1/ On Wednesday, November 13, Secretary Blinken, in the ongoing effort by the Biden administration to place all blame for the lack of a ceasefire deal on Hamas, claimed the group had been so unwilling to negotiate in good faith that “Qatar had told them to leave” the country.
But, just days earlier, on November 9, Qatar’s foreign ministry had issued a statement calling the reports “inaccurate.” ⬇️
2/ The reports seem to have originated with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on November 8, citing three sources “familiar with the matter.”
3/ The story quickly spread, picked up by major western outlets like Financial Times and CNN. Each cited a senior Biden administration official, with FT also quoting “a person familiar with the matter.”
4/ Hamas quickly denied the reports, calling them “baseless” and a “pressure tactic.” This denial was reported in the western press as early as November 8, but it was largely dismissed. For an example, see how CNN handled the story.
5/ Later that day, Qatar’s foreign ministry issued a pointed rebuke, rejecting the claim that they had ordered Hamas’s office shut as “inaccurate,” and accusing Israel of “blackmailing” and “manipulating” the situation to “continue the war for narrow political gain.”
6/ Senior Hamas official Dr. Bassem Naim also rejected the claim in an interview on Thursday with Sky News. The interview underscores how the narrative that Hamas was to blame had already been reinforced through the misleading claim. Listen: 👇🏼
7/ Fast forward to Blinken — in the video shared above, the US Secretary of State was speaking in Brussels, four days after Qatar had publicly refuted the claims. Yet, the US’s top diplomat chose to reiterate them in a press conference before international media.
🚨BREAKING: Two bakeries in Deir El Balah, central Gaza, serving over 700,000 Palestinians, have announced they will not be supplying bread tomorrow due to a flour shortage.
A Drop Site source in central Gaza, also a member of Deir El Balah’s Internally Displaced Civilians Association, tells us the humanitarian situation in southern Gaza “is on the verge of becoming catastrophic.” Here’s why:
➤ The World Food Program is considering suspending operations in Gaza, unable to guarantee the safe entry of aid trucks. Earlier today, 100 of 140 trucks were stolen in Rafah by armed gangs.
➤ Israeli authorities have rejected requests to route supplies through the safer Netzarim checkpoint, continuing to direct aid trucks through the more dangerous Kerem Shalom crossing, where looting is rampant.
➤ Earlier today, Israeli forces targeted and killed six civilian security officers in Khan Younis, who were working to facilitate aid entry into central Gaza’s warehouses.
➤ Heavy rain and flash floods are expected tonight and tomorrow, threatening over 1 million displaced people in tents across central Gaza.
➤ Our source stresses, with famine imminent, urgent action is needed to pressure Israeli authorities to secure aid trucks and allow supplies through the Netzarim checkpoint “before it’s too late.”
Helpful Context:
Journalist and Drop Site contributor @AbubakerAbedW explained to @ryangrim last week that Israel has armed certain gangs in Gaza, enabling them to hijack aid shipments and resell the stolen supplies at exorbitant prices. These gangs, he reported, operate under the protection of Israeli quadcopters.
Abed emphasized that Israel has systematically targeted and killed civilian local security forces responsible for safeguarding aid. However, he noted, these officers “are not Hamas.” By eliminating them and enabling gangs to create chaos, Israel shifts blame for aid disruptions onto the resulting disorder. In reality, it is Israel’s actions that are directly undermining aid distribution efforts.
🚨 New updates from Drop Site’s sources in Gaza indicate:
• The WFP is expected to issue a statement soon regarding the cessation of its vital operations in Gaza.
• This comes after armed gangs today attempted to hijack nearly 100 of the 140 aid trucks the WFP was delivering today via the Karm Abu Salim (Kerem Shalom) crossing.
• Locals clashed with the armed gangs, who were carrying M16s, and managed to retrieve some of the stolen trucks, which were returned to the WFP.
• Despite multiple alerts to COGAT about armed gangs operating in Karm Abu Salim and the eastern militarized border zone, they have rejected local proposals to reroute aid through the safer Nizarim checkpoint.
• As a result of today’s clashes, two bakeries in the Central Governorate have announced they will be unable to provide bread tomorrow for 700,000 people.
📍 New Update from Kamal Adwan Hospital, Director Dr. Husam Abu Safiyeh – November 17
(Received at 4:47 PM.)
🧵1/ Dr. Abu Safiyeh provides a critical update on the hospital’s challenges amidst Israel’s ongoing siege and continued killings in northern Gaza.
Listen to the audio message here. Translated details in thread ⬇️
➤ Entry of Aid Severely Restricted:
Today, the WHO entered Gaza, but medical teams were blocked, along with food and supplies. A large shipment of 40 cartons of medical supplies was planned, but only 7 cartons were allowed entry. /2
➤ Surgeries Amid Shortages:
Despite severe restrictions, Kamal Adwan Hospital has conducted around 23-24 surgeries. Dr. Omar Shabat and Dr. Al-Bessouni, two orthopedic specialists from Beit Hanoun who travel to the hospital twice a week, joined the team to perform six successful surgeries, including external and internal fixations. /3
🧵The U.S. State Department today denied that forced displacement is occurring in Gaza, contradicting a new Human Rights Watch report, which asserts that Israeli authorities have engaged in “massive, deliberate forced displacement of Palestinian civilians in Gaza since October 2023” and are “responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Human Rights Watch states there is “no plausible imperative military reason for Israel’s displacement of nearly the entire Gaza population, often multiple times,” and that “rather than ensuring civilian security, these military ‘evacuation orders’ have caused grave harm.”
This also follows a report from eight leading humanitarian organizations earlier in the week that notes 80% of Gaza remains under Israeli evacuation orders, with only four of 65 Israeli “evacuation orders” rescinded since October.
🧵1/ @piersmorgan yesterday berated his guest @DanBilzerian for denying that women were raped on October 7, citing the Pramila Patten UN report as evidence: “You say there was no raping… The United Nations report into all this established it absolutely did happen and was horrific.”
This claim, which Piers has made multiple times, is false. A thread👇🏼
2/ Pramila Patten’s March 2024 report stated there are “reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence — including rape and gang-rape — occurred across multiple locations in Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on October 7, 2023.”
However, it’s important to understand what these findings actually mean.
3/ Pramila Patten, the UN’s Special Envoy on Sexual Violence in Conflict: “I did not collect evidence. I collected information… I did not conduct an investigation.”
She added, “I did not meet with survivors of sexual violence, although I received information from sources I cannot disclose.”
Eight leading humanitarian groups have issued a scorecard showing Israel failed to meet U.S. demands on multiple key concerns. These demands were outlined in a letter from the State Department and Pentagon 30 days ago. Today marks the deadline.
@JeremyKonyndyk of Refugees Intl: “This makes it explicitly clear that Israel is violating section 620I of the Foreign Assistance Act, and as such is ineligible to continue receiving arms xfers under US law.
President Biden must immediately move to halt further arms deliveries.”
After chanting racist anti-Arab slogans, tearing down Palestinian flags, and disrespecting a minute of silence for the Spanish flood victims, Israeli fans were attacked by pro-Palestinian locals in Amsterdam on Thursday.
Western media widely condemned the incident as an “antisemitic attack” on innocent Israelis. Amsterdam Councilman Jazie Veldhuyzen shares a different story: Maccabi fans “began attacking houses of people in Amsterdam with Palestinian flags, so that’s actually where the violence started.” In response, locals mobilized to defend their homes.
Veldhuyzen also criticized the Amsterdam police, pointing to a video showing officers driving by as Israeli fans tore down Palestinian flags. “The mayor says the police did act, but I would say they acted at the wrong moments… They only intervened to protect the Maccabi hooligans when Amsterdammers stood up to defend their homes. The police appeared only when the Maccabi fans fled after attacking people.”
Middle East Eye reports clashes broke out between Israeli fans and local youth, continuing late into the night. An Arab taxi driver was also reportedly attacked by a mob of Israeli fans. Footage shared on social media showed violent confrontations, with police intervening in some instances.
A Dutch police spokesperson confirmed that five people were hospitalized and 62 arrests were made as a result of the clashes. Israeli authorities called the violence a “pogrom,” and Prime Minister Netanyahu announced he was immediately launching a “rescue mission” to bring the Israelis home.
“This does not excuse the violence that was meted out to Maccabi Tel Aviv fans,” said the founder of the rights group Fair Square to MEE. “But to present them as innocent victims of antisemitism is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.”
Geert Wilders, the anti-Muslim and pro-Israel leader of the largest party in the Dutch government, called the riots a “pogrom” and a “Jewish hunt.”