In “While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home — to a wasteland,” Nesrine Malik writes in the Guardian: “Devastation’s perpetrators disqualified themselves long ago from any mandate over the people they have aided in killing and shattering. … The crimes that have been committed cannot be redressed, or even prevented from recurring, if the conditions that enabled their perpetrators continue.” She notes the absurdity of Jared Kushner telling Israelis: “Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, you chose to be exceptional” when Israeli leaders are wanted at the ICC.
The declaration signed Monday is devoid of specifics.
Israel still retains control of 58 percent of Gaza. The U.N. passed a resolution on September 18, 2024, overwhelmingly demanding that Israel end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza within a year.
Drop Site News reported late Monday: “55 healthcare workers from Gaza were released today in the prisoner exchange, according to Healthcare Workers Watch. The group includes 24 nurses, seven doctors, and two paramedics — most abducted directly from hospitals and held up to 22 months in detention and torture facilities.”
MondoWeiss reports in “Palestinians freed from Israeli prison denied reunion with families as Trump claims a ‘forever’ peace” that: “At the end of the prisoner exchange, between 9,000 and 10,000 Palestinians will remain behind bars, including around 5,000 Palestinians who are being held without charge or trial, and without clear release dates, under Israel’s system of ‘administrative detention.’” In addition, many of those released “were devastated to learn that Israel had deported them instead.”
On Tuesday, Israel was still killing civilians in the Shejaiya neighbourhood in Gaza City.
Common Dreams reports: “Ceasefire Sparks Fresh Calls for Global Media Access to Gaza“.
JENNIFER LOEWENSTEIN, sarinj11
Loewenstein is former associate director of Middle Eastern Studies and senior lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and has lived in and reported extensively on the Mideast.
She recently wrote the article “If Hannah Arendt lived today, she’d name Israel’s genocide in Gaza for what it is: ‘Radical evil’” Her other recent pieces include “Letters From Rafah: A Life Under Siege” and “Weaponizing Antisemitism.”