No one should be surprised that Israel is integrating its so-called humanitarian effort into its genocide of Palestinians.
Israeli forces in Rafah in May 2024. (IDF Spokesperson’s Unit/Wikimedia Commons/ CC BY-SA 3.0)
By Jonathan Cook
Jonathan-Cook.net
It is entirely unsurprising that Israel has yet again been caught out in a lie — a lie that the BBC once again spread far and wide on its news services.
Israel claimed that it had not fired at starving Palestinians queueing on Sunday morning to get food from one of its highly militarised “aid distribution hubs” — a system Israel imposed on Gaza in place of a long-established and successful aid network run by the United Nations.
More than 30 Palestinians are known to have been killed and dozens more injured in the weekend incident [in which 75 were killed by some estimates]. [Civilians trying to reach the aid distribution point have now been shot at and killed for three consecutive days with about 130 dead. CNN reports: “The United Nations’ human rights chief, Volker Turk, said in a statement that ‘deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable… There must be a prompt and impartial investigation into each of these attacks, and those responsible held to account.’”]
Israel blamed Hamas fighters for shooting Palestinian civilians, saying they were trying to stop the crowds from taking food boxes. The Israeli military dished up a video, taken by one of its drones, as supposed proof.
The BBC broadcast that video on its main shows, and then did one of its standard “Israel said, the Palestinians said. Who can really know the truth?” reports of the incident.
The BBC should never have taken Israel’s disinformation seriously – not least because Israeli claims are always shown to be lies when subjected to any serious independent scrutiny. The default position should be that Israel is lying until it can demonstrate convincingly that it is not.
Doctors treating the dead and wounded immediately pointed out that their injuries were consistent with Israeli gunfire. The victims had single shots to the head or chest, in line with targeting by Israeli snipers. Others suffered shrapnel wounds from tank shells. Hamas has no tanks.
Now expert analysis of the video itself — paradoxically confirmed by BBC Verify — shows that the footage was filmed in Khan Younis, far from Rafah, where the Palestinians aid seekers were killed. It is also apparent from the shadows that the video was taken in the evening, not in the morning when the Palestinians in Rafah were shot.
Despite this, the BBC still writes: “The circumstances of this strike are unclear.”
BBC logo, Manchester, Engliand, 2009. (TechnicalFault formerly Coffee Lover, Flickr, CC BY 2.0)
No, it is entirely clear that the Israeli army disseminated lies, and that the BBC lapped up those lies and spread them to its audiences via its main news shows, before tentatively retracting the lies quietly on a live feed on its website.
The reality is that the video doesn’t show Hamas fighters shooting Palestinians to stop them getting aid. Rather it shows a criminal Palestinian gang — of the kind Israel has been cultivating and allying with — looting aid so that it can be sold back to Palestinians on the open market, where prices have been massively inflated by Israel’s blockade on food.
There are no police in Gaza maintaining law and order because Israel kills any Palestinian seen wearing a police uniform.
It was for these very reasons that international aid organisations refused to take part in Israel’s scheme. They understood it was never about distributing humanitarian aid because the U.N. was best placed to do that.
It was not even chiefly about weaponising aid to lure Palestinians into what are effectively Israeli military bases so that soldiers can use biometric data to snatch any Palestinians they want, disappearing them into Israel’s torture camps, as they have been doing.
Rather it is about giving the appearance of providing food — most of it useless because it is dried staples that need cooking, when there is almost no water or fuel available — while continuing to starve the vast majority of Palestinians. And it is about using the aid hubs as another front for killing Palestinians.
In other words, after taking the aid system out of the U.N.’s hands, Israel is successfully enfolding the so-called humanitarian effort” into its genocide.
If that sounds too cynical, mark this. Israel again shot at crowds gathering on Tuesday morning to get aid from one of its “distribution hubs,” killing at least 27 Palestinians and wounding more than 180.
Several witnesses say there was no aid available when they arrived.
There is no way to be too cynical about what Israel is doing. Israel is utterly committed to its genocide — and a genocidal state has no red lines.
Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist. He was based in Nazareth, Israel, for 20 years. He returned to the U.K. in 2021. He is the author of three books on the Israel-Palestine conflict: Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State (2006), Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (2008) and Disappearing Palestine: Israel’s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). If you appreciate his articles, please consider offering your financial support.
This article is from the author’s blog, Jonathan Cook.net.
The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
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2.8.25: “President Trump is the greatest friend that Israel has ever had in the White House…Israel has no better friend in America now under President Trump’s leadership, and America has no greater friend than Israel.” Benyamin Netanyahu.
“Ready, Fire, Aim.” No doubt, like the killers before them, Trump-Vance, Inc., have “people” doing the “readying,” “aiming,” ensuring Trump-Vance, Inc., are prepared to properly & tactically “fire,”@ the right time, in the right direction.”
6.4.25: “FIVE (5) GOLDEN RINGS!” Dorothy Shea, Acting US Ambassador to the UN,“PLEADS THE FIFTH!” A (5TH) VETO,” on behalf of Trump-Vance, Biden-Harris, Obama-Biden, Bush-Cheney, Clinton-Gore, vs. The UNSC.”
6.4.25: “Take Five (5)!!! Dorothy Shea vetoes *the UN Security Council’s resolution calling for: 1) an “immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire” between Israel and Hamas in Gaza; 2) the release of all the hostages; 3) unhindered aid access across the enclave,” (14 other members back motion demanding release of hostages and unhindered aid);” ONE (1) “Hold-Out,” the USG!!!
The USG’s envoy, [Dorothy Shea], said, “The [USG] “will ‘not support any measure that fails to condemn Hamas, call for it to disarm,’ @ hxxps://www.timesofisrael.com/us-vetoes-un-security-council-resolution-calling-for-gaza-ceasefire/ ….
……. “A listening ear leads to life; but, a deaf ear leads to death.” Kenyan proverb.
…… *“Israel has rejected calls for an unconditional or permanent ceasefire, saying Hamas cannot stay in Gaza. Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon told the council members who voted in favor of the draft: “You chose appeasement and submission. You chose a road that does not lead to peace. Only to more terror.”
Danon warned: “Don’t waste more of your time, because no resolution, no vote, no moral failure, will stand in our way.”
Jonathan Cook’s, “got” this, “Israel is successfully enfolding the so-called humanitarian effort” into its genocide.”
* hxxps://www.timesofisrael.com/us-vetoes-un-security-council-resolution-calling-for-gaza-ceasefire/
How anyone can back this wanton blood lust killing of mass murder total escapes me.
But then I see myself as a rather well anchored, rational adult with a solid value set.
The fire hydrant of money and supplies to these murders must be shut off. ASAP!
All Americans need to speak out again the U.S. Government participating in this horror.
What the hell have Americans become?
I am done holding back my honest opinion: I HATE israel!!! and I HATE the zionists.
Mirjana Spoljaric, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, says, “We cannot continue to watch what is happening. It’s surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard.” It seems to me that if a country is surpassing any acceptable, legal, moral, and humane standard, then hatred is a pretty appropriate response.
It’s possible at least some of the shooting came from Philip Reilly’s Safe Reach Solutions, a gang of mercenaries employed by/alongside the GHF. Reilly used to be (and maybe still is?) a CIA paramilitary goon who helped train the Nicaraguan Contras and was reportedly the first USAmerican into Afghanistan after September 11 2001. According to Haaretz,
‘Their [SRS’s] arrival raised new concerns. The team lacked even basic equipment and uniforms. “A Shin Bet agent and an officer from Southern Command had to take them to a clothing store and buy them everything they needed,” a senior officer recalls. “Very quickly, people began asking whether this company really matched the profile it had presented to the military.”‘
(How Netanyahu’s Office Chose a U.S. Firm With No Aid Experience to Run Gaza Food Project Behind Israeli Army’s Back, May 25)
Might their uniforms be easily confused with IDF uniforms, and their bullets ‘consistent with Israeli gunfire’?