task for, the day after for the ultimate administration of Gaza. I think that the vision that is announced by the prime minister ultimately with the IDF chief of staff and others, ah should be to make clear, they intend to destroy Hamas and Islamic Jihad and then to lay out, how this has to be done there is no alternative.” He counsels that the messaging must emphasize Israeli concern for safeguarding civilians. He says, “[It will have to be] very clearly demonstrated, you know, during the battles that Israeli soldiers taking great pains to safeguard civilians, noting that of course there is that enemy without uniform [who] hides among the civilians as hostages, there’s gonna be suicide bombers, there will be improvised explosive device you know all this.”
Next he draws on the mistakes the U.S. made following its carpet bombing of Iraq and advises the Israeli government to paint a rosy picture of what life could be like for Palestinians once Israel slaughters anyone it labels as Hamas or a terrorist. “There should be a demonstration of the intention to start repairing the damage and destruction and that leads to another element of the vision, which has to be what life can be like for the Palestinians in Gaza and I submit the West Bankers … I’m not expecting that the Palestinians help you against them, but at least not to actively support them, and to stay out of the way and then perhaps life not only, perhaps life will be better after Hamas. Hamas has brought this on you, um and so forth and so on. But I think there has to be this kind of vision and again it’s very clear that people are asking what is the future of that of the Palestinians in Gaza?”
Interestingly, Blinken and Biden are feigning disbelief and publicly say they are asking for clarification from Israel about Netanyahu’s statements that Israel intends to occupy Gaza until Hamas is completely eliminated. Meanwhile, this is precisely what Petraeus counselled the Israelis to say: “I think there has to be an acknowledgment that Israel is going after to run Gaza for a while and no one wants to reoccupy, I know the challenges associated with that, but I just don’t foresee any confident and capable organization coming in,” he said. “Keep in mind that because for sure if you are setting out to destroy not just Hamas’s army and the PIJ army it’s to destroy or dismantle the Palestinian political wing which has been announced as part of the objective. So who is going to administer, and keep in mind the administration is not just handing out humanitarian assistance, restoring basic services, starting reconstruction, getting schools, markets, clinics, opening all that,” he said. “[T]here is going to have to be an intelligence-led effort to ensure that the Islamic Jihad and Hamas cannot reconstitute themselves from the remnants that will be left [inevitably] and they’re certainly going to try to do that. So again all these elements I think of the vision really should be stated and also frankly just doing that is going to force the leadership to acknowledge some hard realities,” he said.
Petraeus concludes saying that the messaging must be clear so as not to create expectations that the carnage or occupation will end quickly. “So again I think these visions are crucial, it just can’t be this idea that they’d been saying so far, that we’ll figure it out when we get there. The focus is on the combat operations, for somebody who is there and been there up holding the bag that doesn’t cut it.”
U.S. Airstrikes on Syria
U.S. military forces conducted precision strikes on November 13 on facilities in eastern Syria. The strikes were reportedly conducted against a training facility and a safe house near the cities of Abu Kamal and Mayadin, respectively. <Editor’s Note: Apparently in retaliation for strikes on US bases in Syria that have caused significant damage and a number of casualties>
After Egypt and Jordan outright rejected being the recipients to host the forced expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, Al-Jadeed, news media based in London, reports that new plots are afoot which aim to move Gazans to other countries. Citing Egyptian and western diplomatic sources Al-Jadeed said, “The new proposal is based on providing broad facilities to residents of the Gaza Strip through residency permits and job opportunities in the United States of America, a number of European countries, and some Arab countries, with priority given to the residents of northern Gaza.” <Editor’s note: this seems pretty much over the top. It certainly seems like a confirmation that this is all about Mediterranean oil and gas fields and the Ben Gurion canal>
Indian Trade Unions Stand in Solidarity with Palestinian Workers
Major trade unions in India have called on the Modi government to scrap an agreement with Israel that will allow tens of thousands of Indian workers to replace Palestinian construction workers whose work permits have been revoked since the current Israeli genocidal assault on Palestinians in Gaza started. The statement, released on behalf of the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC), Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), the BJP-affiliated Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), and several other Indian union organizations, called for India’s trade union movements to show solidarity with Palestinian workers by refusing to replace them. “Nothing could be more immoral and disastrous for India than the said ‘export’ of workers to Israel,” the group said in an open letter released November 9. “That India is even considering ‘exporting’ workers shows the manner in which it has dehumanized and commodified Indian workers,” it said. “Such a step will amount to complicity on India’s part with Israel’s ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians and will naturally have adverse implications for Indian workers in the entire region.”
South African Support for Palestine and Opposition to Israeli Apartheid
At a protest in Cape Town, South Africa on November 11, in which more than 10,000 people participated, African National Congress (ANC) Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to close down the Israeli embassy and to “move faster.” Ababula said, “The embassy of Israel must be closed down. It must close down now!” He added, “We are sick and tired of the apartheid state of Israel, and we must demonstrate it with our actions. As the ANC, I say here today, from Nelson Mandela to Ramaphosa, we stand with the people of Palestine.”
Also in South Africa, police used water cannons and stun grenades to disperse demonstrators who refused to permit pro-Israeli forces to rally in Cape Town on November 12. The protestors said a country like South Africa that has lived through an apartheid regime should not permit forces that promote the apartheid regime of Israel to organize. A pro-Israel event was set to be held at the Sea Point promenade, a public space in Cape Town popular with picnicking families. Despite a strong police presence intended to enable the rally in support of Israel, the event was called off before it could start as Palestinian supporters gathered at the promenade making it clear the promotion of Israeli apartheid was not welcome.
Filipinos Worldwide Join Solidarity Actions for Palestine
The National Democratic Front of the Philippines reports:
“As the U.S. and Zionist-Israel continue their genocidal war crimes against the Palestinian people in Gaza, Filipinos joined various solidarity protests and actions in many parts of the world in support of the Palestinian people. Hundreds of protesters from progressive Filipino groups carrying Palestinian flags and banners reading: Stop the Genocide! and End Israeli Occupation of Palestine Now!, rallied in front of the Israeli embassy in Manila last October 31. As well thousands of Filipino Muslims rallied at the Luneta grandstand in Manila on October 26 to manifest their support for the Palestinian people. Hundreds of Filipinos in the U.S. joined the National March on Washington, DC for a Free Palestine on November 4. An estimated 300,000 participated in the march calling for freedom for Palestine, an end to the genocide in Gaza, and an end to U.S. support for Israel.”
Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit in Saudi Arabia
The Joint Arab-Islamic Extraordinary Summit was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on November 11, to discuss the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people. The participants of the extraordinary joint summit of the League of Arab States (LAS) and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Riyadh agreed that it is necessary to stop Israel’s military operations as soon as possible, organize the delivery of aid to the peaceful population and create functioning security mechanisms, news agencies reported. “Arab and Muslim leaders held the West responsible for the humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip due to their blind support for Tel Aviv’s actions,” one news agency said.
The President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that his country is ready to participate in the establishment and operation of a security guarantee mechanism for the Palestinians, including a system of guarantor countries “to provide security not only for the Palestinians but also for the Israelis and the entire region.”
Crown Prince of Kuwait Salem Abdullah al-Sabah said the UN Security Council in particular should “assume its direct responsibility and immediately stop the bloodshed in the Gaza Strip.”
President of Egypt Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said that his country insists on the formation of a concrete mechanism to achieve a just settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on the idea of two independent states. “It is also the turn of the international community to exert maximum efforts to establish an independent Palestinian state,” he said.
Qatar called on the UN to send an international investigation team to Gaza to determine the extent of Israeli responsibility for attacks on civilian targets, including health facilities.
Syria’s representative said that “effective steps, not verbal rhetoric, are needed at this moment” to stop the war. “Arab countries must limit their contacts with Israel in order to stop the fighting in Gaza.”
Jordan’s King Abdullah rejected any plans for Israel to occupy Gaza or create security zones within the enclave, state media reported. In comments he made at the royal palace, the king was quoted as telling senior politicians there could be “no military or security solution” to the war, adding Gaza should not be severed by Israel from the other Palestinian territories. The Jordanian Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed al-Safadi, also called on the legal committee to establish a framework for filing a complaint to the International Criminal Court to hold those guilty of war crimes and genocide in Gaza accountable.
Iran called for using “all means” to force the U.S. and Israel to stop the fighting in Gaza, including suggesting that Islamic countries arm the Palestinians to fight Israel if the fighting in the enclave does not stop. Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi also reiterated his country’s position on rejecting the so-called two-state solution for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, and has instead called for a democratic solution for a single state based on ballot boxes involving Palestinians of all faiths. Iran’s president ended his speech by proposing the following set of solutions to resolve the crisis in Gaza:
- Putting an end to the massacre of the people of Gaza and blind attacks on civilians.
- Complete lifting of the humanitarian blockade of Gaza and immediate and unconditional reopening of the Rafah border crossing with cooperation of Egypt.
- Immediate withdrawal of the military of the Zionist regime from Gaza.
- Cutting off any political and economic ties with the Zionist regime.
- Recognition of the military of Israel as a terrorist organization.
- Establishment of an international court to prosecute and punish the criminal leaders of Israel and the U.S.
- Funding the reconstruction of Gaza.
- Sending humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people in Gaza from various Islamic countries.
- In member countries’ official calendars naming the day of the bombing of Arab Al-Ahli Hospital as the day of genocide.
- Arming the people of Gaza, if Israel’s relentless crimes and Washington’s support for the regime’s conduct continue.
Failed Attempts to Confound Anti-Zionism with Anti-Semitism
The Zionist lobby in the U.S., France, Canada and other countries is also in action. Anti-War.com writes that in the U.S., the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has declared Jewish groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow and others that joined in the unprecedented November 4 Washington, DC protest to demand a ceasefire — as “anti-Israel.” According to The Intercept, the Anti-Defamation League has added them to their database documenting rising anti-Semitism across the U.S. After a Jewish-led protest at the Capitol Building in DC to demand a ceasefire, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt called the groups that organized the protest, including Jewish Voice for Peace, “hate groups.” Roughly 500 Jews, including 25 rabbis, were arrested at that protest.
The Times of Israel reported that more than 180,000 people turned out on November 12 in Paris and other French cities to march in support of Israeli aggression on Gaza. Police reported some 100,000 participated in Paris. More than 3,000 police and gendarmes were deployed to maintain security. French President Emmanuel Macron publicly supported the call for the rally to support Israel, as did Marine Le Pen who declared the march should also serve to stand against “Islamic fundamentalism,” a pet theme of her National Rally (RN) known for decades as the National Front (FN), led by her father, convicted Holocaust denier Jean-Marie Le Pen. French Prime Minister Borne said on November 12, “There is no place for posturing” at the march, tweeting that “this is a vital battle for national cohesion.”
In Canada an unsavoury group made up of the United Jewish Alliance Federation (UJAF) together with the Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) and anti-Iranian forces held a pro-Israel rally in Toronto’s Christie Pits Park. UJAF billed the event as a rally “for human rights, for the freedom of the hostages, and for an end to the hate we’re facing today.” Sara Lefton, UJAF chief development officer, said, “We cannot — cannot — call for a ceasefire without calling for the return of the hostages and for Hamas to surrender. And so we absolutely need to end the killing of Israeli civilians and Palestinian civilians but we can only do that if Hamas is gone.” Alexandria Chyczu, President of UCC, infamous for its support for Nazi collaborators said, “We understand that if either Russia or Hamas succeeds it will be dire days for all of us.” The UCC issued a statement following the rally saying UCC had “joined our friends in Canada’s Jewish community to express our solidarity with the people of Israel and unequivocally condemn the heinous violence perpetrated by the Hamas terrorist organization against Israel. Terror and terrorism must be defeated.”
CityNews Toronto coverage went with the headline “Protesters demonstrate across Canada” however no details were provided other than the pro-Israel rally held in Toronto’s Christie Pits Park. Likewise Canadian Jewish News announced pro-Israel rallies were increasing across the country. Aside from art installations organized by UJAF and appealing for “Jewish Canadians to turn out, whether for the Toronto event or across the country,” the only pro-Israeli actions cited seemed limited to vehicles flying Israeli flags driving in downtown Toronto, “eye-grabbing visual displays around Toronto” and “a small group of pro-Israel supporters [that] brings Israeli flags and music to the corner of Bathurst Street and Sheppard Avenue on Sunday mornings.”
The fact is that the Jewish people themselves, in Canada, the U.S. and around the world, stand second to none in condemning the savage Israeli apartheid aggression against the Palestinian people, the murder of men, women and children by indiscriminate bombing day and night, the decades of Israeli occupation, the illegal settlements and settlement violence against the Palestinian people. They speak and organize boldly and loudly in their own name and demand a ceasefire now!