We have fine weather today: cloudy with a bit of sunshine, a bit of a chilly wind but no rain so far. Maybe it will come overnight. I can cope with that but I ought to feel sorry for those who work at night. Anyway, for the first time in a while I ran round the village without my waterproof.
On the millpond there was a young swan, still young enough to have some browny-grey feathers, not yet completely pure white. According to one of my nodding acquaintances, the father swan showed him the way here. Maybe he’ll stay but I suspect he will need a lady friend come the spring.
Last might on the Al Jazeera news channel, they reported the death of one of their cameramen, Samer Abu Daqqa. He probably could have been saved had emergency services been able to get through to him. As it was he bled to death. The reporter he was filming, reporting an attack on a school where refugees were sheltering, was also wounded but managed to walk to a hospital, but was unable to help his colleague. The news channel reported that 90 palestinian journalists have been killed since the conflict began. They and their families, also targeted, live in the conflict zone; independent journalists are not allowed by Israel to go into Gaza and report - an attempt to prevent reporting from the conflict zone? 50 media offices have been destroyed. Remaining journalists report that the first thing they do on waking is to phone to check on one another and on family.
The Guardian reports this:
“The Israeli military has said that its troops shot and killed three hostages being held by Hamas after mistakenly identifying them as a threat during fighting in a battle-torn neighbourhood of Gaza City.
The announcement on Friday came amid heavy fighting across the embattled territory that led to an influx of dead and wounded into hospitals in Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah.
An initial IDF probe into the hostage killing incident suggests all three men were shirtless, with one carrying a makeshift white flag.
On seeing them, one Israeli soldier shouted “terrorists!” to the other forces, initiating fire at the men, according to reports.
While two hostages were hit immediately and fell to the ground, the third managed to escape into a nearby building where despite pleas in Hebrew, he was also shot and killed, a military official said.”
The families of hostages still held in Gaza are protesting.
A friend of mine posted about the lack of telecommunications in Gaza since Thursday evening:
"A prolonged communications blackout that severed telephone and internet connections compounded the misery on Saturday in the besieged Gaza Strip, where a United Nations agency said hunger levels had spiralled in recent days.
Internet and telephone lines went down on Thursday evening and were still inaccessible on Saturday morning, according to internet access advocacy group NetBlocks.org, hampering aid deliveries and rescue efforts as Israel’s war against Gaza’s ruling militant group Hamas stretched into the 11th week.
“The internet blackout is ongoing, and based on our records it is the longest such incident” in the over-two-month war, said Alp Toker, the group’s director.
The United Nations’ humanitarian affairs department said communications with Gaza were “severely disrupted” due to damage to telecommunications lines in the south, according to an AP report."
(Guardian update 09:10)”
And so it continues.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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