Watch: Day 5 roundtable on Israeli attacks in Gaza, West Bank

On our special livestream for 11 October, five days after Gaza fighters launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, human rights activist Khalil Abu Shammala describes Israel’s atrocities in al-Rimal neighborhood, a residential and commercial hub.

Al-Rimal has been destroyed over the last two nights, he tells us.

“The scene is unimaginable,” he says.

Israel’s actions are “very clear: most of the people who were killed … during the day are infants, children, women, old people, patients – people who even cannot move from one place to another.”

Tally Gotliv, representing the governing Likud party, called on Israel to use a "doomsday weapon" -- a nuclear capable Jericho missile -- against Palestinians in Gaza https://t.co/EFyzRrLgi8
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) October 11, 2023

Our contributor Abdallah al-Naami describes the scenes from his home in the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza.

Hundreds of thousands of people are evacuating, he says, portraying “the images of a second Nakba.”

“Unfortunately, no place is safe,” he adds.

Writer and scholar Abdaljawad Omar tells us that Israel has no clear strategic objective in Gaza; it is seeking pure revenge.

“We have an Israeli military that in the past 20 years has proven defective when it comes to maneuvers on the ground,” he explains.

“Its use of the ground force … at least in the past 20 years has been very weak, feeble, incapable and incompetent, and it can sow destruction, but at the same time, it is very risky and dangerous territory for Israel itself.”

He adds that this lack of thinking by Israel’s military and intelligence brass and the “seeking of revenge is leading them to a lot of miscalculations.”

Meanwhile, international journalists are peddling unsubstantiated claims that fuel Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza, explains UK-based musician and activist Lowkey.

“Unfortunately for us here, every single front page in the British press has led with this story, which came out from one of the settlements, which was engaged by resistance factions. And the claim was made by a journalist for [Israeli channel] i24 that … around 40 babies – was her exact phrasing – were found, many of them were beheaded.”

“I’ll cut to the chase and be clear, I believe this is an example of Israel’s lies, which it’s told over and over and over in many different contexts, in order to irrationalize those it is trying to fight and delegitimize their form of fighting,” Lowkey adds.

You can watch the entire broadcast above, or listen via Soundcloud below.