Tom Spender retweeted
Eyewitnesses told the BBC that a missile hit a building containing the surgical wards and intensive care units. Gaza's health ministry said medical staff, patients and companions were killed, among them surgeon Dr Rizk Abu Shaira. Some 20 others were injured.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckzd…
Tom Spender retweeted
Clear statement from Tom Fletcher head of the UN OCHA on the utterly avoidable tragedy befalling Gaza this winter.
"For months we have sounded the alarm on essential winter supplies for Gaza, including throughout the UN General Assembly.
"Foreign Ministers and partners have assured me of support, but also repeatedly said that progress would be hard until after Israeli elections. Now we’re told to wait for the formation of a government. In case anyone has any doubt about international humanitarian law: this is not an acceptable excuse, as the international community and Board of Peace have made clear.
"We are now seeing the consequences of delays, blockages and funding cuts: lives lost, a population once again at great risk.
"What makes this even more infuriating is that they are at this needless risk from weather that is not a threat where decent shelter exists. And would not be such a threat had we been able to supply decent tents and essential Winter kit.
"Had Palestinians been allowed to access open areas that are less prone to flooding.
"We have set out a clear plan for the supplies we need to get in. Not in weeks, but weeks ago. This includes durable shelter, warm clothes, blankets, bedding and safe heating solutions. And it includes generators, fuel, engine oil, spare parts, equipment to pump out water, remove debris and clear explosive ordnance.
"No more delay. Open all the crossings, not just one. Let our vital NGO partners work. Allow the commercial markets to function. Stop this collective punishment. Fund the plan. End this predictable, preventable suffering. The world is not powerless here."
Tom Spender retweeted
Netanyahu has called for a US-Israeli campaign so intense that it leads to the collapse of the regime. Every military analyst I spoke to, including a former defense secretary and CENTCOM commander, was skeptical another air campaign can achieve that. A more expansive campaign does not accelerate the risk to the US and its allies. ft.com/content/89e3ff89-c097…
Tom Spender retweeted
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill eight including child, hospitals say bbc.in/4Abm6Ep
Tom Spender retweeted
Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 21 people this week, Health Ministry says haaretz.com/gaza/2026-10-29/…
Tom Spender retweeted
The rubble of Gaza is now a tomb.
Since the Hamas-led attacks in Israel on October 7, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed in the Gaza Strip, many of them women and children.
And more than 1,400 Gazans have been killed since the ceasefire last October.
The bodies of many of the victims have still not yet been recovered with the remains covered under thousands of tons of rubble.
Israel still doesn't allow journalists in, so working with a Gazan filmmaker Channel 4 News has followed efforts to retrieve the of bodies trapped there.
Warning: this report contains distressing images including human remains.
Tom Spender retweeted
I've been in France since 2002 and have never seen the streets so violent nor the politics so extreme. From the sacking of the supermarket on my street to the prospect of Présidente Le Pen, here's me @FT including thoughts from 2 French Nobel laureates as.ft.com/r/addcad57-0f9d-4e…
Tom Spender retweeted
We spent a week in the Occupied West Bank:
We saw bloody settler attacks, Palestinian homes demolished & tense interactions with Israeli soldiers
Here's a short clip ⬇️
Including our attempt to reach a Palestinian family besieged by "hilltop youth" settlers - before we were violently stopped
With @MillyTeasdale @MackesonPaul Ayman Abu Ramouz & Nava Mizrahi
In their own words: Israeli politicians' extreme speech surges ahead of elections - AP apnews.com/article/israel-el…
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Tom Spender retweeted
This video captures settlers beating Heidi. They clubbed her, kicked her. Pulled her up off the ground to beat her more. Robbed her of all her equipment. If she didn’t have a helmet—and if she was Palestinian—she could be dead.
Tom Spender retweeted
Multiple violent Israeli settler attacks in the West Bank this morning. Palestinian residents & journalists were beaten. Cars set on fire.
Tom Spender retweeted
Hundreds of IDF investigations into killings without public outcome, BBC Verify finds bbc.in/3UpZr7W
Tom Spender retweeted
A rare and profound piece of storytelling about the rare and profound life of a Norwegian wanderer who traversed the sub-Arctic in Canada as an frontier explorer.
Absolutely extraordinary in every way. It will transport you. Make time.
nytimes.com/interactive/2026…
Tom Spender retweeted
Several Palestinians in northern Gaza told CNN they witnessed the Israeli military demolishing mosques, homes and buildings or clearing rubble near the shifting yellow line – blocking Palestinians from accessing land where their loved ones could be buried under the rubble. Human rights actors, including @EuroMedHR and @volker_turk, warn the clearance of rubble in areas under Israeli military control could erase evidence of war crimes.
Under international humanitarian law, the parties to an armed conflict “have an obligation to conduct search and recovery work” for the remains of those killed, missing or injured, and to collect, preserve and transfer that information to the other side, Pat Griffiths, of the @ICRC, told CNN.
Twelve months after the US-led ceasefire deal was signed, Palestinians say they are trying to survive a forever war - one legacy of which is everywhere, yet unseen - in the 8,000 people reported missing, most of whom are likely buried beneath what the United Nations estimates to be 61 million tonnes of rubble.
And with each day that passes, the chances of identifying the dead grow slimmer as “crucial evidence” is lost, said Griffiths.
“Where are the bones of our loved ones?” asked one resident, Yahya Odeh. “Where are their bodies? There are entire families beyond the yellow line who have been separated from their relatives.”
Here's our full report. Read testimonies from Palestinians and see our satellite imagery analysis showing how Israeli forces have shifted the yellow line to push deeper into Gaza. With Tareq El-Hilou, Mohammad Al-Sawalhi, @AbeerSalmanCNN, @StockwellBilly, @faridaelsebai and @ThomasBordeaux7 ✍️🏽
cnn.com/2026/10/12/middleeas…
Tom Spender retweeted
"My brigade killed 160 to 170 people . Only one man was suspected of carrying a weapon. No one saw the weapon; it was night, and he had something with him that could have been interpreted as a weapon. all of these dead were reported as terrorists."
10 IDF soldier testimonies:
Tom Spender retweeted
Andy Burnham’s centrism sham
theguardian.com/football/202…
Tom Spender retweeted
This endless destruction is why Netanyahu does not allow journalists into Gaza. If he actually believed that Israeli had shown great restraint and that public perceptions were mistaken, we'd all be invited in with cameras. But Bibi doesn't want the devastation documented or the survivors interviewed.
Why Israel Fears This Searing New Documentary nytimes.com/2026/09/18/opini… via @NYTOpinion
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Tom Spender retweeted
Right-wing activists have called for 'traitors' to be 'executed' as they gathered outside family home of Rachel Szor in central Israel, one of the directors of NAZA - the documentary that shows IDF soldiers' testimonies on killing of civilians in Gaza
Israel accused of trying to ‘eliminate’ living conditions for Palestinians in West Bank theguardian.com/world/ng-int…
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