In the year since Oct 7, Israel has killed 17,000 children in Gaza – National & International News – MON 7OCt2024

Hurricane Milton strengthens to Category 5.

Supreme Court allows Texas emergency abortion ban to stand.

In the year since Oct 7, Israel has killed 17,000 children.

NATIONAL NEWS

Hurricane Milton strengthens to Category 5

Hurricane Milton is expected to make landfall in the area of Tampa, FL, on Wednesday night or the early hours of Thursday morning. If it does indeed come ashore at Tampa, it will be the first time the city has had a direct hit from a hurricane in over 100 years. As it works its way over the Gulf of Mexico, Milton has strengthened to a Category 5 hurricane. Milton is expected to weaken before making landfall but meteorologists predict it will still be a strong Category 3 at least when it comes ashore.

Flooding and storm surges are expected, and over 50 counties in Florida are under state of emergency orders. Gov. Ron DeSantis urged residents to take evacuation orders seriously and to have emergency kits with food and water prepared. Right now it looks as though Milton will move across the state of Florida from West to East before heading off into the Atlantic. If this prediction is correct, it will be a mercy for communities in Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee which are still in a dire situation following Hurricane Helene more than a week ago. However, hurricane season is far from over and there are other storms brewing which meteorologists are watching.

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Supreme Court allows Texas emergency abortion ban to stand

The Supreme Court today allowed to stand a lower court order which states that hospitals in Texas cannot be required to provide pregnancy terminations if they would break Texas’ strict anti-abortion laws, even in cases of emergency. The decision was in answer to a challenge to the lower court’s ruling from the Biden administration. Federal law hospitals requires hospitals to perform abortions in cases where a pregnant patient’s health or life is at serious risk, regardless of any state laws restricting abortion. 

A recent analysis found that Texas’ maternal mortality rate had risen dramatically since the state enacted an abortion ban, before the Supreme Court overturned Roe. v Wade in 2022. 

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INTERNATIONAL NEWS

In the year since Oct 7, Israel has killed 17,000 children in Gaza

A year after the October 7 attack by Hamas which killed about 1,100 Israelis, Israel’s continuing bombardment, invasion, and displacement campaign in Gaza has killed nearly 17,000 children and displaced over 2 million people. Gaza’s pre-war population was around 2.5 million, over half of them children. In a statement, Defense for Children International-Palestine condemned “Israeli policies, nonstop bombardment, and ever-expanding ground invasion” which have “forcibly displaced children and their families from their homes, forced schools to close, starved children to death, detained and tortured children in Israeli military camps, and disabled thousands of children, many of whom suffer from life-long injuries”.

Despite a total death toll in Gaza of well over 40,000, Israel is no closer to its stated goal of “dismantling Hamas,” the group which launched the attack a year ago today. Hamas continues to operate and engage Israeli troops throughout the Gaza Strip. Meanwhile, nearly all of Gaza’s schools, many of those run by the UN, have been bombed out of existence or outright demolished. Most of Gaza’s hospitals are no longer operational, though a few struggle valiantly on with little in the way of medical supplies. Over one-quarter of all buildings in Gaza have been destroyed. Way back in March, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese labeled Israel’s assault on Gaza a genocide. 

Israel’s rapidly expanding campaign of destruction

Up north in Lebanon, Israel has killed over 2,000 people, overwhelmingly civilians, and displaced well over 1 million people. Israel’s bombardment and ground invasion of Lebanon continues, with the purported goal of “dismantling Hezbollah”, the militant group which began launching missiles on Oct. 8 last year in solidarity with Gaza. Despite Israel’s assassination of most of Hezbollah’s command structure, its relentless bombing campaign in Beirut and other densely populated areas, Hezbollah continues launching rockets. 

Israel’s various military campaigns show no sign of slowing down. In fact, they are ramping up and expanding. As of now, Israel has not responded to the missile strike from Iran last week, but the signs are ominous. Equally ominous are the recent deployments of thousands of US troops to the Middle East. Even as President Biden calls for de-escalation, he nevertheless continues shipping arms to Israel and appears intent on backing them to the hilt in whatever military adventures Prime Minister Netanyahu sees fit to embark upon. Netanyahu seems determined to drag the US into another Middle East quagmire that will make Iraq look like walk in the park by comparison, and Biden seems content to let him.