“Coffins have run out”

A campaign of mass slaughter and ethnic cleansing is underway in northern Gaza. 

Palestinians are being rounded up by the Israeli military. Amongst the rubble and bombed-out buildings, men are separated from women and children, who are forced to flee at gunpoint, uncertain if they will ever see their fathers, husbands, and brothers again. Some men have reportedly been executed.

“The injured bleed out in the streets,” Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat described. “Coffins have run out in northern Gaza.”

‘Extermination mission’

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in northern Gaza are being starved. Essential aid like food and medicine hasn’t entered the north in three weeks. The hospitals that remain standing are under siege. The Israeli military is burning down U.N. schools where Palestinians have been sheltering to ensure no one is able to return.

In besieged Jabalia, many have been terrified to leave their homes for fear of being killed by Israeli sniper fire. Infants drink flour mixed with water and sugar in lieu of milk, and Palestinian families burn furniture and scraps of cloth for warmth. An 8-year-old and 10-year-old were murdered by an Israeli drone strike as they tried to flee. Others attempting to escape were mowed down by Israeli gunfire.

In haunting footage released by the Israeli military, Israeli forces can be seen lining up Palestinians near Indonesian Hospital, where many had taken shelter or were receiving treatment and were forced to evacuate by Israeli forces. Men were separated from women and children, who were forced to flee south at gunpoint, with reports of some men being executed. Medical personnel inside Indonesian Hospital described bodies piled up outside. 

“Israeli occupation forces prepared a deep hole in one of the squares surrounding the Indonesian Hospital,” Palestinian journalist Hossam Shabat wrote on X. “[They] placed some males in it with their hands tied and their eyes blindfolded”

This is not the first time that Palestinians have reported field executions during the Gaza genocide. Last April, hundreds of bodies — many with their hands tied and showing signs of torture, and some still attached to IVs or catheters — were discovered in mass graves at Gaza’s Nasser and Al-Shifa hospitals.

‘The Holocaust of our time’

For over a year, Palestinians have documented the genocide being carried out against them in horrifying detail. 

We have watched as Palestinian families are forced on death marches; patients are burned alive in their hospital beds; children are killed by sniper fire; and men are blindfolded, handcuffed, and lined up to await certain execution. 

For many of us — the descendants of Jews who survived or were killed in Nazi death marches and concentration camps — these images are all too familiar. 

When the extent of the Nazi Holocaust came to light, the world vowed “never again.” Today, that world is failing Palestinians, even as they livestream the genocide being carried out against them for all of us to see.

“The state of Israel is currently perpetrating a holocaust, the deliberate mass slaughter of Palestinian people, with weapons provided by the United States…We must honor our ancestors by shouting the truth to the heavens and putting our bodies on the line to stop the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians now.” 

_{Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinic Council}

Stopping weapons is the only ‘path to peace.’

After Israel’s assassination of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar last week, President Biden has claimed he’s pushing even harder for a ceasefire, calling Sinwar’s death “an opportunity to seek a path to peace.” 

Instead, Israel is moving towards the illegal annexation of huge swathes of Gaza, attacking U.N. peacekeeping forces, killing thousands of Lebanese, and forcefully displacing over a million people from their homes. 

Israel will reportedly only agree to end its war on millions of innocent Lebanese on the condition that its military be allowed to continue to operate in Lebanon. Of course, the Lebanese government would never agree to such a naked violation of its sovereignty — so Netanyahu’s endless war marches on. 

There’s no question that Israel is a rogue state. Biden administration officials pay lip service to calls for a ceasefire and lasting peace in the region, while continuing to supply the bombs that Israel’s Jewish supremacist settler government uses to burn Palestinians alive in Gaza, slaughtering and displacing millions of innocent people. And in so doing, the U.S. government makes a mockery of international and U.S. law. The ‘path to peace’ starts with the U.S. cutting off arms to Israel.

Tell the Senate: No more weapons.

Together, we’ve already made over 12,000 calls and sent over 28,000 emails to our Senators demanding that they support historic legislation that would block $20 billion in U.S. weapons to Israel. 

Keep up the pressure by calling and emailing again right now. 

Tell Northwestern: Stop punishing Jewish students for practicing their faith.

Last week, Northwestern University leadership twice sent militarized police to threaten Jewish students and desecrate their Gaza Solidarity Sukkah. 

This is blatant antisemitism: Write to Northwestern now and tell them to protect students’ rights to freedom of religion and expression on campus.

What we’re reading.

Organizing Director at JVP Elena Stein writes for the Guardian about why 500 Jews and allies shut down the New York Stock Exchange to demand an end to the U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza.

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