Health workers, holding banners and placards, gather at the Nasser Hospital to protest Israeli army's attacks on northern Gaza and the prevention of the entry of necessary equipment and supplies to the besieged hospitals in Khan Yunis, Gaza on October 19, 2024.

 (Photo by Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

'Devastating Blow to Humanity': Barred From Gaza by Israel, Health Workers Cry Out for Help

As the situation inside Gaza is increasingly described as "indescribable," medical NGOs blocked from providing care to Palestinians trapped inside besieged territory demand world leaders to stop turning 'blind eye' to Israeli war crimes and violations of humanitarian law.

As more Israeli bombing of the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza killed dozens of people Saturday, health workers from both inside and out of the besieged territory are again pleading with world leaders to bring an end to the indiscriminate attacks and imposed humanitarian crisis that witnesses on the ground increasingly say there are no words to describe.

At al Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis and elsewhere in Gaza, doctors and other medical staff on Saturday staged protests and held press conferences to call attention to the ongoing attacks in northern areas, including the latest targeting of Jabalia in which reporting indicated anywhere from 33 to over 50 people—including civilian men, women, and children—were killed.

"The world is watching, and history will judge us by how we respond to this grave injustice. I call upon each and everyone one of you to join this fight for the preservation of our shared humanity." —Dr. Khaled Saleh, FAJR Scientific

Al-Jazeera reports that hospitals, which have repeatedly been bombed by Israel over the last year, were not immune from this latest round:

Three partially functioning hospitals treating severely wounded patients and sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza are now out of service after coming under intense Israeli fire, a Gaza health official told Al Jazeera, as the siege on Jabalia enters its third week, with at least 33 more people killed in the northern area.

Israeli forces bombed al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia early on Saturday, and have also shelled Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian hospitals in Beit Lahiya over the past few hours, Al Jazeera correspondents have reported.

Saturday's attacks come days after Israel barred at least six medical service NGOs from continuing their life-saving work in Gaza. According to the Washington Post:

Two of those medical NGOs, Glia and the Palestinian American Medical Association (PAMA), confirmed to The Washington Post that they were notified by the WHO this week about the bans. Both groups have worked in Gaza for years preceding the war.

"WHO is concerned about the impact of these denials on Gaza's strained healthcare system," the organization said Thursday in a statement. It added that international emergency medical teams (EMTs) deployed to Gaza are essential to keeping the system operational, as only 17 of the enclave's 36 hospitals remain functionaland "healthcare needs far exceed the system's capacity."

Dr. Khaled Saleh, chair of FAJR Scientific, which provides surgical expertise and trauma specialists to war-torn regions and was another of the groups notified by the WHO that it had been barred from entering Gaza, said in a statement that the move by the Israeli government filled him with "deep sadness and concern for the current state of our global family, questioning our shared humanity and ethics."

Blocked from providing aid to people in dire need, Saleh called on people worldwide to push for an end to Israel's blocking of vital medical aid and those seeking to provide it.

"This is a devastating blow to humanity, representing a level of destruction that we have not witnessed since World War II, yet our world leaders turn a blind eye," he said.

"As a member of the global community," Saleh continued, "I implore all of you who value compassion, ethics, and the sanctity of human life to stand with us and raise your voices against this unconscionable decision. Together, we must advocate for the voiceless and demand restoration of the fundamental right to access to medical care."

Israel's ban on the medical NGOs comes after a string of healthcare professionals who spent time in the Gaza strip have gone public with what they witnessed on the ground, telling tales of unspeakable horror and trying to shake the world out of its complacency on what experts say is a genocide in motion being carried out by Israeli forces.

Earlier this week, the UN humanitarian office, OCHA, said that Israel's continued blocking of food and medical supplies to Jabalia and other ares in the northern was "having life-threatening impacts" for the people there.

OCHA spokesperson Farhan Haq said the OCHA was calling on Israeli authorities "to allowed safe, sustained and unimpeded access to Jabalia and all areas of the north where people are in desperate need of assistance."

In a post on Friday, Oxfam International mourned the killing of Dr. Ahmad Al-Najar and midwife Laila Jneid, both of whom worked with Juzoor, "killed by Israeli airstrikes on Jabalia," the group said. "They were providing lifesaving health care in Gaza. Attacking aid workers is a war crime." Oxfam repeated its demand for a "cease-fire now" and said healthcare workers should never be a target.

In a dispatch on Friday, Dr. Taghreed Al-Imawi, Juzoor staff and an OBGYN doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, described the untenable situation on the ground.

"The situation is beyond horrific and is very difficult and indescribable," said Al-Imawi. "Dead people, severed body parts and injured people everywhere. We are receiving emergency calls from all the areas of the north. Ambulances are not able to reach the injured. We have seen more than 23 pregnant women among the injured coming to the hospital since last week, wounded either by shrapnel or gunfire, suffering from fractures. Some were in a critical condition. Kamal Adwan Hospital and other semi-operational hospitals have received displacement orders but there is no way to evacuate in any case."

"The pediatrics section is closed as it is full of injured people," Al-Imawi added, "the surgery section is full of injured people, even the reception, the hospital has been shelled several times and targeted by snipers, people are terrified to come to the hospital now."

Having recently returned from a field mission in Gaza, pediatric nurse Becky Platt, working through Save the Children—who posted her testimony Saturday—described a situation on the ground that was "like nothing I've seen before."

Platt said the horrific situation is "both in terms of healthcare need and just in terms of the whole humanitarian context—seeing homes and landscapes completely devastated and seeing just the absolute level of human suffering and need as absolutely mind blowing."

"No child should have to be in pain," she said. "And it just feels like your hands are tied when you can't do what you know that you could do easily at home or in another context. I think that when it really hits. It's just—it's just not fair. It's not okay that we've got children with devastating injuries who don't have access to pain relief."

For his part, Dr. Saleh of FAJR Scientific, said it was up to everyone in the world to make their voices heard.

"The world is watching," he said, "and history will judge us by how we respond to this grave injustice. I call upon each and everyone one of you to join this fight for the preservation of our shared humanity."

COMMON DREAMS

NYT Says Photos of Children Killed by Israel in Gaza 'Too Horrific for Publication' US CORPORATE MEDIA SANITIZES ISRAEL'S WAR CRIMES!

THIS IS NOT ABOUT A SINGLE ARTICLE....IT'S ABOUT THE WIDESPREAD 

MEDIA COVER-UP OF WAR CRIMES, GENOCIDE & CRIMES AGAINST 

HUMANITY THAT IS BEING CONCEALED....

ISRAEL'S USE OF WHITE PHOSPHOROUS AGAINST CIVILIANS....

NONE DARE SPEAK ILL OF ISRAEL....or you pay the price! 

US CORPORATE MEDIA sanitizes ISRAEL'S ATROCITIES that are reported elsewhere...

BULLDOZING THE WEST BANK AFTER CLOSING THE AL JAZEERA OFFICE TO CONCEAL ISRAEL'S ATROCITIES...BULLDOZING FIELDS OF FRUIT TREES....

HOW ABOUT THE GANG RAPE OF PRISONERS? HOW ABOUT THE MASS KILLINGS OF HEALTH CARE WORKERS...MASS GRAVES HAVE BEEN UNCOVERED....DOCTORS TORTURED.... A SURGEON'S FINGERS BROKEN.... 

HEALTH CARE WORKERS, AID WORKERS & JOURNALISTS ARE TARGETED!

ISRAEL HAS BECOME BARBARIANS! 

A child injured by an Israeli attack on the Bureij refugee camp was brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital for treatment in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on October 13, 2024. 

(Photo: Ashraf Amra/Anadolu via Getty Images)

NYT Says Photos of Children Killed by Israel in Gaza 'Too Horrific for Publication'

The New York Times' opinion editor rejected baseless claims that it published fabricated images in an essay highlighting U.S. healthcare workers' experiences in the Gaza Strip.

The editor of The New York Times opinion section issued a forceful statement Tuesday refuting claims that it published fabricated or altered CT scan images as part of a recent essay featuring appalling firsthand accounts from U.S.-based healthcare professionals who have worked in Gaza over the past year.

Baseless attacks on the essay, which quoted dozens of healthcare workers, were spread widely by pro-Israel social media accounts following its publication on October 9.

But Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury said Tuesday that "any implication that [the essay's] images are fabricated is simply false." The newspaper's editors, Kingsbury said, have in their possession "photographs to corroborate the CT scan images" but, "because of their graphic nature, we decided these photos—of children with gunshot wounds to the head or neck—were too horrific for publication."

"We made a similar decision for the additional 40-plus photographs and videos supplied by the doctors and nurses surveyed that depicted young children with similar gunshot wounds," Kingsbury added.

The essay, bylined by trauma surgeon Feroze Sidhwa, includes three photos of X-rays that Mimi Syed—an emergency medicine doctor based in Olympia, Washington—provided to the Times.

"I had multiple pediatric patients, mostly under the age of 12, who were shot in the head or the left side of the chest," Syed, who worked in Khan Younis from August 8 to September 5, told the newspaper. "Usually, these were single shots. The patients came in either dead or critical, and died shortly after arriving."

One observer described the essay as "some of the most horrific reporting you'll read on Gaza."

Yonah Lieberman, co-founder of the American Jewish group IfNotNow, wrote in response to Kingsbury's statement, "Shame on any person or organization attempting to paint the dozens of health workers who witnessed the effects of Israel's indiscriminate attacks in Gaza as liars."

"It's disgusting," Lieberman added. "Is there no bottom?"

Sidhwa, who organized a letter sent to U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this month, coordinated with the Times' opinion editors on a poll of 65 healthcare professionals who have worked in Gaza since Israel began its assault in the wake of the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

More than 40 of the healthcare workers surveyed said they "saw multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest in Gaza."

"Our team cared for about four or five children, ages 5 to 8 years old, that were all shot with single shots to the head," said Irfan Galaria, a reconstructive surgeon based in Chantilly, Virginia. "They all presented to the emergency room at the same time. They all died."

Additionally, 63 of the healthcare workers said they "observed severe malnutrition in patients, Palestinian medical workers, and the general population" and 52 "observed nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died."

"Together, Israel and the United States are turning Gaza into a howling wilderness," Sidhwa wrote in last week's essay. "But it's never too late to change course: We could stop Israel's use of our weapons, ammunition, jet fuel, intelligence, and logistical support by withholding them, and we could stanch the flow of weapons to all sides by announcing an international arms embargo on Israel and all Palestinian and Lebanese armed groups."

"The horror must end," Sidhwa added. "The United States must stop arming Israel. And afterward, we Americans need to take a long, hard look at ourselves."

Media outlets reported Tuesday that the Biden administration this past weekend finally threatened to cut off weapons to Israel unless the government takes certain actions in Gaza within the next 30 days.

COMMON DREAMS

 

Israel subjects northern Gaza to one of the most violent campaigns of its genocide; international intervention required

in Palestine

by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

09/10/2024

Palestinian Territory – An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is imminent as the Israeli occupation tightens its siege on the Jabalia camp and Beit Lahia project in the northern Gaza Strip for the fourth consecutive day. Israel is accelerating the pace of its genocide against the Palestinians there by carrying out mass and planned killings, as well as widespread forced displacements. The international community, led by the United Nations, must act swiftly and decisively to save 10s of thousands of residents who are being subjected to one of the most violent campaigns of genocide the Strip has ever witnessed.

Israeli occupation forces have intensified their siege of the Jabalia camp and the surrounding neighborhoods, including Tal al-Zaatar, al-Sikka, Beit Hanoun, and Beit Lahia. The Israeli forces have also taken up positions in the western region of the Gaza Strip, advancing as far as the Jaffa Cemetery and the Tawam Junction.

With airstrikes, fire belts, and artillery shelling—including bombing homes over the heads of their occupants—the Israeli occupation forces have been occupying large portions of northern Gaza since Saturday evening, 5 October. Dozens of people have been killed and injured as a result of this ongoing invasion.

Initial reports confirmed that five citizens—including a woman, a man, and his son—were executed by the occupation forces for trying to escape the Jabalia camp while waving white flags.

In an extremely dangerous development, Israeli army forces ordered the complete evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital, located in the Beit Lahia project, north of Gaza. Kamal Adwan Hospital’s director, Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, reported that he received a call from the occupation forces telling him that if he did not get the patients and medical staff out of the hospital within a day, they would be put in danger.

Along with two other hospitals in northern Gaza, Al-Awda Hospital and the Indonesian Hospital in Jabalia, Kamal Adwan Hospital is partially operational after being raided and destroyed in the Israeli military’s first invasion of northern Gaza last December, during which the hospital’s medical staff, patients, and displaced persons were severely mistreated by the occupation forces. Kamal Adwan Hospital is currently being besieged by Israeli quadcopter aircraft for the second day in a row, with smoke bombs being detonated at its gate and dozens of raids on nearby buildings.

The sole road that ambulances used to move dozens of seriously injured patients from Kamal Adwan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital has been cut off, following an Israeli bombing of a building in the vicinity. This was followed by the occupation forces’ tightening of the siege on the hospital, and the blocking of ambulances and any other methods of victim transport.

Earlier today, the occupation forces arrested a paramedic who was transporting patients from the Kamal Awdan Hospital to the Baptist Hospital, despite prior coordination with Israeli authorities.

The Euro-Med Monitor field team received testimonies from citizens, who were able to reach Gaza City, about witnessing dead bodies lying in the streets. The citizens also stated that they saw victims trapped beneath the debris of bombed-out houses, and that ambulance and civil defense crews were unable to reach the area as at least 20 houses were targeted by Israeli forces in a four-day period.

Thousands of people trapped in the Jabalia and Beit Lahia camps are suffering from a near-total shortage of food supplies, which were already scarce due to Israel’s closure of the border crossings. The limited amount of goods and other aid that had previously been allowed to enter the area was blocked by Israel for more than a week prior to the new invasion.

Numerous families remain stuck in their homes, enduring harsh living conditions under the intensified and brutal Israeli bombing. Citizens are not even able to leave their homes in order to obtain water, and municipal crews and local committees are unable to assist them. As a result, thousands of residents face the threat of starvation, dehydration, or death, knowing full well that they are all victims of the catastrophic effects of malnutrition brought on by Israel’s year-long starvation policy.

The Israeli army is systematically working to empty northern Gaza of its residents and force them to move to the south, recently issuing several evacuation orders and dropping leaflets demanding their evacuation.

It is clear that the Israeli army’s latest operation has no military objective or necessity; rather, it is intended to finish the destructive operations that, during three prior incursions, have affected over 85% of the buildings in northern Gaza. Additionally, it is intended to target civilians and force them to flee the area, converting it into a full military zone.

Salah al-Din Road is now blocked from the Civil Administration side by an Israeli military checkpoint, and anyone attempting to use it to leave the camp is being searched. This afternoon, a paramedic was arrested despite prior coordination with the Red Cross, which belies Israel’s claims about the existence of “safe routes” for displaced people heading south.

The forcible deportation of a population is defined as a crime against humanity under the statute of the International Criminal Court, and the United Nations and the international community must intervene immediately to save 10s of thousands of Palestinian residents in northern Gaza who face ethnic cleansing by Israel. Furthermore, the UN and international community have a legal and moral obligation to put an end to the horrific crime of genocide being committed by the Israeli occupation for the second year in a row now.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

Tags:

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Gaza, Palestine

COUNTER CURRENTS

Blinken Lied to Congress CORPORATE MEDIA IS NOT REPORTING THE LIES!

NETANYAHU'S LUNACY IS EXPANDING WAR...& THE U.S. IS SENDING TROOPS...HOW SOON WILL THESE INCOMPETENTS DRAG AMERICA INTO ANOTHER POINTLESS WAR BASED ON LIES?

Blinken Lied to Congress

September 26, 2024

The U.S. secretary of state ignored evidence of siege warfare against civilians in Gaza because he knew he would face no consequences, writes Caitlin Johnstone.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken at a warehouse with humanitarian aid bound for Gaza, at the Jordanian Hashemite Charity Organization in Amman, Jordan, on April 30. (State Department/Chuck Kennedy)

By Caitlin Johnstone
CaitlinJohnstone.com.au

Listen to Tim Foley reading this article.

As Israel butchers hundreds of civilians in its latest attacks on Lebanon, leaked documents have surfaced revealing that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken knowingly lied to Congress about Israel’s siege warfare against civilians in Gaza.

ProPublica’s Brett Murphy, who has been covering aspects of this story for months, has a new article out titled “Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.” 

In it we learn that both USAID and the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration produced separate reports this past spring concluding that Israel was deliberately blocking much-needed humanitarian aid from Palestinian civilians in Gaza, which under U.S. law should have led to the suspension of U.S. weapons supplies. 

Protesters form “the people’s red line” around the White House to demand end of Gaza genocide on June 12. (Diane Krauthamer, Flickr, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Blinken dismissed these findings, as did the rest of the headless cohort known as the Biden administration.

Days after receiving these reports, Blinken delivered a statement to Congress that he knew to be false, saying,

“We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance.”

This was a lie. Blinken’s own people were telling him Israel was obstructing aid, but he lied to Congress about it in order to ensure that Israel would keep receiving the weapons it needs to keep killing Palestinian and Lebanese civilians.

This is what happens when you don’t prosecute your war criminals. Blinken lied to Congress that Israel wasn’t assessed to have been blocking aid when both USAID and the State Department’s refugees bureau had indeed assessed that the Israeli government is doing precisely that, because he knew he’d never be jailed for lying in facilitation of horrific war crimes.

USAID Administrator Samantha Power on Feb. 25 touring a World Food Program warehouse in Amman, Jordan, used to consolidate and prepare humanitarian assistance supplies for onward shipment to Gaza. (USAID, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0)

Blinken has watched George W. Bush’s entire cabinet not only walk free but continue to have high-profile careers in government, punditry, think tanks and the military-industrial complex, when they all should have been caged for two decades now. 

He watched C.I.A. officials like Michael Hayden lie to Congress about the agency’s torture program without ever facing any consequences.

[See: The Madness of Antony Blinken.]

He watched Director of National Intelligence James Clapper lie to Congress about the NSA’s surveillance program without ever facing any consequences. He knew he could lie to Congress about some of the worst atrocities his nation has ever participated in because he knew there would never be any consequences for this.

Clapper speaking at an event on national security on Sept. 22, 2016. (LBJ Library, Flickr, Jay Godwin)

None of the world’s worst people are in prison, but if you ever did anything to try to bring them to justice yourself you’d spend the rest of your life behind bars, or be executed. The law doesn’t exist to protect ordinary people from the worst of our society, it exists to protect the worst of our society from ordinary people.

It’s worth noting here that while powerful people in Washington break the law and lie in facilitation of mass atrocities, the U.S. is executing Black men without evidence of their guilt. 

The state of Missouri just executed a man named Marcellus Williams despite objections from prosecutors, jurors, and the victim’s own family due to a lack of solid evidence that he actually committed the murder for which he was convicted. 

Days earlier, Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah was executed in North Carolina despite the key witness in his case recanting his testimony against him. 

Both men were Black, and both men were Muslim. As men with white skin lie with impunity to help butcher brown-skinned civilians in the Middle East, I personally find this noteworthy.

This has been going on a long time. In 1902, the renowned attorney Clarence Darrow said the following in a speech to inmates at the Cook County Jail in Chicago:

“Those men who own the earth make the laws to protect what they have. They fix up a sort of fence or pen around what they have, and they fix the law so the fellow on the outside cannot get in. The laws are really organized for the protection of the men who rule the world. They were never organized or enforced to do justice. We have no system for doing justice, not the slightest in the world.”

It’s just as true in 2024 as it was in 1902.

Caitlin Johnstone’s work is entirely reader-supported, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following her on Facebook, Twitter, Soundcloud, YouTube, or throwing some money into her tip jar on Ko-fi, Patreon or Paypal. If you want to read more you can buy her books. The best way to make sure you see the stuff she publishes is to subscribe to the mailing list at her website or on Substack, which will get you an email notification for everything she publishes.  For more info on who she is, where she stands and what she’s trying to do with her platform, click here. All works are co-authored with her American husband Tim Foley.

This article is from CaitlinJohnstone.com.au and re-published with permission.

The views expressed are solely those of the author and may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.

Please Donate Today to CN’s Fall Fund Drive 

 

 

 Post Views: 3,135

Tags: Brett Murphy Bureau of Population Caitlin Johnstone Clarence Darrow George W. Bush James Clapper Khalil Divine Black Sun Allah Marcellus Williams Michael Hayden Missouri ProPublica Refugees and Migration U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken USAID 

CONSORTIUM NEWS

Blinken Faces Calls to Resign Over Lie That Israel Is Not Blocking Gaza Aid BLINKEN LIED!

 GAZA STARVATION, BLOCKING HUMANITARIAN AID, BLOCKING CLEAN WATER, 

BLOCKING MEDICAL SUPPLIES, BLOCKING POLIO VACCINES...GAZA GENOCIDE!

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Annapolis, Maryland on August 6, 2024.

 (Photo: Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images)

Blinken Faces Calls to Resign Over Lie That Israel Is Not Blocking Gaza Aid

"When a senior American official lies to Congress in the middle of genocide so that the government can keep funding that genocide, he is deliberately flouting the law and prolonging the suffering of millions of innocent people."

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced calls to resign on Tuesday following a ProPublica report detailing how he contradicted the findings of his own department's experts in order to maintain the flow of American weaponry to Israel, which has repeatedly used the arms to commit war crimes in the Gaza Strip.

"Secretary Blinken and the Biden administration ignored Israel's blocking of humanitarian aid to the suffering people of Gaza—which is a violation of American law—and lied about it to Congress," said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). "When a senior American official lies to Congress in the middle of genocide so that the government can keep funding that genocide, he is deliberately flouting the law and prolonging the suffering of millions of innocent people who desperately need our government to stop funding their slaughter."

"He must resign," Awad added, "and the Biden administration must be held accountable for its violation of the law and its complicity in the Israeli genocide in Gaza."

"The American people deserve honest and upright leaders to represent their values and protect their interests."

ProPublica's story provides a thorough account—backed by internal communications and other documents—of how the Blinken-led State Department delivered a report to Congress that was at odds with the conclusions of experts within the department as well as those of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The latter agency told Blinken directly in an April memo that Israel was deliberately impeding shipments of U.S. humanitarian assistance, a finding consistent with assessments from the United Nations and outside groups. Under U.S. law, the federal government cannot provide arms or other military equipment to countries obstructing American humanitarian aid.

But in a May report to Congress, the State Department concluded that the Israeli government was not "prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of U.S. humanitarian assistance within the meaning of Section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act."

One State Department official, Stacy Gilbert, resigned over the final report to Congress, saying in a statement following her departure that "there is abundant evidence showing Israel is responsible for blocking aid" and that "to deny this is absurd and shameful."

The aid obstructions are ongoing. According to an analysis released last week by a coalition of human rights organizations, Israel's siege is currently blocking over 80% of food aid from reaching Gaza as the enclave faces famine.

Awad of CAIR said Tuesday that "Secretary Blinken may have committed a crime with his lies."

"The American people deserve honest and upright leaders to represent their values and protect their interests," said Awad.

Others echoed the call for Blinken to step down or be removed by lawmakers. Congressional Republicans are currently pushing to hold Blinken in contempt, but for a matter entirely unrelated to U.S. support for Israel's war on Gaza.

Sam Perlo-Freeman, an academic who has worked as a researcher for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the Campaign Against Arms Trade, said Blinken "should resign or be impeached."

"Of course," he added, "most of Congress was very happy to be lied to and would have denounced Blinken for the truth."

COMMON DREAMS