The Levant

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Israel Ground Invasion Looms  - Richard Medhurst

The representative of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Ashraf al-Qudra, said that more than 3.3 thousand children were killed as a result of Israeli shelling of the Gaza Strip, and more than 1 thousand children are under the rubble.

She noted that the Ministry of Health had received 1,870 reports of missing people, including 1,020 children still under the rubble. Separately, Ashraf al-Qudra drew attention to the shelling of civilian facilities and medical infrastructure.

Public health teams are also tracking thousands of cases of skin diseases, infectious diseases, influenza, chickenpox and diarrhea, according to the department. This is a result of the accelerating spread of epidemics among refugees due to lack of water and lack of personal hygiene.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, during a meeting with Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdel Latif bin Rashed al-Zayani, stated the need to create permanent humanitarian corridors to deliver aid to Gaza and provide the basic needs of the local population. In addition, Abbas emphasized the importance of international protection for the Palestinians.

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[K-Dog]

The Laura Flanders Show

The United States is by far the biggest exporter of arms to Israel. Between 2009-2020, more than 70 percent of the arms Israel bought came from the US, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) Arms Transfers database, which only includes major conventional weapons.

According to Sipri numbers, the US has exported arms to Israel every year since 1961.

It's harder to track arms that have actually been delivered, but between 2013-2017, the US delivered $4.9bn (£3.3bn) in arms to Israel, according to the UK-based Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT).

US-made bombs have been photographed in Gaza in recent days, too.

The exports have increased despite the numerous times that Israeli forces have been accused of committing war crimes against Palestinians.

The US continued to export weapons to Israel when it emerged in 2009, for example, that Israeli forces had indiscriminately used white phosphorus shells on Palestinians - a war crime, according to Human Rights Watch.

In 2014, Amnesty International accused Israel of the same charge for disproportionate attacks that killed scores of civilians in Rafah, southern Gaza. The following year, the export value of US weapons to Israel almost doubled, according to Sipri figures.

US President Joe Biden "expressed his support for a ceasefire" on Monday, under pressure from Senate Democrats. But it also emerged earlier in the day that his administration had recently approved $735m in weapons sales to Israel.

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