Palestinians look for survivors following Israeli airstrike in Nusseirat refugee camp, Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.
ISRAELI air strikes on a refugee camp near Gaza City killed dozens of people, levelled apartment buildings and left huge craters behind today as ground troops continued to push through the Strip.
At least six strikes flattened the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza; footage by news agency AFP following the explosion shows at least 47 bodies recovered from the rubble.
Dozens of people were searching for survivors at the time of writing.
The camp is the largest of Gaza’s eight refugee camps and contains 26 schools, a food distribution centre, two health centres, a library and seven water wells.
Several images by a Reuters photographer show dead or seriously injured children.
Palestinians try to rescue a girl stuck under the rubble of a destroyed building following Israeli airstrikes in Nusseirat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2023.
APUBLIC health catastrophe is imminent in Gaza, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned today as supplies of water, food and fuel reach critical lows.
Hospitals are also running out of medicine and power.
WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier called for fuel to be allowed into Gaza to allow a water desalination plant to operate.
He said: “It’s an imminent public health catastrophe that looms with the mass displacement, the overcrowding, the damage to water and sanitation infrastructure.”
It came after the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said that an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza has become “a matter of life and death for millions of people.”
UN relief agency commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini accused Israel of exacting “collective punishment” on Palestinians and forcibly displacing civilians.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer delivers a speech on the situation in the Middle East at Chatham House in central London. Picture date: Tuesday October 31, 2023.
Labour leader refuses to back ceasefire despite revolt
FLOUNDERING Sir Keir Starmer declared that war is peace today in an Orwellian speech trying to retrieve Labour’s position on the Gaza crisis.
Defying mounting opposition within the party, the Labour leader asserted that a ceasefire in Gaza would encourage further violence and that only a “humanitarian pause” could be considered.
But his pose for peace was further undermined by the suspension of MP Andy McDonald from the Labour whip in the Commons.
Mr McDonald’s offence was to have told a ceasefire rally at the weekend that “we won’t rest until we have justice, until all people, Israelis and Palestinians, between the river and the sea can live in peaceful liberty.”
A Labour spokesperson called the remarks “deeply offensive” but the Labour Muslim Network attacked the suspension as “obscene.”
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Palestine Solidarity Campaign called the idea of a pause “a wholly inadequate response” to the “humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, where over 8,000 have already died in the latest Israeli attack.
PSC director Ben Jamal said Sir Keir’s “words and actions render him complicit in Israel’s ongoing commission of war crimes.
“Those who believe in the primacy of international law and respect for all civilian life should condemn his remarks and demand a reversal of the Labour Party position.”
A Momentum spokesperson argued that “Keir Starmer hasn’t shifted one inch: his speech today still backs Israel’s war on Gaza and opposes the ceasefire demanded by everyone from the UN to Save the Children.
Just Stop Oil at Parliament Square protest 30 October 2023. Police issued and made arrests under a Section 7 order. Image: Just Stop Oil.
65 Just Stop Oil marchers were arrested at Parliament Square on Monday after 10 minutes marching. Unlike previous Just Stop Oil slow marches which were policed using Section 12 orders, they issued a Section 7 order which criminalises members of the public based on alleged interference with ‘the use or operation of key national infrastructure’.
“Just in the last week, seven people have died in the UK as a result of extreme weather and scientists are telling us it will only get worse. Neither major political party is serving the interests of the country- they are serving the mass murderers profiting while the world burns. There is no real opposition.
“In times of crisis, it is down to ordinary people to take a stand against the rich and powerful by disrupting business-as-usual. We know it works. A mass road blocking campaign has just forced the Dutch government to halt oil and gas subsidies. That’s why people are coming together from all over the UK to march day after day in London from today. Its People vs Oil! Sign up at JustStopOil.org”
One of the participants, Dr Ian Chapman, 52, a GP from Bury St Edmunds said:
“20 or 30 years from now, I won’t look back and regret having taken direct action, but I will regret it if I don’t. I expect to get arrested today, whilst the people in the building I’m marching past are making decisions that will kill millions. I will get off the road when the police take action against the real criminals.”
“We’re running out of time, and we all need to do what we can, right now. I don’t see how you can say you care about future generations, or your nieces and nephews or your grandchildren – I don’t see how you can say you love your children – if you do nothing to stop the destruction of the world they are going to grow up in.”
Imogen May, 24, a food producer from Halesworth said:
“I’m marching with Just Stop Oil because I have a six month old nephew, and I am so scared to think what his world will look like in five or ten years’ time. I’d love to live a normal life, without worrying about climate collapse. I know that to have a chance at having a normal life later, we have to take action now.”
“We’re simply demanding that the UK government does what its own advisors are asking it to do; the same thing as the United Nations, the Climate Change Committee and the Independent Panel on Climate Change. We must halt all new licences for fossil fuel production in the UK.”
The Labour leader Keir Starmer has reaffirmed his opposition to a ceasefire in Gaza in a major speech today. Starmer made the speech to set out the Labour Party’s position on the ongoing situation in the Middle East amidst deep divisions in his party.
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Starmer’s speech has received a mixed response.
A spokesperson for Labour’s left wing faction Momentum said: “For all the fine words, Keir Starmer hasn’t shifted one inch: his speech today still backs Israel’s war on Gaza and opposes the ceasefire demanded by everyone from the UN to Save the Children.
“Thus Starmer backs a pause in hostilities – then a resumption of Israeli bombing which has already killed more than 3,000 children. To call this ‘humanitarian’ is an insult to the Palestinian people.”
Deputy leader of the Green Party Zack Polanski said: “Keir Starmer siding with the Conservatives by refusing to call for a ceasefire. He says that he’s not saying this to start “a new round of arguments or hand wringing.” If there’s any justice, they won’t get away with this. The UK population calling: we need a ceasefire now.”
