#yaghi

[mikeo56]

Capturing carbon from the air just got easier

A new type of porous material called a covalent organic framework quickly sucks up CO2 from ambient air

Date:October 23, 2024Source:University of California - BerkeleySummary:In the face of rising CO2 levels, scientists are searching for sustainable ways of pulling carbon dioxide out of the air, so-called direct air capture. A new type of porous material, a covalent organic framework (COF) with attached amines, stands out because of its durability and efficient adsorption and desorption of CO2 at relatively low temperatures. The material would fit into carbon capture systems currently used for point source capture.Share:

    

FULL STORY

Capturing and storing the carbon dioxide humans produce is key to lowering atmospheric greenhouse gases and slowing global warming, but today's carbon capture technologies work well only for concentrated sources of carbon, such as power plant exhaust. The same methods cannot efficiently capture carbon dioxide from ambient air, where concentrations are hundreds of times lower than in flue gases.

Yet direct air capture, or DAC, is being counted on to reverse the rise of CO2 levels, which have reached 426 parts per million (ppm), 50% higher than levels before the Industrial Revolution. Without it, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we won't reach humanity's goal of limiting warming to 1.5 °C (2.7 °F) above preexisting global averages.

A new type of absorbing material developed by chemists at the University of California, Berkeley, could help get the world to negative emissions. The porous material -- a covalent organic framework (COF) -- captures CO2 from ambient air without degradation by water or other contaminants, one of the limitations of existing DAC technologies.

"We took a powder of this material, put it in a tube, and we passed Berkeley air -- just outdoor air -- into the material to see how it would perform, and it was beautiful. It cleaned the air entirely of CO2. Everything," said Omar Yaghi, the James and Neeltje Tretter Professor of Chemistry at UC Berkeley and senior author of a paper that will appear online Oct. 23 in the journal Nature.

"I am excited about it because there's nothing like it out there in terms of performance. It breaks new ground in our efforts to address the climate problem," he added.

According to Yaghi, the new material could be substituted easily into carbon capture systems already deployed or being piloted to remove CO2 from refinery emissions and capture atmospheric CO2 for storage underground.

UC Berkeley graduate student Zihui Zhou, the paper's first author, said that a mere 200 grams of the material, a bit less than half a pound, can take up as much CO2 in a year -- 20 kilograms (44 pounds) -- as a tree.

"Flue gas capture is a way to slow down climate change because you are trying not to release CO2 to the air. Direct air capture is a method to take us back to like it was 100 or more years ago," Zhou said. "Currently, the CO2 concentration in the atmosphere is more than 420 ppm, but that will increase to maybe 500 or 550 before we fully develop and employ flue gas capture. So if we want to decrease the concentration and go back to maybe 400 or 300 ppm, we have to use direct air capture."

COF vs MOF

Yaghi is the inventor of COFs and MOFs (metal-organic frameworks), both of which are rigid crystalline structures with regularly spaced internal pores that provide a large surface area for gases to stick or adsorb. Some MOFs that he and his lab have developed can adsorb water from the air, even in arid conditions, and when heated, release the water for drinking. He has been working on MOFs to capture carbon since the 1990s, long before DAC was on most people's radar screens, he said.

Two years ago, his lab created a very promising material, MOF-808, that adsorbs CO2, but the researchers found that after hundreds of cycles of adsorption and desorption, the MOFs broke down. These MOFs were decorated inside with amines (NH2 groups), which efficiently bind CO2 and are a common component of carbon capture materials. In fact, the dominant carbon capture method involves bubbling exhaust gases through liquid amines that capture the carbon dioxide. Yaghi noted, however, that the energy intensive regeneration and volatility of liquid amines hinders their further industrialization.

Working with colleagues, Yaghi discovered why some MOFs degrade for DAC applications -- they are unstable under basic, as opposed to acidic, conditions, and amines are bases. He and Zhou worked with colleagues in Germany and Chicago to design a stronger material, which they call COF-999. Whereas MOFs are held together by metal atoms, COFs are held together by covalent carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen double bonds, among the strongest chemical bonds in nature.

As with MOF-808, the pores of COF-999 are decorated inside with amines, allowing uptake of more CO2 molecules.

"Trapping CO2 from air is a very challenging problem," Yaghi said. "It's energetically demanding, you need a material that has high carbon dioxide capacity, that's highly selective, that's water stable, oxidatively stable, recyclable. It needs to have a low regeneration temperature and needs to be scalable. It's a tall order for a material. And in general, what has been deployed as of today are amine solutions, which are energy intensive because they're based on having amines in water, and water requires a lot of energy to heat up, or solid materials that ultimately degrade with time."

Yaghi and his team have spent the last 20 years developing COFs that have a strong enough backbone to withstand contaminants, ranging from acids and bases to water, sulfur and nitrogen, that degrade other porous solid materials. The COF-999 is assembled from a backbone of olefin polymers with an amine group attached. Once the porous material has formed, it is flushed with more amines that attach to NH2 and form short amine polymers inside the pores. Each amine can capture about one CO2 molecule.

When 400 ppm CO2 air is pumped through the COF at room temperature (25 °C) and 50% humidity, it reaches half capacity in about 18 minutes and is filled in about two hours. However, this depends on the sample form and could be speeded up to a fraction a minute when optimized. Heating to a relatively low temperature -- 60 °C, or 140 °F -- releases the CO2, and the COF is ready to adsorb CO2 again. It can hold up to 2 millimoles of CO2 per gram, standing out from other solid sorbents.

Yaghi noted that not all the amines in the internal polyamine chains currently capture CO2, so it may be possible to enlarge the pores to bind more than twice as much.

"This COF has a strong chemically and thermally stable backbone, it requires less energy, and we have shown it can withstand 100 cycles with no loss of capacity. No other material has been shown to perform like that," Yaghi said. "It's basically the best material out there for direct air capture."

Yaghi is optimistic that artificial intelligence can help speed up the design of even better COFs and MOFs for carbon capture or other purposes, specifically by identifying the chemical conditions required to synthesize their crystalline structures. He is scientific director of a research center at UC Berkeley, the Bakar Institute of Digital Materials for the Planet (BIDMaP), which employs AI to develop cost-efficient, easily deployable versions of MOFs and COFs to help limit and address the impacts of climate change.

"We're very, very excited about blending AI with the chemistry that we've been doing," he said.

The work was funded by King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, Yaghi's carbon capture startup, Atoco Inc., Fifth Generation's Love, Tito's, and BIDMaP. Yaghi's collaborators include Joachim Sauer, a visiting scholar from Humboldt University in Berlin, Germany, and computational scientist Laura Gagliardi from the University of Chicago.

Materials provided by University of California - Berkeley. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference:

Zihui Zhou, Tianqiong Ma, Heyang Zhang, Saumil Chheda, Haozhe Li, Kaiyu Wang, Sebastian Ehrling, Raynald Giovine, Chuanshuai Li, Ali H. Alawadhi, Marwan M. Abduljawad, Majed O. Alawad, Laura Gagliardi, Joachim Sauer, Omar M. Yaghi. Carbon dioxide capture from open air using covalent organic frameworks. Nature, 2024; DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-08080-x

[silicacid]

[vyorei]

[lessergoodnow]

Attacks against human rights defenders and obliteration of civic space in Gaza unacceptable, says UN expert

16 September 2024

Israeli Defence Forces continue to intentionally starve and kill civilians, while human rights defenders face enormous challenges conducting their peaceful work, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, Mary Lawlor said today.

In recent months the oldest human rights organisation in Gaza, the Palestinian Human Rights Centre (PCHR), has seen staff members killed and its offices damaged beyond repair in air strikes and ground attacks by the Israeli Defence Forces.

“There is literally no place left for human rights defenders and civil society actors to continue documenting the litany of human rights violations to which Israel is subjecting the people of the Gaza Strip,” the Special Rapporteur said.

Two women lawyers from the PCHR were killed in February 2024. Nour Abu al-Nour died along with her two-year-old daughter, her parents, and four siblings in an air raid on her house in Rafah on 20 February 2024. Two days later, Dana Yaghi and 37 family members were wiped out in an Israeli air raid on a house to which they had relocated for safety in Deir el-Balah, 14 km south of Gaza City.

“It is a terrible tragedy that justice for these two women human rights defenders, their family members and their children, seems so far away. Human rights defenders keep hope alive for justice through their work but are becoming victims themselves. This is why Israeli authorities seem so intent on targeting and silencing them,” she said.

The PCHR headquarters in Gaza City and branch offices in Jabalya, Khan Younis, and Rafah have all been severely damaged in air raids and ground attacks, forcing staff to relocate and rent office space and logistical support at skyrocketing prices, while some international funding has been suspended. They have also been subjected to a vitriolic online smear campaign by the Israeli group, NGO Monitor, which has falsely accused PCHR of being linked to terrorists.

“Human rights defenders have told me that they will continue their work despite this online defamation, which is targeted at drying up their international support and intimidating them,” Lawlor said.

“This organisation continues to bear witness, document and record gross human rights violations and war crimes. Many Palestinians have spoken to them on condition of anonymity. Such is their fear of Israeli repercussions if they are to be publicly identified.”

Recent media reports have highlighted Israeli surveillance of PCHR, and other Palestinian human rights organisations, including Al-Haq and Addameer in the Occupied West Bank, for much of the past decade, in relation to information they were submitting on Israeli human rights violations to the International Criminal Court.

“I repeat my call for human rights defenders to be recognised as essential in times of armed conflict, and to be protected. As independent observers, lawyers and researchers, they document and preserve evidence of violations of international humanitarian and human rights law and ensure the possibility of accountability and justice,” Lawlor said.

The physical integrity of Human Rights Defenders should be protected against attacks and harassment, unlawful killings should be promptly and independently investigated in accordance with international law, and measures adopted to protect them against future serious violations, she said.

The expert has previously raised these concerns with authorities in Israel and in the occupied Palestinian territory.

[mounadiloun]

Mira Resnick, une marchande d'armes au Département d'État à Washington

Alors que la candidature de Kamala Harris à la succession de Joe Biden se confirme, ce dernier pose des jalons pour le prochain mandat d’une présidence démocrate si sa vice-présidente est élue. Il en a en tout cas posé en matière de politique proche-orientale avec la nomination de Mira Resnick à un poste qui lui donne la haute main sur la politique à l’égard du conflit au Proche Orient.   Pour…

[archivio-disattivato]

Non c’è posto per loro in albergo

Scritto il 05/01/2024 per The Electronic Intifada. Di Amjad Ayman Yaghi.

Dopo essere stato costretto ad abbandonare la sua casa, Muhammad Abu Haya ora vive in una tenda.

Abu Haya, 49 anni, è fuggito perché Israele stava bombardando Beit Lahiya, nella zona settentrionale della Striscia di Gaza. Alcuni dei suoi familiari sono stati uccisi.

Dapprima aveva trovato riparo nelle scuole della città di Gaza, per poi spostarsi diverse volte. Ora si trova a Rafah, la città più meridionale della Striscia.

Abu Haya ha costruito la tenda improvvisata in cui vive attualmente e che, in totale, ospita dieci membri della sua famiglia allargata. La tenda è stata messa assieme usando sacchi di farina vuoti e altri pezzi di stoffa. È coperta da un telone di nylon per cercare di non far entrare la pioggia.

“Quando sono arrivato a Rafah, con la mia famiglia siamo rimasti in strada per due notti”, racconta. “Ho raccolto quanto più velocemente possibile dei sacchi di tessuto e di nylon, fino a quando sono riuscito a costruire una tenda”.

La famiglia ha a disposizione qualche coperta, ma non abbastanza per difendersi dal freddo.

Tutte le scuole della zona sono piene di rifugiati. Moltissime persone si trovano, inoltre, nella stessa situazione, in prossimità della frontiera tra Gaza e l’Egitto, in preda a un’estrema preoccupazione, soprattutto ora che le temperature sono scese notevolmente.

Le scuole sono strapiene.

L’Agenzia delle Nazioni Unite per i profughi palestinesi (UNRWA) dichiara che circa 1,8 milioni di persone ha trovato riparo all’interno o nelle vicinanze delle sue 156 installazioni a Gaza. Il sovraffollamento è tale che, in media, i rifugiati a Rafah hanno a disposizione un bagno ogni 486 persone.

I ripari non offrono una reale sicurezza. Circa 300 rifugiati presenti all’interno delle strutture UNRWA sono stati uccisi dal 7 ottobre a oggi.

Secondo alcune testimonianze, solo poche centinaia di tende sono potute entrare a Gaza nell’ambito degli aiuti alla popolazione.

Hamza Zaida, 31 anni, ha dovuto lasciare la sua casa di Al-Rimal, un quartiere della città di Gaza. Anche lui adesso si trova a Rafah.

Molti dei rifugiati palestinesi del 2023 ritengono che la loro condizione sia molto peggiore di quella popolazioni cacciate durante la Nakba, la pulizia etnica perpetrata in Palestina nel 1948. Nonostante tutti gli orrori di quel periodo, alle persone espulse all’epoca spesso era data almeno la possibilità di trovare un riparo rudimentale.

“Forse i nostri nonni sono stati più fortunati di noi”, osserva Zaida. “Quando hanno dovuto abbandonare le loro case nel 1948, hanno trovato delle tende. Noi non abbiamo né tende né altro. Sono andato a cercarne una e le organizzazioni che ci stanno aiutando mi hanno detto che non ne hanno”. Ci fa notare che le tende vengono costruite usando pali metallici e pezzi di legno per sorreggerle. La maggior parte di queste tende di fortuna non offre una reale protezione dagli elementi.

Zaida ci ha messo due giorni per costruire una tenda per gli 11 membri della sua famiglia allargata. Anche se ha cercato di fare del suo meglio, non appena è iniziato a piovere, la tenda si è riempita d’acqua.

Amjad Ayman Yaghi è un giornalista residente a Gaza.

Traduzione per InfoPal di Isabella Cecchi

[workersolidarity]

🇮🇱⚔️🇵🇸 🚀🏠💥🚑 🚨

💥ISRAELI FIREBELT IN CENTRAL GAZA KILLS DOZENS IN LATEST ATROCITY💥

📹 Footage from the arrival of ambulance crews to a local hospital after the Israeli occupation army launched several firebelts targeting civilian homes in Deir al-Balah and Al-Zawayda.

Upwards of 22 Palestinians were killed in the strikes, with dozens more wounded after Israeli Occupation Forces launched several airstrikes on the Attar and Yaghi family homes, among other civilians residences across central Gaza, killing 22 civilians, mostly women and children.

Other sources say the death toll has risen to 25 as civil defense crews work to remove the dead and wounded from under the rubble of their homes.

#source1

#source2

#videosource

@WorkerSolidarityNews

[mariluphoto]

The child Abdul Karim Muhammad Yaghi surrendered himself to "Israeli" occupation forces to protect his family after they stormed his house.

He's 16 years old.

(via. savesheikhjarrah92)

No child deserves to live like this! 😢🫒🕊🇵🇸

[justsomeunsurefancat]

The Palestinian journalist Mohammed Yaghi who was killed along with his daughter and wife after the bombing of his home by Israeli warplanes

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eye On Palestine (@eye.on.palestine)

[somediyprojects]

My Mercy Encompasses Everything stitched by Chahrazad Yaghi.

“It says My mercy encompasses everything. Have a nice day.”

[tieflingkisser]

Will there be an end to Israel's killing of civilians in Gaza?

A 'horrific massacre' - that's how Palestinians are describing one of the worst Israeli attacks on Gaza, since the war began. More than 90 Palestinians were killed and 300 injured on Saturday, in al-Mawasi - an area Israel had designated as safe. Its fighter jets and drones unleashed a barrage of missiles and bombs, obliterating tents that sheltered thousands of displaced families. As the death toll rises and the humanitarian crisis deepens, there are serious questions about Israel's military conduct and the protection of civilians. Israel claims it was targeting Hamas leaders. But is that justification for killing so many civilians?

Presenter:

Mohammed Jamjoom

Guests:

Ibrahim Yaghi - Writer, poet and activist.

Tahani Mustafa - Senior Palestine Analyst at the International Crisis Group.

Triestino Mariniello - Professor of Law at Liverpool John Moores University, and a member of the Legal Team representing Gaza Victims before the ICC.

[fedorahead]

One Month after the ICJ Order, Israel Continues its 142 Days-Long Genocide on Gaza

26 February 2024

Short Link:

https://www.mezan.org/en/post/46388

On 26 January 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) determined the plausibility that Israel is carrying out genocide against Palestinians in Gaza, and ordered Israel to:

prevent the commission of genocidal acts

prevent and punish public incitement to genocide

ensure aid and services reach Palestinians

submit a report to the ICJ within one month of the order on measures taken to give effect of the above.

In the month since the ICJ ruling, Israel has continued its genocidal military campaign on Gaza with intense bombardment and attacks from air, land, and sea, resulting in the killing of 3,524 Palestinians and the injury of 5,266 others,[1] and ongoing mass displacement and destruction. Israeli officials have further continued to show their intent to commit genocide, including with plans to conduct a ground invasion into Rafah, where 1.5 million Palestinians are displaced. The delivery of aid has declined since the Court ruling, as Israel escalated its delegitimization campaign against UNRWA. Meanwhile, Israel continues to deliberately attack hospitals, pushing the health sector out of service, while using starvation as a weapon of war.

This brief outlines key violations of the ICJ provisional measures over the past month, based on preliminary reports:

Ongoing Genocidal Acts - Killings

Since the ICJ’s ruling one month ago, Israel killed around 3,524 Palestinians, and wounded 5,266 others,[2]bringing the total number of killings since 7 October 2023 to around 29,692, including at least 12,500 children, and the injuries to 69,879.

On 17 February, Israeli warplanes and warships carried dozens of airstrikes, targeting at least 15 homes, two mosques, and agricultural lands in Rafah. The attack resulted in the killing of 83 Palestinians, including 27 children, amongst them displaced Palestinians who were sleeping in their tents, and 125 others were injured.[3]

An audio recording by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) documents the moments an Israeli tank massacred a family in their car. A two-hour distress call from six-year-old Hind to PRCS captured her terrified with the bodies of her uncle, aunt and four cousins beside her. Hind went missing for 12 days and her body was found alongside two PRCS members in their ambulance “on their approved mission” to rescue her.

On 13 February, a handcuffed Palestinian detainee, Jamal Al-Deen Mohammed Abu Al-Ola, dressed in white PPE was sent by Israeli forces to the besieged Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis to deliver a message to those at the hospital to evacuate. As he was walking outside the hospital, still inside the gates, he was killed by an Israeli soldier in front of his mother.[4] The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported that Israeli snipers killed another three Palestinians at the Hospital on the same day.

Two human rights defenders were killed along with their families by Israeli airstrikes. On 20 February, an Israeli airstrike killed Nour Abu Al-Nour, lawyer at the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), alongside seven of her family members including her two-year-old daughter, in her family’s home in Rafah. On 22 February, Dana Yaghi, also a lawyer at the Women's Rights Unit at PCHR, was killed along with at least 40 others, the majority of whom are from her family, in her family’s house in Deir Al- Balah. Both houses were targeted on top of the residents' heads without any prior warning.

Israel has continued its systematic targeting of journalists to suppress the truth and silence its witnesses. The Committee to Protect Journalists reported that in the first 10 weeks of its genocide on Gaza, Israel killed more journalists than any other army or entity has in any single year. Since the Court ruling, Israeli forces have killed twelve journalists, four of them on the same day, increasing the number of Palestinian journalists killed since 7 October to 132. According to the International Federation of Journalists, almost one in ten Gaza-based journalists have been killed by the Israeli forces.

A mass grave was found in the northern Gaza Strip, where at least 30 Palestinian bodies were found dead, handcuffed and blindfolded. The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs called for an investigation into accusations that Israeli forces executed prisoners “in the most horrific forms.”

The bodies of around 100 Palestinians have been recovered after Israeli forces withdrew from the Tal al-Hawa and Remal neighborhoods in Gaza City.

Ongoing Genocidal Acts - Causing Serious Bodily or Mental Harm

On 19 February, UN experts called out cases of violence, severe beating, torture, degrading treatment, including sexual violence, and reported cases of rape and threats of rape by Israeli forces against Palestinian women and girls in Gaza.

Israeli soldiers have continued to film themselves as they torture and subject Palestinian detainees to degrading and inhuman treatment. A video shows an Israeli soldier coercing blindfolded detainees into pledging themselves as slaves. Israeli soldier Yosi Gamzoo published a video, which he later deleted, showing him interrogating a Palestinian detainee, handcuffed and stripped down to his underwear, and sitting on a chair, with signs of torture on his body and a wound in his thigh. The same soldier posted another video, showing hundreds of Palestinian detainees in Gaza’s Yarmouk stadium. Most of them were stripped down to their underwear, with some blindfolded and kneeling in rows, under the watch of Israeli soldiers. Three blindfolded women are also shown in the video, kneeling behind a football goal.

Over the past month, Palestinians in Gaza released from Israeli detention have shared harrowing accounts of torture, beatings, starvation, humiliation and abuse by Israeli soldiers. PCHR has been able to obtain tens of shocking testimonies from released detainees from Gaza providing insight into the torture and inhumane treatment that they have been subjected to by the Israeli forces. Among the documented cases were a journalist, a human rights defender, a paramedic, a worker and a woman. It should be noted that as of the date publishing this brief, the fate, conditions, and whereabouts and wellbeing of hundreds of Palestinian detainees remain unknown as Israel continues to disclose any information or allow lawyers or families to visit them.

Ongoing Genocidal Acts - Forcible Transfer and Inflicting Conditions of Life to Bring about Physical Destruction:

Over the past month, Israel has intensified its attacks on the health sector in Gaza, including hospitals and medical teams. Between 7 October and 12 February, there were 378 attacks on health care across Gaza, affecting 98 health facilities and 98 ambulances. As of 22 February, there are no fully functional hospitals in Gaza, with 12 of the 36 hospitals only partially functional.

Israel has imposed a siege on the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis for over a month. This has included Israeli forces firing at and killing people in the hospital’s vicinity and in the hospital’s yard. On 9 February, Israeli snipers killed at least 21 Palestinians near the vicinity of the besieged Hospital, with medical staff among those targeted. On the same day, a nurse was shot by an Israeli sniper while inside the operating room. On 12 February, Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians and injured 14 in the courtyard of the hospital. Israeli forces have issued warnings to evacuate everyone from the hospital since 13 February. On 13 February, footage showed thousands sheltering inside the hospital, forced to evacuate. On 15 February, Israeli military shelled the hospital’s orthopedic department, snipers surrounding the hospital opened fire at displaced people, while Israeli forces stormed the hospital, ordering everyone inside to head to Rafah. Footage shows smoke and chaos in the hospital’s corridors where gunshots can be heard. Israeli forces further targeted fleeing people on the passage it designated as safe, injuring many. Moreover, Israeli forces arrested 70 medical and administrative personnel. On 18 February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that the Nasser hospital is not functional anymore. As of 23 February, around 140 patients, their families and healthcare workers remained in the hospital, as hundreds of patients and staff had been relocated to a building in the hospital. The hospital has no electricity, sufficient food and water, has sewage water flooding, medical waste accumulating, and the decomposing bodies of eight ICU patients who died for lack of oxygen. It has been reported that Israel’s attack on the hospital ended on 22 February.[5]

Al Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, run by the PRCS, continues to be besieged and under Israeli attack for over a month. On 30 January, Israel raided the hospital demanding staff and displaced people taking refuge there to evacuate at gunpoint. Israeli forces also killed two PRCS staff members near the hospital. The besieged hospital has been pushed out of service. The PRCS reported the displacement of around 8,000 internally displaced persons from the hospital on 5 February because of the continued bombardment around the hospital. In a ten-hour raid on the hospital on 9 February, Israeli forces damaged the hospital’s property, humiliated and beat and interrogated the staff, before arresting eight PRCS team members from the hospital, as well as four patients and five patients’ companions. On 17 February, PRCS published images showing signs of torture of two doctors detained the week before. As of 21 February, seven PRCS staff members continue to be detained by Israeli forces. PRCS continues to report ongoing artillery shelling of the hospital leading to major damage to its facilities. On 22 February, PRCS reported that its VHF system, which is the core system for communication with all PRCS field teams, was disabled as a result of Israeli shelling in the vicinity of Al Amal Hospital. The hospital faces a lack of fuel reserves to generate electricity for high-risk patients and a near exhaustion of food supplies.

As of 9 February, Al Shifaa Hospital in Gaza city had again reverted to only minimal functionality, following days of intense Israeli attacks in its vicinity. Dr Mohammad Abu Silmiyeh, the Director of Al Shifaa Hospital was subjected to torture in his detention. He was beaten, kept naked for prolonged periods of time, subjected to degrading and dehumanizing treatment and both of his hands were broken.[6] Dr. Silmiyeh’s fate and whereabouts remain unknown.

On 26 January, Israel ordered Khan Younis residents to evacuate to the Al Mawasi area. Again, on 29 January, Israel ordered several neighborhoods in Gaza City to evacuate towards the south. This area included around 88,000 displaced Palestinains who are being forcibly displaced again. On 20 February, Israel ordered residents of two specific areas of Gaza city to evacuate to the Al Mawasi area in Khan Younis.

Since the ICJ ruling, Israeli officials have been preparing for a ground invasion into Rafah. There are now around 1.5 million Palestinians in Rafah, most of whom have been internally displaced since 7 October, “crammed amid insecurity and acute shortages of shelter, food, clean water, and medical care”. Despite international condemnations including by states, the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court and another request to the ICJ by South Africa, over the anticipated ground offensive in Rafah, Israel has vowed to go ahead with its ground offensive. In an overnight bombardment on 12 February, Israeli strikes killed 67 Palestinians and wounded dozens in Rafah. Intensified airstrikes on Rafah have forced the displacement of people toward Deir al Balah.

On 4 February, OCHA reported that 2.2 million people in Gaza are at imminent risk of famine. Of those, 378,000 people are enduring an extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities and 939,000 people are at emergency levels. On 12 February, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN said: “Every day, more and more people are on the brink of famine-like conditions…There are unprecedented levels of acute food insecurity, hunger, and near-famine-like conditions in Gaza”. In a 19 February footage, thousands of Palestinians in Gaza City are seen running to get food assistance on the back of trucks as Israeli forces open fire on them. On 22 February, Save the Children reported that families are forced to “forage for scraps or food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive,” amid rapidly declining aid supplies.

The catastrophic levels of famine are intensifying across Gaza, with rising risk of hunger-induced deaths, especially in northern Gaza. On 11 February, Anera highlighted that “in the tragic circumstances of starvation in Gaza, there’s a compounding issue: many who perish from starvation-related symptoms aren’t accurately documented. Their deaths often get attributed to other physical causes, masking the true toll of starvation.”

On 13 February, UNRWA reported outbreaks of hepatitis A, and alarmingly high rates of diarrhea in Rafah, which can be deadly if there is not enough clean water. WHO reported that between 16 October and 13 February 2024, there have been 312,693 reported cases of acute respiratory infections, 222,620 cases of acute watery diarrhea, 74,712 cases of scabies and lice, 49,052 cases of skin rashes, 6,625 cases of chickenpox and 8,829 cases of acute jaundice.

No access to clean drinking water in the northern governorates.

Ongoing Genocidal Acts - Imposing measures intended to prevent births

In November, the UN reported that 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza risk safe baby delivery, maternal deaths, miscarriages, stillbirths and premature births as a result of malnutrition, lack of access to healthcare and basic services and ongoing displacement. The situation has only worsened since then with the direct attack on Gaza’s health system and the use of starvation as a weapon of war. On 16 February, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women said: “When mothers have to bury at least 7,700 children, and 5,500 women don’t know if they will be able to deliver their children safely within next month, very [human rights] basic principles are challenged.”

On 16 February, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) highlighted that 500,000 cases of communicable disease have been reported across Gaza, emphasizing the particular impact on women. The UN agency said: “women are reportedly miscarrying at a higher rate than before the war, and in many cases, Cesarean sections, amputations and other surgeries are being performed with partial anesthesia due to a lack of supplies. Everyone in Gaza is hungry, including 50,000 pregnant women, with malnutrition making them more susceptible to disease and less able to recover.” UNFPA warned: “If the bombs don’t kill pregnant women, if disease, hunger and dehydration don’t catch up with them, simply giving birth could.”

On 19 February UNICEF reported “a steep rise in malnutrition among children and pregnant and breastfeeding women in the Gaza Strip” especially in the north, adding that 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women face severe food poverty. The agency added: “the Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.

Disrupting Humanitarian Aid

Israel has hindered access to humanitarian workers and delivery of aid into Gaza.

On 12 February, the WHO stated that humanitarian aid provided so far to Gaza is “a drop in the ocean of need which continues to grow every day”. UN Secretary-General Guterres said he is worried about deteriorating conditions faced by aid delivery workers in Gaza, where convoys have sometimes come under fire from Israeli forces.

Less aid has gone daily into Gaza as compared to the average daily trucks entering Gaza before 26 January. Before 7 October, the average number of trucks that entered Gaza each day was around 500. For the weeks between 12-25 January, 156 trucks entered daily on average. For the weeks between 26 January and 8 February, 134 trucks entered Gaza daily on average. Aid delivery has continued to decline for the weeks between 9-22 February to 55 daily trucks on average.

The denial of aid delivery to northern Gaza is particularly alarming. According to OCHA, between 1 January and 15 February, less than 20% of aid missions to the north of Wadi Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities and 51% were denied. UNRWA reported that the last time it was able to deliver food aid to northern Gaza was on 23 January.ù

On 20 February, the World Food Program said they are pausing the delivery of assistance to Northern Gaza “until safe conditions are in place for our staff and the people we are trying to reach”.

Right after the ICJ ordered Israel to ensure that basic services and humanitarian aid reach Palestinians, Israel alleged that UNRWA employees had been involved in the October 7 attack. Following this, 18 states have suspended their donations to the agency. The Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Goldknopf instructed the Israel Land Authority to immediately cancel all lease agreements with UNRWA and evict it from its main headquarters in Jerusalem. On 11 February, UNRWA chief said the agency is facing growing administrative hurdles from Israel, with a shipment amounting to a month's supply of food blocked.

During the past month, Israelis have protested to block humanitarian aid trucks entering Gaza at Karem Abu Salem crossing.

Israel’s targeting of civilian police is hampering aid delivery.

Israel has continued its targeting of humanitarian aid trucks. On 5 February, Israeli forces fired on a UN convoy carrying vital food supplies in Central Gaza before ultimately blocking trucks from progressing to the northern part of the territory, despite the UN and Israel agreeing on the convoy’s route. As a result, much of the convoy’s contents, mainly wheat flour, were destroyed.

Incidents of the targeting of Palestinians as they wait for humanitarian aid convoys continue to be reported in Gaza city. On 19 February, five Palestinians were killed by Israeli quadcopters while they were gathering for a possible delivery of humanitarian aid at Al Kuwaiti roundabout. On 18 February, at least one Palestinian was killed and others injured when a group that was waiting for relief aid at Al-Nabulsi roundabout was shot at.

Public Incitement to Genocide

No charges were pressed against any public official for public incitement to genocide.

On 28 January, 11 Israeli ministers and 15 members of the Knesset attended a conference in Jerusalem, titled “Settlements Bring Security” calling for re-building Jewish-only settlements in Gaza and the displacement of Palestinians. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, declared: “God willing, we will settle and we will be victorious.” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir told the audience that it was “time to return home to Gush Katif” — the name of the illegal Israeli settlement bloc built in Gaza and dismantled in 2005. Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi called for building settlements in Gaza and “encouraging voluntary emigration.”

Commenting on the ground invasion in Rafah, Prime Minister Netanyahu said on 11 February: “We’re going to do it. We’re going to get the remaining Hamas terrorist battalions in Rafah, which is the last bastion, but we’re going to do it…We’ve so far succeeded and we are going to succeed again. Those who say that under no circumstances should we enter Rafah are basically saying lose the war.”

Meanwhile, Israel’s Foreign Minister Katz, arguing that Israel respects international law said: “Calls to limit Israel’s defense only strengthen Hamas. Rest assured, Israel is resolute in its mission to dismantle Hamas.”

Israeli Minister of Finance Smotrich said “American pressure or fear of harming civilians should not deter us from occupying Rafah and destroying Hamas.”

Smotrich further said he has decided to block the transfer of food assistance to Gaza.

On 13 February, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli military Herzi Halevi said his forces have carried out “very high military achievements” in in Gaza but there is “a long way to go...In the past decades, there has not been an army that maneuvered in an area that is urban and dense…IDF soldiers are dealing with this with great success and the military achievements are extraordinary.”

On 12 February, during a cabinet meeting, Ben-Gvir demanded the military shoot Palestinian women and children in Gaza.

During a Knesset debate on 19 February, May Golan, Israel’s Minister for the Advancement of Women, expressed pride in the “ruins” of besieged Gaza and said: “We are not ashamed to say that we want to see Israeli soldiers, the holy heroes of ours, catching Sinwar and his terrorists by their ears and dragging them all across the Gaza Strip on their way to the dungeons of the Prison Authority.. Or in the best case scenario to a coffin. I am personally proud of the ruins of Gaza, and that every baby, even 80 years from now, will tell their grandchildren what the Jews did…Not a dove, and not an olive branch, only a sword to cut off Sinwar’s head.”

***

This brief has been prepared by:

The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy (PIPD)

Bisan Center for Research and Development

The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR)

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights

The Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counselling (WCLAC)

The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy - MIFTAH

Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man

Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association

The Palestinian BDS National Committee

[1] According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health between 26 January and 25 February 2024.

[2] Ibid.

[3] According to the monitoring of the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR).

[4] Ibid.

[5] Testimonies from doctors at the hospital since 13 February can be assessed in this Google drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1JfjU8mH3YOz-v5wvw3ziM6nwMCzaPN0M.

[6] Testimony by Dr Bilal Azzam on behalf of Dr Mohammad Abu Silmiyeh, at the International conference to rebuild the Health sector in Gaza, 7 February 2024, Jordan.

[gumi-megpoidd]

Clarence: this is my boyfriend Yaghi, and his partner Ricket, and her girlfriend Mitomi, and her boyfriend Kazu, and his boyfriend Nemo

[hathorik]

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech tonight:

Condolences and congratulations.

Today's occasion

The ongoing war in Palestine

The Lebanese front and yesterday's attack in Lebanon

First, we renew our condolences and congratulations from Lebanon to the families and loved ones of the Martyr Haj Qassem Soleimani, Haj Abu Mahdi Al-Mohandes, and their companions who rose to martyrdom with them.

I send condolences over the attack in Iran where the final toll that reached me was about 80 martyrs. These martyrs are on the same path, the path of Al-Quds.

It happens that our calamities and our joyous occasions coincide. I congratulate everyone on the birth of Prophet Issa and the beginning of the new year. I also congratulate all Muslims, especially the women, on the birth of Sayyeda Fatima.

I also mourn the passing of our dear brother Haj Mohammad Yaghi. I send condolences to his family and loved ones, and the people of Beqaa where he spent most of his blessed life. I will speak during his commemoration ceremony this Friday afternoon, God willing.

I also send condolences and congratulations to Imam Khamenei and the Iranian people on the martyrdom of Sayyed Radhi Mousavi in Damascus, who was a dignified Mujahid and offered countless sacrifices.

And to our final occasion, I send condolences and congratulations to the family and loved ones of our dear brother, Sheik Saleh Al-Arouri, and all the Palestinian people. I will speak more on this at the end of the speech.

I recall the words of Imam Khamenei in the telegram he sent me after the martyrdom of Sayyed Abbas Al-Mousawi: the greatest honor to be attained by our people, the most elevated status, is attained when they are killed by the killers of the prophets.

I must also send condolences and congratulations to the families of all the martyrs: in Gaza, the West Bank, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Syria... the families of the martyrs everywhere repeat the same spirit of steadfastness and patience.

I salute and send prayers to the injured, who are enduring pain and yet remain patient, and also the people on the forefronts, who were forced to leave their homes due to the ongoing threats.

Friday's speech will tackle the Lebanese front in more details.

Today's martyrs in Kerman [Iran] remind me of the saying: they fear Qassem Soleimani the martyr more than then feared Qassem Soleimani when he was alive. We see Haj Qassem in our bullets, in our missiles, in the tears of the children...

Haj Qassem Soleimani's goal was to support all Resistance factions across the Axis. The goal was to make these factions self-sufficient on every level, so that they would not need anyone, not even Iran.

Haj Qassem also supported the Islamic Resistance in Iraq during the American invasion along with Haj Abu Mahdi. The Resistance forced the Americans out of Iraq in 2011, despite the guise that it was an agreement with the Iraqi government.

In the Resistance Axis, no faction or nation dictates upon the others where or when to fight or make peace. The enemies of the Axis are known, and the benefits of the nation are designated. We discuss matters together, but every party makes its own decisions.

Some Arab countries do not understand this reality, and thus always make erred analysis and take the wrong stances. They cannot comprehend that Yemen took the decision to block the Red Sea in support of Gaza on their own; that it was not dictated upon them by Iran.

There are no slaves or tools in the Resistance Axis. The factions of the Resistance Axis are honorable and dignified and the stances of every party in this Axis stems from their faith.

Qassem Soleimani's motives were not personal. Qassem Soleimani melted in Islam, and melted in Palestine and Al-Quds.

The victories that were made in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, Iraq... were the blessings of this Resistance Axis.

Of the blessings of Al-Aqsa Flood:

Reviving the Palestinian cause across the world, refuting the "israeli" claim that the Palestinian people could ever forget or abandon their land even after 75 years of suffering, displacement...

The support for the Resistance is at an all-time high, not only in Palestine and Gaza, but across the world, especially for Hamas. This support is unprecedented.

The false image that portrayed "israel" as a "peaceful nation" has fallen; "israel" is now seen as child murderers, terrorists... this is thanks to social media platforms that spread the truth to the world.

Putting a huge obstacle on the path of normalization in the region, and proving the incompetence of the international community, where "israel" pays no regard whatsoever for every resolution.

Completely destroying the false claim of "israel"'s deterrence of its enemies; "israel"'s power lies in deterring its enemies but when Hamas carried out Al-Aqsa Flood, Hamas was not deterred!

Refuting the false claim of "israeli" intelligence superiority; there is a common misconception that "israel" knows everything. That is not true.

"israel" always boasted that they will only enter war where it was guaranteed they would make a quick, decisive, evident victory. 3 months in Gaza alone, and no one in the entity can even claim a single scene of victory.

The loss of trust between the settlers and the "israeli" army, security agencies and political authority; when this entity is no longer a "safe haven", the society that was imported from every part of the globe will collapse. The "israelis" set several goals for this battle of which the eradication of Hamas is one. I tell them: God willing, you will not accomplish a single one of these goals.

The amount of losses in the entity on every level; what is "israel" without its economy? Over 300,000 settlers were displaced from the North alone; this is an added pressure on their internal front.

Destroying the humane image the Americans have worked on creating of themselves in the Arab region; today, the war on Gaza is an American one, the bombs are American, the decision is American. The world knows this today.

There is no place for any settler in Palestine. The one carrying a British citizenship will be told to return to Britain, the French to France, the American to the US. Palestine, from the river to the sea, is for the Palestinian people only!

The war on Gaza has proved that the world will never respect you or even mourn you or shed a single tear for you unless you are strong and express power.

The Resistance in Lebanon stripped the enemy of the element of surprise by opening the front on October 8. If the Resistance had not opened this front first, you would have woken up to find the "israelis" bombing Lebanon indiscriminately. The Resistance proved, by opening this front, that it is not deterred and that it is ready to defend the country.

Last night's attack was not just one attack: it was an attack on Sheik Saleh Al-Arouri and one on Dahyeh [Southern Suburb of Beirut where the people who make up the Resistance reside; it's a symbol of the Resistance as much as the Resistance in and of itself]. We have been engaged in this battle within certain guidelines. This has cost us the lives of many of our men.

However, if the enemy decides to wage an all-out war against Lebanon, you will see all our threats and capabilities before you. I tell the enemy: If you are considering war against us, you will regret it very much. The price will be heavy.

We are not afraid of war. We are ready for it. We are not deterred. And when it is waged against us, then our national interests lie in going all in, to those who speak of national interests. Yesterday's attack was a dangerous event that will surely not go unpunished. The battlefield lies between us, and time will tell.

[materialsscienceandengineering]

Metal-organic layers: Preparation and applications

Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) made by bridging metal-containing nodes with organic ligands are a type of ordered porous materials. The first case of MOFs reported by Yaghi et al. in 1995 sparked a frenzy in the research on MOFs. The past decade has witnessed the rapid development of such types of materials.

However, because of the limitation on material thickness, their applications in separation, catalysis, and biosensors are inevitably adversely affected. The preparation of two-dimensional (2D) ultrathin MOF nanosheets (also called metal-organic layers (MOLs)) could be an alternative to further enhance or extend the functionalities of MOFs.

In MOLs, active centers are well exposed on the surface, which facilitates the interaction between vibrant centers and substrate molecules, thus, improving their applications in catalysis, gas separation, and sensing. The MOLs are commonly prepared by the top-down or bottom-up method.

Read more.