Meanwhile, back in the semi-cleared development area:-"‘I’m looking through the skulls to find my sons’: Palestinians dig through Gaza’s rubble to search for their missing loved ones""Mahmoud Al-Qatati, 53, stood next to the Civil Defense crews to search for his relatives who have been missing in Rafah for five months. He is searching for two sons and two of his sister’s sons. They came to check on each other and were bombed by the Israeli planes, but no one was able to enter the area to evacuate them.“I waited impatiently for the ceasefire so I could return to our area and search for my sons. My two sons came here to search for their cousins, who could not flee and were besieged by the Israeli army in Tel al-Sultan. When my two sons came to search for them, the plane bombed them, and their bodies remained on the ground for days. Here I am trying to reach them and checking on anybody in case I know something that distinguishes my sons,” says Al-Qatati.“I’m looking through the skulls the Civil Defense collects trying to identify my sons,” Al-Qatati told Mondoweiss. He has not been able to find his sons yet because most of the bodies have not been identified. It will be a difficult task for him to identify his sons among the many skulls and skeletons that remain.“My sons were bombed in a place I know well, and I went to look for them there, but I don’t think their bodies remained there throughout the war. Maybe the dogs and cats dragged them to different places, maybe the Israeli army removed them with bulldozers and tanks. There are dozens of scenarios that come to my head, but I’m not sure of any of them, and I haven’t found my sons yet.”"(Mondoweiss, 24/1/25)And:-"WASHINGTON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Republican President Donald Trump said on Saturday he has instructed the U.S. military to release a hold imposed by Democratic former President Joe Biden on the supply of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel.The move was widely expected."We released them. We released them today. And they'll have them. They paid for them and they've been waiting for them for a long time. They've been in storage," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.""Biden put the hold on the delivery of those bombs due to concern over the impact they could have on the civilian population, particularly in Gaza's Rafah, during Israel's war in the Palestinian enclave.One 2,000-pound bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius. Reuters reported last year that the Biden administration had sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants from Gaza but had put a hold on one shipment." (Reuters 26/1/25)-----------------------------"Trump demands immediate release of Oct. 7 hostages, says otherwise there will be ‘HELL TO PAY’"
David Ainsworth ● 438d