Friendly reminder: when commenting about a news event, especially something that just happened, please provide a source of some kind. While ideally this would be on nitter or archived, any source is preferable to none at all given.
Sources on the fighting in Palestine against Israel. In general, CW for footage of battles, explosions, dead people, and so on:
UNRWA daily-ish reports on Israel's destruction and siege of Gaza and the West Bank.
English-language Palestinian Marxist-Leninist twitter account. Alt here.
English-language twitter account that collates news (and has automated posting when the person running it goes to sleep).
Arab-language twitter account with videos and images of fighting.
English-language (with some Arab retweets) Twitter account based in Lebanon.
English-language Palestinian Twitter account which reports on news from the Resistance Axis.
English-language PalestineResist telegram channel.
More telegram channels here for those interested.
Various sources that are covering the Ukraine conflict are also covering the one in Palestine, like Rybar.
The Country of the Week is still Palestine, though we will switch next week to a new country.
Here is the map of the Ukraine conflict, courtesy of Wikipedia.
The weekly (biweekly?) update is here.
Links and Stuff
The bulletins site is down.
Examples of Ukrainian Nazis and fascists
Examples of racism/euro-centrism during the Russia-Ukraine conflict
Add to the above list if you can.
Resources For Understanding The War
Defense Politics Asia's youtube channel and their map. Their youtube channel has substantially diminished in quality but the map is still useful.
Moon of Alabama, which tends to have interesting analysis. Avoid the comment section.
Understanding War and the Saker: reactionary sources that have occasional insights on the war.
Alexander Mercouris, who does daily videos on the conflict. While he is a reactionary and surrounds himself with likeminded people, his daily update videos are relatively brainworm-free and good if you don't want to follow Russian telegram channels to get news. He also co-hosts The Duran, which is more explicitly conservative, racist, sexist, transphobic, anti-communist, etc when guests are invited on, but is just about tolerable when it's just the two of them if you want a little more analysis.
On the ground: Patrick Lancaster, an independent and very good journalist reporting in the warzone on the separatists' side.
Unedited videos of Russian/Ukrainian press conferences and speeches.
Telegram Channels
Again, CW for anti-LGBT and racist, sexist, etc speech, as well as combat footage.
Pro-Russian
https://t.me/aleksandr_skif ~ DPR's former Defense Minister and Colonel in the DPR's forces. Russian language.
https://t.me/Slavyangrad ~ A few different pro-Russian people gather frequent content for this channel (~100 posts per day), some socialist, but all socially reactionary. If you can only tolerate using one Russian telegram channel, I would recommend this one.
https://t.me/s/levigodman ~ Does daily update posts.
https://t.me/patricklancasternewstoday ~ Patrick Lancaster's telegram channel.
https://t.me/gonzowarr ~ A big Russian commentator.
https://t.me/rybar ~ One of, if not the, biggest Russian telegram channels focussing on the war out there. Actually quite balanced, maybe even pessimistic about Russia. Produces interesting and useful maps.
https://t.me/epoddubny ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/boris_rozhin ~ Russian language.
https://t.me/mod_russia_en ~ Russian Ministry of Defense. Does daily, if rather bland updates on the number of Ukrainians killed, etc. The figures appear to be approximately accurate; if you want, reduce all numbers by 25% as a 'propaganda tax', if you don't believe them. Does not cover everything, for obvious reasons, and virtually never details Russian losses.
https://t.me/UkraineHumanRightsAbuses ~ Pro-Russian, documents abuses that Ukraine commits.
Pro-Ukraine
Almost every Western media outlet.
https://discord.gg/projectowl ~ Pro-Ukrainian OSINT Discord.
https://t.me/ice_inii ~ Alleged Ukrainian account with a rather cynical take on the entire thing.
Last week's discussion post.
https://www.unrwa.org/resources/reports/unrwa-situation-report-13-gaza-strip-and-west-bank-including-east-jerusalem
UNRWA SITUATION REPORT #13 ON THE GAZA STRIP AND THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM
Tuesday, October 24, 2023
spoiler
All information valid as of 23 October 2023 at 6 p.m.Day 17 of the War
Key Points
The Gaza Strip
Nearly 600,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 150 UNRWA facilities. Only in the Middle areas, Khan Younis and Rafah, nearly 430,000 IDPs are in 93 UNRWA shelters. This is an increase of 10,000 people only in the past 24 hours. Since Saturday 21 October, three humanitarian convoys reached Gaza with a total of 54 trucks. UNRWA teams receive those shipments on the Gaza side and help with the storage and distribution in cooperation with other UN agencies. The convoys included some food, drinking water and medicines.
These convoys did not include much-needed fuel. UNRWA will run out of fuel within the next two days, putting at risk the delivery of humanitarian aid to people in need.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem
On 23 October, the Israeli Security Forces (ISF) conducted a search and arrest operation in Jalazone refugee camp, near Ramallah, carrying out widespread arrests and killing two Palestine Refugees.
Overall Situation
The Gaza Strip
According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, 5,087 people have been killed since 7 October, including 2,055 children, 1,119 women, and 217 elderly. Another 15,273 have been injured. An additional 1,500 persons are reported missing, including 830 children.
Overall, nearly 1,400 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel, according to the Israeli authorities, the vast majority on 7 October (OCHA). Shelters are operating beyond their capacities and many new IDPs are sleeping in the streets as current facilities are overwhelmed. The number of IDPs in UNRWA shelters is four times more than what UNRWA had originally planned for.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem
According to OCHA, 93 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since 7 October.
Humanitarian Access, Protection of Civilians
Gaza
In total, 35 UNRWA colleagues have been killed, while another 18 have been injured.
At least 40 UNRWA installations have been impacted since 7 October.
The West Bank, including East Jerusalem
Movements of Palestinians in the West Bank, including Palestine Refugees and UNRWA staff, continue to be significantly limited, due to Israeli Authorities’ restrictions.
UNRWA continues to provide services, supported by staff living in close proximity to the Agency’s premises and installations.
UNRWA Response
Gaza
UNRWA Shelters
On average, the shelters are about 2.7 times their designed capacity. The most crowded shelter, at its most severe level of overcrowding, was hosting 12 times more people than its designed capacity. Overcrowding conditions are severely constraining access to basic assistance and essential services while increasing health and protection risks, and negatively impacting on mental health.
At the Rafah logistics base, 400 people are sharing one toilet.
UNRWA is distributing family hygiene kits to pregnant women and baby kits for newborns in the shelters.
Health
Only one-third of UNRWA clinics in the South and Middle Areas are operational. They are offering essential primary health-care services to refugees. These centres recorded a total of 4,198 visits on 23 October, for refugees and non-refugees.
Health-care services were maintained within the UNRWA shelters, with the support of 92 mobile medical units and medical teams, serving nearly 9,900 cases at shelters. According to initial health assessments from the mobile medical teams, there are over 37,000 persons with non-communicable diseases (NCDs), over 4,600 pregnant women and around 380 post-natal cases requiring medical attention among the IDPs. In addition, medical teams are increasingly identifying cases of acute respiratory and diarrhea among children under five years old. UNRWA’s stocks of medicines are critically decreasing, with availability from five-15 days. Available insulin stocks will last for only one week.
Fuel stocks in the functional UNRWA primary health-care centres are about to run out.
Psychosocial Support
UNRWA has counsellors and social workers in the shelters, who provide psychological first aid and other specialized protection services. Since the beginning of the crisis, UNRWA social workers provided 4,700 people with psychosocial support and social work services. These include cases that are referred for medication and other specialized mental health and psychosocial support interventions.
Food Security
To support displaced families and address bread shortages, UNRWA continued to provide bakeries with flour. This has allowed 30 bakeries to give bread to families at half the cost. This is in addition to the distribution of bread in UNRWA shelters.
Water and Sanitation Services (WASH)
Some solid waste collection from the camps and from emergency shelters and transfer to landfills continues in Middle, Khan Younis and Rafah areas with difficulties due to the scarcity of fuel and staff. Water wells in Jabalia, Khan Younis and Rafah are functional with about 10,000 m3 being pumped from nine water wells. Despite the limited availability of fuel, desalination plants continue to operate in the shelters for the provision of potable water. Water trucking operations to the shelters in Rafah and Khan Younis areas also continue. Given the high number of people hosted in the shelters, the water provided is barely enough to cover the needs.
The West Bank
Education
On 23 October, due to the Israeli Security Forces’ search and arrest operation in Jalazone refugee camp, and the volatile situation in the camp, the three UNRWA schools in the camp serving over 1,700 school children, were closed.
Health
Most UNRWA health clinics around the West Bank were open.
UNRWA protection team visited the UNRWA Health Centre in Jerusalem Old City and provided protection[1] at the site. The health centre had been closed since 7 October and was reopened on 23 October.
WASH
Waste collection services continue in 19 refugee camps.
On 23 October, UNRWA managed to successfully transfer the waste from Arroub and Fawwar camp to the dumping site. Compactors’ movements had been restricted in past days due to the closures and movement restrictions across the West Bank. UNRWA Protection team facilitated and coordinated the movements by also providing protective presence[2].
Protection / Crisis Intervention Unit (CIU)
UNRWA conducted assessments across three refugee camps, including Nour Shams, Jenin, and Aqbat Jaber, that have experienced ISF operations. Significant damage to private infrastructure continues to be reported in these locations, which have been subjected to repeated intense incursions and rounds of violence. UNRWA is coordinating with humanitarian partners, including from the West Bank Protection Consortium, to provide assistance to 41 Palestine refugee families displaced due to Israeli settlers' violence in Area C. -Ends
[1] The presence of UNRWA staff at sensitive locations/sites can contribute to promote the protection of Palestine refugees.
[2] Ibid.
Congratulations are in order to Israel who seem to have managed not to kill UN personnel today.
600k Jesus Christ