CrossFireArarbia

‘No More Spaces to Bury Our Dead’ – Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 3, 2025

Graves are running out in Gaza. The Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs in Gaza announced, Wednesday evening, that graves have run out in most areas of the Strip. It added this is amidst the escalating genocide carried out by Israel over the past 22 months and the rising number of people that are being killed.

The systematic targeting of civilians and the ongoing genocide is resulting in the depletion of graves in most areas of the Gaza Strip, the Ministry stated, explaining that the Israeli army completely or partially destroyed more than 40 grave sites across the Strip since October 2023.

The ministry stated the Israeli army prevents Palestinians from “accessing cemeteries located within its security and military control, which has led to a reduction in burial spaces, the depletion of existing cemeteries, and the exacerbation of the severe shortage of graves for burying martyrs and the dead.”

It explained that this comes at a time when the Israeli army is preventing “the entry of shrouds, building materials, and materials necessary for preparing graves, which prevents the burial of martyrs in accordance with Sharia regulations.”

In addition, Israeli evacuation orders have reduced the available land for burials, transforming it into a shelter for displaced Palestinians, according to the statement.

Consequently, the statement noted the accumulation of bodies of “martyrs” in hospitals and their courtyards, while schoolyards and homes have been converted into emergency burial sites.

It noted that with the worsening grave availability crisis in Gaza, the cost of preparing a single grave has increased from 700-1,000 shekels (one dollar equals 3.37 shekels), “burdening the families of the martyrs.”

The ministry is appealing to Arab and Islamic countries and entrepreneurs to support the “Ikram Campaign” it recently announced, to build free graves to honor the martyrs.

It also called on local and international relief organizations and entrepreneurs “to urgently intervene to provide relief to the families of the martyrs, work to build free graves, and provide urgent burial supplies, including shrouds, building materials, and burial equipment.”

Almost daily, activists circulate images on social media of the dead piling up in hospital courtyards as the death toll rises due to the escalating genocide.

Palestinians complain about the lack of graves to bury their “martyred” relatives, while some resort to opening old graves to bury additional bodies inside.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has waged a genocidal war in Gaza, including killing, starvation, destruction, and forced displacement, ignoring all international calls and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt it.

The genocide, with American support, has left approximately 191,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing, in addition to hundreds of thousands displaced and a famine that has claimed the lives of many, including children as reported by Anadolu.

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Weaponizing Food in Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 2, 2025

More than 130 international governmental agencies have issued a demand for the immediate end of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the deadly US-Israeli mechanism for delivering food to starving Gaza. They called for a return to the Israel disrupted United Nations-led system which, combined international aid agencies with commercial supplies to serve the strip’s families who are struggling to survive Israel’s bombs, military ground offensive, and forced displacement.

It is impossible to see why an anti-humanitarian enterprise such as the GHF should, instead, attract $30 million in funding from the US which claims to be the global exemplar of morality and integrity. The GHF demonstrates, once again, that this is far from the truth. Since May 27, when GHF began operations, more than 550 people have been killed and over 4,000 wounded among the desperate thousands waiting for the delivery of food parcels at one or other of the four hubs, three in the south and one near the centre. UN relief agency UNRWA condemns GHF for being a vehicle for “weaponising” food aid.

GHF officials deny this accusation and dismiss reports of Israeli shootings and drone and tank attacks against Palestinians approaching militarised GHF hub zones. While killings of Palestinians have been reliably reported since day one, the US and Israel, which co-sponsor GHF, had shrugged off these reports until last week.

Israeli liberal daily Haaretz published statements from anonymous Israeli soldiers deployed near the hubs. According to Haaretz, Israeli officers and soldiers were ordered to fire on Palestinians “when no threat was present.” One soldier told Haaretz, “It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. .. Our form of communication is gunfire.” He added, “I’m not aware if a single instance of return fire. There is no enemy, no weapons.” There have been no Israeli casualties during distributions is proof positive of what he said.

Until Haaretz published its interviews, the Israeli military claimed falsely that troops fired in the air when Palestinians approached them. In response to the Haaretz reports, the military prosecutor demanded an investigation into possible war crimes. Israeli human rights organisations Yesh Din and B’Tselem have pointed out for decades that military investigations are rarely launched and even more rarely result in prosecutions of Israeli officers or soldiers. Consequently, the military enjoys impunity and continues to act with impunity.

The modus operandi of GHF centres also contributes to chaos and Palestinian deaths. Aid seekers are not informed which of the centres will open. Times vary for distributions which can last one hour or until all the prepacked parcels disappear. Palestinians have to turn up many hours early – usually in the dead of night – to reach the distribution centres. Those who succeed have been on the scene first. Most are fit young men who can survive the wait and the scrum which always eventuates the minute the distributions begin. Women, children and the elderly face exclusion, bullets or trampling.

The parcels, which contain rations, hygiene kits, and simple medicines, can weigh 40 kilograms and cannot be easily transported by one person. The bulky cardboard boxes often break, spilling their contents onto the ground. Fights ensue. Palestinians carry plastic bags when going to collect aid in order to return home with something if not an entire package. When a distribution ends, grenades emitting red smoke are fired by the Israeli army to order Palestinians to evacuate the area immediately.

Medecins San Frontiers/Doctors Without Borders has said GHF “must be dismantled.” It is “forcing Palestinians “to choose between starvation or risking their lives for minimal supplies.” MSF said, “Every day [its] teams see patients who been killed or wounded trying to get food at one of these sites.” MSF called on Israel to “lift the siege on food, fuel, medical and humanitarian supplies.”

The UN has refused to cooperate with GHF, after expressing doubts about its neutrality, accusing it of militarising relief and of contributing to the displacement of civilians, particularly those from the north who must travel long distances in the sweltering heat to access existential aid.

Before Israel imposed its March 2nd blockade on Gaza, the UNRWA, the UN children’s fund, and the World Food Programme had provided Gaza’s 2.3 million residents with their needs via 400 (not 4) distribution mechanisms where Palestinians had registered. They were notified by text or call when to collect their aid. There were no desperate crowds forming hours before aid distributions, no scrambles to receive parcels, and no Israeli shooters or tank commanders to fire on recipients. Food was treated as a right and its distribution did not cost lives or involve the Israeli military.

Michael Jansen contributed this piece to The Jordan Times

News

How Britain Funded The Israeli Genocide

CrossFireArabia
July 2, 2025

Britain’s support for Israel’s genocidal conduct in Gaza, through weapons, intelligence sharing, and diplomatic cover, is in the spotlight again after this week’s court ruling on a legal challenge to the UK’s continuing arms exports to Tel Aviv.

Critics, ranging from top human rights groups to legal experts and members of Parliament, say the UK has become complicit in the devastation Israel is inflicting on Gaza, where its forces have killed more than 57,000 Palestinians and wounded over 134,000 since Oct. 7, 2023.

The UK High Court on Monday dismissed a judicial review brought by Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq and London-based Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), supported by Amnesty International UK, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam.

The case centered on Britain’s decision to exempt F-35 parts when suspending some arms export licenses for Israel last year, citing the UK’s legal obligations under international humanitarian law, including the Geneva Conventions, the Arms Trade Treaty, and the Genocide Convention.

Despite acknowledging these concerns, judges Stephen Males and Karen Steyn ruled that the so-called “F-35 carve-out” policy was lawful and beyond the jurisdiction of the courts. The decision drew widespread condemnation from the rights groups, who have vowed to keep up their efforts to force the British government to halt all arms exports to Israel.

According to a detailed investigation by London-based watchdog Action on Armed Violence (AOAV), the UK has supplied thousands of munitions, continued shipments of components for the F-35 fighter jet used in Israeli airstrikes, and conducted over 570 surveillance flights over Gaza since December 2023.

Arms and material

Britain has continued to arm Israel despite mounting civilian casualties in Gaza. “Since October 2023 there have been at least 14 shipments of military goods from the UK to Israel,” Labour lawmaker Kim Johnson said in Parliament last month.

“Those include over 8,500 munitions, bombs, grenades, missiles, and 146 armored vehicle parts. In October 2023 alone, the UK exported 150,000 bullets.”

In September 2024, under growing pressure, the Labour government announced it was suspending around 30 of 350 active export licenses for Israel, citing a “clear risk” that British-made weapons could be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.

However, the move fell far short of a full embargo, with AOAV noting that “the vast majority of licenses remained valid.”

Critically, the UK exempted components for the F-35 fighter jet program from suspension. BAE Systems, a key British arms manufacturer, contributes to the jets used in Israeli airstrikes.

AOAV reports that F-35s have played “a critical role in the Israeli bombing campaign,” including an attack in March 2025 that killed more than 400 Palestinians.

While the UK insists that all exports are rigorously assessed, Parliament has heard warnings that Britain cannot ensure its arms are not used in Gaza.

“It is completely conceivable that those weapons have been used to kill and maim children in Gaza,” Labour MP Warinder Juss said in a Parliament session.

Surveillance and intelligence

Starting in December 2023, the Royal Air Force began flying near-daily surveillance missions over Gaza and southern Israel from the RAF Akrotiri base in the Greek Cypriot Administration.

According to AOAV data, Britain has flown over 570 such sorties, with more than 200 under the current Labour government.

The primary aircraft used is the Shadow R1, operated by the RAF’s 14 Squadron, equipped with high-resolution cameras and signals intelligence tools. The RAF also deployed RC-135 Rivet Joint planes to collect electronic intelligence.

The UK government claims these flights are “solely” for hostage rescue purposes. However, AOAV raised serious concerns about how the intelligence is used, warning that “British spy aircraft may have given Israel additional eyes and ears over Gaza’s battlefields.”

Britain’s membership in the Five Eyes intelligence alliance complicates matters further. As AOAV explains, the UK has long held responsibility for Middle East monitoring within the alliance, and signals intelligence shared with the US may have ultimately supported Israeli military operations.

Legal challenges and ethical concerns

Despite the September 2024 suspension of some export licenses, arms shipments from the UK to Israel appear to have continued. Human rights groups have sharply criticized what AOAV calls a “blind alliance.”

In early June, former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn called for an independent public inquiry into the UK’s involvement in Israeli military operations in Gaza, urging the government to end arms sales to Israel and accusing ministers of complicity in what he described as “mass murder.”

Most recently, on June 30, the UK High Court dismissed the judicial review brought by Al-Haq and GLAN, saying that decisions on whether to continue UK’s involvement in the F-35 program were for the government and Parliament according to Anadolu.

News

Israel Kills a Cardiologist in North Gaza

CrossFireArabia
July 2, 2025

In the latest crime added to the systematic Israeli targeting of medical personnel, Dr. Marwan Sultan, the Indonesian Hospital director in northern Gaza, was killed with his wife and five children in an Israeli airstrike targeting his home in Tel al-Hawa, west of Gaza City, Wednesday.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza mourned Dr. Sultan, describing him as a “martyr of humanitarian with a medical duty.” It emphasized that his killing is a “heinous crime confirming the bloody methodology and premeditation Israel insistence while directly and deliberately targeting medical personnel.”

Dr Sultan, who was a cardiologist and one of two heart specialists in the hospital, was described as “a symbol of dedication, steadfastness, and loyalty, in the most difficult circumstances and most difficult moments experienced by our people under the ongoing aggression.” A Ministry statement emphasized that “the ongoing attacks on medical personnel represent a flagrant violation of all humanitarian norms and international laws.”

Pre-martyrdom testimony: “Why are they targeting us?”

In late May, Dr. Sultan launched a media outcry, warning of the catastrophe looming at the besieged Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip.

He stated that the medical staff were working under constant threat, and that the hospital was subjected to a stifling siege and continuous shelling, including direct targeting of the intensive care unit, which exacerbated the damage and made it difficult to provide any kind of medical care.

He pointed out “the humanitarian situation inside the hospital has reached an extremely critical stage,” adding that the occupation forces were shooting at anyone moving in the vicinity of the hospital. He asked with sorrow: “Hospitals only house patients and medical staff, so why are the occupation forces targeting us?”

At the time, Sultan called on international human rights and humanitarian organizations to take urgent action and pressure Israel to stop targeting hospitals, warning of the collapse of the health system in the Gaza Strip if the violations continued.

More than 1,400 medical personnel have been killed since the beginning of the aggression after 7 October, 2023 according to statistics by the Health Ministry. These include doctors, nurses, paramedics, ambulance drivers, and logistics support workers, most of whom died while performing their humanitarian duties inside hospitals or while treating the wounded at bombardment sites.

The Ministry also documented the arrest of at least 360 health sector workers by the occupation forces, most of whom were arrested from inside hospitals or during their field work. They were arrested without formal charges or access to lawyers or families. According to numerous human rights reports, they are subjected to various forms of torture.

Since October 7, 2023, Israel, with American support, has been committing genocide in the Gaza Strip, including killing, starvation, destruction, and displacement, ignoring international appeals and orders from the International Court of Justice to halt the offensive. The genocide left approximately 191,000 Palestinians dead or wounded, most of them children and women, and more than 11,000 missing. Hundreds of thousands were displaced, and famine claimed the lives of many, including children, as well as widespread destruction as reported in Qudspress.

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Gaza: A Death Trap For Israeli Soldiers

CrossFireArabia
July 2, 2025

One Israeli soldier was killed and five others were wounded in three resistance operations in the Gaza Strip, Wednesday. The Israeli army later confirmed the death of another soldier, the Hebrew media reported.

The soldier, a member of the Egoz Unit was killed in a sniper attack in the Gaza Strip while four soldiers were seriously wounded when an explosive device exploded targeting a tank in the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army also confirmed that another soldier, a sergeant from the 82nd Armored Battalion, was killed in battles north of the Gaza Strip. A tank commander and an armored corps soldier were also seriously wounded in the same operation.

An Egoz soldier was seriously wounded in a separate operation north of the Gaza Strip.

Some Israeli news outlets reported that several soldiers were wounded by RPG rockets, while military censorship still prevents publication and disclosure of the other two locations.

Earlier, the Israeli media reported the killing and wounding of soldiers today in “two difficult security incidents” in Gaza. Meanwhile, the Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, announced it had carried out a complex operation Wednesday morning targeting dozens of soldiers in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood.

Complex Ambush

According to the details provided by the Brigades, dozens of soldiers and a convoy of occupation vehicles were targeted in the “Al-Huda Square,” east of the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in the Gaza Strip. The Brigades explained that the complex operation began with the detonation of a minefield by the invading vehicles, forcing soldiers and officers to frantically enter nearby houses.

It indicated that its fighters targeted the forces entrenched inside the houses with a guided missile, followed by an anti-fortification “TPG” shell. They then engaged them at very close range with light and medium weapons, killing and wounding the crews of the vehicles, as well as the targeted officers and soldiers.

In the same context, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), announced it had targeted a Merkava tank, Tuesday, with an explosive device on an enemy supply line in the al-Zana area east of Khan Yunis.

Regarding the resistance’s operational mechanism and the heavy losses inflicted on the occupation over the past period, the Hadashot Bezaman news website reported that the resistance “penetrated the modus operandi” and movements of the occupation army in Gaza, enabling it to “violently strike soldiers and armored forces on the firing range.”

According to military analysts, the resistance is carrying out precise attrition operations against occupation forces at their positions inside the Gaza Strip, contributing to the fragmentation of the occupation’s combat capabilities and maintaining a constant state of depletion without a clear line of contact.