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Over 450,000 Palestinians, many already internally displaced, have fled Rafah in the past week alone since Israel launched an offensive on the city. Another 100,000 have been forced to flee homes in the north of Gaza amid escalated bombing and ground attacks. Among the recently redisplaced is our guest, the Gaza-based journalist Akram al-Satarri, who joins us from a crowded shelter outside the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir al-Balah in central Gaza. "Displacement has been weaponized," al-Satarri says, citing the experiences of families who have been displaced as many as eight times since the start of Israel's assault. "People are suffering. They are deprived of everything," al-Satarri adds, due to Israel's seizure and closure of the Rafah border crossing, preventing food, water, supplies or aid from reaching the famine-stricken population. "They are trying to prepare the Palestinians for full subjugation," he continues. Life in Gaza is "unimaginable; however, Gazans are living it."
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Israel is intensifying its war across the Gaza Strip, with the official death toll now over 35,000, including more than 14,500 children. More than 360,000 Palestinians have now been displaced from Rafah as Israeli forces ramp up their attacks there despite warnings from the United States and others against an escalation in the southern city, where more than a million Palestinians had sought shelter. This comes as the United Nations General Assembly voted 143-9 on Friday in support of full membership for Palestine, with 25 countries abstaining. The measure grants new rights to privileges to Palestine, though it can't become a full U.N. member without support from the Security Council, where the U.S. vetoed a Palestine statehood resolution last month. "The last seven months have unmasked, beyond doubt, many things, including the hypocrisy, selectivity, double standards of certain international actors, and I believe the U.S. administration is right at the top of that list?," says senior Palestinian diplomat Husam Zomlot, currently serving as ambassador to the United Kingdom. Zomlot also casts doubt on the claim Israel lacks clear goals in its assault on Gaza. "Israel does have a plan, and Israel is executing the plan with almost perfection. And the plan is genocide."
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