simple1

As the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip enters its 20th week, food and safe water have become incredibly scarce and diseases are rife, compromising women and children’s nutrition and immunity and resulting in a surge of acute malnutrition. https://www.who.int/news/item/19-02-2024-children-s-lives-threatened-by-rising-malnutrition-in-the-gaza-strip To suggest the above regards civilians / children is not a direct outcome of Israeli revenge policy to restrict supplies into Gaza is nonsense. It is sad to observe the prior reputation, excepting Settlement policy, of Israel is being severely eroded by their current Government / War Cabinet.

I disagree, limiting food, water and medicine and so on for the civilian population is 'revenge' and contrary to the Rules of War. A number of Israeli politicians have referred to "revenge". e.g. Israel vows mighty vengeance". https://www.cnbc.com/2023/10/07/israel-declares-state-of-war-alert-after-surprise-hamas-attack.html In any case IMO the destruction of civilian infrastructure, deaths and injuries to the civilian population is way over the top. I am not alone with this POV it has been articulated by a number of senior Western politicians.

The children are not combatants. To attempt to justify starvation of children for revenge is contrary to any norms of humanity.

Lol - Israel has ignored UN directives for decades.

I presume all are US related. Trump applied for a casino licence in Sydney, Australia, but was declined by Australian Federal Police due to his US mafia business relations. Always wondered how he was licensed in the US -corruption?

Claimed without any proof whatsoever, just like the political loser trump. Personally I switch channels now, I'm sick of listening to trump's lies and poor little me whining. Hopefully he will stop conning / begging when he lists Truth Social, but I doubt it.

A number of media outlets have mentioned the bombing in the area were used as a distraction supporting special forces during the hostage rescue. In parallel stating the claimed deaths of 67 civilians from the bombing is unjustified. It seems to me the IDF have lost a sense of proportionality - surely enough blood of civilians has been shed. It would be good to hear from the Israelis how they intend to totally destroy Hamas, without totally destroying Gaza.

Plus the fact NATO countries has agreed to increase to 2% of GDP spending by 2024. Trump unilaterally tried to nullify an international agreement with Allies. From some of the comments above it appears some US citizens have a very little understanding of why the US invests in defense in conjunction with it's allies.

I did not "deflect". I made a statement of fact regarding the OP. The OP is in reference to action/s by the US government, not other countries. Pulling other countries making statements or not, is IMO Off Topic

The OP is not related to Arab countries response, but to USA.

Where do you source this info from? If you compare IDF kill ratio after Oct 7 it's estimated approx 27,000 killed to date out of which roughly 9000 are from Hamas which is a similar ration to Hamas killing on Oct 7.

A quote from the link provided... "We urge Israel to do more to help civilians, knowing full well that it faces an enemy that would never hold itself to those standards – an enemy that cynically embeds itself among men, women, and children, and fires rockets from hospitals, from schools, from mosques, from residential buildings; an enemy whose leaders surround themselves with hostages; an enemy that has declared publicly its goal: to kill as many innocent civilians as it can, simply because they’re Jews, and to wipe Israel off the map. That’s why we’ve made clear that Israel is fully justified in confronting Hamas and other terrorist organizations. And that’s why the United States has done more than any other country to support Israel’s right to ensure that October 7th never happens again. Israelis were dehumanized in the most horrific way on October 7th." From my reading most Western countries have stated similar sentiments. Countries, including the President of the USA, do caution the Israelis to wind back the level of killing and injuries of the Gazan population whilst recognizing Hamas have made no such commitment / effort to lower civilian casualties. I understand the critique of Israel is, to put it simply, overkill. Netanyahu has now demanded Gazans evacuate Rafah, for an IDF assault, with a current population estimated at 1.2 million plus; where on earth are they going to go? https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2024/feb/09/middle-east-crisis-israel-gaza-war-hamas-updates

Excellent post - well done. Trump directed his sycophants to reject the Bill to spite Biden with the associated damage to the West. Trump is not fit to represent the Office of the President of the USA- what a pathetic individual as are his enablers.

At least one member endeavouring to stay on topic - well done! - URL below provides clarity of the size of UNWRA operations... https://www.unrwa.org/what-we-do Obviously UNRWA must under go a through security review by a suitable third party to identify those of it's staff supporting Hamas military and intelligence operations and take necessary action. However, IMO, in the meantime funding must still flow for UNRWA humanitarian operations throughout the region. Should the decision be made UNRWA's to be closed down in Gaza and elsewhere it will create enormous challenges for support of the millions who will be disenfranchised. One would guess it will be extremely challenging to select a suitable alternative, so likely difficult pragmatic compromise decision/s will occur.

I've been a member of this forum since 2004 and never indicated support for terrorism - your post is nothing more than attempted personal attack - very childish.

I guess you're referring to Hamas, plenty of commentary within the international community claiming it's an unachievable objective...

How could the civilian population remove Hamas? Do they not rule at the point of a gun. So far as I know zero authoritarian governments in the M.E. , excepting Iran, have never been overthrown by the local population in any case the overthrow of the Shah just led to even more vicious rulers; same with Egypt.

Is this option seriously being considered by Israeli government - aren't there about 700,00 Settlers in the West Bank?

I disagree. For those within the Civil Service who have communicated their disagreement with current policy supporting Israel's actions in Gaza, I suggest, took action to go public based upon their sense of morality - something I admire. I assume the participants in the action work within Departments directly involved with supporting Israel's actions in Gaza. We already know some Western leaders have been communicating with Israeli government expressing caution on the outcomes of non combatants death and injury as well as massive destruction of infrastructure. If I were Palestinian, I would loath living under the rule of the gun (Hamas), but on the other side of the coin I would hate the Israelis. With my limited knowledge, personally I can't see a reasonable outcome for either side - hopefully I'm wrong.

One last reply concerning this matter. It is against government policy for staff to express criticism of government policy in the public domain - what's why

Except one member who has excellent knowledge of the politics / situation in Israel

OK. We have differing interpretations of belittling commentary - from your post - how all of 80 unidentified, anonymous and therefore unverifiable employees.

The point is persons within governments have voiced their concerns with their government policies and have been ignored. Accordingly they have now gone public. I suggest even if a million public servants within US government had gone public you would still belittle their concerns. Increasingly Israeli killings within Gaza are gaining criticism, as well as by Settlers in the West Bank. IMO the Israeli killings of civilians in Gaza and the West Bank are eroding Israeli support and way out of the bounds of a credible response to the murderous Hamas attack on Oct 7. It will be interesting to follow if Israel and the Palestinians can achieve a lasting peace after this murderous affair.

Of relevance to OP https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/civil-servants-from-us-eu-pen-anonymous-letter-decrying-support-for-israeli-op-in-gaza/ The letter, which The New York Times says has over 800 supporters, complains that concerns the officials privately expressed “were overruled by political and ideological considerations” and they therefore “are obliged to do everything in our power on behalf of our countries and ourselves to not be complicit in one of the worst human catastrophes of this century.” The missive goes on to accuse Israel of showing “no boundaries in its military operations in Gaza” and ignoring “all important counterterrorism expertise gained since 9/11.”

Boundaries for boat exclusion. This is an island off the coast of Pattaya called Koh Larn. Packed with tourists in high season, but relatively clean sea compared to Pattaya beaches.