Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Thursday that he has ordered the military to begin preparations to facilitate the departure of large numbers of Palestinians from Gaza through land crossings as well as “special arrangements for exit by sea and air.” The comments come in the wake of President Trump again advocating for the forcible transfer of some 2 million Palestinians in Gaza in a press conference on Tuesday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and in a social media post on Thursday, saying Gaza “would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting," after Palestinians had "already been resettled in far safer and more beautiful communities, with new and modern homes, in the region."
It remains unclear how Trump’s latest comments would affect negotiations over the second phase of the ceasefire deal which have begun in Doha. Phase 1 of the deal, which came into effect last month, saw Israel halt its brutal military assault on Gaza and withdraw its troops to a designated “buffer zone.” However, sporadic Israeli attacks continue and dozens of Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since January 19 in violation of the agreement.
The official death toll by the ministry of health continues to rise every day for two other reasons: bodies retrieved from the rubble, and people who die of their wounds. The health ministry puts the number of confirmed dead at over 47,500—though it acknowledges this figure as a vast undercount as it only tallies the number of bodies brought to hospitals and morgues in Gaza that are recorded by the ministry. The official number of wounded is over 111,000 and people in Gaza continue to die from those wounds every day.
Throughout the past 15 months, the health care system in Gaza came under a severe and systematic attack by the Israeli military, with nearly all of Gaza’s hospitals completely destroyed or barely functioning. The World Health Organization estimates that 14,000 Palestinians need to be medically evacuated to receive treatment outside of Gaza, including 2,500 children who are at imminent risk of death.
To discuss the real death toll in Gaza, the complications around medical evacuations, the war’s effect on children, the importance of bearing witness, and much more, Drop Site News journalists Sharif Abdel Kouddous and Murtaza Hussain speak with two doctors who traveled to Gaza multiple times on medical missions to provide emergency health care during the war: Dr. Mimi Syed, an emergency medicine physician based in Olympia, Washington, who has completed two medical missions to Gaza, the last one ending on December 31; and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa, a general, trauma, and critical care surgeon based in California. He has provided medical care in conflict zones worldwide, including Palestine, Ukraine, Haiti, and Zimbabwe. He was last in Gaza in April and is returning in March.
To support Drop Site News, become a paid subscriber or consider making a one-time or recurring 501c3 tax deductible donation.
Thank you for sharing this. I mean I feel distressed just hearing this and tears well up, but it needs to be heard! I am lucky to not have to experience such horrendous things. All the way from NZ all we can do is keep supporting Palestinians, keep pressure on our Govt to speak out, and continue with BDS action.
This is just so sad!
YOU people in the USA/Western world are allowing this to happen.
WHO is next?
When the USA/UK comes to take out your Arab friends or any people with brown skin........what are you going to do?
The “USA” u speak of no longer exists. It’s over. We are heading over the cliff and much of the population is unaware consumed with ignorant pride. It’s tragic.
Don't let it happen without a fight. Contribute in any way you can, so that you don't regret it later. Work with partners, the more the merrier. Don't lose hope; not while breathing. I believe we're all more capable than we think. If Palestinians can struggle whilst having practically nothing, we can struggle as well, and make things happen.
I hear so much anger and fear of Trump...(yes, of course) but this was Biden's war on the Palestinians with Netanyahu. Biden could have stopped sending bombs and he didn't.......now carried on by Trump.
Israel's retaliation for the attack of Oct. 7th is who destroyed it in retrbution for the attack. Over 1500 innocent jews were killed in that attack. Israel is who bombed and destroyed it.
Thank you for the eye witness reporting of the harrowing annihilation in Gaza. The long term sequelle have been playing on my mind - not only "just" the acute phase violence wounds from, bullets, ordinance, burns, crushing in collapsed buildings, starvation, the lack of preventative health, the contaminated water and lack of sanitary sewerage solutions. So thank you for also addressing the longer term sequellae around the heavy metal poisoning, the effect inhalation of demolition dust, the likely permanent water table contamination, the topsoil compaction rendering it much more challenging to grow agricultural products (with whatever contamination levels). All to render life as close to unlivable as possible for the people there. The irony of politicians discussing en masse ethnic cleansing versus an only guardian aunt not being allowed her breastfeeding infant to accompany medical evacuee minors is transparent in it's cruelty.
Thank you to the doctors for your service and speaking out, thank you to Drop Site news for being on point leading the discussion. Thank you from a veterinarian in NZ. You make a difference. It is year of the snake - hopefully we can put our staffs together - my wooden one, alongside your metal rods of aesclepius for a conjoined snake of healing to entwine both in solidarity and fortitude.
Never in my life, being the descendant of African and native american colonization, could you have made me believe, I'd be watching the ZIO/AMERICA PROJECT (for lack of a better name), attempt to do just that. The anguish I have experienced this last year watching this evil continue unrelentingly, means nothing compared to the what the Palestinians have endured! But I can assure you, I am not the only one......waiting patiently for a higher power to do what we are powerless to do. Colonizers have never stop colonizing. NEVER!!
This should be shown on every news channel. 40,000 orphans in 18 months! That on top of everything else is devastating. I am going to watch this again I couldn't absorb everything through my tears of anger. I'm an American and we have got to stop this.
Excellent conversation - thank you to the brave doctors for sharing your experiences
I agree, these doctors are doing heroic work. I hope more doctors and medical institutions follow their example, or at least stand with them against these most horrific atrocities.
The Gaza should never be turned over to Trump or Musk so they can build their own little empire there with their own money to profit off the death of so many. That should be outlawed. The women and children need the help But not this way and there would be no guarantee on anything they come up with. United States should not fund such a take over. It’s one thing to put an American base there, another to put a remembrance ‘death’ playground for the rich!
The perpetrators of this evil and everyone who supports it will be remembered as the worst of humanity forever.
This is no surprise. Trump and his family have been salivating over this property for years. J. Kushner talked about it some time ago. They probably have plans already drawn up.
I am ashamed that we have been part of this genocide. ..
https://www.archpaper.com/2024/05/benjamin-netanyahu-unveils-regional-plan-free-trade-zone-rail-service-neom/
Hi Gail. You're absolutely right. Plans have been drawn up by Netanyahu. This report is May 2024 but I bet has been "in the wind" for years before that. J Kushner is mentioned. Perhaps explains why IDF Gallant left. Reading it made me feel sick and mistrust more than ever what Trump/Netanyahu say. I'm surprised hearing people say Trump doesn't have a PLAN for Gaza. Well ...! More investigation is needed.
There is no moral high ground for the US.
The new Trump/Netanyahu administration is here.
"Lancet" medical journal in Britain, predicted that there are probably over 100,000 dead in Gaza. They figure, once the rubble is removed, they'll find many bodies.
There is an option to return the Golan heights and Nabulis (sp?) to Palestein for settlements and living space, schools in temp buildings and clinics for Palestinians and return of homes and homesteads taken between establishment of Israel and today, including recent appropriations of Palestinian homes in Jerusalem. The return of Palestinians from abroad. adding funding, manpower and able adults to rebuild in Gaza ( perhaps starting with hospitals and schools and social support newtworks) for people who have lost all family or children without adult support, can address their needs through Children's Villages ( see OXFAM Children Villages) to employ adults and care for them in family type units they can connect with for a lifetime. The world must support and reinvest in the establishment of healthy stettlements on currently Isreli occupied lands. The illegal settlements are already built and now occupied by Israel citizens who must return to Israel national borders to leave these settlements for Palestinians. This is not an impossible situation to solve but will require many aspects set right.
The Worlds & mostly US Jews have not come out enough against the actions
of Israel who are operating in thier name.
Most people outside Israel and probably many inside do not realie that the Golan Heights and some areas considered a "buffer zone" are prime locations for the Israeli plans for new ( but illegal) settlements. The tens of thousands of homes and communities built on Palestinian lands should be the first relocation centers for GAZA survivors and allow rebuilding of health canters, hospitals villages that have been destroyed by Israeli Settlers since 1949. Patrolled by UN Peacekeep troops those within Israel should prepare to take in the refugees from these illegal communities, unless the newcomers wish to return to their home birthplace in USA, Europe or OTHER places that are NOT Israel.
Golan Heights, territory illegally ceased from Syria during the '67 war, is also prime land for Israeli expansion. As they had just done recently by illegally invading and ceasing more Syrian land, while the Syrian people were celebrating the toppling the brutal Asad dictatorship that had oppressed them for half a century; basically, invading the second they had a chance. As many insane Israelis believe that the entire ME should belong to them; their greed, endless.
Thanks for that history update and look at land grabs in times of war. Surely these lands do NOT belong to Israel and should go to help recover and rebuild both Gaza and the west Bank as well as those displaced by the bombing of neighboring nations.
Had they ever stopped stealing land; at times it may slow down or speed up, but it has never topped since the original theft in '48. To be honest, the "two state 'solution'" is no longer viable under the circumstances they created. Therefore, in the end they will have to accept the "one state solution," which is a fancy way of saying coexistence. And coexistence is what the Palestinians were ok with since Ashkenazi Jews first began to set foot onto Palestinian shores, and it was what Palestinians called for since the 1st PLO charter. If they insist on not wanting to coexist like any other normal human beings--if they want to cling to their crazy, illegal and unethical Zionist ideology--then it's all on them to make that workable for the Palestinian people--them and the western states that had, from the very beginning, colluded with them. While that may now look like the furthest thing from happening, I actually believe that it is the only way it could possibly end. They may look like they are at the "top of their (horrific) game," they are not. To me they actually look pretty desperate, though they keep it very well hidden; a result of denial. Remember, US power is most assuredly waning, and they are completely linked and locked to that power. Before the powerful fall, they are always at their most violent, as they over compensate in their despair. I think that is the real reason they are in haste to try and make deals with gulf states, in haste to genocide the Palestinians. Does it not look like they're operating under a ticking shot-clock? It does to me.
This is hard to listen to, but necessary. A racist intolerant mindset towards the Middle East has been "manufactured" in the West through media captive to corporate interests like oil and finance, and unfortunately Zionist and far right Christian apocalyptic beliefs that weave conquering Palestine into their propaganda. I believe most people think that the Israel/US war machine is murderiusly criminal. But too many just switch off in despair ... so visible street protests and informed vocal activists need to be much more common. Over 100 years of pro Zionist propaganda hiding western imperialism is hard to fight. Thank you and respect to medics and journalists, and the UN, for fighting this insanity.
When it comes to Israel, many fear the very real repercussions, which themselves are egregious acts that need to be fought, not to mention, proof of great wrong doing. Of course, nothing can compare with the horrors that were presented above by the two Doctors. People really need to ask themselves, is silence really viable option; is it one they can be ok with?
Palestinians, do not leave. You’ll never be allowed to return. Fight fight against the dying light. The remaining humanity on this planet is with you.
Focus on Gaza Riviera 💰! Not Gazans. Not humans.
Apparently neither are you.
Where is this 'buffer zone?' USA?
Obviously this 'buffer zone' is kept secret..Why?
EVERY time I hear this 'orange mouth lips move' get seriously worried.
IN the event of Palestinian's being moved from their 'homeland' I wonder what is going through the American mind.
Do you immigrants in the USA feel safe?
There is none. The narrative is there to disguise the true intent of genocide.
Thank you Dr. Syed and Dr. Sidhwa for your bravery and commitment to tell the story of what you witnessed. This interview is so informative in its detail and also so heartbreaking in its reality. It's so frustrating that the Western media won't tell these stories and that some people just don't want to hear them, to have their paradigm challenged. But these stories must continue to be told and we, the listeners, must continue to share them. The Children of Gaza and Palestine deserve no less.
This is too infuriating for words. The time to stand up is now. We either stand up and stand together now as a people on this planet, brave and united, or foolishly and meekly sit and cower or simply snooze until it's our turn to be on the receiving end, and tnhis will not be far off in the future; it's banging on our doors. First they--US/Israel et al and Zionists incorporated--break what little bit of laws we have protecting us as Nations and peoples. Then they break the very institutions that create these laws, as we're seeing (sanctions against ICC, pulling out of WHO, weakening the UN and and it's institutions, claiming exceptional status above any and all international laws...etc). Then methodically and systematically they take us out one by one. The Palestinians are simply on the vanguard of this greater war of global domination, hegemony and oppression. This greater moral/spiritual war against our collective humanity. Make no mistake, these are pathological, parasitic people out to crush humanity, and human decency. They will unleash, but only if we let them.
This documentation is crucial. Thank you DS for setting this up and thank you to the brave doctors giving testimony. The genocide continues, albeit not by throwing bombs but by withholding medical assistance, meds and equipment. The situation for orphans is desperate and should cause outrage. Where is the world wide Marshall plan?
It feels as though the slaughter reported here must be the most unchecked evil committed in the shortest period of time against people on earth, ever.
In 1972-73 I had the privilege of living in the West Bank. One of my strongest remaining memories of that time comes from visiting in the homes of Palestinian friends: I was privileged to witness their love for and care of their children.
The US did this to Native Americans. It's known as "The Trail of Tears". What will this illegal eviction be known as?
Hitler was a monster.
Netanyahu targets women and children,
Hitler never did that.
Netanyahu kills them. By the tens of thousands.
And the press .
And the aid workers,
In order to prolong the children's suffering.
Concentrated into camps, Ghetto's, and then bombed , numerous times.
Those complicit in the murder of so many children, dont deserve a life.
Try them, and give them the same treatment as the Nazis.
Out of respect for the thousands of children slaughtered.
What disgusting people,
To complain about antisemitism.
And then say " Who gives a shit about the slain children"
lauriemillerjade.com
This is heinous barbaric behavior on the part of the Israeli right-wing government and the IDF. It certainly has antecedents in history when those who are running Israel now were on the short end of the stick with the Nazis, It's a very sad irony, the Israelis should better; they know what it's like to systematically wipe out a people, their land and culture Genocide.
very disturbing, thank you for this report, thank you to the doctors who went to Gaza. It paints a picture that is so horrific nothing can compare.
Wow, the first article Drop Site sends out after the OCCRP one is this. LOL. Good luck!