Annie's New Letters (& notes): 2025

Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Gaza doctors ‘becoming too weak to treat patients’ as hunger crisis deepens Medical staff say they are struggling to function well enough to care for injured and malnourished civilians in overwhelmed hospitals

The scale of malnutrition in patients is putting a huge strain on an already depleted and exhausted workforce, say doctors. Photograph: Mariam Dagga/AP

Doctors and medical staff in Gaza say their increasing hunger and the lack of available food is beginning to leave them too weak to provide urgent medical care to patients inside hospitals full of malnourished and injured civilians.

Almost a dozen medical staff across the territory have told the Guardian and the Arabic Reporters for Investigative Journalism (ARIJ) of their increasingly desperate search for food and declining physical health due to hunger.

“They are in a state of extreme exhaustion. Some have fainted in the operating rooms,” said Dr Mohammed Abu Selmia, the director of al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, who said that like the people of Gaza, staff had not received any aid or had any meals in the past 48 hours.

“Medical services will be affected because our staff will not be able to hold out any longer in the face of this famine,” he added.

Many of the doctors and medical practitioners who sent messages to the Guardian did not want to be named as they feared being targeted by the Israeli military.

“Today I have been on a 24-hour shift,” said one physician... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jul/23/gaza-doctors-becoming-too-weak-to-treat-patients-as-hunger-crisis-deepens

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes) IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Mass starvation spreading across Gaza, aid agencies warn- More than 100 aid agencies, including Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and Oxfam, say ‘our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away’

A one-and-a-half-year-old child in Gaza facing life-threatening malnutrition as the humanitarian situation worsens due to ongoing Israeli attacks and blockade. Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/23/israel-gaza-war-aid-benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-middle-east-latest-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-688084458f086020c423e7fa#block-688084458f086020c423e7fa

More than 100 aid organisations warn of 'mass starvation' in Gaza

More than 100 aid organisations warned on Wednesday that “mass starvation“ was spreading in Gaza, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reports.

Israel is facing mounting international pressure over the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory, where more than 2 million people face severe shortages of food and other essentials after 21 months of conflict, triggered by Hamas’s attack on Israel.

The UN said on Tuesday that Israeli forces had killed more than 1,000 Palestinians trying to get food aid since the US- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation started operations in late May – in effect sidelining the existing UN-led system.

A statement with 111 signatories, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children and Oxfam, warned that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away”.

The groups called for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings and the free flow of aid through UN-led mechanisms.

Israel says humanitarian aid is being allowed into Gaza and accuses Hamas of exploiting civilian suffering, including by stealing food handouts to sell at inflated prices or shooting at those awaiting aid.

In their statement, the humanitarian organisations said that warehouses with tonnes of supplies were sitting untouched just outside the territory, and even inside, as they were blocked from accessing or delivering the goods.

The signatories said:

Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions.

It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage.

The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jul/23/israel-gaza-war-aid-benjamin-netanyahu-hamas-middle-east-latest-news-updates?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6880c15a8f086020c423ea5e#block-6880c15a8f086020c423ea5e

A former worker of the Israeli-backed logistics group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), has told Israel’s Channel 12 outlet that the group’s aid centres put the Gaza population “in danger”, Al Jazeera reports.

The US security guard said in an interview on Tuesday that the GHF system “has to be put an end to”.

He described incidents during which GHF staff pepper sprayed and threw stun grenades at Palestinians, despite them appearing to pose no threat.

He said:

While the Palestinians were finishing collecting the aid that was at the site, the American security guards began shooting at them … shooting at their feet, shooting at the earthen embankments, to make them leave.

In all my military service, I have never seen such use of force against unarmed civilians. I will not take part in it now.

Philippe Lazzarini: "Silencing voices. As if banning international media is not enough. Humanitarian workers are also banned when they report on atrocities committed in Gaza & elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory." ... OPEN THE GATES!

Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

16h

Silencing voices.

As if banning international media is not enough. Humanitarian workers are also banned when they report on atrocities committed in #Gaza & elsewhere in the occupied Palestinian territory.

The denial of a visa to our colleague from @ochaopt is the latest in a pattern of restrictions.

Since the beginning of the war, the Israeli authorities have increasingly denied or failed to renew visas for UN staff, including Humanitarian Coordinators, heads of UN agencies & staff of International NGOs.

In addition, legislative restrictions to intimidate Israeli Human rights organisations were adopted.

All @UNRWA international staff have not been granted visas for nearly six months now.

I, too, have been denied entry to Gaza since March 2024 after the @CIJ_ICJ ruling & to the West Bank including East Jerusalem since June 2024.

Visas must be granted to humanitarian staff to support the work of their Palestinian colleagues.

Coupled with the ongoing ban of international media to enter Gaza, these visa denials are deepening the spread of dis-information & increasing de-humanization of the people in #Gaza.

United Nations

@UN

The world is witnessing an utter disregard for – if not outright violations of – international law; with no accountability.

@antonioguterres says failures to uphold international obligations are coming at a staggering cost — measured in lost lives and shattered communities.

UNRWA

@UNRWA

People in #Gaza, including UNRWA staff, are fainting due to starvation and severe hunger.

People including children are dying from severe malnutrition.

People are being starved.

UNRWA alone has thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries waiting to enter Gaza – banned by Israeli Authorities from entering since March.

The siege must be lifted now to allow our lifesaving humanitarian aid in.

https://x.com/i/status/1947899556789686722

Monday, July 21, 2025

“Israel has written one of the darkest pages of human history.” —Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur

Ms. Francesca Albanese was appointed the Special Rapporteur https://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-palestine on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, by the Human Rights Council at its 49th session in March 2022 and has taken up her function as of 1 May 2022. Ms. Albanese is an Affiliate Scholar at the Institute for the Study of International Migration at Georgetown University, as well as a Senior Advisor on Migration and Forced Displacement for a think-tank, Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development (ARDD). She has widely published on the legal situation in Israel and the State of Palestine and regularly teaches and lectures on international law and forced displacement at universities in Europe and the Arab region. Ms. Albanese has also worked as a human rights expert for the United Nations, including the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestine Refugees.

Read Ms. Francesca Albanese full biography

Twitter account: https://x.com/franceskalbs?lang=de
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francesca.albanese.unsr.opt/?hl=de

Israel is killing 100-120 Palestinians in Gaza daily, as an average rate.. THIS NUMBER DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PEOPLE DYING BECAUSE OF HUNGER.

Israel is killing 100-120 Palestinians in Gaza daily, as an average rate.. THIS NUMBER DOES NOT INCLUDE THE PEOPLE DYING BECAUSE OF HUNGER.

wizard_bisan1

"In the shadow of famine and under skies thick with grief, we still reach for one another, not to escape, but to stay human. It’s that one quiet moment that gives us the push to keep showing up; to hold on to the land, to memory, to whatever still softens us. Somewhere between the olive trees and the ash, something in us still reaches back." Sliman Mansour, Palestinian

sliman.mansour

A wild flower from Galilee (وردة برية من الجليل), acrylic on canvas, 2020

"Sometimes, it’s the quietest encounters that remind us to keep going; to speak, to feel, to share beauty, even when the world is burning. In the shadow of famine and under skies thick with grief, we still reach for one another, not to escape, but to stay human. It’s that one quiet moment that gives us the push to keep showing up; to hold on to the land, to memory, to whatever still softens us. Somewhere between the olive trees and the ash, something in us still reaches back." Sliman Mansour, Palestinian

From his website https://slimanmansour.com/

Born in 1947, Mansour spent his childhood around the verdant hills and fields of Birzeit — where he was born — and later his adolescence in Bethlehem and Jerusalem. These experiences left a significant mark on his work, heightening a sense of gradual loss in Palestine, especially after the occupation of the West Bank and Jerusalem in 1967. His early experiences also presented him with the symbols and images he would later use to preserve and highlight Palestinian identity. https://slimanmansour.com/about-the-artist-sliman-mansour/

Links about Sliman Mansour

Instagram Gallery

Facebook Page

Wikipedia

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO see more art or READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine, or at least fair and just laws and policies]

Sunday, July 20, 2025

Dear America- STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding crazy cruel Israeli checkpoints & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine.

Palestinians gather to receive food from a charity kitchen in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip. Photograph: Ramadan Abed/Reuters The Guardian: 73 people killed while waiting for aid in Gaza, and more than 150 people also wounded, some critically, as some witnesses say Israeli military shot at crowd.

Dear America,

Both Democratic and Republican Presidents and their administrations, as well as far too many American Senators and Representatives have been foolishly using American tax-payers' money to empower Israel and Israel's cruel Zionist schemes that disparage, displace, starve, impoverish and destroy the native non-Jewish men, women and children of historic Palestine.

Crazy cruel is that monstrous land grabbing wall built by Israel on Palestinian land imprisoning Palestinians so that Israeli citizens and usurpers are free to drive on Israeli-only roads, breezing through Israeli checkpoints while Palestinian farmers are blocked from harvesting their own farmland and Palestinian children are prevented from getting to school.

Crazy cruel is that Israel has a full blockade on Gaza, using starvation as a weapon of war in addition to bombs... Children are dying of hunger and they are also being targeted and killed by the IDF. Those that live are tormented by suffering.

Hitler's Nazi Holocaust and World War II killed more than 60 million people - did they all die in vain, not for freedom or the rule of fair and just laws and human decency and dignity but for land grabbing Israel so that Zionism can rise up crossing all borders and oceans to ruthlessly rule Planet Earth and our skies with brute force, bombs, land grabs, and a plethora of poisonous propaganda all aimed at gathering more funds and oil fields.

Our newspapers and mainstream media are failing to fully cover the story as a very foreign country intentionally sabotages and undermines every ideal we Americans and global citizens should hold dear!

Crazy cruel is that American leadership is electing to follow Israel's lead in closing down UNWRA and stopping international law from doing what it does best- respecting human dignity for ALL people, not just your chosen favorites.

Meanwhile American tax codes favor big businesses and billionaires who callously flit off on gas guzzling private jets and mega luxury yachts to bask in a shrinking pool of clean air and water.

Crazy cruel is that U.S. government investments in AI, Cryptocurrency, Data Centers, Warehouses and the Weapons Industry flourish while investments in roads and schools, family needs, environmental protections, NPR, PBS, National Parks, and real jobs for real people flounder.

Our Economy is losing the very pay checks and balances it needs to be sustainable.

Sincerely,

Anne Selden Annab

NOTES https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/Notes

Crowds of starving men, women, and children in #Gaza wait for little food. Some people go for days without eating. UNRWA has not been able to bring in any food for over four months. Lift the siege...

Free Palestine STOP the WAR MACHINE ... OPEN THE GATES... STOP THE SIEGE- stop funding Israeli checkpoints & the forced displacement, imprisonment, starvation, torture, and killing of human beings in Gaza and Palestine.

"Western leaders call this self-defense, the media says it was all on accident." Assal Rad ... "Gaza is: -Hungriest place on earth -Most dangerous place for children -Most dangerous for journalists -Most dangerous for aid workers -Most pediatric amputees -Largest proportion of displaced people

"If countless photos of starving, skin-and-bone children, elderly people, HUMANS in Gaza haven’t appeal to the world, maybe a before-and-after of animals will? . This is Tom, my cat, before Israel’s genocide, and just moments ago, in the midst of its deliberate, systematic starvation campaign" Maha Hussaini

Killing of young siblings at Gaza water point shows seeking life’s essentials now a deadly peril. Karam al-Ghussain, 9, and Lulu, 10, were fetching water from a nearby distribution station when an Israeli strike hit it, and them

Urgent appeal: The catastrophic situation in Gaza, a people starving to death amid global silence... OPEN THE GATES!

Children in Gaza have been killed while sleeping, sheltering in schools, or queuing for water... “Israel has killed a classroom full of children every single day.” UNRWA Sam Rose tells BBC Radio 4.

Gaza is being inentionally starved and tortured by Israel... It’s not a natural disaster, it’s a crime against humanity. "There are no words to describe the cruelty of hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza who have been relentlessly bombed and displaced for almost 2 years now STARVING to death en masse. Almost half a million murdered by bombs, the rest being murdered by withholding bread..."

UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of #Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry. The supplies are available. The systems are in place. Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and help people in need among them 1 million children.

The mounting starvation in Gaza is a direct result of Israel’s dismantling of the ‘UN model’ of aid distribution and its replacement with the lethal GHF system: Israel is pushing the United Nations system towards a planned collapse... and intentionally starving Palestinians

Stop forcing us to be wage slaves for Israeli racism and escalating war... #MandelaDay is an opportunity to honor Mandela's commitment to freedom, justice & equality.

"𝙄𝙩 𝙞𝙨 𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙠 𝙙𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙮. 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙤𝙚𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙘𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙗𝙪𝙞𝙡𝙙." ... Nelson Mandela ... "We can in fact change the world and make of it a better place"

July 17th, 2025: Israel just bombed the very Gazan church Pope Francis used to call daily during the genocide. They injured the very priest, Gabriele Romanelli, who used to update the Pope on the situation. 2 church goers were killed, 6 wounded.

“The Israeli economy is structured to sustain the occupation that has now turned genocidal...” GLOBAL ACTION is needed to stop Israel !

The Guardian view on the children of Gaza: when 17,000 die, it’s more than a mistake- Israel’s military blamed the deaths of six Palestinian children on Sunday on a technical error. But a staggering toll continues to mount

“For too long, international law has been treated as optional – applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful. This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end,”

Israel plans to confine Gaza residents in a closed concentration camp atop Rafah ruins

Israel cuts power, water to UN agency for Palestinian refugees... The United Nations has reiterated UNRWA’s commitment to neutrality and rejected Israel’s ban, emphasizing the agency’s vital role in delivering humanitarian aid.

"Israel must stop killings and home demolitions in occupied West Bank" & "Gaza: Palestinians seeking food continue to be killed by Israeli military" United Nations Human Rights & more

Creating Apartheid Israel ... "A Land Without a People…"

USA/Israeli Harassment Campaigns seek silence support for Human Rights, the Rule of Fair and Just Laws, Real Democracy, Palestine... and the list will not stop there: Your turn is coming.

" Ever since the failure to implement the 1948 UN resolution 194, which gave Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes in what became Israel, we have been disappointed again and again." Gaza Raja Shehadeh

LETTERS https://anniesnewletters.blogspot.com/search/label/letters

Life is not a video game. These are real human beings and American made weaponry has been creating a Holocaust with The Rule of Lawlessness in the Holy Land.

State sponsored violence is not the way to convince vulnerable people to veer away from arming religious tyranny and terrorism.

Slavery, Segregation and Forced Displacement are wrong. Wrong then and wrong now

This Earth Day please start noticing how much pollution and injustice war creates.

Building a Culture of Peace ...

"The United Nations was not created to take mankind to heaven, but to save humanity from hell." ~Dag Hammarskjöld, second Secretary-General of the United Nations

"Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world..." https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights

Crowds of starving men, women, and children in #Gaza wait for little food. Some people go for days without eating. UNRWA has not been able to bring in any food for over four months. Lift the siege...

Diana Buttu

@dianabuttu

To date more than 900 Palestinians have been gunned down by the Israeli army and their US proxies just trying to get something to eat.

These “aid sites” are death traps - and were designed to be such.

Abubaker Abed

@AbubakerAbedW

People are falling in the streets like tree leaves in the autumn.

Children are bones and skills, weeping for food and water.

Journalists report on starvation while tears filling their eyes.

What more atrocities does this world have to see to act? This is the darkest time ever

Motasem A Dalloul

@AbujomaaGaza

More children die every day in Gaza due to dehydration and malnutrition after they had been starved by the Israeli occupation! (Passed away today)

Philippe Lazzarini

@UNLazzarini

Entirely man made.

Only political will & leadership can reverse full-fledged starvation.

Are we truly committed to “never again” ?

#Gaza

UNRWA

@UNRWA

Crowds of starving men, women, and children in #Gaza wait for little food.

Some people go for days without eating.

UNRWA has not been able to bring in any food for over four months. Lift the siege.