Headlines for June 06, 2024 (2024)

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In Gaza, an Israeli attack on an UNRWA school and shelter has killed at least 40 Palestinians, including 14 children, in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Dozens of people were injured in the attack. The school was being used to house displaced Palestinians. One survivor said he had sought refuge at the school after being displaced first from Gaza City, then Khan Younis and then Rafah. Survivors described the school as being shelled with a belt of fire.

Abu Zuhri Abu Daher: “We were sleeping when we suddenly saw a rocket falling on us. On the second floor, there were martyrs, and on the first floor, there were injured. That’s all we saw. Only God can help us. … I was asleep when I found myself covered in rubble. The rocket hit. It came through the second floor. We came out to help people and the martyrs.”

An Al Jazeera reporter at the scene said a large number of women, children and the elderly were among the victims. Israel claimed members of Hamas were at the U.N. school, but provided no evidence to back this up.

In other news from Gaza, the U.N. food agency has issued a dire warning, stating, “Over one million people — half the population of Gaza — are expected to face death and starvation by mid-July” if Israel’s war on Gaza does not end. The warning comes in a new report on global hunger that also says the risk of starvation persists in Sudan, Haiti, Mali and South Sudan. Meanwhile, UNICEF says 90% of children in Gaza lack the nutrition needed for proper growth.

Karin Huster, a medical adviser with Doctors Without Borders in Gaza, said there has been an “insane escalation of hostilities” across the Gaza Strip over the last two days.

Karin Huster: “We have seen hospitals being bombed. We have seen refugee camps being bombed. We have seen humanitarian warehouses being bombed. The situation is apocalyptic. This morning on my way to the hospital, I saw two donkeys carrying the bodies of at least eight people who had died in the hostilities of the last night. When we arrived, the emergency room was completely packed. There were families screaming. There was a man screaming for his family that had died.”

In occupied East Jerusalem, mobs of far-right Israelis attacked Palestinians and several journalists, including Saif Al-Qawasmi, on Wednesday during the Jerusalem Day Flag March to mark the anniversary of Israel’s seizing of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in 1967. In Palestine, June 5 is known as the Naksa, meaning “setback.” During Wednesday’s march Israelis were heard chanting “Death to Arabs” and “May your village burn.” Police reported making 18 arrests.

Israel has announced it is shutting down a desert prison camp where Palestinian prisoners from Gaza say they were routinely beaten and tortured. Last month, three Israeli whistleblowers who worked at Sde Teiman spoke to CNN. One whistleblower shared photographs that showed Palestinians being strapped down, blindfolded and held in diapers at the site. Some prisoners had limbs amputated due to injuries sustained from constant handcuffing.

Spain has announced plans to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. Spain joins other countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Egypt and Turkey, who have requested to join South Africa’s case. Meanwhile, President Biden and the leaders of 16 other nations have just issued a joint statement supporting the ceasefire and hostage deal that Biden outlined last week.

In California, Stanford University says it is suspending 13 students who were arrested Wednesday after they briefly occupied the office of the president. The student activists are accused of injuring a law enforcement officer and causing “extensive damage” to Stanford property. Students are demanding Stanford disclose and divest their investments in Israel.

Here in New York, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres gave a major speech on the climate crisis Wednesday, as data confirmed last month was the hottest May on record, putting the Earth on a 12-month streak of record-breaking temperatures. Speaking from the American Museum of Natural History, Guterres said the world “needs an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell” and called for a global ban on fossil fuel advertising.

Secretary-General António Guterres: “We must directly confront those in the fossil fuel industry who have shown relentless zeal for obstructing progress over decades. Billions of dollars have been thrown at distorting the truth, deceiving the public and sowing doubts. … Many in the fossil fuel industry have shamelessly greenwashed, even as they have sought to delay climate action with lobbying, legal threats and massive ad campaigns. And they have been aided and abetted by advertising and PR companies.”

The World Meteorological Organization said on Wednesday there is an 80% chance the average global temperature will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels for at least one of the next five years. But Guterres says that the world can still meet the 1.5-degree target if governments drastically speed up the phaseout of fossil fuels.

In Ecuador, Indigenous and environmental activists demonstrated against state-run oil company Petroecuador Wednesday, after it failed to comply with a court order to shut down gas flares in the Amazon. The flares burn off gas created during oil production. This is Indigenous activist Nancy Pilatuña.

Nancy Pilatuña: “There’s groups that are at the brink of extermination, polluted rivers and polluted water sources that affect city folk, as well. It’s not an isolated reality. … If the Amazon is destroyed, then it will affect all of the Ecuadorian people.”

Amnesty International, Greenpeace and Amazon Watch are among 50 groups urging President Biden to pardon human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who was targeted for prosecution by Chevron after he successfully sued the oil giant on behalf of 30,000 Amazonian Indigenous in Ecuador whose land was devastated from oil spills. The director of Amazon Watch said, “A pardon for Mr. Donziger will send a clear message that corporations in the U.S. cannot misuse the judicial system to criminalize human rights defenders.”

The European Union election is kicking off as voters in the 27 member nations select its new Parliament between today and Sunday. Immigrant rights advocates fear expected gains from the far right could worsen the situation for asylum seekers, thousands of whom attempt the treacherous journey to Europe each month via the Mediterranean Sea. Also at the top of voters’ concerns are the climate emergency and the economy.

In media news, The New York Times has revealed the new chief executive of The Washington Post, Will Lewis, clashed with the paper’s executive editor, Sally Buzbee, last month over her decision to publish an article about his connection to a major phone-hacking scandal at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World newspaper in Britain. Buzbee resigned from the paper on Sunday, weeks after the clash. The Times reports other factors in her resignation included a plan by Lewis to reorganize the newsroom and essentially demote her. Politico has described Lewis’s new plan for the paper as the “Rupert Murdoch-ization of the Washington Post.”

In Arizona, rights groups are condemning Republican lawmakers for voting to place an anti-immigrant initiative on the November ballot. If passed, the measure would allow local law enforcement to arrest people suspected of crossing the border without authorization, and empower state judges to order deportations. The group LUCHA Arizona is suing the state over the proposal. Democratic State Representative Analise Ortiz spoke out on the Arizona House floor earlier this week.

Rep. Analise Ortiz: “Under HCR 2060, my brown skin could be the cause for an Arizona police officer to pull me over, arrest and detain me on suspicion that I don’t belong in the state where I was born and raised. My community has lived in fear under SB 1070, and the provisions in HCR 2060 will instill that same fear, especially for our children who have parents who are undocumented.”

Senate Republicans voted down a bill that would establish federal protections for access to contraception. Republican Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski backed the measure alongside Democrats, but the 51-39 vote fell short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.