Palestinians in Gaza lined up outside bakeries on Thursday after spending the night in pitch darkness surrounded by the ruins of pulverized neighborhoods, as Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion.

International aid groups warned that deaths in Gaza could accelerate as Israel prevents delivery of supplies. The war, which was ignited by a bloody and wide-ranging Hamas attack into Israel, has already claimed at least 2,400 lives on both sides.

Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver if decided," but that the political leadership has not yet ordered one. A ground offensive in Gaza, the first since the 2014 war, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting.

In Gaza, Palestinians fleeing airstrikes can be seen running through the streets, carrying their belongings and looking for a safe place. Hundreds of thousands have crowded into U.N.-run schools while others are staying with relatives or even strangers who let them in.

Lines form outside bakeries and grocery stores during the few hours they dare to open, and the bakeries could soon shut down for lack of fuel or power.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush and destroy” Hamas with the support of a new war cabinet formed Wednesday that includes a longtime opposition critic. “Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Netanyahu said in a televised address.

The U.S. has pledged unwavering support for Israel's response, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday to meet with Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.

The Israeli military said overnight strikes targeted Hamas' elite Nukhba forces, including command centers used by the fighters who attacked Israel on Saturday, and the home of a senior Hamas naval operative that it said was used to store unspecified weapons.

Another airstrike killed a commander with the Islamic Jihad armed group in his family home in the northern town of Beit Lahia, according to media linked to the group's armed wing.

“Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership,” Hecht, the military spokesman, said. "Not only the military leadership, but also the governmental leadership, all the way up to (top Hamas leader Yehiyeh) Sinwar. They were directly connected."

The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Israeli strikes demolished two multi-story houses on top of residents without warning, killing and wounding “a large number” of people, mainly civilians. Hamas has threatened to kill Israeli hostages if Israel strikes Palestinian civilians without warning.

Israel has halted the entry of food, water, fuel and medicine into the territory. On Tuesday, Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only lights powered by scattered private generators. Those will shut off as well if fuel is not allowed in.

A senior official with the the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that lack of electricity could cripple hospitals, as he called for Hamas to release hostages.

“As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken," said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”

In Israel, opposition leader Benny Gantz, a former defense minister and political opponent of Netanyahu, joined a new wartime cabinet. Israel has mobilized 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near Gaza and evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities.

The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple Hamas after its militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and massacred hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival.

Netanyahu alleged that the attackers engaged in atrocities, including binding boys and girls and shooting them in the head, burning people alive, raping women and beheading soldiers.

The prime minister’s allegations could not be independently confirmed, and authorities did not immediately offer further details. Rescue workers and witnesses have described horrifying scenes, including the slaughter of elderly people and finding bloody rooms crowded with massacred civilians.

Militants in Gaza are holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel — soldiers, men, women, children and older adults — and they have fired thousands of rockets into Israel over the past five days.

Israel’s increasingly destructive airstrikes in Gaza have flattened entire city blocks and left unknown numbers of bodies beneath debris. A ground offensive in Gaza, whose 2.3 million residents are densely packed into a strip of land only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, would likely result in a surge of casualties on both sides.

The UN said late Wednesday the number of people displaced by the airstrikes had soared 30 percent within 24 hours, to 339,000, two-thirds of them crowding into U.N. schools. Others sought shelter in the shrinking number of safe neighborhoods.

The Egyptian government rejected an American proposal to allow Palestinians fleeing Israel’s bombardment to leave Gaza, a senior Egyptian official said early Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Egypt believes that Palestinians leaving Gaza would harm the Palestinian cause, and its state-run media reported that the Israeli offensive is part of a scheme to empty the enclave.

Convoys stood loaded with fuel and food Wednesday on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing, but were unable to enter Gaza, the official said. The only crossing point between Egypt and Gaza was shut down Tuesday following nearby Israeli airstrikes.

The official said Egypt was talking with Israel and the U.S. on establishing safe corridors inside Gaza and delivering humanitarian aid to the besieged Palestinians, and with Israel and other foreign governments to evacuate foreigners through the Rafah crossing point.

The risk of the war spreading was evident Wednesday after the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli military position and claimed to have killed and wounded troops.

The Israeli military confirmed the attack but did not comment on possible casualties. The Israeli army shelled the area in southern Lebanon where the attack was launched.

The death toll in Gaza rose to 1,200 early Thursday, the Palestinian health ministry said.

The Gaza Strip’s biggest hospital, Al-Shifa, has only enough fuel to keep power on for three days, said Matthias Kannes, a Gaza-based official for Doctors Without Borders. The group said the two hospitals it runs in Gaza were running out of surgical equipment, antibiotics, fuel and other supplies.

Ghassan Abu Sitta, a reconstructive surgeon at al-Shifa, said he had 50 patients waiting to go to the operating room.

“We’re already beyond the capacity of the system to cope,” he said. The health system “has the rest of the week before it collapses, not just because of the diesel. All supplies are running short.”

The Palestinian Red Crescent said other hospitals’ generators will run out in five days. Residential buildings, unable to store as much diesel, likely will go dark sooner.

Shock, grief and demands for vengeance against Hamas are running high in Israel.

In the West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked a village south of Nablus, opening fire on Palestinians and killing three, the territory's health ministry said. More than two dozen Palestinians have died in fighting in the West Bank since the weekend.

In a new tactic, Israel is warning civilians to evacuate whole Gaza neighborhoods, rather than just individual buildings, then leveling large swaths in waves of airstrikes.

Israel’s tone has changed as well. In past conflicts, its military insisted on the precision of strikes in Gaza, trying to ward off criticism over civilian deaths. This time, military briefings emphasize the destruction being wreaked.

Even with the evacuation warnings, Palestinians say some are unable to escape or have nowhere to go, and that entire families have been crushed under rubble.

Other times, strikes come with no notice, survivors say.

“There was no warning or anything,” said Hashem Abu Manea, 58, who lost his 15-year-old daughter, Joanna, when a strike late Tuesday leveled his home in Gaza City.

The Israeli military said more than 1,200 people, including 189 soldiers, have been killed in Israel, a staggering toll unseen since the 1973 war with Egypt and Syria that lasted weeks.

Israel says roughly 1,500 Hamas militants were killed inside Israel, and that hundreds of the dead inside Gaza are Hamas members.

The lawyer representing the heirs of murdered journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia emphasised the gulf in resources between the slain journalist and the State funded Egrant inquiry.

Lawyer Therese Comodini Cachia made submissions this morning in the human rights case filed by the family, who are arguing they cannot prepare a defence against an ongoing libel case filed by former prime minister Joseph Muscat against the slain journalist, because only she knew the names of her sources.

Comodini Cachia told Madam Justice Miriam Hayman that Caruana Galizia had multiple sources for her Egrant story, because she followed the rules of responsible journalism.

“In this case Muscat is resting on evidence that was gathered in a million-euro investigation and which the defendant, not having a million euro to spend, relied on the rules of responsible journalism. This causes prejudice to the defendants,” the lawyer said.

Comodini Cachia stressed that Caruana Galizia’s assessment of the evidence that she had access to could not be compared to that gathered in the lengthy magisterial inquiry, which cost millions and utilised resources that were not available to the journalist.

“If the source reveals herself, that is the source’s decision, but responsible journalism does not rely on a single source,” Comodini Cachia argued.

One of the lawyers representing the State Advocate dictated a note to the court, arguing the untimeliness of the constitutional case and the plaintiffs’ failure to exhaust ordinary legal remedies before filing the constitutional case.

Lawyers Pawlu Lia and Charlon Gouder, appearing for the Muscats, seconded the State Advocate's submissions and asked that the court give a decision as to whether a deceased person can be a party to judicial proceedings, and not the heirs.

“This is a case per excellence where the other party is admitting that they have an ordinary remedy,” Lia said.

The judge asked what they considered to be the ordinary remedy that should have been exhausted.

“There is already an ongoing case today,” Lia said. “The present plaintiffs were not the original plaintiffs, but joined at a later stage and are insisting on certain pleas. They intended to summons a particular witness, but for some reason could not, after that the applicant and his son testified...”

“What is the remedy?” repeated the judge.

“They are saying there was no fair hearing,” Lia replied. “We are before a constitutional court, that is presumably impartial. What is the point of the constitutional case? The other case is still ongoing after the plaintiffs substituted themselves into the position of the defendant. So, they have a remedy.”

State Advocate lawyer Maurizio Cordina added that the libel case is still ongoing and the parties to it also still have the opportunity to appeal an unfavourable outcome.

Comodini Cachia replied that the point of filing the constitutional case was that the applicants are facing allegations before another court but are precluded from exhibiting evidence in their defence.

“The personality of the person murdered is a particular one. All information about her sources died with her. Even if still alive, she would have to protect her sources. Luckily, Daphne Caruana Galizia was diligent enough to immediately file a reply to the libel and, in fact, was murdered three days later. As the heirs are obliged to have the acts transferred on to them, they are in a position where they cannot bring this evidence because they don’t know who these sources are and still have an obligation to protect them.

“It is not a case of winning or losing a libel, but the magistrate hearing the libel needs to hear evidence which I cannot produce. Am I supposed to summons every Tom, Dick and Harry and ask them 'are you the source?'?” Comodini Cachia said, adding that if the Muscats suspected someone, “they can summons them themselves.”

The lawyer explained that she needed this witness to testify about how Caruana Galizia protected her sources.

Lia hit back, telling the judge that Caruana Galizia had testified before the Egrant inquiry three times “and was obliged to say everything she knew and so she did.”

“The source she indicated was [Maria] Efimova and [then magistrate] Aaron Bugeja reached his conclusions.”

Efimova subsequently fled Malta and could not be produced as a witness.

“Are we saying that every case where the defendants cannot bring their witnesses because someone is abroad should be decided in their favour?”

The inquiry had already been exhibited in the libel case in digital form, Lia said, adding it was also published by the AG and is available in the newspapers and so must be physically exhibited in this case.

Before adjourning the case to December, the judge ordered that the legal copy of the libel proceedings exhibited in the constitutional case must also include “every exhibit and annex in any format.”

Top EU officials gathered outside the European Parliament in Brussels for a solemn moment in solidarity with the victims of terror attacks in Israel.

EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola delivered a speech.

"Our presence here - outside the European Parliament - is significant. Our gathering held in the Simone Veil Agora is symbolic. Our voice is important. And our strong stand against terrorism is crucial. October 7th is a day that will go down in global infamy. The world has witnessed Jews being murdered simply because they were Jewish. Again. In Israel. We are here with the President of the European Council, the President of the European Commission, and all of you - as one - to express our solidarity, to condemn the appalling acts of terror and murder and to demand the immediate release of hostages."

Europe, she said, "stands ready to help broker resolutions, but I have said it before and it bears repeating - There is no justification for terrorism. Hamas is a terrorist organisation. They do not represent the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. They do not offer solutions. They offer bloodshed."

"It helps to speak plainly. On October 7th Hamas murdered more than a thousand innocent babies, children, women and men and still hold close to 100 more hostage. They opened fire on hundreds of young people at a music event, killing indiscriminately - including EU nationals. They abducted young girls and boys. They took elderly Holocaust survivors and dragged them out of their homes. They paraded dead people through the streets like trophies."

"This is not a time for whataboutism. We have to be clear about what we are talking about: this is terror in its worst form."

Photo: EU Parliament

A draft bill allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to become mayors and deputy mayors has been approved by Cabinet, Parliamentary Secretary for Local Government Alison Zerafa Civelli said on Wednesday.

During a press conference held in the Parliament building, Zerafa Civelli said that the bill will be now presented in parliament for discussion.

She said that now, anyone elected with the most votes, coming from the party with the majority of votes can be elected as mayor or deputy mayor, irrespective of age. Until now, 16- and 17-year-olds could contest but could not be appointed mayors even if they are the candidates who obtain the highest number of votes.

Local Government Minister Owen Bonnici said “the proof of the pudding is in the eating”, when referring to the government’s confidence in the country’s youth, adding that Malta is set to become the first country where 16-year-olds are given the opportunity to become mayors.

“We believe that we have to continue strengthening our confidencein young people,” he said, adding that this event is going in the “the history books of this country’s democracy”.

Going on a personal note, he said that when his political career took off at the age of 20 years old, it was seen as something strange as there weren’t many his age.

“I had decided that this needs to change,” he said adding that this new draft law shall bring new ‘blood’ into politics.

The minister was also asked about the maturity level needed for a 16-year-old to administer public funds.

He said that, back in 2019, 16-year-old showed a lot of enthusiasm as they were given the right to vote. Moreover, he said that from results of the last local council elections, there were many under 18-year-olds who “got very good results”.

“I have no doubt that history is going to look back at this as a step towards the completion of democracy for this country,” he said.

Bonnici was also asked about the removal of powers from local councils, with mayors contending that councils had lost much of their autonomy in the past years.

The minister denied this and said that this is another invention by the opposition.

On the contrary, he said that the government has given more powers along the years, with the most recent one being on deciding whether to give permission for caravan placing.

Moreover he also said that the government has also given more powers thanks to the launch of the regional local council.

Gender Equality mechanism to be studied before local council elections implementation - Minister

The Gender equality mechanism needs to be studied and analysed in detail before government commits itself to implementing it in the next local council elections, he said.

Last May, the same minister announced the National Strategic Vision for Local Governments from 2023-2030 proposing the implementation of the gender equality mechanism, in efforts to ensure equality in the representation of genders in local governments.

He had also said that a study will be carried out on this, which will be concluded in time for this to be implemented for the 2024 local council elections. The strategy mentioned how this will be similar to the gender quota which was implemented in parliament where both PN and PL had to have six women MPs, however, there may be some differences to make it suitable for local governments.

Aangezien de Westerse elite maar blijft aansturen op een conflict met Rusland dit bericht nog maar eens in de herhaling. Het laat zien hoe de politici van zowel Nederland en Europa alsmede de mainstream media het Nederlandse volk glashard en bewust voor blijven liegen.  Al eerder kwam voorbij hoe de NOS het Nederlandse publiek voorloog […]

Het bericht Frans Timmermans loog heel Europa voor en kreeg promotie… verscheen eerst op Achter de Samenleving.