more than a half million gazins are only a step away from famine, that according to the united nations. hello. everybody and welcome

back to gaza under attack. before we give you our panel, here is a recap of some of the latest developments. us led israeli bombing of gaza continues unrelentingly. since october last year, nearly 30,000 palestinians have been killed, most of them women and children. hamas downplays optimism by the us president that a ceasefired deal with israel is imminent. the us state department still says it believes and agreement can be reached. meanwile, the humanitarian situation in the coastal enclave is dire. in gaza city, thousands of people scrambling for bags of flour a as hunger crisis unfolds, as a result of apartite israel's deliberate starvation of the palestinian people. things are far worse in northern gaza. un officials say israel is systematically blocking aid, and that to avoid famin there needs to be a ceasefire.

that the us continues to veto any resolution calling for one, more violence in the occupied west bank too, as israeli occupation forces conduct another round of raids across the territory, arresting dozens of palestinians and tearing up roads. in europe, thousands of artists are calling for israel to be excluded from this year's venice beniale. fair and accused the exhibition of platforming the genocidal apartite regime, so are we close to a ceasefire or are we not? and with the very few food and medical supplies entering gaza, what is next for the more than 2 million palestinians forced to live in inhuman conditions, helping me helping me unpick all of this is mar hajjaj, head of palestine plus and us from bangalore

india, dr. zakaria abbas, doctor and international health campaigner. welcome to you both. dr. abassel start with you. we're going to delve into the ceasefire conversation later of course, but as a medic, could you talk about the urgency of a ceasefire that's already way overdue? right now we witnessing a catastrophic situation. gaza's healthcare crisis. is unthinkably grim, horrifying and it's getting worse day by day, even if we compare the situation of gaza to the standards of a war savage nation, gaza situation is 10 times worse. infectious diseases from cholera to to chicken pooxs are sweeping across the population, crucial medical supplies are stuck at the border, hospitals are destroyed, there are thousand.

of people injured, but they have no place to get treated. it is said that there are over 800 to 9000 people still stuck under the rubble. and to make it worse, the unra, the only united nations agency, which was doing of amazing work on the ground, the funding is being stopped for some baseless allegation for which they have not provided any proof. humanitarian trucks are stuck at the border. israel's policy of blockade and blackout. has created a huge impact in the in the daily lives of gaza population which has hindered the gaza population to reach out to their first responders and also their access to the crucial life saving information. you know a this has been one of the worst times we are all witnessing. there are over 160000 cases of diarrhea, female cancer patients who have no access to treatment. we have chronic kidney failure. patients who cannot have

access to dialysis and there are over 20000 cases of acute respiratory failure. you now let me tell you one thing, these may be statistics for us, for you and me. but these are real lives on the ground, as a medic, i feel helpless and i just keep those amazing doctors in gaza in my thoughts and prayers who are giving their lives, over 200 doctors being killed, hundreds of ambulances being attacked, and and guess what, to make it worse, hundreds of united nation workers have been killed, if seasfire is not called today then when, today we are speaking about seasfire, four months down the lane, let me tell you this had to be done four months back, the world is silently watching, it's a pathetic situation, our hearts are crying, me being in india which is another part of the world, we see these images, it disturbs us, and as you, as you aware, the recently us navy soldier who burnt himself in front of

the israeli embassy in us, even that has not stopped us from supporting israel, and today i see joe biden munching on ice cream and saying that, yes, we're thinking about cease fire, but when, when is the big question, that is the big question, the israeli government, mar hajjaj of palestine pulse has also downplayed it, and perhaps here is why, ahud olmart, uh, former israeli prime minister, has said of netanyahu that his messianic coalition partners won all out regional war, um, that gaza is is the first step, just... the first step, i know it is hard to agree with a war criminal or someone who presided over the operation castled in gaza in 2008 where at least 333 children were killed, but do you also see it that way? it's hard to agree with inhumane satanic terrorist, as you said he led many different

um terrorist campaigns in gaza, um, he is also a part of a coalition that is openly promoting terrorism and genocide, without accountability, he is also a weak position politically, um, is a coalition for reason, he doesn't have majority himself as a party, and to sort of please them, to have their support, to stay in power, uh, he has to do some satanic and terrorist activities, now where we are today is that he is in a position where actually, i don't know if he can resign because uh or or go, why not, because if he does then he'll end up in a prison you know for other charges. like corruption, let alone the hague and and criminal and war criminal offenses, yeah, or crimes, um, but he is trying to stay that as long as possible, kill as many people as possible, try change this from a an embarrassment to him and his government, a failure of security to some kind of legacy

for these satanic uh worshipers and supporters. all right, um, speaking of again the humanitarian situation, well over half million gazans are... just a step away from famin, that's what senior un humanitarians have been telling the security council in a briefing on food security in the stricken unglave, the deputy head of un aid coordination, ramesh raja singham has projected that the entire population of 2.2 million people in gaza would face high levels of acute food insecurity, the highest share of people facing this level of food insecurity ever recorded worldwide. let's hear a bit more, from the panelists in december it was projected that the entire population of 2.2 million people in gaza would face high levels of acute food insecurity by february 2024. the highest share of people facing this level of food in security ever recorded worldwide, and here we

are at the end of february with at least 576 people in gaza, one quarter of the population. one step away from famine. unfortunately, as grim as a picture we see today, there is every possibility for further deterioration. military operations, insecurity and extensive restrictions on the entry and delivery of essential goods have decimated food production and agriculture. food security experts w of complete agricultural collapse in northern gaza by may if conditions, with fields. productive assets damaged, destroyed or inaccessible. if nothing changes, famin is imminent in northern gaza. we must all double down and live up to our responsibilities to ensure it does not happen on our watch, that this catastrophic famon and genocide has been

allowed to happen at all and allowed to continue for this long, brings shame on all of us. not least this security council that continues to fail to demand sease fire and ensure respect for international law and for its own resolutions, leaving the palestinian people to the mercy of the occupying power that has zero regard for its ihl obligations to ensure the safety and will being of the civilian population under its control, choosing instead to terrorize, kill, mame, displace and start them. dr. abbass, um, the un, despite everything we heard, is still

hesitant to say palestinians are dying of hunger, um, while it's becoming increasingly clear that it cannot be denied anymore, we're looking a mass killing of children in slow motion, and of course other people in the gaza strip, even the us is urging israel to do more, and yet it seems as if the world is waiting for mercy from the israeli regime. is that how you feel too? absolutely. i think united nations has been just speaking, but i think we need to convert our words into action. it is high time, how much are they going to speak? why was united nations created? we have faith and hopes in united nations, but there is no action. today we have israeli cabinet minister saying statements like, it's so good that 1000 children were killed, because those 1000 children would be potential terrorists in the future. we have statements like these. on record, what else does united nations need and icj, international court of justice,

believe me, few weeks back i had hopes in icj, but what is the outcome? apparently they're going to hear for for countries to argue for the next few weeks, as we are speaking, every child is being killed, and when a child is being killed, the family is destroyed, people do not understand that, and the children which are alive today are dying of hunger, they don't have milk and you now, believe me, as doctor, as a medic, i'm telling you, there is extreme shortage of blood, there is extreme shortage of insulin, this is a disaster, 21st century is witnessing, like how people remembered holocaust, this is the holocaust of the 21st century, we need to understand that we need to convert our thoughts into action and the countries need to rise up, united nations need to hear our voices and they need to understand that we look up to you before we lose faith. a global body like united nations, they need to act upon, and israel has just been making taking advantage of the

silence, the neighboring countries are silent, but they have thought that silence is to is weakness, but exactly, we need to rise, our voices need to rise, and do not think that the student power, the young people around the world are are silent, we are doing every possible bit, but more has to be done, absolutely, and and those physical injuries that the death um of a child or or their families excludes the psychological and the emotional injuries that the ongoing genocide is inflicting upon the population and the gaza strip. if i could come to you, the israeli representative to the united nations has laid the blame squarely at the feet of the un. explain this really strategy here: there are some teflon regime beyond reproach uh whereas at the same time they are actively

undermining bodies like the un like the icj. mean israel was created on the basis of recognition from the united nation and what we've seen at least for the last few decades is a constant attack on them you know un is terrible they're anti-semitic they are you know hamas and terrorists, so unfortunately the un is in a position where it's just been attacked by these monsters, what's weird and ironic is that they are attacking the actual institution that gave them recognition to exist, yeah, formerly known as the league of nations, yeah from the 1948 and and since then obviously since the un partition plan that has split palestine into two and gave them half of the land, they are still. occupy till today, till this very same moment, these people do not have borders, they do not have

any regard to human rights and international law, they have over 30 plus un resolution violations, probably one of if not the biggest um un international law violator in the world, and this is despite the consistent un, sorry us veto policy they always have defending israel, yeah, so it is in a the un is in a difficult position um, but uh it will come to a stage, where probably the un needs to dissolve this uh terrorist state, it's brought nothing but destruction and terrorism and murdering and slaughtering of women and children, and i think um, it's getting that very close to that stage. okay, stay with me, gentlemen, just a quick reminder to our viewers, this is gaza under attack, a deep dive into the news surrounding the ongoing us led israeli genocidal war on gaza, the blockaded coastal enclave. addressing the ceasefire issue a press conference earlier this week, josem zumlad, the head of the palestine mission to the uk, outlined a

number of steps the state of palestine considers necessary to move forward. have a listen, there must be no... displacement of palestinians outside our territory. b) there will be no return to the status county. see, we must move immediately to end israel's 57 year old occupation of the west bank including east jerusalem and the gaza streb. d. there must be full commitment by all parties to international law, international resolutions and the internationally sanctioned rights such as the right of return and compensation for palestinian refugees. with that in mind, this is what we must do over the next period. the state of palestine will be engaged in the following eight steps:

first, we need immediate and permanent cease fire which will allow for hostage exchange. that's number one, number two, israel must withdraw from every inch of gaza's territory, every inch of gaza's territory. concurrently, we must launch a massive humanitarian relief and reconstruction project in gaza, not now, yesterday. number four: on the diplomatic level, we need the un security council to admit the state of palestine as a full member state. removing the us veto. number five: on bilateral levels, we need the few remaining countries that have yet to do so, including the uk, and the us, and mostly european countries, to recognize, recognize the state of palestine on the 1967 borders. number six:

yesterday's resignation. the palestinian government should pave the way for a technocratic palestinian government that will oversee all these steps in all the palestinian occupied territory, each jerusalem, west bank, and gaza, all these steps as well as preparations for presidential and parliamentary elections. number seven, we must convene an international peace conference that will. discuss time tables, specific, short for implementation, security arrangements and other modalities. number eight, and finally, there must be accountability for any and all war crimes and crimes against humanity committed against the palestinian people.

well, staying with the ceasefire theme, the american government says it's hopeful and cautiously optimistic. that a cease fire between israel and the resistance group hamas could be in place very very soon, but it has underscored there is lot more work to do. the country's president joe biden thought had earlier said sease spire could be in place as early as monday. what we're hoping to do is to get an extended pause in the fighting. i've just called it a temporary cease fire myself. um, that would allow for several weeks, hopefully up to six, where there will be no... fighting so that we can get all the hostages out, increase the flow of humanitarian assistance, but just as critically get the fighting stopped so that there's no more civilian casualties, and there's no more damage to civilian infrastructure. now the last pause was a week, what we're hoping for is much more aggressive than that, and uh, as we've said before, we also hope that if we can get that in place and both sides can abide by it for

the course of several weeks, maybe up to six, um, that maybe that could lead to something more in terms of uh uh uh better approach to end the conflict uh rit large. we have just few more minutes to go. let's continue the conversation with my guests maharaj and dr. zakaria abbas. uh, marhar, let me come to you. based on what you heard, is the outlook regarding a cease fire pessimistic? considering especially, because it's just temporary, the temporary one. i think deep inside the us wants to cease fire. um, few decades ago would say who's in charge uh of um you know israel and you say america, the bigger sort of devil, now we see that actually israel is in the drivacy. they are in charge of america and you can see the relationship between biden and netanyahu how clearly it's gone you know to a stage where they're not actually speaking uh anymore,

they have officials negotiating on each other's behalf to try and get cease five because they know what's happening is wrong, they know deep inside this war crimes being committed, they're not stupid, there's also the fact that they lost uh tens of thousands of votes in in the primary and for example in in new hampshire just over the past 48 hours, there the... looking at that kind of stuff too and they i think they've also stapped weapons uh shipments to to israel at this point, well the losses are in many different ways, i think the most there there's a financial loss, there's a military loss, there's a lot of losses for them, but i think the ma main main one is the public opinion, as democracy public opinion is very important, in october even in the uk we had only 30% of people in favor of the ceasefire, now we have it over 76%, so coming to 80, the vast majority people waken up, they've had enough of this, so uh, as a country in the uk, public opinion um, are full in favor of sease fire, but our complicit government who has self interest in this war as well for

financial gains, are unfortunately not listening to the public opinion, and dr. abbas, uh, you said earlier of course that if if there can't be a cease fire now, if they're not calling for sease fire now, then when, um, assuming there is one, and considering it is a temporary. what are the guarantees that israel will not resume bombing gazans in few weeks or a month's time? well the picture is on the wall, today the us is certainly losing the public support, however joe biden proudly says he's a zionist, that's the pathetic situation today, you know, whoever was writing the script of joe biden needs to be fired immediately, just yesterday he proudly said this on camera, you when a us president, apparently the world's most powerful nation, says statements like this: how do we trust the us? that's the bigger question. well, for

now, let's be optimistic, we are seeking sease fire from the day one, even if they say six weeks or four weeks, i think that's a very good opportunity for the humanitarian aid to come in, and at the same time parallely, i urge all the surrounding neighbors, the arab nations to use this opportunity and put more... on israel and us, because when israel says that they are fighting the hamas, that's the biggest lie, i think the biggest lie in the history of mankind, if they are fighting against 15 to 20,000 hamas fighters, why are they blocking humanitarian aid to over two million gaza population today, you know people are dying of hunger, they don't have, you know, i just read an article, the children are eating, food made of animal feed, what can... more pathetic than this, but yes, we are demanding sease fire, once it is come into force, we just hope that israel doesn't play a bad sport again, and we need to be vigilant,

powerful nations like iran, qatar and all the nations need to ample up the support and the pressure on us and israel, you spoke of trust in the us, and i wonder who would trust the americans given all the shenanigans and the kude time. and regime change operations they've been uh up to over the past uh centuries. very quickly uh in the same press conference we heard the palestinian ambassador uh also said elections would be held within months not years to transition from a technocratic government to democratic one. what if people voted for hamas? would they be able even work together? how would the pa respond to that? it's just a rigged system because um hamas by uh default uh was the last elected uh democratically elected party, it was fair and free elections, um and um till today you have um the pa uh governing west bank and the the the the jerusalem side

the palestinian state, it's ashambles to see that they want to call for an election when they didn't respect the first one, i mean in fact american britain and the whole world might not even uh recognize their result if hamas won and i do believe hamas might win again. because your alternative is the pa, there is a third alternative that we palestinians are working as a project which is to bring about democratic state, but in the meantime um we do not recognize uh pa as representative of palestinian people, so whatever they say please uh do not take it as if it's something that is on behalf of the palestinians, they are collaborators, unfortunately despite hossam zumlop, personally he's a genuine sincere guy, but uh the... yeah, okay, um, it's only matter of time, only time will tell. all right, dr. zakaria abbas and mar hajjaj, thank you very.

very much for sharing your thoughts with us and thank you for watching this program, catch our earlier episodes by visiting pressv.ir. until we meet again, continue to keep palestine in your hearts. goodbye. keeping you up to date with world news every half hour on press tv. the sun shown to

announce the beginning of new day. it was the 13th day of the war on the gazas rap. look at the missile. what did we do to deserve being hit by this? the army bombed the children on the beach and destroyed our houses. they killed children, men, women, and old men. i have other place to go, so now my children and i are homeless. it is the israeli. habit from ages, they say that children fire rockets,

everyone. your headlines on press tv: 146 days of the ongoing us-israely genocide in gaza and a fresh israel kills more than 110 palestinians. yemen's ansarolla leader stresses that his country's army has successfully managed to bar all israeli link vessels from crossing into the red sea. any once.