At least 24 Palestinians killed in Gaza, most of them in Israeli strikes overnight, with over 700 wounded in raids by Israeli occupation forces in Jerusalem and across the occupied West Bank since the start of the recent unrest.
Since sundown Monday when the cross-border fighting erupted, 24 Palestinians – including nine children – were killed in Gaza, most by air strikes, Gaza health officials said. The Israeli military claimed 15 of the dead were militants.
More than 700 Palestinians were hurt in action taken by Israeli security forces in Jerusalem and across the West Bank in the past 24 hours, including nearly 500 who were treated at hospitals.
Notably, Human Rights Watch (HRW), an acclaimed international rights group, has claimed in its latest report that the “Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians,” and these “deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.”
Biased western media?
The Western media is predominantly presenting the situation as a battlefield between the two equal parties, argue analysts. The situation on the ground, they point out, is quite different. Palestinians are being targeted by the occupant forces and are being forced to evocate their places.
The media biasness is not for the first time. In 2019, Twitter suspended multiple accounts of an independent Palestinian news website considered one of the primary sources of news on Palestine and the Israeli occupation.
The suspension of Quds News Network accounts, which have hundreds of thousands of followers, is the latest in a series of actions involving social media sites including Facebook in either temporarily or permanently banning Palestinian accounts.
Read More: EXCLUSIVE! Prof. Farid Abdel-Nour: Is Israel committing a crime against humanity?
Recently, in an interview with GVS, Prof. Farid Abdel-Nour, Chair of the Department of Political Science, San Diego State University-USA, said that “in the U.S. and even more so in the E.U. and the U.K., any calls to investigate crimes by Israel, or to consider reexamining relations with it, are immediately attacked by bogus accusations of antisemitism. What has happened is that real antisemitism, which exists in these societies, and others, has been on the rise. Some advocates for Israel, have exploited this very disturbing fact to obfuscate and confuse people, and to create the impression that any criticism of Israel is antisemitic.”
Hamas launches operation?
By Tuesday morning, Hamas and other Gaza resistance fighters had fired more than 200 rockets. It set off air raid sirens throughout Jerusalem, and explosions could be heard in what was believed to be the first time the city had been hit since a 2014 war.
In a statement issued early Tuesday, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said the rocket attacks would continue until Israel stops “all scenes of terrorism and aggression in Jerusalem and Al Aqsa mosque.
“As a part of operations, a military armoured vehicle belonging to the occupying forces in northern Gaza was hit and a rocket attack was carried out on Jerusalem,” the Joint Chamber of Military Operations for Palestinian Factions said in a statement on Tuesday.
In recent weeks, tension has been soaring in Jerusalem, marked by Israeli police using excessive force against Palestinian protesters in the walled Old City, located in occupied East Jerusalem which Israel captured and annexed in the 1967 war.
One of the flashpoints in the Old City has been Al Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site of Islam and the holiest site of Judaism.
Another driver of Palestinian anger has been the threatened eviction of Palestinian families from homes in an East Jerusalem neighbourhood by Israeli settlers.
Last week, Israeli settlers swarmed in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood of occupied East Jerusalem after an Israeli court ordered the eviction of Palestinian families who have been living in the area for generations.
Palestinians protesting in solidarity with the residents of Sheikh Jarrah have been targeted by Israeli forces.
Israel occupied East Jerusalem during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and annexed the entire city in 1980 – a move that has never been recognised by the international community.