CaractacusPotts

With most of the Gaza Strip’s Palestinians now trapped inside the enclave’s southern tip, the Israeli onslaught they had attempted to escape has followed them to Rafah. Some 1.4 million people are pinned against a virtually impermeable Egyptian border, while the entry of life-sustaining aid is chronically stalled. At Kerem Shalom, the southeastern crossing directly controlled by Israel, Jewish Israelis have been filmed gleefully blocking food convoys from Egypt, in a fitting correlative to the genocidal rhetoric of their leaders.

Where, then, are the Palestinians of Gaza, hungry and homeless, to go?

Can cannabis offer a lifeline in the battle against drug addiction, particularly for those grappling with the perils of stimulants like crystal methamphetamine? New research from the University of British Columbia (UBC) suggests it might. The study, published in Addictive Behaviors, found that cannabis use is linked to a decrease in the use of crystal methamphetamine among individuals at high risk of overdose in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, an area severely impacted by illegal drug use.

PROVIDENCE – As Rhode Island is gearing up to open the country’s first state-authorized overdose prevention center, and with two publicly recognized programs in New York, researchers at the Brown University School of Public Health have created a set of resources to educate the public about these harm-reduction efforts.

All it takes is about five minutes and a sample "smaller than a chocolate chip" for harm reduction staff in Ottawa to know what's in the drugs someone is considering using at a supervised consumption site.

By comparison, public health officials in Belleville, Ont., a city still reeling from a recent overdose emergency, said they're not aware of any drug testing machines in Hastings and Prince Edward counties.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/15718266

BRUSSELS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday warned Israel against launching an offensive in Rafah that ministers said would create a disaster for the roughly 1.5 million refugees crammed into the city on the southern edge of Gaza. "An attack on Rafah would be absolutely catastrophic ... it would be unconscionable," Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said before a meeting with foreign ministers from the 27 EU member states in Brussels.

BRUSSELS, Feb 19 (Reuters) - The European Union on Monday warned Israel against launching an offensive in Rafah that ministers said would create a disaster for the roughly 1.5 million refugees crammed into the city on the southern edge of Gaza. "An attack on Rafah would be absolutely catastrophic ... it would be unconscionable," Ireland's Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said before a meeting with foreign ministers from the 27 EU member states in Brussels.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/12145086

Desperate Palestinians rushing toward aid trucks to fetch food in central Gaza were forced to flee after Israeli troops opened fire on them amid the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in the enclave.

Footage verified by Al Jazeera shows hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza City in the central part of the besieged enclave running to get food items delivered by the United Nations in boxes on the back of trucks as bullets are fired.

“Desperate and hungry Palestinians are running out of options. Under Israeli sniper fire, they are risking their lives to reach one of the few aid trucks entering Gaza City,” said Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza.

Footage has also shown how Israeli gunboats have opened fire on small Palestinian boats that were trying to fish off Gaza’s coast as dozens watched from land.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/15717672

The Rubymar cargo ship suffered “catastrophic damages and came to a complete halt” after being targeted in a military operation, said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree in a televised address on Monday.