Reuters
Belgian unions refuse handling arms shipments for Israel-Hamas conflict
November 1, 20232:09 AM GMT+1Updated 8 days ago
BRUSSELS, Oct 31 (Reuters) – Belgian transport workers’ unions on Tuesday called on their members to refuse to handle military equipment being sent to Israel to battle Hamas gunmen.
The ACV Puls, BTB, BBTK and ACV-Transcom unions said in a joint statement that airport workers have seen arms shipments.
“While a genocide is under way in Palestine, workers at various airports in Belgium are seeing arms shipments in the direction of the war zone,” the statement said.
Israel says it is targeting Hamas military operations and not civilians in Gaza.
A Belgian government spokesperson declined to comment on whether arms were shipped to the region via Belgium.
The unions said that loading or offloading these weapons would mean contributing to supplying organisations that kill innocent people.
“We, several unions active in ground logistics, call on our members not to handle any flights that ship military equipment to Palestine/Israel, like there were clear agreements and rules at the start of the conflict with Russia and Ukraine,” the unions said.
The unions also called for an immediate ceasefire and asked the Belgian government to not tolerate arms shipments through Belgian airports.
“As unions, we stand with those who campaign for peace,” they said.
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied in cities in Europe, the Middle East and Asia on Saturday to show support for the Palestinians.
Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Lisa Shumaker
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Picture of the Day
The Jabalya refugee camp was densely populated with women and children.
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Many remain in northern Gaza, say Israel bombs everywhere despite evacuation order
Wednesday, 08 November 2023 6:46 AM [ Last Update: Wednesday, 08 November 2023 7:15 AM ]
A bombed Palestinian house in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on October 7, 2023. (Via The Washington Post)
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinian civilians still remain in the northern Gaza Strip despite warnings from Israeli military to move to the south of the strip, as the Tel Aviv regime continues its deadly bombing campaign in the besieged enclave.
The Palestinians who are still in the region say the trip to the south is too dangerous amid Israeli relentless bombing, the New York Times reported on Wednesday.
The report came a day after the Israeli military claimed it had given a four-hour window for civilians inside Gaza City to evacuate the area and move to the south earlier in the day. This is while Israel has continued to rain down bombs on the south.
Israel opens four-hour evacuation window, tells Gaza City residents to move south
In a phone interview, Jinan al-Salya said she and her family decided to leave northern Gaza and head south despite the risks.
She said that they hadn’t gone far on Saturday, when they came under fire and had to return north on foot, walking between bloody bodies sprawled along the road.
“It was a horror situation. I’m in total shock,” Salya said, adding that she believed the shell that hit their car had been fired by an Israeli tank.
Ahmed Ferwana, who lives in the al-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, said he thought it was too dangerous to venture to Rafah.
Ferwana further noted that he felt it was “better to die at home than to die on the street” after his neighborhood was hit by heavy Israeli airstrikes.
Even foreigners and dual nationals who are being allowed to leave Gaza say they will not take the deadly risks involved in getting to the only exit, the Rafah border crossing into Egypt.
Iyad al-Bazam, Gaza’s interior minister, said on Tuesday that 900,000 people remained in northern Gaza, adding that Jabaliya and Al Shati were the most densely populated areas.
David Satterfield, the US special envoy for Mideast humanitarian issues, also estimated on Saturday that at least 350,000 to 400,000 people remained in northern Gaza.
UN calls Gaza destruction by Israel ‘tragedy of colossal proportions’
According to UN monitors, during a four-hour evacuation window on Sunday, fewer than 2,000 made the move.
Israel launched the war on Gaza on October 7 after Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched a surprise attack, dubbed Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, into the occupied territories in response to the Israeli regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.
Israel has already ordered some 1.1 million living in northern Gaza to evacuate to southern regions as the regime prepares a full-scale ground invasion into the small blockaded territory.
Tel Aviv has also blocked water, food, and electricity to Gaza, plunging the coastal strip into a humanitarian crisis.
According to the Gaza-based health ministry, at least 10,328 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, most of them women and children, while nearly 26,000 others have been injured.
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Swedish diplomat Count Folke Bernadotte until the latter’s assassination by Jewish terrorists in 1948. As the first United Nations Mediator to Palestine, Bernadotte had firmly supported return for Palestinian refugees.
The surrender of Jerusalem to the British, December 9, 1917. (Photo: Library of Congress)
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