Rome 5.44pm
Giving his Christmas address, Pope Francis laments the "appalling" loss of life in Gaza. He implores Hamas to release the hostages and Netanyahu to stop his (war crime) bombing of Palestinian civilians. Netanyahu has it entirely within his powers to stop pummeling Palestinian civilians in Gaza and to negotiate with Hamas for further releases of the remaining hostages. Instead, his wife writes to the pope.
Double standard from DC, Biden's continuing support for Netanyahu as Israeli forces pummel Palestinian civilians in Gaza is harming efforts to help Ukraine resist Putin's colonial invasion and war crimes.
There have been 239 attacks on health-care workers, vehicles and facilities in Gaza that have killed 570 people since the war started, the WHO said on Dec. 13, NOT COUNTING from 14 - 25 December right now. Beyond causing "the deaths of more than 28,000 people" and damaging "about half the buildings" in Gaza, the Israeli military has pulverized "Gaza City’s cultural riches and municipal institutions." It seems Netanyahu wants to leave nothing to return to.
Thanks to Biden having watered down the UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, Netanyahu doesn't even pretend to suspend hostilities to allow desperately needed humanitarian aid to be delivered. He said Israel is "intensifying" its military campaign. Netanyahu and his ilk pretend "that some people are just all victims all the time and can’t be committing crimes against humanity by definition, because they’ve had crimes against humanity committed against them
That Israel can produce a handful of rifles and point to an occasional tunnel does not justify shutting down Gaza's hospitals. “Only the current misuse of the hospital deprives it of its protection, but if that misuse ends, that protection is restored.” Around 1-1/2 times as many structures were damaged in northern Gaza in 7 weeks as were damaged across Mosul during the 9-month battle. Nearly twice as many structures were destroyed in northern Gaza as were destroyed in Mosul over those same periods.