tragedy after tragedy, war crime after war crime, and the genocide continues. this is the description of what has been happening in gaza since october the 7th. the israeli regime continues trying to raise the bar on just how much it can torture palestinians. the majority of the population of gaza has been displaced, some of them many times as they were told to leave the north and head towards the middle and then to the south and now as people have gone as far south as they can go... which is rafah, the stadistic israel regime is threatening a ground invasion where almost million and a half people are located and most of them intence or in other temporary locations, so we're going to take a look at the latest of this genocide in gaza on this spotlight. i like to welcome my guests to the program. behimber, abu saada, professor of political science and azhar university of doha. and paul, the

co-founder of free palestine movement out of berkeley. thank you both for being with us. i'd like to start us off in doha. well, mahamer, your thoughts on what the israeli regime is trying to do, trying to accomplish at this point in time, in your perspective. well, many thanks, marza for com me in in your program. um, to be honest with you, as a palestinian, and and also as a palestinian who lived the the the israeli war against gaza at the beginning of it, it seems to me that israel has gone crazy, the israeli leadership, the israeli army, the israeli regime as a whole, they've lost their mind, what they are doing against the palestinian people is beyond imagination, and the magnitude of killing, the destruction. going

after palestinian children, women, civilians destroying hospitals, clinics and and schools and universities, nothing has very much escaped the israeli killing and the israeli destruction, and now they are preparing the ground to go into rafah where they very much have pushed 1.4 million palestinians from the north of gaza and also the central. refugee camps of of the gaza strip into the the south city of rafah and as we have heard yesterday that natanyahu gave the orders to the israeli army to prepare for the in ground invasion of rafah where as i mentioned there is 1.4 million palestinians in tents mostly of them are living in tents with with with little food with little portable water and that's that's gonna be the the... mother of all

tragedies, that's gonna be the mother of of all palestinian nakbas if the israeli army goes into rafah with this large population in a very small piece of territory which is 62 square kilometers that is the territory of rafah and usually rafah is house of is housing roughly 300 35000 palestinian but now of there is 1.4 million palestinians there it's seems to me that israel is trying to make one thing, punish the palestinians collectively, that what israel has been doing for the past four months going after the, not not, they're going after hamas, but they are not going only after hamas, they're going after the palestinian people in the gaza strip that is collective punishment, that that is that is genocide against the palestinian, stay with me, let me get paul in on this... discussion,

now none of the goals that the regime announced in the beginning for going into gaza has been met, scientis forces have not destroyed hamas, nor have they been able to free any of the captives, but of course they have been successful in killing many kids, infants, women and in general civilians, and they have destroyed much of the infrastructure. your take, were these the actual goals to begin with? um, i think that's the main i think they intended to use the hamas action to liberate palestine. i a think they intended to use that as a pretext for another nak, another genocide, their objective is less about getting rid of hamas because they know that they can't, and and because they know that if you get rid of hamas, which is impossible, you you simply

have another resistance movement replacing it. i mean, the palestinians no people is ever going to give up their liberty and the their and... accept the the the kind of prisoner relationship with with israel that that israel was demanding, and in fact israel doesn't care about a prisoner relationship from the beginning since 1897, you could even say 1895, the objective of israel has been to eliminate the palestinians and so they're using this. as a way to achieve that, i think their objective is not to punish palestinians, it is to eliminate palestinians, that is the entire um, the the beginning and the end of of their objective in gaza and the rest of palestine. well,

muhammad, palestinians not only have to deal with the bombings and targeted sniper killings and relocation and starvation, but there's also another aspect which is the... ological torture, the regime is constantly flying drones overhead with a constant humming sound to let everyone know that they are there and and can be killed any moment. i want to talk about that side of things and in your perspective, why is this regime so inhumane? well, i have mother who isn't rafah, i have brothers and sisters and nephews and nieces and many relatives who are in and talk to them every every now and then to try to make sure that they are okay and they are fine, it's not only the bombing and the pounding of the gaza ship, in addition to that the starvation, israel is not is allowing only very limited amount of food and and water for the palestinians, lack of medical supplies, it's the cold weather that

also is killing and and making palestinian children sick as a result of the the very cold weather that that they the... "the palestinian people are facing in rafah with no homes, living in tents, and it seems to me that it, it's all of that, in addition to all of that, yes, the palestinian people cannot escape israeli snipers and not only rafah, but all over the gaza strip, there are israeli snipers in the north, in gaza city, in in in kanyunis where very much they shoot anything that moves, we have seen over the past few days that ' israeli army, snipers of the israeli army killed palestinians in in in gaza city around the shifa hospital, they killed the palestinians in kanunis, around the alamal hospital which is in khanis and nasir hospital where there are hundreds if

not thousands of palestinians displaced went to these hospitals seeking protection, seeking safe places, but there is no safe. place unfortunately in gaza, so it it it's just it's a atrocity after atrocity and the number is rising, we're talking about now, almost more than 100 thousand palestinians are either dead missing or wonded wonded as a result of this israeli massacre against the palestinians, we're talking roughly about 4% the palestinians in gaza are affected as i mentioned. did injured or missing as a result of what's going on and unfortunately, unfortunately all of this is happening under the watch of the international community, yes i want to get stay with me, i want actually stay with me bause i want to touch on that aspect of it uh a little bit, well paul as

you heard about the uh ground invasion that netanyahu is calling for rafa and as uh had said you're talking about a population that before was about 280,000, now 1.4 million as netanyahu was telling them to leave. i mean, where these people supposed to go, what are they supposed to do? as far as israel concerned, they don't have to go anywhere, they can be killed right where they are, they can be exterminated, and in fact i think the the the count that we are hearing from the ministry of health in. in gaza is a gross underestimate of the dead and wounded uh right now uh palestinians are dying without being counted, they are starving to death, they are dying of disease because of the cold and because of the bad water and because of

the lack of sewage services and the the filth and the... and they're dying from exposure, because they don't even have, we call them tents, but they're not really tense, the they're just scraps of material that have been used to create ' tents and they they're dying from all of these things and the ministry of health is not really counting them, nor can they count them after all, if if family member is extremely ill and dying, are palestinians going to take them to hospital that doesn't exist, that is doesn't have services to offer them, no, they die anonymously in the middle of nowhere and they get buried. on the side of the road, wherever wherever family members and volunteers from the community can bury them, the there are

mass graves all over gaza now in in all sorts of places, i i think the statistics are are gross underestimates and that that this problem will increase lot, the only way we'll know how many people in gaza have died and from from various israeli inducements to death through cutting off resources and letting them die of starvation and and disease, is by waiting until the end of this and then counting the population afterwards and comparing it to what it was before october 7th, that's the only way we'll ever find out, and i think the result is going to be terrifying, it'll be horrible, it it it already is horrifying so... "one can only imagine it getting any worse. now, with

netanyahu openly announcing his intention for the regime to invade rafa, you mentioned the international community. let's talk about that side of the things. he has said his intention, we know that 1.4 million people are basically trapped in this area without any protection, um, and yet basically the regime has been given the green light by the us and its accomplices, along with the un.." to kill, to torture, to mame, until basically it seems that there's no palestinian left, your your take on this so-called international community at this point in time? well, first of all, marzilla, let me say that, maybe what netanyahu is trying to do now, by the by preparing the ground to invade rafah is trying to put pressure on the palestinian resistance to give up its conditions with regard to the so-called prisoner exchange. deal with israel and with regard to the conditions that put forward by hamas, but if i guess if if that military

pressure doesn't work, then at the end of the day there is nothing going to prevent netanyahu from invading rafah, because he has already invaded let's say more than 80% of of the gaza strip, the north, the central area of gaza khan unis is now under heavy israeli pounding and bombardment now, going back to your question, it's it's just so sad that all of this is happening under the watch of the international community, and the only thing that we hear from the un, from israel, from the eu, that they are worried about israeli plans to invade, they are worried about the number of palestinians who are being killed, that that's what we hear, unfortunately this is not enough, i mean if it if it, i mean we've seen how the un, how how "the us and and eu have dealt with other countries who invaded their neighbors, mainly i'm talking

about russia, nothing is compared when it comes to what what israel is doing against the palestinians and by the way, the number of palestinians who have been killed, especially palestinian children is is like way many times than the number of ukrainian children who have been killed in two years for example, but but but the international community have meaning" "the us, eu and many countries have boycotted russia and put like number of of of economic and financial sanctions, but none of that has happened, and and just to say that the international community is worried, that's not enough, that's not helping the palestinians, that's not, that isn't protecting the palestinians from the genocide that is taking place in the gaza strip, and i i wish really we we really see some serious steps taken to prevent." israel to put enough pressure on israel to stop the genocide against the palestinian people in gaza. well, paul, whole families

have been wiped out, infants haven't been spared, and the injured in hospitals have received no mercy, nor have the doctors from the israeli forces, which have targeted all, young and old. i mean, what does it take to call what we're seeing a genocide by the so-called international community? i mean, what is it call, what does it take to call out all of these? war crimes by that same so-called international community. there's an american writer by the name of upton sinclair, who was a fighter for the poor and disenfranchised at the opening of the 20th century and he said um, it's it's nearly impossible to make a man understand something that he's paid not to understand, and that's the case with the international community today, the international community is being

paid by the united states in effect, not to understand what is happening there, not to... pronounce the word genocide, not, not to condemn israel, it's it's all matter of coersion by very racist and aggressive international policy from the united states leading the west. this is what's happening here. i don't think that hamas is going to change anything bec. cause of the genocide be that israel is perpetrating on the palestinians, because they know that the israel's intention, whether they compromise or don't compromise is still going to be genocide, and so what is what's the good reason for doing that? further more, the genocide that israel is practicing is driving

palestinian young men to to be fighters with hamas, hamas is getting stronger. as as time goes on and israel is is really a basket case, they're economically they're falling apart and and they're losing soldiers that they that is very difficult for for israel which which you know they they they can't stand to lose soldiers, they they can't have to have stand to have captives in the hands of hamas and the and palestinian resistance, so and a half million israelies have already left the country and we know that they that they have, they're living with 300 thousand refugees from the north of occupied palestine to the south, so it's businesses are failing in, despite the money that the united states

is pouring into in into israel, they they... "all of this, i think you know, if i had to um, put my money on an outcome of of what's happening there, i, i put it on on hamas and the resistance, i think they are winning this, right? well, muhammad, interesting what paul said, he puts it on the resistance, because i mean, basically we see what is happening to the israeli regime, that it is coming apart at the scene, but at the same time it continues." to create so many different tragedies inside of the gosa strip, we saw the body of six-year-old hend, the little girl who was missing for two weeks after calling the emergency number to report her father being targeted in their car and and it was found the emergency unit which was looking um for her was also targeted and the vehicle they found was just mangled iron

steel with no one surviving, mean there's so many stories, so many tr... that just one of them um would be enough usually for a so-called civilized international community to call this regime out, what has what else has to happen to stop the sadistic regime and call it out for the holocaust that it is committing? you know it it's good that you brought up the issue of hind and her family and and you know what the the the the sad thing is that the palest. rid cresent who went to save hind, they went with coordination, there was supposed to be a coordination between the the the the red cross who coordinated for the palestinian red cross with the israeli army to go and save save him, and unfortunately hind was missing

for many days and the palestinian red crent who went to save her were also were. and we just knew about it today that that hind is dead with all of her family members and the palestinian red present workers who went to save her are also did, it's just it seems to me that israel has crossed or line all lines, nothing is stopping israel from committing such such crimes which which which again happening under the watch of the international community and i guess even even the the measures which the icj, the international court of justice has asked israel to do about two weeks ago uh "israel has not implemented those measures, israel is, i don't even know whether israel is going to report to icj a month after after the these measure measures were supposed to be in

place, it seems to me with the with the impunity that has been provided to israel by by very much the us and and many western countries, israel believe that it has the right to do whatever it wants against the palestinian people, and it feels that it can..." escape punishment, it can, it it feels that it has the impunity to do what it wants under the the pritics that the 7th of october supposedly was carried out and inside israeli territory and that killed 1200 israelis and took 240 israeli hostages and and the israeli reaction which even even president biden the us president said yesterday that the is retaliation against the palestinian has even gone before way, i mean more than more than anyone has ever imagined,

so even even the us started to speak out against this israel disproportionate use of force, which is let me get paul here, so sorry, i'm just about out of time, paul, um, do you think that we're witnessing the collapse of the whole liberal system as their hypocris? has been exposed to the whole world and they're refusing to stop this genocide, how do you see it? uh, i think this is correct, and it's not due just to the genocide in gaza, but also they're losing on every front, you can imagine, ukraine in europe is is another front on which uh, the so-called liberal democracies of the of the west are are floundering, the world is changing and and unfortunately it's very painful to watch it changing, it's not changing in in a cooperative way, we we could

say the the old order is of colonialism and western domination and a bipolar or unipolar world is is is dying and ' that death will first be projected to other peoples like the palestinians and the ukrainians and and others. this is this is very sad to see, but unfortunately, it's it's necessary for the birth of new world, which we hopefully, at least our our children will see, my children anyway, and on that note, thank you both for being with us here on the spotlight at press tv. the professor of political science azha university doha and paula rudy co-founder free palestine movement out of berkley and thank you viewers for being with us on

another spotlight i'm marria hashimi signing out for myself and all the crew right here in tehran hope to see you right here next time goodbye تتحلل يا عم ايش جديد يلا يا خيار ولايان.

this year iran is marking the 45th anniversary of the victory of the glorious islamic revolution. this great revolution inspired many across the... world, especially the people of africa who have for centuries suffered from exploitation by western imperialist powers. the 45th anniversary of the victory of the 1979 islamic revolution is being marked this year. amid moves by several african countries to follow iran's footsteps in resisting western imperialist powers. iran

seeks to collaborate with african countries in various sectors including trade, economic affairs, transfer of technology and culture.

your headlines on press tv, the hamas movement warns that israel's planned attack on rafat will have catastrophic repercussions and may cause tens of thousand. of casualties. hamasa is international rights organizations to document israel's killing of six-year-old palestinian girl as a first step in legal action against the regime. and iraq's former prime minister calls for total withdrawal of american forces urging the government to set a date for the us to take his troops out.