Monday, October 6, 2025

"The value of human life should not depend on nationality, religion, or political alliances...." On this week’s cover of The Lancet, a new letter: “Gaza’s healthocide: medical societies must not stay silent”.

On this week’s cover of The Lancet, a new letter:

“Gaza’s healthocide: medical societies must not stay silent”. Read the letter and more in our latest issue: hubs.li/Q03LX2fw0

Oct 04, 2025

Volume 406Number 10511p1443-1534 https://www.thelancet.com/issue/S0140-6736(25)X0040-4?dgcid=twitter_organic_cover25_lancet&hss_channel=tw-27013292

Gaza's healthocide: medical societies must not stay silent

Alessandro Vitale^a alessandro.vitale@unipd.it ∙ Mohammad Abu Hilal^b,c ∙ Andrew A Gumbs^d,e ∙ Amir Szold^f ∙ Umberto Cillo^a ∙ Isabella Frigerio^g,h

The catastrophic humanitarian crisis in Gaza, with the apparent deliberate targeting of health-care infrastructure and personnel, has highlighted a profound challenge to the global medical community. Hospitals are under siege and clinicians are operating without basic supplies, power, or safety.^1,2 We are all deeply concerned about the suffering civilian population in Gaza and Israeli hostages, who are both living under inhumane conditions after the massacre of Oct 7, 2023.²

WHO and UN agencies have reported at least 772 attacks on health care,³ with 94% of hospitals damaged or destroyed² and more than 1500 health-care workers killed⁴—the highest toll ever recorded.^5,6 No independent or neutral organisation has provided evidence that Hamas deliberately used hospitals or other civilian facilities as human shields.⁷ Even if proven in the future, such claims could never justify systematic attacks on the health-care system. This is a violation of international humanitarian law and demands explicit condemnation.^1,2 Most medical and surgical societies worldwide have remained silent or issued vague statements about Gaza's healthocide. A recent analysis found that only 24·5% of US speciality societies commented publicly on the Gaza conflict,⁸ in contrast to previous crises in which medical societies mobilised resources and expressed support.^9–12

The value of human life should not depend on nationality, religion, or political alliances... READ MORE https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(25)01735-0/fulltext

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]

NOT A TARGET: Babies are #NotATarget. Children are #NotATarget. Civilians are #NotATarget. Hospitals are #NotATarget. Health care workers are #NotATarget. Schools are #NotATarget. Humanitarians are #NotATarget.... & Poets are #NotATarget. Journalists are #NotATarget. Teachers are #NotATarget.

United Nations Geneva

@UNGeneva

Babies are #NotATarget.

Children are #NotATarget.

Civilians are #NotATarget.

Hospitals are #NotATarget.

Health care workers are #NotATarget.

Schools are #NotATarget.

Humanitarians are #NotATarget.

Poets are #NotATarget.

Journalists are #NotATarget.

Teachers are #NotATarget.

‘My poems are part of my flesh’: Palestinian poet Batool Abu Akleen on life in Gaza: At just 20, the poet is one of the most vivid witnesses to the conflict. She talks about dreams of Oxford, the deaths of friends and how tragedy has shaped the person she has become.

‘I’m less timid now’ … Batool Abu Akleen. Photograph: PR - One of her close friends, the photojournalist Fatma Hassouna, was killed in a strike this spring, a month before the Cannes film festival premiere of a documentary about her life, Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk.

by Claire Armitstead

Batool Abu Akleen was having lunch in the seaside apartment that has become the latest refuge for her family of seven, when a missile struck a nearby cafe. It was the last day of June, an ordinary Monday in Gaza City. “I was holding a falafel wrap and looking out of the window, and the window shook,” she says. Within an instant, dozens of men, women and children were dead, in an atrocity that was reported around the world. “It doesn’t feel real sometimes,” she adds, with the nonchalance of someone numbed by living with horror.

But this impression is misleading. At just 20 years old, Abu Akleen is becoming one of Gaza’s most vivid and unstinting witnesses, whose debut poetry collection has already won accolades from the novelist Anne Michaels, the playwright Caryl Churchill and the poet Hasib Hourani, among others. She has thrown her whole being into finding a language for the unspeakable, one capable of articulating its surrealism and absurdity as well as its daily tragedies.

In her poems, missiles are fired from Apache helicopters, fleetingly referencing both the US’s role and its history of annihilation... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/books/2025/oct/05/my-poems-are-part-of-my-flesh-palestinian-poet-batool-abu-akleen-on-life-in-gaza

Sunday, October 5, 2025

A ‘magic pill’ made Israeli violence invisible. We need to stop swallowing it- For years, I pressed Palestinian interests in peace talks. The response to Trump’s plan proves the international community hasn’t learned from catastrophe. [FACTS] by Diana Buttu in The Guardian

Illustration: Edmon de Haro/The Guardian

Sun 5 Oct 2025

For two years, the world has watched as Israel has systematically destroyed the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinians and maiming an untold number more. As dangerously, Israel continues to methodically target the healthcare, education, water and sewage systems to ensure that life cannot resume in the Gaza Strip.

Western governments’ responses to Israel’s actions have ranged from cheerleading and unconditional support in the first year of Israel’s attack on Gaza after 7 October 2023, followed by statements of concern and handwringing, to, more recently, occasional expressions of consternation and empty threats that continued Israeli attacks may, at some unspecified time, lead to an arms embargo or a drop in trade relations. In the last few months, there have also been the greatly celebrated proclamations of conditional recognition of a Palestinian state. The irony cannot be more profound: tepidly recognizing a state as it, and its people, are being erased without mercy.

As I write this, confusion swirls around Donald Trump’s plan to end the war and hope is mounting for a hostage and prisoner swap. While an end to the bombing, the freedom of captives on both sides and allowing humanitarian aid into Gaza would bring some relief in an otherwise unbearably bleak landscape, it would be a mistake to view the plan as a historic breakthrough for Palestine. Trump’s vision is yet another American-Israeli concoction cooked up without any input from Palestinians that would retain Israel’s perpetual control over Gaza’s future.

The world has never listened to Palestinian voices or taken seriously the existential threat Israel poses to Palestinian life, and this has not materially changed despite the increase in performative angst. To the contrary, Palestinians have for three-quarters of a century endured the world telling us that Israeli “security concerns” – however defined by Israel – are more important than our rights and lives. As a result Palestinians live with two omnipresent forms of violence: Israeli violence directly inflicted upon our bodies, land and society, and western violence, where only our erasure prompts the world to notice us and see our humanity – but only barely.... READ MORE https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/oct/05/gaza-palestine-israel-trump-peace-plan

“I'm not scared of Israel. I’m scared of a world that has seemingly lost all sense of humanity" Greta Thunberg

Israel has kidnapped Mandla Mandela grandson of Nelson Mendala for standing against apartheid in Palestine

Global Sumud Flotilla Commentary

@Globalsumudf
Israel has kidnapped Mandla Mandela grandson of Nelson Mendala for standing against apartheid in Palestine

SOUTH AFRICA demands the RELEASE of Nelson Mandela's Grandson Mandla, who was ABDUCTED on the Global Sumud Flotilla

Saturday, October 4, 2025

Palestine: Any peace plan must respect international law, beginning with self-determination and accountability, urge UN experts 03 October 2025

https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/palestine

https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/10/palestine-any-peace-plan-must-respect-international-law-beginning-self

GENEVA – UN experts* today expressed hope for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza but warned that any peace plan must absolutely safeguard the human rights of Palestinians, and not create further conditions of oppression.

“We welcome parts of the peace plan announced by the United States to end the war in Gaza, including a permanent ceasefire, rapid release of unlawfully detained persons, an influx of humanitarian aid under United Nations supervision, no forced displacement from Gaza, the withdrawal of Israeli forces and the non-annexation of territory,” the experts said. “These are broadly requirements of international law that should not depend on a formal peace plan.”

The experts warned that key elements of the plan are nevertheless deeply inconsistent with fundamental rules of international law and the 2024 Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice that demand that Israel ends its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

“Imposing an immediate peace at any price, regardless of or brazenly against law and justice, is a recipe for further injustice, future violence and instability,” they said.

The experts highlighted major concerns about the following aspects:

The Palestinian right of self-determination, including through independent statehood, is not guaranteed as international law requires, and is subject to vague pre-conditions concerning Gaza’s redevelopment, Palestinian Authority reform, and a “dialogue” between Israel and Palestine. Palestine’s future would thus be at the mercy of decisions by outsiders, not in the hands of Palestinians as international law commands. The plan also preserves the failed status quo of requiring more negotiations with Israel, when the Israeli Prime Minister has already declared that Israel would “forcibly resist” statehood. This is blatantly against the International Court of Justice (ICJ) finding that fulfilling the right of self-determination cannot be made conditional upon negotiations.
The “temporary transitional government” is not representative of Palestinians and even excludes the Palestinian Authority, further violating self-determination and lacking legitimacy. There are no concrete benchmarks or timeframes for a transition to representative governance, which belongs to the Palestinians only, without foreign interference.
Oversight by a “Board of Peace” chaired by the US President is not under United Nations authority or transparent multilateral control, while the US is a deeply partisan supporter of Israel and not an “honest broker.” This proposal is regrettably reminiscent of colonial practices and must be rejected.
An “International Stabilisation Force”, outside the control of the Palestinian people and the United Nations as a guarantor, would replace Israeli occupation with a US-led occupation, contrary to Palestinian self-determination.
Partial Israeli occupation could continue indefinitely through a “security perimeter” inside Gaza’s borders, which, is absolutely unacceptable.
The demilitarisation of Gaza has no end date and, if permanent, could leave it vulnerable to Israeli aggression. Nothing is said regarding the demilitarisation of Israel, which has committed international crimes against the Palestinians and threatened peace and security in the region through aggression against other countries.
Deradicalisation is imposed on Gaza only, while anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab sentiments, radicalisation and public incitement to genocide have been hallmarks of dominant rhetoric in Israel over the past two years.
The plan largely treats Gaza in isolation from the West Bank including East Jerusalem, when these areas must be regarded as a unified Palestinian territory and State.
An “economic development plan” and “special economic zone” could result in illegal foreign exploitation of resources without Palestinian consent.
There is no duty on Israel and those who have sustained its illegal attacks in Gaza to compensate Palestinians for illegal war damage.
The plan provides for the release of all Israeli hostages but only some of the many arbitrarily detained Palestinians.
Amnesties offered to Hamas seem to be unconditional, even if they committed international crimes, denying justice for victims of international crimes.
The plan does not address accountability at all for Israeli international crimes and human rights violations against the Palestinian people. There is no commitment to transitional justice, historical truth-telling or genuine reconciliation. There is also no guaranteed access for independent journalists. Accountability and justice are integral to sustainable peace.
The plan does not address other fundamental issues such as ending illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, borders, compensation, and refugees.
The plan does not provide a leading role for the United Nations, General Assembly or Security Council, or specifically for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which is vital to assisting and protecting Palestinians.

“Any peace plan must respect the ground rules of international law,” the experts said. “The future of Palestine must be in the hands of the Palestinian people – not imposed by outsiders under extreme conditions of duress in yet another scheme to control their destiny.”

The experts recalled that the International Court of Justice had been crystal clear. “Conditions cannot be placed on the Palestinian right of self-determination,” they said. “The Israeli occupation must end immediately, totally and unconditionally, with due reparation made to the Palestinians.”

“The United Nations – not Israel or its closest ally – has been identified by the ICJ as the legitimate authority to oversee the end of the occupation and the transition towards a political solution in which their right of self-determination is fully realised,” the experts said.

*The experts

https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/palestine

More about human rights law

More about instruments

"Violence must never be normalized or glorified. It provides no solutions to social problems. Our path forward lies in unity and peace." Volker Türk- United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

"Violence must never be normalized or glorified. It provides no solutions to social problems. Our path forward lies in unity and peace." Volker Türk United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights

@UNHumanRights Chief

Friday, October 3, 2025

Pope Leo XIV with young Palestinian Christians from the “Youth of Jesus’ Homeland” group.

Pope Leo XIV with young Palestinian Christians from the “Youth of Jesus’ Homeland” group. On October 1, 2025, Pope Leo XIV met with a group of 50 Palestinian youth from the "Youth of Jesus' Homeland Palestine" (YJHP) during his general audience in St. Peter's Square. The group, on a pilgrimage to Italy, shared their message of peace amidst regional strife and hope rooted in the Gospel. – @vaticannewsit

Pope Leo XIV

@Pontifex

“I express my deepest sympathy to the Palestinian people in Gaza, who continue to live in fear and survive in unacceptable conditions, forced—once again—from their lands.”

Pope Leo XIV
@Pontifex

Al Jazeera English

@AJEnglish

Pope Leo XIV has called on Israel to end the ‘terror, destruction and death’ in Gaza. In his weekly address, he backed church leaders in Jerusalem who condemned Israel’s order to evacuate Gaza City, warning it would endanger vulnerable civilians.

https://x.com/AJEnglish/status/1960776965142560856

https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/8/27/pope-urges-end-to-terror-destruction-and-death-in-gaza

AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES (or quotes or tweets) 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]

Justice for Palestinians Can’t Wait for a Peace Deal: Concrete Action by Governments Is Urgently Needed

Louis Charbonneau

United Nations Director

Bénédicte Jeannerod

France Director

The calamitous situation in Gaza, with Palestinian civilians facing extermination and ethnic cleansing by Israeli forces, was a major focus of the annual United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) high-level week. Along with recognition of the state of Palestine by France, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada, among others, states made key commitments on human rights and accountability that were overwhelmingly adopted by the UNGA and now need to be fulfilled.

On September 29, US President Donald Trump released his 20-point “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict,” which makes no mention of either human rights or justice. But states should not wait for the adoption of a peace plan to fulfill their commitments on rights. They should take immediate action, using their leverage as required as parties to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, to stop Israel’s escalating atrocities against Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

Governments should suspend arms transfers to Israel and their preferential trade deals, ban trade with illegal settlements, and impose targeted sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for ongoing crimes against Palestinian civilians.

All governments should support accountability for Israeli authorities’ war crimes, crimes against humanity, including extermination, apartheid, and persecution, and acts of genocide. They should also pursue accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity, including murder and unlawful imprisonment, committed by Palestinian armed groups against Israelis during the October 7, 2023, attacks and the holding of hostages.

They should rally behind the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is combating impunity for atrocity crimes globally, and condemn and act to counter US sanctions against ICC judges and officials, prominent Palestinian rights organizations, and a UN expert.

States approved the UNGA resolution ahead of a high-level conference that marked the passing of the September 2025 deadline for states to comply with a landmark July 2024 advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice on the legal consequences of Israel’s policies and practices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.

The vote this year should not be an empty gesture as Israeli authorities expand illegal settlements and further displace and exterminate Palestinians. Respect for Palestinians’ basic rights is not dependent on reaching agreement on a peace plan. Countries should move ahead quickly with steps that advance justice and accountability.

https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/10/02/justice-for-palestinians-cant-wait-for-a-peace-deal

Commission of Inquiry Report Highlights Growing Consensus on Israel’s Genocidal Gaza Campaign

"A ripple effect- They may not have reached Gaza's shores, but the crew still delievered... For the first time sine October 2023 Palestinain could fish without being shot at by the Israeli navy (they've been too busy chasing the flotillas)."

OFFICIAL UPDATE FROM GLOBAL SUMUD FLOTILLA

Organization CONFIRMS the Israeli naval forces illegally intercepted and boarded the Global Sumud Flotilla’s vessel Sirius along with other boats in international waters.

38 PEOPLE from 16 COUNTRIES KIDNAPPED

The people of Gaza thank the Global Sumud Flotilla for giving them an opportunity to fish by distracting the occupation forces whose mission is genocide by hunger.

Global Sumud Flotilla Commentary

@Globalsumudf

Images of activists Rima Hassan and Greta Thunberg have emerged as they are being deported — both smiling defiantly.

Their courage exposes the injustice of a system that deports those bringing aid, while protecting those enforcing an illegal siege.

You can detain people, but you can’t deport the truth

Middle East Eye

@MiddleEastEye

“From the sea to Gaza - we will not forget you. We will not let you be forgotten. This is the voice of humanity.”

These were the last words recorded from the Marinette, the last active boat of the Global Sumud Flotilla, before Israeli forces intercepted them on Friday.

With roughly 500 participants from different countries aboard at least 42 vessels, the Global Sumud Flotilla set out carrying humanitarian aid in an historic effort to open up a humanitarian corridor in the Gaza strip.

It was the largest civilian-led initiative ever to try and break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza. https://x.com/MiddleEastEye/status/1974069720119656459

Israeli Embassy in Athens under siege last night as the city comes out to protest the holocaust in Gaza and the IDF kidnapping of comrades on the Global Flotilla.

Annie's New Letters (& notes)

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