Order in Gaza appears to be breaking down – and people are angry at ‘disgraceful’ US move
From Gaza to the West Bank and far beyond, there is a collective anger at the US veto of a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
And the UK’s abstention is seen as tacit support for the continuing Israeli campaign against Hamas, even as aid agencies are lining up to tell the world that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip is becoming completely unmanageable and dire.
The warnings that social order is on the brink of disintegrating appears now to be happening.
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People in Gaza try to get their hands on the precious little aid coming into the region
Pictures from the Rafah Crossing show one of few aid trucks entering Gaza being mobbed by crowds of people desperate to get their hands on a little food, or anything they can find.
To the west, on the Mediterranean Sea, the people who evacuated to al Mawasi don’t even have the opportunity to attempt to get their hands on aid. There is none.
This former Bedouin settlement, which the IDF says is a safe zone, is a barren wasteland at the best of times – now it’s the worst.
Our team in Gaza visited al Mawasi again and filmed as people tried to set up home in tented camps they’ve built themselves.
Al Mawasi in Gaza
There are now hundreds of families in al Mawasi, many of them women and children, living cheek by jowl. They’re only just surviving.
Sami Waleed Keshko and his family first fled Gaza City to Khan Younis, and then as the fighting intensified in the south, they had to flee again.
“It was difficult, but we moved out of Gaza City when the tanks and snipers were on the ground. When you see all these refugees here, don’t think they have willingly moved,” he told Sky News.
“They were displaced against their will when they were under fire and had to flee to save their children.”
Sami Waleed Keshko and his family
Smoke rising in the distance in Gaza
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This family’s experience of moving multiple times to try to get away from the fighting is very common. And they, like many, are desperate and angry at what happened at the United Nations.
Sami Waleed Keshko said: “What happened was disgraceful. We expected more pressure, but the US will remain supportive of Israel against us.
“We are poor unarmed people who live in tents as refugees, we were made refugees in 1967 and now again in 2023 when the world is supposed to be more advanced.
“If the resolution was passed and the ceasefire was implemented, things would change and we’d then see that the UN member states had respected the Security Council.”
When – and where – they can, aid agencies do attempt a handout of food parcels – but the reality is what is coming into Gaza is inadequate, and barely scratches the surface.
The World Food Programme (WFP) says more than half of Gaza’s population is “starving”, and that it’s not possible to meet their needs with such active fighting.
Ford parcels are handed out. Pic: WFP
Pic: WFP
What we have seen, day after day, from our daily feed of pictures from our team inside Gaza illustrates just how difficult and dangerous life there has become.
Safe spaces are not actually that safe, the fighting is everywhere, and people are fleeing in large numbers further south with very little help to survive away from home.
There is little sanctuary to be found in Gaza.
And with the US support of Israel, there is no talk of any ceasefire – dashing any hopes of alleviating this all-out humanitarian crisis.
World
‘Widespread sexual violence’ took place during Hamas’s 7 October attacks, report by Israeli experts says
A newly released report led by Israeli legal and gender experts presents detailed evidence alleging “widespread and systematic” sexual violence during the Hamas-led terror attack on 7 October.
Warning: This story contains descriptions of rape and sexual violence
The findings, published by the Dinah Project, argue that these acts amount to conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), and assert that “Hamas used sexual violence as a tactical weapon of war”.
The report draws on 18 months of investigation and is based on survivor testimonies, eyewitness accounts, and interviews with first responders, morgue personnel and healthcare professionals.
According to the Dinah Project, the documented patterns – such as forced nudity, gang rapes, genital mutilation, and threats of forced marriage – indicate a deliberate and coordinated use of sexual violence by Hamas operatives during the attack.
Reported incidents span at least six locations, including the Nova music festival, and several kibbutzim in southern Israel.
A destroyed car near the police station in Sderot, following the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Pic: AP
One section of the report describes victims “found fully or partially naked from the waist down, with their hands tied behind their backs and/or to structures such as trees and poles, and shot”.
At the Nova music festival and surrounding areas, the investigators found “reasonable grounds to believe” that multiple women were raped or gang-raped before being killed.
The report’s findings are consistent with earlier investigations by the United Nations and the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
The UN’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict previously concluded that there were “reasonable grounds to believe” CRSV took place during the attack.
Destroyed vehicles near the grounds of the Supernova electronic music festival. Pic: AP
Significantly, the Dinah Project urges the international community to officially recognise the use of sexual violence by Hamas as a deliberate strategy of war and calls on the United Nations to add Hamas to its list of parties responsible for conflict-related sexual violence.
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The nature and scale of sexual violence on 7 October have been a subject of intense controversy, with some accusing parties of weaponising the narrative for political ends.
This report seeks to confront what its authors call “denial, misinformation, and global silence,” and to provide justice for the victims.
Hamas has denied that its fighters have used sexual violence and mistreated female hostages.
World
Israeli soldiers ‘psychologically broken’ after ‘confronting the reality’ in Gaza, UN expert says
A UN expert has said some young soldiers in the Israeli Defence Forces are being left “psychologically broken” after “confront[ing] the reality among the rubble” when serving in Gaza.
Francesca Albanese, the UN Human Rights Council’s special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, was responding to a Sky News interview with an Israeli solider who described arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza.
She told The World with Yalda Hakim that “many” of the young people fighting in Gaza are “haunted by what they have seen, what they have done”.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Ms Albanese said. “This is not a war, this is an assault against civilians and this is producing a fracture in many of them.
“As that soldier’s testimony reveals, especially the youngest among the soldiers have been convinced this is a form of patriotism, of defending Israel and Israeli society against this opaque but very hard felt enemy, which is Hamas.
“But the thing is that they’ve come to confront the reality among the rubble of Gaza.”
An Israeli soldier directs a tank near the border with the Gaza Strip, in southern Israel. Pic: AP
Being in Gaza is “probably this is the first time the Israeli soldiers are awakening to this,” she added. “And they don’t make sense of this because their attachment to being part of the IDF, which is embedded in their national ideology, is too strong.
“This is why they are psychologically broken.”
Jonathan Conricus, a former IDF spokesman who is now a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defence of Democracies, said he believes the Sky News interview with the former IDF solider “reflects one part of how ugly, difficult and horrible fighting in a densely populated, urban terrain is”.
“I think [the ex-soldier] is reflecting on how difficult it is to fight in such an area and what the challenges are on the battlefield,” he said.
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Ex-IDF spokesperson: ‘No distinction between military and civilians’
‘An economy of genocide’
Ms Albanese, one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts, also said her most recent report for the human rights council has identified “an economy of genocide” in Israel.
The system, she told Hakim, is made up of more than 60 private sector companies “that have become enmeshed in the economy of occupation […] that have Israel displace the Palestinians and replace them with settlers, settlements and infrastructure Israel runs.”
Israel has rejected allegations of genocide in Gaza, citing its right to defend itself after Hamas’s attack on 7 October 2023.
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‘Israel has shifted towards economy of genocide’
The companies named in Ms Albanese’s report are in, but not limited to, the financial sector, big tech and the military industry.
“These companies can be held responsible for being directed linked to, or contributing, or causing human rights impacts,” she said. “We’re not talking of human rights violations, we are talking of crimes.”
“Some of the companies have engaged in good faith, others have not,” Ms Albanese said.
Read more:
Israeli soldier describes arbitrary killing of civilians in Gaza
British surgeons on life in Gaza
Listen to The World with Richard Engel and Yalda Hakim every Wednesday
The companies she has named include American technology giant Palantir, which has issued a statement to Sky News.
It said it is “not true” that Palantir “is the (or a) developer of the ‘Gospel’ – the AI-assisted targeting software allegedly used by the IDF in Gaza, and that we are involved with the ‘Lavender’ database used by the IDF for targeting cross-referencing”.
“Both capabilities are independent of and pre-ate Palantir’s announced partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry,” the statement added.
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