Israel kills American activist, terrorizes prisoners, as Biden admin shrugs – Day 335
CNN reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday was as clear as he has ever been that he does not believe a ceasefire and hostage deal is likely in Gaza in a sharp rebuke to the Biden administration’s insistence it’s close at hand. “There’s not a deal in the making,” Netanyahu told Fox News. “Unfortunately, it’s not close.” His comments stand in stark contrast to the relentlessly hopeful messaging from the Biden administration over the past months. On Sunday, President Joe Biden claimed that the parties were on the verge of a deal, and on Wednesday, a senior administration official claimed 90% of the agreement had been completed. That, Netanyahu said, is “exactly inaccurate.” UN Humanitarian Affairs: Israel is blocking entrance of explosive ordnance disposal equipment OCHA reports: The ongoing escalation of hostilities is resulting in widespread contamination by Explosive Ordnance (EO). While the exact number of EO-related casualties is unknown, there have been cases of people who died due to the explosion of EO, according to humanitarian partners. On 3 September, a Palestinian girl was reportedly critically injured by the explosion of an EO in southwestern Khan Younis and succumbed to her wounds on 4 September. Children face a heightened risk of being exposed to EO, as they usually play outside, tend to search for scraps amongst rubbish and rubble, and lack an awareness on the dangers of EO. Despite ongoing efforts by humanitarian partners to conduct in-person and digital Explosive Ordnance Risk Education (EORE) campaigns, educational material as well as minimum standard Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) equipment are refused entry into Gaza by Israeli authorities, therefore limiting the capacity of the mine action response. The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Cluster is concerned with the staggering increase in the cost of basic hygiene items. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), in July, the price of soap has increased 1,177 per cent and shampoo has increased 490 per cent across the Strip, compared to July 2023. Israeli army kills Palestinian girl in West Bank: Health Ministry Al Jazeera reports: A 13-year-old girl succumbed to her wounds after being shot by Israeli forces in Qaryout, a village south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank. The village was reportedly attacked by Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces when Bana Amjad Bakr was shot in the chest by an Israeli soldier. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said its teams dealt with the “serious” injury after confrontations broke out in the village. Amjad Bakr was shot while she was in her bedroom, her father said. She was taken to a nearby hospital where she died. Settler attacks are common in the West Bank and have increased in scale and intensity since October 7. The Israeli army and settlers have displaced more than 1,200 Palestinians and destroyed hundreds of structures, according to UN figures. Israel pulls out of Jenin, but denies end of West Bank offensive Middle East Eye reports: Israeli forces have pulled out of Jenin after a 10-day assault, but the military has denied it is ending its operation in the occupied West Bank. The offensive, which has so far left at least 39 Palestinians dead, saw soldiers backed by armored vehicles and bulldozers targeting the city and its adjacent refugee camp, forcing the flight of many of the residents. Palestinians started returning to their Jenin homes on Friday, while those who had been trapped by the offensive were able to venture outside for the first time in more than a week. Israel said on Friday that it would continue its operation in Jenin until its “objectives are achieved”. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says at least 40 people (6 of them youths) have been killed in the West Bank since August 28 when Israeli forces launched a large-scale incursion into several towns and cities: 21 Palestinians were killed in Jenin; 8 in Tubas; 8 in Tulkarem; and 3 in Hebron. Footage originally shared by Israel’s Channel 14 correspondent showed Israeli soldiers detaining Palestinian children, women and men in Jenin, occupied West Bank, and forcing them to walk in one line. This is not Gaza. This is in the West Bank Israeli soldiers share footage with Netenyahu’s channel 14 depicting them humiliating young Palestinian girls, women and elderly in Jenin during their invasion to the city pic.twitter.com/y2DZz1rImP — Younis Tirawi | يونس (@ytirawi) September 6, 2024 France arrests nurse who volunteered in Gaza Middle East Monitor reports: France yesterday arrested then released nurse Imane Maarifi who spent 15 days volunteering as a medic in the Gaza Strip. Notably, the arrest took place at a time when French soldiers who fight in Gaza enjoy total impunity. Thomas Portes, a lawmaker from the La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed (LFI) party, wrote that Maarifi has been released from custody. “The search of the home in front of the family leaves no doubt about the desire to intimidate the voices that are raised to support the Palestinian people and demand an immediate ceasefire,” he wrote on X. Maarifi attended pro-Palestinian rallies in France to share her testimony about the crippling situation in Gaza. She has also expressed her demand for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a boycott of companies supporting Israel.
[email protected] September 7, 2024 Ayşenur Eygi, btselem, ceasefire, international solidarity movement, israeli settler violence, palestinian prisoners, Tally Gotliv, unexploded ordnance, west bank death, white phosphorus, Yuli Novak
Photos and videos obtained by Haaretz show dozens of detainees lying on their stomachs while handcuffed, some without clothes, as a guard dog barks over their heads. The Prison Service described this as a "routine exercise." (screenshot)
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli army kills American International Solidarity Movement volunteer during demonstration in West Bank

Various sources report:

During the weekly demonstration in Beita, Palestine, on the morning of September 6th, 2024, the Israeli army intentionally shot and killed an International Solidarity Movement (ISM) human rights activist named Ayşenur Eygi. The demonstration, which primarily involved men and children praying, was met with force from the Israeli army stationed on a hill. Initially, the army fired a large amount of tear gas and then began using live ammunition.

Ayşenur, who we (ISM) consider a martyr in the struggle, was the 18th demonstrator to be killed in Beita since 2020. She was an American citizen of Turkish descent.

She was involved with the Faz’a campaign, an organization that aims to support and protect Palestinian farmers from violations by illegal Jewish settlers and military forces.

The Israeli forces fired two rounds. One hit a Palestinian man in the leg, injuring him. The other round was fired at international human rights activists who were observing the demonstration from a distance, striking the human rights activist in the head.

Neither Ezgi nor the other wounded person posed any threat to the soldiers stationed on the hills adjacent to the site of the weekly march.

Eygi died shortly after being transported to a local hospital in Nablus.

The Israeli military admitted to firing at the demonstrators and said it was looking into reports that a foreign national was killed. The Israel Defense Forces said it “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them”.

The US has not said whether Eygi had been shot by Israeli troops. “We are urgently gathering more information about the circumstances of her death, and will have more to say as we learn more,” Matthew Miller, a state department spokesperson, said.

Asked if the US would take action against Israel, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “First things first – let’s find out exactly what happened and we will draw the necessary conclusions and consequences from that.”

Eygi’s family released a statement declaring, “A US citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter,” adding, “Given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate.”

“We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability.”

Ayşenur Eygi, 26, ‘was not a naive traveler – this experience was, according to one of her professors, the culmination of all her years of activism. Her friends say she was a longtime activist “bearing witness to oppression.”

She was remembered by friends and former professors as a dedicated organizer who felt a strong moral obligation to bring attention to the plight of Palestinians.

Eygi, who is also a Turkish citizen and leaves behind her husband, graduated from UW earlier this year with a major in psychology and minor in Middle Eastern languages and culture, Fani said. She walked the stage with a large “Free Palestine” flag during the ceremony, Fani said.

Ezgi is the third ISM volunteer to be killed by the Israeli forces in occupied Palestine. Rachel Corrie was killed in Gaza’s Rafah in 2003 after an Israeli soldier crushed her with a bulldozer. Tom Hurndall was killed in Gaza in 2004 by an Israeli sniper. An Israeli soldier shot Brian Avery in the face in Jenin in 2003. He survived the attack but was permanently maimed. The bullet ripped through his cheek and smashed his eye socket and jaw bones.

RECOMMENDED READING: Instead of Taylor Force Act, Congress should consider Rachel Corrie Act, Orwah Hammad Act




Israeli Prison Guards Filmed Abusing Detainees; Prison Service Says It’s a ‘Routine Exercise’

Ha’aretz reports:

Israeli Prison Service personnel in the security wing of Megiddo Prison handcuffed and humiliated detainees on Friday morning, despite no unusual incident occurring in the prison.

Photos and videos obtained by Haaretz show dozens of detainees lying on their stomachs while handcuffed, some without clothes, as a guard dog barks over their heads. The Prison Service described this as a “routine exercise.”

The Prison Service said in response that it “maintains an operational routine for the safety of the prison inmates and the public. In this case, too, in an operation that includes intelligence [gathering], soldiers of the ‘Nachshon’ unit…raided terrorist cells, searched them and seized assault weapons and prohibited materials.” The service failed to present any of the assault weapons allegedly seized.

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) has urged the United Nations to open an independent investigation.

The group has also said that the Israeli authorities are “deliberately” leaking images and footage of the torture of Palestinian detainees, explaining in a statement that this was “part of the competition between the ministers of the current government over who tortures and kills Palestinians more”.


UNICEF says Israelis refusing to facilitate polio vaccine campaign

Al Jazeera reports:

UNICEF says it is making every effort to distribute the polio vaccine in Gaza during the agreed-upon pauses in fighting.

However, it reported that Israel continues to deny medical teams access to communities in certain areas of southern Gaza.

Nearly 355,000 children have received the vaccine in spite of Israel’s lack of cooperation.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary reports from Khan Younis:



Israeli legislator calls on police to probe B’Tselem activist for ‘aiding the enemy’

Middle East Monitor reports:

Israel’s Likud Party Knesset Member Tally Gotliv called for the execution or life imprisonment of human rights activist Yuli Novak following her speech at the UN Security Council on Wednesday.

Novak, the executive director or Israeli rights group B’Tselem, told the UNSC: “Since Israel was founded, its guiding logic has been to promote Jewish supremacy over the entire territory under its control.”

She added that the far-right Israeli government has been “cynically exploiting” its citizens’ “collective trauma” since the 7 October 2023 infiltration of Israel by Palestinian resistance fighters.

It is doing this, she explained, “to violently advance its project of cementing Israel[i] control over the entire land … committing war crimes almost daily.”

Gotliv called for Novak to be probed by Israel Police “for the suspected serious crime of assistance to the enemy in war.”

She said that such a crime was an offense under the penal law, “which carries the death penalty or a life sentence”.

“Novak has shamefully put the state of Israel, currently engaged in a war for survival, at risk and assisted Israel’s enemies on various fronts,” the lawmaker wrote, accusing the activist of telling lies about Israel committing war crimes.

Gotliv was among the legislators that joined Israeli crowds to protest the arrest of soldiers accused of gang-raping a Palestinian detainee from Gaza held in the Israeli Sde Teiman prison.

NOTE: B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories strives for a future in which human rights, liberty and equality are guaranteed to all people, Palestinian and Jewish alike, living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.

Such a future will only be possible when the Israeli occupation and apartheid regime end. That is the future we are working towards.

B’Tselem (in Hebrew literally: in the image of), the name chosen for the organization by the late Member of Knesset Yossi Sarid, is an allusion to Genesis 1:27: “And God created humankind in His image. In the image of God did He create them.” The name expresses the universal and Jewish moral edict to respect and uphold the human rights of all people.



Netanyahu is unequivocal about ceasefire and hostage agreement with Hamas: ‘There’s not a deal in the making’


Israel shells Lebanon with white phosphorus bombs, performs ground invasion drills

The Cradle reports:

According to Lebanon’s National News Agency (NNA), Israel targeted southern Lebanon with white phosphorus on Friday. “The area between Tal Nahas and Al-Hamams towards the Marjayoun plain is being subjected to artillery shelling with phosphorus shells, which caused fires to break out,” NNA said.

Israeli threats against Lebanon have escalated once again. The Israeli military said on 6 September that its Yiftah Brigade carried out drills this week simulating a ground invasion of Lebanon, moving along a “mountainous route” and “complex terrain.”

NOTE: Use of white phosphorus in civilian areas is considered a war crime due to its extremely dangerous effects on the human body.

White phosphorus ignites instantly when in contact with oxygen. It can burn through the human body, including through bone, causing severe, excruciating damage.

It can also cause extreme harm when inhaled, with risks of suffocation, cardiovascular failure, coma, death, and other lifelong effects. The substance burns at temperatures of up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Cradle: Israel’s energy insecurity: How blackouts could paralyze the occupation state

+972 Magazine: Under cover of war, Israel is demolishing home after home in Silwan

Middle East Monitor: ‘Game of demographics’: How Israel aims to wipe out Palestinians from Occupied East Jerusalem

Middle East Eye: ‘I recognized her by her roller skate’: Israeli strike on Gaza kills children playing in the street

The New Arab: Is Israel using Gaza’s ‘mowing the lawn’ strategy in the West Bank?





STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 5:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 5, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,878 in Gaza* – 11,308 women (28%), 16,715 children (41%) as of September 5. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 691 in the West Bank (~148 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 5: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,454 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 5, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

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https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-kills-american-activist-terrorizes-prisoners-as-biden-admin-shrugs-day-335/

https://donshafi911iamthefaceoftruth.blogspot.com/2024/09/israel-kills-american-activist.html

Commentary: Sabah and Sarawak are proving to be a political headache for Anwar
HOBART: With mere months to go before the second anniversary of Anwar Ibrahim becoming Malaysia's prime minister, the current delicate state of relations between Putrajaya and the Borneo states of Sabah and Sarawak could pose significant political challenges for him and the unity government.

There isn't a consensus among the Malay establishment regarding how to handle an assertive Sabah and Sarawak, despite the general agreement that Malaysians are now much more aware of the Malaysia Agreement 1963 (MA63), and how the Borneo states were marginalised over the past 50 years.

For the past six years, both Sabah and Sarawak have been insisting that Putrajaya rigorously abide by the spirit of the promises in MA63. In MA63, they are referred to as "safeguards”, but they are really a collection of assurances prior to the formation of the federation that both states will have a high degree of socio-political autonomy from the federal government.

Prior to 2018, the dominance of the Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition meant that they could ignore all the MA63 promises made. In fact, voters in Sabah and Sarawak were commonly described as “fixed deposits” for BN, for consistently supporting the party and helping it remain in power. This all changed when BN lost power in 2018 and the Borneo states began agitating for the return of MA63 rights.

Since then, Putrajaya has formed various MA63 committees to decentralise some of the powers back to Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, and increase infrastructure projects and development funds for both states, such as the Borneo Highway.

With many of the simple devolution problems have been resolved, the main ones are up for discussion now. All the progress achieved over the past few years could be undone by these core issues.

Related:


CONTINENTAL SHELF

The continental shelf off the coast of the Borneo states is the first problem. These regions are abundant in gas and oil, and advances in technology will enable mineral extraction from the deep water in the near future.

The federal government owns all oil and gas resources, as stipulated by the Petronas Development Act (PDA 1974). The Borneo states contest this, arguing that since they were included in the legally delineated limit of British colonial territory in 1954, the continental shelf truly belongs to them.

According to MA63, when the federation was formally established on Sep 6, 1963, all legislation passed before then automatically became operative. Thus, the legal ownership is still with Sabah and Sarawak.

In the event that the Borneo States successfully win this legal interpretation, Petronas will no longer be able to conduct its oil and gas exploration off the coast of the Borneo states without engaging in direct negotiations with Sabah and Sarawak.

There are far-reaching political consequences, not to mention even more far-reaching financial consequences. At least 20 per cent of Malaysia's development budget is accounted for by Petronas alone.

An even bigger consequence of Sabah and Sarawak getting control of the oil and gas resources on their continental shelves, is oil and gas-producing states in the peninsular. Terengganu and Kelantan, likewise, will undoubtedly demand control of their oil and gas fields if the Borneo states are successful. This could effectively mean the end of Petronas’ oil and gas monopoly.

Related:


REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT

Another key issue is representation in parliament, specifically a return to the one-third composition for Sabah and Sarawak as stipulated in MA63.

Back in 1963, Malaya had 104 seats in the then 159-member federal parliament, while Sarawak, Sabah, and Singapore were given 55 seats, or 34.6 per cent. When Singapore left the federation in 1965, Singapore’s 15 parliamentary seats were not redistributed to Sabah and Sarawak. Thus, both states ended up with only a quarter of seats in parliament.

This leaves Sabah and Sarawak in an unfavourable position as a successful constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds majority vote in parliament. In other words, Peninsular Malaysia alone could change the constitution without any support from the Borneo states.

Sarawak has formally submitted a proposal to the federal Cabinet to increase the number of seats from Sabah and Sarawak to 35 per cent. This will require a constitutional amendment. There are many who are against this, believing that it will give too much power to the Borneo states.

Mr Anwar, in public at least, has been silent, suggesting that there is no consensus. If the Borneo states get the 35 per cent, this will fundamentally change the nature of federal-Borneo relations. It means that Putrajaya will have to consult with Kuching and Kota Kinabalu on any constitutional issues thereafter.

SABAH’S REVENUE

The third main issue is the constitutional requirement to refund Sabah 40 per cent of the net revenue collected from the state.

The constitution centralises revenue collection - including all forms of taxes - at the federal level. The federal government then returns a percentage of this to the states based on their population.

From the early 1970s, the federal government stopped paying. The Sabah government then was too weak politically to pursue this issue. The current stalemate is due to disagreements over the actual amount plus the arrears, called the “lost years”.

The Sabah state government has proposed several formulas, while the federal government has its own formula as well. No matter which formula is used to calculate the amount, it will at least be in the region of RM20 billion (US$4.6 billion), money the federal government does not have.

QUE SERA SERA

The three issues listed above, if determined in favour of Sabah and Sarawak, could fundamentally alter the entire basis of federal-Borneo ties.

It would be the first significant step in ensuring that the Borneo states are considered as "equal partners" and founders of the Malaysia Federation, rather than simply as one of the 13 states in the federation.

It would also result in a considerable shift of political power from Peninsular Malaysia to Borneo.

At present, Sabah and Sarawak’s support for Anwar is crucial for him to stay in power. Anwar claims he has the support of 154 members of parliament. More than 50 of them, however, are from the Borneo states. Without Sabah and Sarawak, there would be no political stability at the federal level.

In return for this support, Anwar has been careful not to reject, in public, any MA63-related proposals from Sabah or Sarawak. He has also appointed Fadillah Yusof, the second deputy prime minister to chair the federal MA63 committee. Fadillah comes from Sarawak, and more than a quarter of the federal Cabinet comes from Borneo. Anwar has even gone as far as to say he will “resolve” all MA63 issues as a matter of priority.

Anwar, however, will have to tread carefully.

The broader Malaysian political establishment harbours suspicion of Sabah and Sarawak. The unstated fear is that as the Borneo states gain more and more autonomy, it will be more likely to demand some form of quasi-independence in the future.

The nightmare of course is secession. However, the reality is that Sabah and Sarawak elites are not even considering secession. They understand that they will not be able to survive politically outside of Malaysia for the time being.

James Chin is Professor of Asian Studies at the Asia Institute Tasmania, University of Tasmania. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Jeffrey Cheah Institute on Southeast Asia.

Source: CNA/aj

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/commentary/malaysia-sabah-sarawak-ma63-safeguards-demands-anwar-4571486

Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
[email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank
Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report

Jerusalem Post reports:

Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source.

The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza.

Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment.

According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area.

At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there.

In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip.



Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation

Israel Hayom reports:

Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza.

A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize.

Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.”

NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population.

Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree

various media outlets report:

The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685.

The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege.

JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town.

The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan.

“We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin.

TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp.

Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces.

On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem.

Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.)

HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.”

Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank
Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos)
Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th

The Committee To Protect Journalists reports:

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary.

As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three.

Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest.

At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times.

(Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.)

“Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.”

CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.

In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship.

(Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’

Ha’aretz reports:

Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.

The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants.

The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo)
US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas

Al Jazeera reports:

The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.

“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.

NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel.

HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward.

“I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said.

RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question

Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address

Middle East Monitor reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday.

The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv.

Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined.

“Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said.

NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.”

RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu]
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo)
Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank

The Cradle reports:

Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank.

“Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank.

Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan.

Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory.

“Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote.

Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”.

Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.”

NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ.

RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation

President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L).
President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo)
U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu

Ha’aretz reports:

The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement.

The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said.

President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise.

Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said.

HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process.

“The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added.

“Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.”

Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv
Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo)
David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

The Guardian reports:

As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned.

The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

“The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.”

NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons.

Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel.

RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law

Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023
Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo)
Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel?


Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war:

Banned or restricted arms sales

Britain
Italy
Spain
Canada
Belgium
The Netherlands
No ban on arms sales

The US
Germany
Denmark
(For details on each country listed, go here.)



There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral

by Caitlyn Johnstone:

It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible.

Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water.

“Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!”
“The Jews deserve a homeland!”
“Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.”
“I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.”
“Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.”
(Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.)

Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine

Palestine Chronicle reports:

The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

“We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page)
The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo)
MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test

The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel

Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human

Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people

+972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught




STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Alison Weir trending on social media – what the buzz is about
Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide
Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers
I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal.
What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty
‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress
Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7
Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much?
Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel
An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/

Israeli-inflicted Palestinian injuries in Gaza, West Bank surpass 100,000 – Day 332
[email protected] September 4, 2024 arms sales to israel, columbia university, david cameron, David Friedman, Gaza, hamas, Merrick Garland, palestine erased, Palestinian journalists, West Bank
Israeli forces organize a raid with bulldozers on Jenin in the West Bank on September 01, 2024. [ Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

‘3,000 operatives’: Hamas regains capabilities in northern Gaza – report

Jerusalem Post reports:

Hamas has managed to regain some of its capabilities in the northern Gaza Strip, according to a Monday Channel 12 report, citing a security source.

The report specified that Hamas had enlisted some 3,000 new operatives into its ranks in that area of Gaza.

Additionally, the resistance group reportedly provided them with weapons, ammunition, and payment.

According to the Channel 12 report, while some Israeli forces remain in northern Gaza, the absence of large troop deployments has allowed Hamas to operate more freely in that area.

At the beginning of the war with Gaza, Israeli forces invaded northern Gaza, reportedly destroying much of the Hamas infrastructure there.

In mid-July, the IDF ended a re-invasion of northern Gaza to concentrate on the central Gaza Strip.




Israel to classify West Bank as ‘combat zone’ amid dramatic escalation

Israel Hayom reports:

Recent events have triggered a major policy shift in Israel’s approach to the West Bank, Israel Hayom has learned. Previously designated as a “secondary arena” requiring stable maintenance, the Israeli military now operates under a new paradigm, viewing the West Bank as the second most critical front, immediately after Gaza.

A series of operations across the West Bank are imminent. “The Jenin operation is just the beginning,” security officials emphasize.

Security officials recommend launching extensive operations. One security source described it as “not just mowing the lawn, but uprooting the problem at its source.”

NOTE: In reality, International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people, exiled them to Gaza and other locations, and continues to oppress and ethnically cleanse their population.

Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces carry the dead body of a Palestinian after an operation in Hebron, West Bank on September 1, 2024. [Mamoun Wazwaz – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Some West Bank updates: Israel continues killing spree

various media outlets report:

The Israeli aggression, since dawn last Wednesday, on the West Bank until now, has killed at least 32 Palestinians: 19 in Jenin, 6 in Tulkarem, 4 in Tubas, and 3 in Hebron, bringing the number of slain Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, 2023, to at least 685.

The total number of injuries in the West Bank and Gaza combined has surpassed 100,000 (94,398 in Gaza, 5,700 in the West Bank) – even as healthcare facilities in both areas remain under siege.

JENIN AREA: Israeli forces today directly targeted four journalists in the town of Kafr Dan, west of Jenin, as they covered the Israeli aggression in the town.

The occupation forces fired live bullets directly at the vehicle of the two photojournalists while they were trying to reach the location of the other journalists in the village of Kafr Dan.

“We narrowly escaped death,” one of the victims explained. “If we hadn’t sped up a bit in our car, they would have killed us. It was a direct assassination attempt.”

On Tuesday afternoon, Israeli soldiers shot a Palestinian teenage girl and prevented medics from reaching her until she succumbed to her wounds in Kafr Dan town, west of Jenin, in the northern part of the occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said its medics moved the slain child, Lujain Osama Abdul-Rauf Mosleh, 16, to a hospital in Jenin.

TULKARM: A Palestinian minor was killed Tuesday dawn by Israeli occupation forces during the ongoing raid on Tulkarm camp.

Medical and local sources said that Mohammad Kanaan was killed after being shot in the head by the occupation forces’ snipers while he was with his father in one of the camp’s neighborhoods, while his father was shot in the abdomen by the occupation forces.

On Tuesday evening, two Palestinians were killed after the army surrounded a home and fired at it, in the Thannaba Suburb in Tulkarem.

Media sources said that the attack killed two young men inside the home before the soldiers took their corpses to an unknown destination. (More on Tulkarm here.)

HEBRON: After closing the Ibrahimi Mosque to Muslim Palestinian worshippers, the Israeli army allowed thousands of illegal settlers to hold a concert and perform their rituals at the site in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Mosque director Moataz Abu Sneineh said that the Israeli settlers held a concert in the mosque’s courtyards “in a blatant violation of the places of worship and the privacy of Muslims.”

Some of Tuesday's victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank
Some of Tuesday’s victims of Israeli attacks in the West Bank (photos)
Unprecedented number of Palestinian journalists arrested by Israel since October 7th

The Committee To Protect Journalists reports:

Since the start of the Israel-Gaza war, an unprecedented number of journalists and media workers have been arrested — often without charge — in what they and their attorneys say is retaliation for their journalism and commentary.

As of September 4, CPJ has documented a total of 54 arrests of journalists in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza and in the city of Jerusalem, claimed by both Israel and the Palestinians as a capital, since the war began on October 7, 2023. Israel arrested 51; Palestinian authorities arrested three.

Nineteen of these journalists, including the three held by Palestinian authorities, have since been released, while 35 remain under arrest.

At least 14 of the journalists arrested by Israel are being held under administrative detention, a policy under which a military commander may detain an individual without charge, typically for six months, on the grounds of preventing them from committing a future offense. Detention can be extended an unlimited number of times.

(Editor’s note: These numbers are being updated regularly as more information becomes available. The tally includes all arrests documented by CPJ. As is our global practice, journalists who request anonymity out of concern for their safety are not named in the list below.)

“Since October 7, Israel has been arresting Palestinian journalists in record numbers and using administrative detention to keep them behind bars, thus depriving the region not only of much needed information, but also of Palestinian voices on the conflict,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna in New York. “If Israel wants to live up to its self-styled reputation of being the only democracy in the Middle East, it needs to release detained Palestinian journalists and stop using military courts to hold them without evidence.”

CPJ ALSO REPORTS: Since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7, journalists and media across the region have faced a hostile environment that has made reporting on the war exceptionally challenging.

In addition to documenting the growing tally of journalists killed and injured, CPJ’s research has found multiple kinds of incidents of journalists being targeted while carrying out their work in Israel and the two Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank.

These include 54 arrests, as well as numerous assaults, threats and harassment, cyberattacks, and censorship.

(Find details and examples here. Find an up-to-date list of journalists killed here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’

Int’l Criminal Court likely to decide whether to issue arrest warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant ‘over coming days’

Ha’aretz reports:

Justice Ministry officials expect the International Criminal Court (ICC) to decide in the coming days on whether to issue arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, but are cautiously optimistic that the court will decide against the warrants.

The officials said the government’s refusal to set up a state commission of inquiry to investigate the events of the war, as recommended by Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, along with the fact that Israel has been lagging in its own investigations of alleged war crimes – something that would preempt ICC action under the principle of complementarity – strengthen the likelihood that the court will accept Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan’s request for the warrants.

The officials said they expect the court to issue its decision within days, or at most a few weeks.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023.
Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant in Tel Aviv, Israel, Oct. 13, 2023. (photo)
US Justice Department files criminal charges against Hamas

Al Jazeera reports:

The US announced criminal charges against Hamas’s top leadership, including the group’s chief Yahya Sinwar, accusing them of leading efforts to kill civilians and destroy the state of Israel.

“As outlined in our complaint, those defendants — armed with weapons, political support, and funding from the Government of Iran, and support from Hezbollah — have led Hamas’s efforts to destroy the State of Israel and murder civilians in support of that aim,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Other Hamas leaders charged include Marwan Issa, the deputy leader of Hamas’s armed wing in Gaza, Khaled Meshaal, a deputy of slain former Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh and a former leader of the group, Mohammed al-Masri and Ali Baraka.

NOTE: Garland’s nomination was endorsed by pro-Israel groups such as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which advocates for Israel.

HA’ARETZ ADDS: U.S. National Security Council Spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged Tuesday that the events of the weekend will dictate U.S. actions moving forward.

“I’d be lying to you if I said the work going on in the days ahead are not going to be shaped or colored by our outrage about what Hamas did,” he said.

RECOMMENDED READING: US charges Hamas leaders over October 7, Gaza mediation role under question

Netanyahu once again erases Palestine during address

Middle East Monitor reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank, marking it as Israeli territory, in an address to the media yesterday.

The Israeli premier appeared standing in front of a wall-sized digital map that obliterated the West Bank. Palestinians decried the move as an explicit annexation of the occupied territory by Tel Aviv.

Speaking about the importance of the Philadelphi Corridor between Gaza and Egypt, Netanyahu used a map which showed the entirety of the West Bank and occupied East Jerusalem as being annexed to Israel and only had the Gaza Strip outlined.

“Netanyahu’s map reveals the truth of the colonial and racist agendas of the extremist right-wing government,” the Palestinian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

“Netanyahu continues and repeatedly uses a map that includes the West Bank as part of the occupation state, in clear and explicit recognition of this racist colonial crime, and disregard of international legitimacy and its resolutions, international will for peace and the signed agreements,” the ministry said.

NOTE: Israel’s supporters criticize the pro-Palestine slogan “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free,” because they claim it calls for the erasure of Israel. In reality, the phrase is, in the words of Palestinian American congresswoman Rashida Tlaib, “an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence.” Netanyahu’s map says, in essence, “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall not exist.”

RECOMMENDED READING: No more “shrinking map of Palestine” – it’s gone

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu]
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu used a map of Israel that erases the occupied West Bank to address the media [Screenshot/Anadolu] (photo)
Trump advisor pushes to divert Palestine aid funds for Israeli annexation of West Bank

The Cradle reports:

Former US ambassador to Israel and advisor to Donald Trump, David Friedman, proposed in his new book that Congress should redirect $1 billion allocated for Palestinian aid to support Israeli plans for an annexation of the occupied West Bank.

“Israel will need financial assistance to assert and maintain its sovereignty over Judea and Samaria,” Friedman wrote in his new book, using the biblical term used by Israel to refer to the West Bank.

Friedman writes in his book, titled One Jewish State: The Last and Best Hope for Resolving the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, that the US could divert $1 billion in current aid to the Palestinians – which includes funds for Palestinian Authority (PA) security services – to fund the Israeli annexation plan.

Friedman also compares Palestinians living under Israeli occupation to Puerto Ricans, who live on an island considered US territory.

“Palestinians, like Puerto Ricans, will not vote in national elections. Palestinians will be free to enact their own governing documents as long as they do not conflict with those of Israel,” he wrote.

Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”.

Friedman said he has not yet shared his idea for funding the annexation with Trump. “I hope to share it with him at the appropriate time.”

NOTE: “Biblical prophecies” do not speak anywhere of a modern Jewish state. Pro-Israel (and in many cases, antisemitic) interpretations of Biblical prophecies have twisted the words of the sacred text to imply that a modern Jewish state is a precursor to the endtimes and the return of Christ.

RECOMMENDED READING: Friedman drove the radical overhaul of US policy on Israel-Palestine and Trump Is Desperate for Miriam Adelson’s Cash. Her Condition: West Bank Annexation

President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L).
President Donald J. Trump, joined by White House senior staff members, delivers a statement announcing the agreement of full normalization of relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020, in the Oval Office of the White House (David Friedman, L). (photo)
U.S. Still Talking Up a Hostage Deal, but Privately Despair About Netanyahu

Ha’aretz reports:

The Biden administration continues to insist publicly that it is committed to negotiations on a hostage and cease-fire deal in Gaza Strip, but senior officials in the government are expressing despair and frustration about the state of the talks, especially after Israel’s security cabinet approved a resolution last week opposing withdrawal from the Philadelphi route in the context of an agreement.

The aim of the administration’s public messages, according to one of the officials, was to allow the talks to continue, in the hope that a breakthrough might occur nonetheless. “It has no real connection to reality,” he said.

President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and White House national security spokesman John Kirby repeat every few days that progress has been made in the talks, the gaps between Israel and Hamas can be bridged and an agreement is within reach, if both sides agree to compromise.

Behind the scenes, however, the administration is well aware that the talks have reached an impasse due to Netanyahu’s insistence on the issue of the Philadelphi route, and it seems that both the prime minister and Yahya Sinwar, the head of Hamas and the organization’s top official in Gaza, are refusing to take the necessary steps to reach a deal at this time. “We want this agreement more than they do,” the American official said.

HA’ARETZ ALSO REPORTS: A source inside the Netanyahu coalition who is closely involved in and a part of the government said, “Benjamin Netanyahu decided some weeks ago that he does not want a deal, and when it became possible, he got nervous and did all he could to torpedo it. He figured out that [he could use] the Philadelphi corridor” to stall the process.

“The media fell for this spin and is consumed all day long with the question of yes or no to the Philadelphi, when the real question is really the fate of the hostages versus the fate of the coalition,” the source added.

“Not one minister, including those who know that Netanyahu is sabotaging a deal, will do anything,” the source says. “They are bound to one another, their political survival depends on the government’s survival, and therefore this situation will continue. Netanyahu will pursue an endless war because that’s what is good for him.”

Netanyahu, centre, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv
Netanyahu, center, chairs a cabinet meeting at the Kirya, which houses the Israeli Ministry of Defense, in Tel Aviv (photo)
David Cameron sat on advice that there was breach of law in Gaza, officials say

The Guardian reports:

As far back as February, UK’s former foreign secretary David Cameron sat on advice that arms export licenses to Israel should be banned.

The recommendation was based on clear evidence that Israel was violating international humanitarian law in Gaza, for which the UK risked being complicit, a former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser said.

The source, who contributed to the drafting of the advice, was speaking after the Labour government banned 30 of about 350 arms export licenses due to a clear risk cited in a government memorandum published on Monday that they might be used in serious breaches of international humanitarian law.

“The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licenses had been stopped [in February and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade.”

NOTE: While the Biden administration has claimed often to be “working day and night” on a ceasefire, in reality, it has been working relentlessly to keep Israel armed – including through secret arms sales – to enable its genocidal war on the Palestinian people. American arms shipments to Israel since October 7th have surpassed 50,000 tons.

Most Americans are opposed to arms transfers to Israel.

RECOMMENDED READING: An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law

Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023
Then-Foreign Secretary David Cameron meets Antony Blinken, United States Secretary of State for a bilateral meeting and press conference at the US State Department in Washington D.C., December 2023 (photo)
Which countries have banned or restricted arms sales to Israel?


Britain is the latest country to shift its position on arms sales to Israel, which has been dependent on international weaponry for an 11-month assault on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people.

Here is how different countries have responded to Israel’s war:

Banned or restricted arms sales

Britain
Italy
Spain
Canada
Belgium
The Netherlands
No ban on arms sales

The US
Germany
Denmark
(For details on each country listed, go here.)




There Is No Argument For Supporting Israel That’s Both Logical And Moral

by Caitlyn Johnstone:

It’s wild when you realize that nobody can actually articulate a reason why Israel should be supported that is both logically coherent and morally defensible.

Westerners grow up being indoctrinated with the understanding that this tiny country in the middle east is super duper important and needs to be supported and defended at all cost, but if you examine the reasons given for why this is so as an adult, you find that none of them really hold water.

“Israel is the only place where Jews can be safe!”
“The Jews deserve a homeland!”
“Israel is the only liberal democracy in the middle east.”
“I support Israel’s existence but I oppose the mistreatment of Palestinians.”
“Israel is essential for protecting our interests in the region.”
(Read Caitlyn Johnstone’s rebuttal to each of these statements here.)

Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians remove whatever belongings they can salvage from the area as the devastation left by the Israeli army’s withdrawal comes to light in eastern Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 29, 2024. [Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Columbia U students will not be silenced on Palestine

Palestine Chronicle reports:

The students at Columbia University in New York City inaugurated their first day of the fall semester on Tuesday by staging pro-Palestine demonstrations.

This resulted in the arrest of two students by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) outside of Barnard gates, as reported by the Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine.

The group live-streamed on the social media platform X parts of the protests, stating that the NYPD officers were “extremely aggressive with students, shoving protestors against the barricades”.

The student group stressed that as long as their university remains complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza “there is no business as usual during a genocide.”

“We refuse to live in a world where the mass murder of Palestinians is normal, acceptable, and profitable. Columbia University is complicit in genocide. Their investments in weapons manufacturers & defense contractors, companies such as Lockheed Martin, are fueling the genocide,” the students said on X.

The students also posted photos and footage of the statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, soaked in red as a sign of their university’s financial support for Israel and repression of pro-Palestine voices amid genocide, per the group.

The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page)
The statue of Alma Mater, on the steps of Columbia’s library, was soaked in red as the protests resumed. (Photo: via NationalSJP TW Page) (photo)
MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Guardian: Australia’s security chief says person who likes tweet supporting 7 October attacks on Israel could fail visa security test

The Cradle: Amnesty blasts UK ‘gesture politics’ after suspension of less than 10 percent of arms export licenses to Israel

Caitlyn’s Newsletter: The West Truly Doesn’t See Palestinians As Human

Al Jazeera: Paralympics: Palestine’s Aldeeb sees himself as the voice of his people

+972 Magazine: ‘This is also America’s war’: Why the U.S. isn’t stopping Israel’s Gaza onslaught

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 3:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: at least 41,546* (40,861 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 685 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 3: at least 100,098 (including at least 94,398 in Gaza and 5,700 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 3, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Alison Weir trending on social media – what the buzz is about
Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide
Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers
I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal.
What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty
‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress
Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7
Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much?
Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel
An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-inflicted-palestinian-injuries-gaza-west-bank-surpass-100000-day-332/

Even GAZA KIDS as GATES’ Human GUINEA-PIGS! - VT Foreign Policy
September 1, 2024
VT Condemns the ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINIANS by USA/Israel

$ 280 BILLION US TAXPAYER DOLLARS INVESTED since 1948 in US/Israeli Ethnic Cleansing and Occupation Operation; $ 150B direct "aid" and $ 130B in "Offense" contracts
Source: Embassy of Israel, Washington, D.C. and US Department of State.

by Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio

VERSIONE IN ITALIANO

Subscribe to the Gospa News Newsletter to read the news as soon as it is published

Among the approximately 600,000 children displaced from their homes in the Gaza Strip (and now also from the West Bank after the new raids of attacks by the Israeli Army in violation of all international law as denounced by the UN) thousands of them have been ferociously injured by the consequences of the bombings that have also destroyed the hospitals where they could have been treated, and most of them are severely malnourished due to the criminal blockade of humanitarian aid imposed at the Rafah crossing by the Zionist regime of Benjamin Netanyahu (hit by an international arrest warrant for war crimes).

Infanticide Survivors must be Vaccinated but not Feeding

They are the survivors of the diabolical infanticide committed by Israel that has claimed well over 15,000 victims, now perhaps almost 20,000, leaving thousands orphaned by their parents or with amputated legs or arms.

In the midst of this satanic holocaust that makes Adolf Hitler look like an amateur, the main concern of the UN, increasingly a Non-Useful Organization, is not to impose a truce in any way to feed the children but to support Bill Gates’ global immunization project.

The children of Gaza can continue to die of hunger or booze but they will be able to do so by being vaccinated against polio, thus becoming guinea pigs for a project that will measure the impact of vaccinations on a population that is dying of malnutrition, as already happened in the war in Yemen where tens of thousands of children died of hunger.

“The United Nations has reached a provisional agreement with the parties to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for a humanitarian pause that would allow anti-polio vaccination in the Gaza Strip. This was told to journalists – reports Tass – by the representative of the WHO for the West Bank and Gaza, Richard Peeperkorn. “We have a preliminary commitment to specific humanitarian policies, during the vaccination campaign,” he said, “we call on all parties to suspend fighting to allow children and families to access health facilities safely.”

Mainstream newspapers emphatically report.

Truce for POLIO Vaccines Begins After Only One Confirmed Case

“The much-vaunted polio vaccination campaign will begin on Sunday (September 1, 2024 – ed.) in Gaza. This was announced in a note from the Israeli government, followed shortly thereafter by a confirmation statement from Hamas. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has calibrated the words, commas, and spaces in the statement to avoid invoking a “truce” and a “humanitarian pause.” The operations, this is the only indication from his security cabinet, will take place in “certain locations” in the Strip “assigned” to health personnel,” writes the Italian bishops’ newspaper Avvenire.

It is the first time in months that Hamas and Israel have reached an agreement that smells of respite. The last one dates back to the week between November 24 and December 1, 2023, when the parties agreed to release 110 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

The turning point, now, is due to polio, which, completely eradicated in Western countries in the 1980s, was detected in Gaza’s wastewater as early as June.


Abdul Rahman, 11 months old, whose left leg was partially paralyzed by type 2 of the virus
“The first confirmed case in Gaza in 25 years concerns Abdul Rahman, 11 months old, whose left leg was partially paralyzed by type 2 of the virus. The photo showing him in a tent in the al-Mawasi refugee camp, asleep in his car seat with an older girl fanning fresh air on his face, has gone around the world. His mother, Niveen Abu al-Jidyan, said: “He had not been vaccinated because of our constant travel. When we left the North he was only one month old”» adds the article.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that the poor hygiene conditions of the camps, the heat and malnutrition are putting the lives of 640,000 unimmunized children under 10 at risk.

ITALY & VATICAN ACCOMPLICES OF GAZA GENOCIDE (video). They Denounce the Horrific SIN, but not their Zionist Sinners Friends

It is truly curious to note that the UN is capable of mobilizing a massive vaccination campaign obtaining an exceptional diplomatic result AFTER A SINGLE CONFIRMED CASE OF POLIO while it was unable to do anything to protect its workers, killed by the hundreds by the Israeli army, and 15,000 children exterminated by bombs supplied by the West, the USA and also by Italy to the Zionist government of Tel Aviv.

UN Convoy Attacked by Israel: Humanitarian Activities in Gaza Interrupted

As the American and Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders rightly pointed out, it is not anti-Semitism to condemn the Zionists guilty of a genocide of children.

Zionists’ Kids-Genocide as Never in the Wars! Jew US Senator: “Is not Antisemitism to Point out the Racist Netanyahu Govt Killings’

But the rhetoric of the Western mainstream that has seen Zionism proliferate thanks to Freemasonry and the Rothschilds continues to cling to the condemnation of ideology without being capable of mercilessly condemning an international criminal like Netanyahu by cutting off not only his ammunition but also his financial business.

The EU sanctions on Israeli ministers are “unreal”. This was said by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Brussels, responding to the proposal of the EU High Representative Borrell against the politicians of the Zionist government who explicitly incited the depopulation of Gaza through bombings.

Final Countdown to Complete 1948’s Nakba. Israeli Govt admits the ZioNazi Genocide’s Goal: Depopulate Gaza Strip

As the vaccination campaign is about to begin, the UN itself is struggling more than ever.

The UN’s humanitarian aid operations in Gaza have been suspended in recent days, following Israel’s new order to evacuate Deir Al-Balah in the central part of the Strip.

A senior UN official said. “We are not able to work today in the conditions we are in,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “We are not going to leave Gaza because people need us there.” “We are trying to balance the needs of the population with the need for security and protection of UN personnel,” he added.

FREEMASONRY & ZIONISM – 1. Apocalyptic “Cataclysms” by Synagogue of Satan: Genocides in Palestine & Plotted Pandemic for Lethal Vaccines.

Since the war between Israel and Hamas began in October, the UN has had to “delay or pause” its operations at times, “but never to the point of actually announcing that it can no longer do anything,” as is happening now, the official added.

The Israel Defense Forces carried out an airstrike on a humanitarian aid convoy in Gaza, aiming to target “armed assailants” trying to hijack it, but the charity that organized the aid said those killed in the attack were employees of the transport company it was working with. The convoy, organized by the US-based NGO Anera, was carrying medical supplies and fuel to an Emirati-run hospital in Rafah on Thursday evening.

Its route had been coordinated in advance with the IDF. Preliminary reports say five people were killed in the attack. The airstrike on the convoy came hours after Israeli soldiers opened fire on a World Food Programme (WFP) vehicle, clearly marked with United Nations insignia.

13 Countries Join South Africa’s Case Against Israel on Genocide In Gaza

Why did they find the path clear in the vaccination campaign?

Simple because it is part of a global project launched by the usual Gates in 2023 that follows the one presented in Italy with the Rockefeller Foundation in 1999 from which the pilot project of the highly contested 10 mandatory vaccinations in school age in Italy was born.

The Global Vaccination Project by UNICEF and Gates

«The World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, along with Immunization Agenda 2030 and many other global and national health partners, are today joining forces to call for “The Big Catch-up”, a targeted global effort to boost vaccination among children following declines driven by the COVID-19 pandemic» reports the UNICEF website in a statement dated 24 April 2023.

WUHAN-GATES – 62. MANMADE SARS-Cov-2 FOR GOLDEN VACCINES: Metabiota, CIA, Biden, Gates, Rockefeller intrigued in Ukraine, China and Italy

«With over 25 million children missing at least one vaccination in 2021 alone, outbreaks of preventable diseases, including measles, diphtheria, polio and yellow fever are already becoming more prevalent and severe. The Big Catch-up aims to protect populations from vaccine-preventable outbreaks, save children’s lives and strengthen national health systems».

While calling on people and governments in every country to play their part in helping to catch up by reaching the children who missed out, The Big Catch-up will have a particular focus on the 20 countries where three quarters of the children who missed vaccinations in 2021 live: Afghanistan, Angola, Brazil, Cameroon, Chad, DPRK, DRC, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Madagascar, Mexico, Mozambique, Myanmar, Tanzania, Viet Nam.

“Vaccinated at Higher Risk for Covid Infection and Hospitalization”. Vital, Heavy Study by Estonian University of Tartu

The genocide in the Holy Land now allows the plan to be extended to Palestine. The meaning of the UN action is clear: in Gaza, children can die of bombs and hunger every day, as long as they die vaccinated as Gates wants.

Just like the mRNA Covid genetic serums, however, anti-polio vaccines can also have serious adverse reactions.

In India, a confirmed case of Polio triggered by vaccines

WHOLE ARTICLE CONTINUES HERE

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Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio
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Fabio G. C. Carisio
Fabio is investigative journalist since 1991. Now geopolitics, intelligence, military, SARS-Cov-2 manmade, NWO expert and Director-founder of Gospa News: a Christian Information Journal.

His articles were published on many international media and website as SouthFront, Reseau International, Sputnik Italia, United Nation Association Westminster, Global Research, Kolozeg and more…

Most popolar investigation on VT is:

Rumsfeld Shady Heritage in Pandemic: GILEAD’s Intrigues with WHO & Wuhan Lab. Bio-Weapons’ Tests with CIA & Pentagon

Fabio Giuseppe Carlo Carisio, born on 24/2/1967 in Borgosesia, started working as a reporter when he was only 19 years old in the alpine area of Valsesia, Piedmont, his birth region in Italy. After studying literature and history at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, he became director of the local newspaper Notizia Oggi Vercelli and specialized in judicial reporting.

For about 15 years he is a correspondent from Northern Italy for the Italian newspapers Libero and Il Giornale, also writing important revelations on the Ustica massacre, a report on Freemasonry and organized crime.

With independent investigations, he collaborates with Carabinieri and Guardia di Finanza in important investigations that conclude with the arrest of Camorra entrepreneurs or corrupt politicians.

In July 2018 he found the counter-information web media Gospa News focused on geopolitics, terrorism, Middle East, and military intelligence.

In 2020 published the book, in Italian only, WUHAN-GATES – The New World Order Plot on SARS-Cov-2 manmade focused on the cycle of investigations Wuhan-Gates

His investigations was quoted also by The Gateway Pundit, Tasnim and others

He worked for many years for the magazine Art & Wine as an art critic and curator.

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https://www.vtforeignpolicy.com/2024/09/even-gaza-kids-as-gates-guinea-pigs-un-truce-for-vaccines-not-for-delivering-food-and-stopping-bombs/

Gazans flee (again) as Israel, Hezbollah conflict heats up – Day 323
[email protected] August 26, 2024 ben gvir, child malnutrition, evacuation gaza, Hezbollah, polio vaccine, torture, west bank deaths
Palestinians flee Israeli bombing in Gaza (Photo credit: Amnesty International) (photo)
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Chaotic scenes as central Gaza residents evacuate after Israeli orders

Al Jazeera reports:

Palestinians have shared videos on Instagram documenting the displacement of residents from Deir el-Balah after Israeli evacuation orders.

The videos show residents carrying their belongings with some even transporting mattresses on their backs as they navigate crowded roads.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order in an area of eastern Deir el-Balah amid an expanding ground offensive.

The latest attacks between Israel and Hezbollah

Al Jazeera reports:

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged attacks across the Lebanon-Israel border in a marked escalation of the tit-for-tat engagement they have been undertaking since October 7.

Israeli jets attacked southern Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday morning, saying it was a preemptive strike against Hezbollah rocket launchers that were preparing to attack Israel……

Global fears of an all-out regional conflict multiplied after the assassination last month of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and of Shukr in Beirut, both blamed on Israel.

Here’s everything you need to know about what happened on Sunday morning… (Read the full article here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: Netanyahu says attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon ‘not the end of the story and Five key takeaways from Nasrallah’s speech after Hezbollah-Israel attacks

Report: US aided Israel with intelligence in attack on Hezbollah

Middle East Monitor reports:

The US provided intelligence assistance to Israel for its “pre-emptive strike” against Hezbollah, the Israeli state-run broadcasting authority reported on Sunday, citing an American official.

The official, who was not named, said that Washington “provided intelligence assistance to Israel in the (Sunday) pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon,” without providing further details.

As of yet, there has been no official response from Israel regarding the American official’s statement. However, the White House previously stated that President Joe Biden “is closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.”

Israel claimed to have launched preemptive strikes on southern Lebanon after detecting plans of an attack targeting Israeli soil. Hezbollah said it fired at least 340 rockets into Israel.
Israel claimed to have launched preemptive strikes on southern Lebanon after detecting plans of an attack targeting Israeli soil. Hezbollah said it fired at least 340 rockets into Israel. (photo)
WHO says nearly 15,000 Gaza children are acutely malnourished

The New Arab reports:

Nearly 15,000 children in Gaza have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition since early this year, according to the United Nations.

The UN humanitarian office OCHA has said that 239,580 children were checked since mid-January, leading to 14,750 diagnoses of malnutrition affecting children aged between six months to just under five years, including 3,288 cases of severe acute malnutrition.

Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said that a quarter of these cases “were classified as malnutrition with complications”.

“The influx of cases with complications means that this is the stage – God forbid – that comes before death.”

Kamal Adwan Hospital is located in northern Gaza and has a malnutrition treatment center supported by WHO.

Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
First shipment of polio vaccine arrives in Gaza as disease resurfaces after 25 years


The National reports:

Unicef says aim is for 640,000 children to be vaccinated in the Palestinian enclave amid a high risk of the disease spreading

Gaza has received the first batch of polio vaccines needed for a mass immunisation drive among children, following its first confirmed case in a quarter of a century.

About 1.3 million doses were delivered to the Palestinian enclave by UN children’s fund Unicef through the Karam Abu Salem border crossing after the disease left a 10-month-old child paralysed, the Health Ministry said on Sunday evening. There are two other suspected cases.

Polio was eradicated from Palestine 25 years ago but returned amid a complete breakdown of sanitary infrastructure in Gaza. Its spread was exacerbated by overcrowding in Al Mawasi’s “humanitarian zone” where the population density is at least 30,000 people a square kilometre, with most living in tents….

The arrival of the vaccines – a rare piece of positive news in Gaza, where more than 40,400 people have been killed – comes as patients flee Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir Al Balah, putting even more strain on what remains of Gaza’s healthcare system.

The area surrounding the hospital has been declared a military zone, the Health Ministry announced on Sunday night, “causing panic” and prompting many to flee the hospital, currently home to 100 patients, including seven in intensive care. The medical centre currently remains open to patients, the ministry added, calling for the site to be protected.

Deir Al Balah is in central Gaza, currently the focus of intense Israeli air strikes and shelling along with the southern city of Khan Younis.

A worker unloads a shipment of polio vaccines provided with support from UNICEF to the Gaza Strip through the Karm Abu Salem crossing, also known as Kerem Shalom, at a depot belonging to Gaza’s health ministry on August 25, 2024 [EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images]
A worker unloads a shipment of polio vaccines provided with support from UNICEF to the Gaza Strip through the Karm Abu Salem crossing, also known as Kerem Shalom, at a depot belonging to Gaza’s health ministry on August 25, 2024 [EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images] (photo)
Israel’s military tortured Palestinian healthcare workers, HRW says

Middle East Eye reports:

In its latest report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that Israel has arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers since the war on Gaza began on 7 October, deported them to detention facilities in Israel, and allegedly tortured and ill-treated them.

“The detention of healthcare workers in the context of the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on hospitals in Gaza has contributed to the catastrophic degradation of the besieged territory’s healthcare system,” the report reads.

Released doctors, nurses and paramedics told the organisation of their mistreatment, which included “humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care”.

“They also reported torture, including rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces, denial of medical care, and poor detention conditions for the general detainee population.”

Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said that “the torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC)”.

Palestinian youth succumbs to injuries sustained from Israeli gunfire near Jenin

WAFA reports:

JENIN, Sunday, August 25, 2024 (WAFA) – A young Palestinian man, identified as Ahmad Mohammad Khalil Al-Anteer, 18, succumbed this morning to injuries sustained from Israeli occupation forces’ gunfire near the Jalameh military checkpoint, north of Jenin.

Local sources reported that Israeli forces had opened fire earlier today on three young men who were in a vehicle near the checkpoint.

The sources added that the Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the scene and detained the three individuals from the vehicle.

Later, Palestinian security sources confirmed that one of the three young men had died from his injuries, while the condition of the other two remains unclear.

With this latest murder in Jenin, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7 has risen to 644, including 147 children.

Shot Palestinian Youth, Used by Israel as Human Shield, Dies of Injuries in Israeli Custody

Palestine Chronicle reports:

Zahir Tahseen Raddad, 19, from the town of Saida, north of Tulkarm, died on Sunday morning, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a joint statement.

Raddad had sustained serious injuries on July 23, following a siege by Israeli forces on the house in the Azbat al-Jarad neighborhood east of Tulkarm.

An Israeli drone reportedly targeted the house, and Raddad was arrested along with three other young men, one of whom had moderate injuries.

The prisoner organizations confirmed Raddad’s death at the Israeli Meir Hospital.

Raddad was shot by Israeli forces and used as a human shield after he was placed on the front of an Israeli military vehicle, as documented in video footage of the military operation in Tulkarm, the organizations said.

The statement further said that Raddad had been held in hospital under critical and unstable health conditions, reliant on artificial respiration after undergoing several surgeries.

Despite his grave condition, the Israeli authorities continued his detention until his death, which amounts to medical neglect.

RECOMMENDED READING: Israel is torturing, abducting, and using children as human shields in Gaza – analysis

Israeli forces kill Two in occupied West Bank

IMEMC reports:

On Sunday evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of two Palestinians who were shot after Israeli soldiers opened fire at their car near the northern entrance of Salfit, in the central West Bank, and prevented Palestinian medics from approaching them.

The two were kidnapped by a paramilitary Israeli colonizer and managed to escape before the soldiers killed them when they accidentally entered Ariel illegal colony.

The Health Ministry said the soldiers killed Odai Nizar Nimir Abu Na’sa (Troush), 27, and Mos’ab Hassan Ali Moqasqas, 17, before taking their corpses to an unknown location.

The Israeli army claimed the two Palestinians drove a car into oncoming traffic, hitting vehicles while trying to ram into a military post.

Israeli National News claimed that the vehicle driven by the two Palestinians collided with other cars “and attempted to ram soldiers operating in the area, lightly wounding one,” before the soldiers “eliminated the two.”

It added that one soldier was mildly injured before he was taken to a medical center to receive medical treatment.

Ben-Gvir’s call to build synagogue at Al-Aqsa ‘to drag region into religious war’: Palestine

Andalou Agency reports:

Palestine denounced a call by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday to build a synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem as an attempt to drag the region into a “religious war.”

“The Palestinian people will not accept any harm to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a red line that cannot be crossed under any circumstances,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

“These calls to alter the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque are attempts to drag the region into a religious war that will burn all,” he added.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry warned of grave consequences from Ben-Gvir’s call to build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

“This is an explicit and public call to demolish Al-Aqsa and build the alleged temple in its place,” a ministry statement said.

Ben-Gvir claimed Monday that Jews have the right to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying that he would build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

It was the first time for the Israeli minister to openly speak about building a synagogue inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (2nd L) forces his way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex under police protection in East Jerusalem on 18 July 2024 [Stringer/Anadolu Agency]
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (2nd L) forces his way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex under police protection in East Jerusalem on 18 July 2024 [Stringer/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Israel’s new police chief, a Ben-Gvir appointee, ‘brings a Zionist and Jewish agenda’

Ha’aretz reports:

The government approved the appointment of Danny Levy as the new Israel Police Commissioner on Sunday at the request of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Levy “brings a Zionist and Jewish agenda and will lead the police according to the policy I have laid out for him,” Ben-Gvir said, following his approval.

At the appointment ceremony for Levy in Jerusalem, the incoming police commissioner stated, “We will strengthen governance and fight anyone who tries to undermine authority.” He added that “governance and sovereignty are the cornerstones of a well-functioning society.”

Ben-Gvir echoed this, saying, “We are the lord of this lands – it’s time for us to take control.”

The incoming police commissioner, closely linked with the far-right national security minister, saw rising crime and murder during his brief stint as Coastal District commander and led a harsh crackdown on anti-government and anti-war protesters.

A RECENT HA’ARETZ EDITORIAL ADDS: “Itamar Ben-Gvir supports Jewish terrorists. As national security minister, he uses the power, authority and resources that are at his disposal to protect them.

“Make no mistake: The Jewish terrorists are the military wing of the organization to which Ben-Gvir belongs and whose interests he represents as a cabinet minister. Ben-Gvir serves in the government, but he remains loyal to a bigger idea. And in a choice between his loyalty to the state and his loyalty to a Kahanist Greater Land of Israel, he will choose the latter.”



US to keep two aircraft carrier strike groups in Middle East: Pentagon

Al Jazeera reports:

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the presence of two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the Pentagon says as it strengthens the US military presence amid soaring regional tensions.

The announcement, made in a summary of a call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart, represents a shift. The Pentagon had initially deployed the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group into the region with a plan to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group.

MORE NEWS:


IMEMC Daily Reports.

Common Dreams: Rashida Tlaib Says She Is ‘Ashamed of Our Country Looking Away’ as Gaza Faces Polio Crisis

Palestine Chronicle: Subsidizing Racism – end tax breaks for “charities” pushing genocide, to save kids

Middle East Eye: Gaza family accuses Israel of killing Palestinian with Down syndrome during incursion


STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 25:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 25, 2024: at least 41,079* (40,435 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 644 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 25: at least 98,954 (including at least 93,534 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 25, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Israeli media’s coverage of the rape of Palestinian detainees shows support for sexual violence in service of genocide
Inside Israel’s torture, rape, and dehumanization centers
I’m a pediatrician. The scars I saw on Gaza’s children will take generations to heal.
What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty
‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress
Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7
Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much?
Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel
An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?

https://israelpalestinenews.org/gazans-flee-again-israel-hezbollah-conflict-heats-up-day-323/

Democratic Party’s total disregard for Palestinian lives – Day 320
[email protected] August 23, 2024 creeping annexation, deir al balah, DNC, gaza evacuation, gaza polio, kamala harris, Noa Argamani, tulkarem
DNC attendees cover their ears as the names of dead Palestinian children are read as they leave the convention (photo)
Compilation of news reports by IAK staff

DNC acceptance speech: what did Kamala say about Gaza?

Responsible Statecraft reports: This week’s protests, which saw thousands of antiwar demonstrators take to the streets (lined with scores of Chicago police) in and around the United Center pose a critical question to the Harris/Waltz ticket: Can they bridge the yawning gulf that divides the street and the establishment on the matter of Israel’s war on Palestine?

The answer is, probably not.

On Thursday night during her own showcase speech in which she formally accepted her party’s nomination, Harris appeared full-throated in favor of ending the war in Gaza. Here are her full (brief) remarks on the issue:

With respect to the war in Gaza, President Biden and I are working around the clock, because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done. …. And let me be clear: I will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself, and I will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself, because the people of Israel must never again face the war that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused on October 7, including unspeakable sexual violence* and the massacre of young people at a music festival.**

At the same time, what has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating so many innocent lives lost, desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, over and over again, the scale of suffering is heartbreaking. President Biden and I are working to end this war, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self determination.

*While Israel has made allegations of “systematic sexual violence” against Hamas on October 7th, it has yet to provide forensic evidence or witnesses. The allegations persist apparently because American mainstream media continue to ignore the facts, though numerous websites have reported about the deficiencies in the coverage.

**A number of the Israeli soldiers and civilians killed on October 7 were shown to have been killed by Israeli fire – a fact that is absent from the official Israeli narrative and Western mainstream media.

As antiwar activist and author Norman Solomon has noted, Harris “has toed President Biden’s war line, while at times voicing sympathy for the victims of the Gaza war that’s made possible by policies that she supports. Her words of compassion have yet to translate into opposing the pipeline of weapons and ammunition to the Israeli military as it keeps slaughtering Palestinian civilians.”






Supporters of Joe Biden use signs to cover up a “Stop Arming Israel” banner at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. Photo: Joe Lamberti for The Washington Post via Getty Images
Supporters of Joe Biden use signs to cover up a “Stop Arming Israel” banner at the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. Photo: Joe Lamberti for The Washington Post via Getty Images (photo)
Israeli army announces new evacuation order in south

Al Jazeera reports:

The Israeli spokesperson for Arabic language media has announced a new evacuation order for the Gaza Strip.

Residents were warned to evacuate several areas in Khan Younis governorate in southern Gaza, including Bani Suheila, Sheikh Nasser, Barbakh and as-Satr al-Gharbi, Avichay Adraee posted on X.

The order comes after thousands of Palestinians fled parts of Deir el-Balah as the Israeli military issued an evacuation order and its forces advanced deeper into the overcrowded central Gaza city.

The Israeli military has targeted areas it had designated as safe zones on several occasions previously, killing Palestinians taking refuge there.


Gaza polio patient paralyzed, UN to begin vaccination soon

Middle East Eye reports:

The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa) says that it will begin vaccinating Gaza’s children for polio at the end of the month.

The news comes after the besieged enclave recorded its first case of polio last week, and as the WHO confirmed that a a 10-month-old baby was now paralyzed due to the disease.

“It is not enough to bring the vaccines into Gaza [and] protect the cold chain,” Phillippe Lazzarrini, commissioner general of Unrwa, said on X. “To have an impact, the vaccines must end up in the mouths of every child under the age of 10.”

Gaza’s Health Ministry has said that a vaccination campaign alone will not prevent the spread of polio “in the absence of clean water, personal hygiene supplies, the spread of sewage among the tents of the displaced, and the absence of a healthy environment.”

It is not clear whether Israel has allowed WHO polio vaccines to enter Gaza.

The polio virus has been detected in Gaza's sewage, which flows through areas with displaced persons and residential zones due to infrastructure destruction, and “represents a new health crisis.”
The polio virus has been detected in Gaza’s sewage, which flows through areas with displaced persons and residential zones due to infrastructure destruction, and “represents a new health crisis.” (photo)
MSF says Israel’s new evacuation orders are ‘inhumane’

From Doctors Without Borders:

Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, said its staff are among the thousands of people who are having to flee central Gaza after Israel’s military issued new evacuation orders for Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis.

“The continuous forced displacement of people is inhumane,” MSF project coordinator Jacob Granger said in a statement.

“People have no belongings left, nowhere left to go. There is no room to put tents up. The overcrowding, severe lack of water, and minimal sanitation services are fuelling the spread of diseases. We are unable to keep up with the overwhelming needs.”



Israeli army invades ‘most crowded displacement camp in history,’ bombs Palestinians in shelters

Mondoweiss reports:

In a press release last Sunday, the Deir al-Balah municipality said that the waves of evacuation reaching Deir al-Balah were causing an unprecedented number of displaced people to cram into a tiny zone. According to the statement, Deir al-Balah’s total area is 42 square kilometers, and almost a million displaced people are now distributed across 200 displacement centers there.

“This makes Deir al-Balah the most crowded displacement camp in history,” the municipality said.

On Tuesday, the Israeli army bombed the local market in Deir al-Balah, killing 9 civilians. Several hours later, the army bombarded a school in Gaza City sheltering 700 people, killing 10 people, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.

Civil Defense teams were forced to cut up a martyr’s body to pull him out of the rubble, which had been stuck under three collapsed ceilings inside the school. Survivors say that it was one of the most horrific scenes they have witnessed since the start of the war.

(Read the full article here.)

Palestinians living in the area flee to the Al Mawasi district, the west part of the city with their belongings following the Israeli army’s evacuation warning at Hamad area in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 11, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians living in the area flee to the Al Mawasi district, the west part of the city with their belongings following the Israeli army’s evacuation warning at Hamad area in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 11, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Netanyahu’s goal is ‘creeping occupation’ of Gaza: Ha’aretz

From Ha’aretz:

Ha’aretz writer Aluf Benn said in an editorial that the Israeli prime minister is “torpedoing” ceasefire negotiations because he ultimately wants a “prolonged occupation of the Gaza Strip”.

“Caravan after caravan, outpost after outpost” Netanyahu is planning a “creeping occupation” of Gaza, Benn said, adding that the Israeli prime minister’s recent insistence on maintaining Israeli control of “defense and strategic assets”, such as the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors illustrates his intentions.

The editorial came as the families of Israeli captives held in Gaza criticized Netanyahu’s handling of the truce talks, saying the “full and direct responsibility for the fate of the negotiations is on the prime minister”.

POTUS tweet, October 18, 2023 "I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the situation on the ground, security assistance and humanitarian needs, and information on unaccounted Americans. I asked tough questions as a friend of Israel. We will continue to deter any actor wanting to widen this conflict."
POTUS tweet, October 18, 2023 “I spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu regarding the situation on the ground, security assistance and humanitarian needs, and information on unaccounted Americans. I asked tough questions as a friend of Israel. We will continue to deter any actor wanting to widen this conflict.” (photo)
West Bank: Three Palestinians killed in Israeli strike on Tulkarem camp

Al Jazeera reports:

Three Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli air attack on a house in the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health says.

The aerial attack today came as the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said fighters from its Tulkarem Battalion clashed with Israeli soldiers in the camp and detonated explosive devices targeting military vehicles.

Reporting from Tulkarem, Al Jazeera’s Nida Ibrahim said on Thursday that the raid was ongoing 12 hours later in the congested area, with sounds of explosives and gunfire heard and drones flying above.



Jewish terror is jeopardizing Israel’s existence: Shin Bet chief

Middle East Eye reports:

In a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, government ministers and the attorney general, Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet security service, warned that Jewish terrorism was endangering Israel’s existence.

Bar says that those he calls Jewish terrorists “want to cause the system to lose control, causing indescribable damage to Israel”.

He also said that police incompetence and “perhaps a sense of hidden support” is increasing.

(Read the full article here.)

A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on August 17, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]
A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on August 17, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
‘They Did Not Hit Me’ – Former Prisoner Argamani Challenges Israeli Media over Distorted Claims

Palestine Chronicle reports:

Former Israeli prisoner Noa Argamani has accused the Israeli media of taking her statements out of context and denied claims that she was beaten by members of the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Through her Instagram page, Argamani clarified that the Qassam Brigades did not harm her physically or cut her hair, but she sustained injuries when a wall collapsed during an Israeli airstrike.

“I cannot stay silent about what the Israeli media has done to me over the past 24 hours, taking my words out of context,” she stated, adding: “I am a victim of the October 7 operation, and I refuse to be victimized again by the Israeli media.”

Argamani explained that Al-Qassam members “did not hit me while I was in captivity, nor did they cut my hair.”

“I was injured by the collapse of a wall caused by an Israeli airstrike,” she highlighted.

In June, the Israeli military announced that Argamani and three other Israeli prisoners were rescued during a military operation in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, which resulted in the killing and injuring of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

Since her return, Argamani has expressed frustration over the distortion of her accounts, particularly concerning her treatment while in Gaza.

(Read the full article here.)

NOTE: In reality, many of the released Israeli captives have been in good health. They described their fear of being bombed by Israel, but did not report torture or rape (for which at least one was harassed). In the case of Noa Argamni, reportedly the worst complaints she had of her captors was that she “had to cook and wash dishes for the family,” and was not able to shower often. She was able to walk outside, but “was forced to dress like a Palestinian woman.”



Released Gaza captive declines Netanyahu ‘PR’ meeting

Al Jazeera reports:

Margalit Moses, a 77-year-old Israeli who was freed from captivity in Gaza in November, has declined Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s invitation to meet him today, saying she believes it would be a publicity stunt.

“Thank you for the invitation, but I will not take part in the meeting for photography and public relations purposes while my friends are languishing in the Hamas tunnels in Gaza,” she wrote in a public statement.

“In light of the reports of another [hostage-ceasefire] deal being thwarted on your part to release the abductees, I see no reason to come to a meeting with someone who proves by his actions that releasing the hostages is not top of mind and abandons them to their deaths,” she added.

Moses was abducted from Kibbutz Nir Oz along with her ex-husband Gadi Moshe Moses during the Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7. Gadi remains in captivity in Gaza.

War will continue, even with a deal: Israeli official

From Times of Israel:

An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that a ceasefire deal would not mean the end of the war in Gaza.

“So long as Hamas doesn’t agree to a deal, we will continue fighting,” the official was quoted as saying. “Even if they do, the war will continue. Of course, if there is a deal, there will be a lull in the fighting in the first stage. But we will continue fighting until we achieve all of our war aims.”

The insistence on the war continuing echoes the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has himself insisted that any ceasefire deal still allow the Israelis to continue to attack Gaza, despite the US insistence that a deal would lead to an end to the war.

Hamas has repeatedly stated that any deal to secure the release of captives held in Gaza lead to a lasting ceasefire and the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the enclave.


MORE NEWS:


IMEMC Daily Reports.

Electronic Intifada: “The sniper was shooting him for fun”

The Cradle: Israel’s cenbank chief urges PM to make ‘permanent’ budget changes as economy spirals

Common Dreams: If You’re Looking for Democracy in Chicago, You’ll Find It in the Streets

Al Jazeera: Germans protest at hearing on legality of phrase “from the river to the sea”



STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 22:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 22, 2024: at least 40,859* (40,265 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]
This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 637 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.
Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 22: at least 98,401 (including at least 93,144 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 22, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
What Harris’s Jewish outreach director said at a private DNC afterparty
‘Strong record of supporting the U.S.-Israel relationship’: a look at Tim Walz’s votes on Palestine as a member of Congress
Nearly Two-Thirds of All Campaign Funds for Cori Bush Challenger Came From AIPAC
Israeli army probe covered up “friendly fire” killings on October 7
Are US officials’ investments of public funds in Israeli bonds ethical? How much is too much?
Honoring the memory of a Gazan Olympic hero: Majed Abu Maraheel
An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war

https://israelpalestinenews.org/democratic-partys-total-disregard-for-palestinian-lives-day-320/

Gaza records first polio case in 25 years – Day 314
[email protected] August 17, 2024 arms embargo, ceasefire, DNC, freedom flotilla, from the river to the sea, humanitarian aid, icc arrest warrant, Jayson Gillham, Mark Smith FCDO, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, pogrom, polio, safe zone, UC Irvine, uncommitted movement
Smoke rises from the Hamad area following an Israeli attack, which came immediately after Israel issued an evacuation warning to the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on August 16, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Polio epidemic begins; new flyers about Gaza to distribute; just 11 percent of Gaza for Gazans; Israeli settlers carry out pogrom in Palestinian town of Jit; Gaza Freedom Flotilla drawing near – will it break Israel’s blockade?; Israeli leaders mull how to dodge ICC arrest warrants; German courts grapple with the meaning of “from the river to the sea”; awaiting UC-Irvine’s fall policy on Palestine protest; Dems want ceasefire and arms embargo, but will Kamala listen?; senior UK diplomat resigns over Gaza; Australia’s classical music scene scuffle over Gaza; “Blue Vote Red Line” movement continues to gather signatures; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Gaza records first polio case as UN calls for truce to tackle virus

Al Jazeera reports: The Health Ministry in Gaza has said that it detected the first polio case in the besieged enclave, hours after United Nations officials called for a pause in the fighting to enable a vaccination campaign for children against the virus.

In a statement on Friday, the Health Ministry blamed the “difficult” conditions in Gaza – including the spread of sewage water in the streets, shortages of medical supplies and lack of personal hygiene products due to the Israeli blockade – for the emergence of the virus in the territory.

Hours earlier, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had called for humanitarian pauses in the war in Gaza to conduct a polio vaccine campaign.

“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” he told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

Guterres appealed for assurances of humanitarian pauses to be provided immediately from the warring parties as he warned that preventing and containing the spread of polio in Gaza would take a massive coordinated and urgent effort.

“Let’s be clear: The ultimate vaccine for polio is peace and an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” Guterres said. “But in any case, a polio pause is a must.”

(Read the full article here.)

Details of the proposed vaccination campaign are here.

After Israel destroyed Gaza's water and sewage systems, filthy water runs or stands stagnant all over the enclave, carrying polio and other diseases.
After Israel destroyed Gaza’s water and sewage systems, filthy water runs or stands stagnant all over the enclave, carrying polio and other diseases. (collage)
New fact sheets about Gaza to be distributed in Chicago and around the country

If Americans knew has produced two new flyers printed front and back with facts about Gaza for educating Americans.

These will be available in Chicago at the demonstrations at the Democratic National Convention for everyone to distribute widely. To obtain these, email [email protected]. Below is one of the flyers:


Front and back sides of one of the new factsheets about Gaza. (IAK)
Latest evacuation order leaves just 11 percent of Gaza for Gazans; food kitchens in crisis

OCHA reports: The Israeli military issued an order on 16 August that affects six blocs in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, including two within the Israeli-designated zone in Al Mawasi in western Khan Younis.

This is one of the largest evacuation orders affecting the zone to date, and it shrinks the size of the so-called “humanitarian area” to about 41 square kilometers, or 11 per cent of the total area of the Gaza Strip.

Initial mapping indicates that this order affects 122 internally displaced persons sites, makeshift shelters, and collective centers that are collectively hosting over 170,000 people.

There is an urgent need for increased hot meal capacity in Gaza due to recurrent waves of displacement, the World Food Programme (WFP) reported on 12 August. Many community kitchens in central and southern Gaza struggle due to unstable supplies of humanitarian cargo and the lack of food and fuel.

The situation has worsened since 22 July following the issuance of multiple evacuation orders in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, which forced the relocation of four kitchens and the closure of 19 food delivery points.

Moreover, in Deir al Balah, about 1,400 metric tons of food stocks in one of the warehouses became inaccessible and only one WFP warehouse with about 3,000 metric tons of commodities is currently accessible but is insufficient to meet the August cycle requirements.

In July, 70 community kitchens in Gaza supported by WFP provided around 11.5 million hot meals to more than 200,000 people, the majority in central Gaza.

Of the total food cargo entering through Kerem Shalom Crossing in July, only eight per cent was humanitarian aid and the rest were commercial trucks. There was reportedly a slight improvement in food availability and diversity in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, but a deterioration in other governorates, and persistent challenges to market functionality including high food prices, lack of liquidity and the emergence of “thieves markets.”



Israeli settlers rampage across Palestinian town in latest West Bank pogrom

The Cradle reports: More than 70 armed Jewish settlers invaded the Palestinian town of Jit in the occupied West Bank on 15 August, firing bullets and tear gas at residents and setting several homes and cars and other property on fire, CNN reported.

Settlers killed 23-year-old Rashid Sedda during the pogrom. The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Health confirmed the 23-year-old Palestinian died due to a gunshot wound to the chest.

“We have attacks but nothing to this level,” the head of Jit’s village council, Nasser Sedda, told CNN. “We haven’t seen anything like this before, and without a prior warning. They caught the people off guard – women, children, and elders were there.”

“Dozens of Israeli civilians, some of them masked, entered the town of Jit and set fire to vehicles and structures in the area, hurled rocks and Molotov cocktails,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Haaretz reported that the only person arrested after the settler raid on the village of Jit was suspected of interfering with a policeman and was released. No arrests have yet been made for those involved in the pogrom.


New film from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition:



And as this IAK video reported eight years ago, Israeli blockades of Gaza began years before Hamas came to power:



Gaza Freedom Flotilla: Activists prepare to defy Israel naval blockade of Gaza

Reuters reports: Peace activists from several countries are setting out on a converted trawler to defy an Israeli blockade and deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“The purpose of this mission is to send a message that civil society is not OK with what’s happening in Gaza,” said Fellipe Lopes, the Portuguese media coordinator of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition on board the ship, “Handala” during a stopover in Malta.

It will be a trip fraught with danger. Another coalition ship on a similar mission to Gaza in 2010 was stopped and boarded by Israeli troops, and nine activists died. Other ships were similarly stopped and boarded, without loss of life.

“We expect to encounter resistance throughout our mission,” said Australian activist, Michael Coleman.

“Ours is not an illegal activity in any shape or form. The International Court of Justice has asked them to grant unfettered access to aid into Gaza and I implore them to let us and other aids through immediately,” he said.

The “Handala” was visited in Malta by 78-year-old retired US Army Colonel and diplomat, Ann Wright, who was on board another coalition ship boarded by Israeli troops in 2010, in the incident in which nine activists died.

“These people are very brave, because we don’t know what’s going to happen. If the Israelis stop them, we know it’ll be brutal,” Wright said.

The brightly colored “Handala” carries activists from Italy, France, Norway, Australia, the Netherlands, Syria and a number of Palestinians. It has made several port calls around Scandinavia and the Mediterranean to raise awareness about the situation in Gaza.

Its hull carries slogans reading: “Free Palestine”, “Gaza you are not alone” and “Stop the Genocide”, while its humanitarian aid cargo consists mostly of medicines.

The trip along the Eastern Mediterranean to Gaza will take a week but organizers said they might stop over in another harbor on the way.

NOTE: The flotilla movement was begun by activists Greta Berlin, Paul Larudee and associates.

The ship named Handala, belonging to the Freedom Flotilla (Ship to Gaza), which set sail from the capital of Norway, Oslo, on May 1st with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza arrives in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 25 May, 2024 [ Abdullah Asiran/Anadolu via Getty Images]
The ship named Handala, belonging to the Freedom Flotilla (Ship to Gaza), which set sail from the capital of Norway, Oslo, on May 1st with the aim of delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza arrives in Rotterdam, Netherlands on 25 May, 2024 [ Abdullah Asiran/Anadolu via Getty Images] (photo)
Israeli leaders strategize about how to dodge ICC arrest warrants

Andalou Agency reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant met with other officials Thursday to discuss efforts by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to issue arrest warrants against them.

“The Attorney General reiterated her position regarding the establishment of a State Commission of Inquiry to examine the humanitarian situation in Gaza even though, according to the view of the Attorney General herself, there is no certainty that establishing this commission would lead to the cancellation of the request to issue the warrants,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement.



‘From the river to the sea’: six words that are testing freedom of speech in Germany

The Guardian reports: Is it legal to say the words “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” in Germany? The answer appears to be yes: you can shout them from the rooftops in German, English, Arabic or Hebrew, so long as a court accepts that you are not doing so to indicate support for Hamas or its murderous assault of 7 October.

This distinction came to bear on the activist Ava Moayeri last week, when she was convicted of “condoning a crime” for leading a chant of the slogan at a Berlin rally on 11 October. If the speaker of the phrase is understood to mean, for instance, that they support the peaceful liberation of Palestinians, then the utterance would be protected.

But the presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, didn’t think that was possible in this case, citing the date of the protest in her decision. Moayeri is expected to challenge the verdict in a higher court.

The slogan has come to symbolize a rift running through German society amid Israel’s war in Gaza. For some people, the expression is implicitly genocidal, especially because of its long history of use by Hamas and other terrorist organizations. The judge reportedly said that it was clear to her that it “denied the right of the state of Israel to exist”, while Germany’s interior minister, Nancy Faeser, has declared it to be a Hamas slogan.

(Read the full article here.)



Student protesters at UC Irvine were suspended with no chance to defend themselves. Will courts return them to campus?

The Intercept reports: Amid the brutal police crackdowns at more than 100 campus protests against the war in Gaza the spring, one university in California stood out for its especially harsh treatment of student protesters. The school effectively eliminated any due process for the students by suspending them without making specific allegations of misconduct or allowing the students to respond to vague charges.

Last month, student protesters at University of California, Irvine sued the school regents and chancellor for suspending them without any notice or a chance to present evidence in their defense. On Tuesday, plaintiffs in the suit filed a motion to ask the Superior Court of California to step in.

The five students are asking the court to force the school to halt the suspensions and allow students to resume their studies, register for fall classes, go back to campus jobs, and regain access to campus housing.

More than 3,000 people were arrested during brutal police crackdowns on campus protests this year, according to a protest tracker developed by The Appeal. UCI is still an outlier — it’s one of the only schools in the country that issued interim suspensions banning students from campus before they had a chance to respond. The university’s approach was, a representative for the students said, unprecedented.

(Read the full article here.)

Are these people Hamas? Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
Are these people Hamas? Photo by Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images (photo)
‘Not Another Bomb’ to Israel Demand Grows Ahead of Democratic Convention

Common Dreams reports: Leading up to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, calls for the U.S. government to stop arming Israel’s devastating assault on the Gaza Strip—widely denounced around the world as genocide—continued to mount on Friday.

“We join the millions of people who’ve taken action the last 10 months, taxpayers who don’t want to pay for genocide and are demanding an immediate arms embargo on Israel,” U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights (USCPR) executive director Ahmad Abuznaid said in a statement Friday.

“We know that politicians won’t change their unjust policies until it’s in their own self-interest to do so,” he continued. “We must double down on our demands ahead of the DNC, where we’ll be marching in the streets for the liberation of all.”

Pro-Palestine protests in Chicago are set to start Sunday, a day before the DNC officially begins. They will continue throughout the week, according to a schedule shared Friday by the Chicago Sun-Times. The March on the DNC is planned for Monday afternoon.

(Read the full article here.)

NOTE: If Americans Knew has created fact sheets about Gaza that will be distributed at the protests shown above. IAK will also have a digital billboard truck in Chicago during the convention and large posters about Gaza will be plastered around the city.

Protesters in Atlanta, Georgia, demand a ceasefire in Gaza on June 27, 2024. Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images
Protesters in Atlanta, Georgia, demand a ceasefire in Gaza on June 27, 2024. Photo by Octavio Jones/Getty Images (photo)
New Poll Suggests Gaza Ceasefire and Arms Embargo Would Help Dems with Swing State Voters

A new poll, just released Wednesday by YouGov and the Institute for Mideast Understanding (IMEU) showed that in three key battleground states, “About a quarter of those surveyed across these states say the violence in Gaza will sway how they vote,” and that “60% or more disapprove of more weapons to Israel.”

Even more stunning, the number of Democratic and Independent voters who would be less likely to vote for Harris if she vowed to stop arming Israel is minuscule. In Pennsylvania, only 7% said they would be less likely to vote for Harris if she pledged to stop sending weapons to Israel; in both Arizona and Georgia, that figure was just 5%.

The gaps are huge. In those same states, the numbers saying they would be more likely to vote for Harris if she pledged to stop arming Israel were 34% in Pennsylvania, 39% in Georgia, and 35% in Arizona. The rest said it wouldn’t affect their vote.

“This polling clearly shows that if the Democrats want Vice President Harris to be the strongest nominee possible going into November, then they should be demanding that President Biden stop the flow of weapons to Israel and secure a permanent ceasefire immediately,” IMEU Policy Project Executive Director Margaret DeReus said in a statement. “Not only are these policies popular, but they actually move voters from the ‘undecided’ or ‘not voting’ column and into the Democrats’ column in the states Democrats will need to win.”

It is clear that the idea that forcing Israel into a ceasefire by withholding weapons would be beneficial to Harris, and all the more so if Israel then stops its genocide, and Iran and the rest of the Axis of Resistance stand down, as has been promised, and is the overwhelmingly likely result.

Harris leads Trump in Pennsylvania by 2.1%, Arizona by 0.7%, and Georgia by 0.1%, according to the data-driven news site FiveThirtyEight’s polling averages as of Aug. 14.

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)
Senior diplomat resigns over UK’s complicity in ‘war crimes’ in Gaza

Middle East Monitor reports: A senior British diplomat has resigned from the Foreign Office over the UK’s continued arms sales to Israel, which he said have “no justification”.

Mark Smith, the head of Africa Programmes and Expertise Department and the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, submitted a resignation letter entitled “FCDO complicity in War Crimes” reports revealed yesterday.

“It is with sadness that I resign after a long career in the diplomatic service,” he wrote, “however I can no longer carry out my duties in the knowledge that this Department may be complicit in War Crimes. ”

“Each day we witness clear and unquestionable examples of War Crimes and breaches of International Humanitarian Law in Gaza perpetrated by the State of Israel,” he continued.

He went on to highlight how “senior members of the Israeli government and militar have expressed open genocidal intent, Isralei soldiers take videos, deliberately burning destroying, and looting civilian property and openly admit to the rape and torture of prisoners.”

Melbourne orchestra leaders voted out for removing pianist over Gaza tribute

Middle East Eye reports: Musicians at the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra (MSO) have passed a vote of no confidence in its board after it cancelled a show by a pianist who had dedicated a performance to Palestinian journalists killed by Israeli forces in Gaza.

In a letter to the management, the musicians said, “We believe it is the duty of senior management to lead and manage in accordance with the MSO’s values and behaviors, however, it has become apparent that these values no longer appear to be aligned with those of the orchestra and staff.”

On Sunday, British-Australian pianist Jayson Gillham premiered a five-minute piece called Witness, which he performed after a brief comment on Israel’s killing of journalists in Gaza, which he referred to as a war crime.

Following the concert, MSO announced that it had cancelled Gillham’s upcoming performance, which was to take place on Thursday, due to “a series of introductory remarks” he made.

It said that it had sought “independent security advice” following Sunday’s concert, and in light of the advice, “had no option but to cancel” Gillham’s next show.

AUSTRALIAN FINANCIAL REVIEW ADDS: After a litany of protest from its staff, some subscribers and members of the public, the MSO had by Thursday relented and released a statement admitting its cancellation of Gillham had been “an error”, and that it was working to program a new concert with him shortly.

The backdown has in turn upset some Jewish stakeholders.

“The MSO got it right the first time,” said the co-chief executive of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, Peter Wertheim.

Jayson Gillham has been involved in the Palestinian issue in the past.

“Blue Vote Red Line” movement continues to gather signatures

The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel.

Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. The pledge can be viewed and signed here.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

BBC: ‘On verge of an explosion’: Policeman’s killing part of spiraling West Bank violence

The Cradle: Canada violates UN arms treaty with ‘unofficial’ shipments to Israel via US

DropSite News: While Elon Musk battles the UK and EU over social media censorship, Israel is jailing citizens for Instagram posts

Palestine Chronicle: Deceptive Optimism – What is really happening at the Gaza ceasefire talks (analysis)


STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 16:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 16: at least 40,706* (40,074 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 632 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 16: at least 97,957 (including at least 92,537 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 16: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 290*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 41 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Understanding what motivates ultra-orthodox Jewish attacks on West Bank Palestinians
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/gaza-records-first-polio-case-in-25-years-day-314/

Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza’s “safe” space shrinks – Day 313
[email protected] August 16, 2024 amputation, arms embargo, ceasefire, east jerusalem water crisis, evacuation, israeli economy, israeli outposts, israeli settler violence, pogrom, west bank deaths


The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood
+972 Magazine reports: In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week. Their complaints have been redirected from one official to the next, yet no one has provided them with a solution — nor taken responsibility for the problem.
Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks.
“We have hospitals, nurseries, and schools in the area,” Iyad Sanduka, a member of the neighborhood’s residents’ committee, told +972 Magazine and Local Call. “Everyone suffers from the water shortage.”
Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.
This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity. For Palestinians in Gaza, it is currently as low as 3 liters.
(Read the full article here.)
RECOMMENDED READING: ‘Buying Our Own Stolen Water’ in Bethlehem – Scorching Summer Awaits Palestinians in the West Bank
New York Times reports: Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished.

With the Biden administration racing to get cease-fire negotiations back on track, a growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group.

Israel has made bold claims about the number Hamas deaths, without proof.

But one of Israel’s biggest remaining goals — the return of the roughly 115 living and dead hostages still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — cannot be achieved militarily, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.

Israel’s most recent military operations have been something of a Whac-a-Mole strategy in the eyes of American analysts. U.S. officials are skeptical that approach will yield decisive results.

While Israel has tried to damage the tunnels, it has failed to destroy them, American officials said. The network has proved much larger than Israel anticipated, and it remains an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters.

And even as the Israel Defense Forces have seized territory and killed Hamas fighters from north to south of the territory, they have repeatedly had to go back in as Hamas fighters regrouped. For example, Israel weakened Hamas’s grip in the Jabaliya camp, in northern Gaza, but had to return to the area in May after the group reconstituted in the power vacuum.

Biden administration officials say diplomacy is the only way that Israel can achieve possibly its biggest goal — getting its hostages back.

Israeli economy on the brink as it awaits retaliation from Resistance Axis

The Cradle reports: The Israeli economy is on the ropes as the country awaits retaliation for its attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen over the past month, according to reports in Hebrew media.

“These two weeks have exhausted the market, as some economic activities have been canceled, and another part has been reduced due to public fear,” the economic affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 13 News said on 15 August.

Israel’s tourism industry, in particular, has recorded massive losses due to the broad cancellation of flights by international airlines.

Israel’s education sector will also be severely affected if the wait continues into September, as institutions will have to “maneuver within combat scenarios,” according to the Israeli broadcaster.

The Israeli economy has already taken several hits 10 months into the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, with the most recent one being the decision by US financial services firm Fitch to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.



UN rapporteur says ‘shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable

Al Jazeera reports: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza, which has reached a landmark 40,000 people, was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence.

In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict.

“The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”.

The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”.

Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images]
Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] (photo)
“Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice

The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel.

Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. We demand concrete results from the current Biden-Harris Administration to end the Gaza Genocide and a credible commitment from a Harris-Walz ticket which will pressure Israel to achieve a just and lasting solution to the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

“We hereby pledge to vote Democratic on November 5th only if the current administration: 1) enforces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) ends all military aid to Israel.”

The pledge can be viewed and signed here.

Pledging arms embargo on Israel would help Harris gain more voter support: Poll

Middle East Eye reports: According to a new poll, roughly one-third of Democratic Party voters in the US states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have said they are more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election if she were to agree to stop sending arms to Israel.

In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Harris if she agreed to the arms embargo, while 44 percent were more likely to vote for her if Biden achieved a ceasefire.

In Georgia, an arms embargo would make 39 percent of voters more likely to vote for Harris, and a ceasefire would similarly make 44 percent of voters more likely to choose the vice president.

Arizona showed similar numbers, with 35 percent of voters more inclined to choose Harris if she agreed to an arms embargo on Israel, while 41 percent of voters would do so if Biden achieved a ceasefire in Gaza.

Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo)
Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

From Consortium News: In an open letter to Antony Blinken, 113 journalists, 7 press freedom groups and 20 news outlets accused the U.S. secretary of state of being “complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today” in Gaza. Here are excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to the State Department on Thursday morning with a request to meet with the Secretary of State.

Dear Secretary Blinken,

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists.

Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.

On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”

As journalists, publications and press freedom groups in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza, we call on you to do more to protect journalists and show unwavering support for free and independent media by supporting an arms embargo against Israel…

Under international law, the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.5 While all governments are bound by international law protecting reporters, U.S. domestic law also prohibits the State Department from providing assistance to units of foreign security forces credibly accused of gross violations of human rights.6 Israel’s well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions of journalists is a gross violation of human rights.

Additionally, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the American people’s right to receive information and ideas.7 Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists follows a longstanding pattern by the Israeli government to suppress truthful reporting on its treatment of Palestinians and its war in Gaza. By providing Israel with the weapons used to kill journalists, the State Department is abetting Israel’s violent suppression of journalism.

The U.S. is providing the weapons Israel continually uses to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This is a violation of International law and U.S. domestic law. We urge you to immediately cease the transfer of all weapons to Israel.

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)
MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Al Jazeera: Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction

Middle East Eye: UK judge tells Muslim man jailed for fighting back against rioters to ‘rise above’ racism

Middle East Eye: ‘Good riddance’: Ex-Columbia University president remembered for silencing pro-Palestine speech

The New Arab: Polio: Israel’s dirty bioweapon is bringing Gaza to its knees



STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 15:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 15: at least 40,634* (40,005 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 632 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 15: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 15: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 290*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 41 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/violence-against-west-bank-palestinians-intensifies-gaza-safe-space-shrinks-day-313/

Official Gaza death toll passes 40,000; over 92,000 injured – Day 312
[email protected] August 15, 2024 genocide, hatch act, humanitarian aid, israel attacks on schools, israeli settlement, mask ban, minouche shafik, US made weapons, West Bank
FEWS NTET reports: The amount of humanitarian food supplies entering Gaza through crossings in the south were at their lowest levels in July since Israel’s war on the enclave began.

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) said that only 724 humanitarian trucks with food or mixed items entered through the Karem Abu Salem crossing in the entire month of July. They carried roughly 5,035 to 5,566 metric tonnes of supplies.

A further 54,764 to 60,529 metric tonnes of food supplies carried on commercial trucks also entered through the crossing, but the network said that increased “commercial cargo entry into Gaza may not necessarily translate to improved food availability and access within Gaza, particularly given low household purchasing power”.

RECOMMENDED READING: This is the truth about “there is no famine in Gaza”

NOTE: Hundreds of aid trucks are reportedly waiting and spoiling at the southern border of Gaza, where Israel has made it extremely difficult to pass, employing complicated and arbitrary procedures.

Israel has also attacked food aid convoys and those who accompanied them.

In mid-March, Israel promised to “flood” Gaza with aid, but has failed to do so.



Israel has killed 2,100 babies under two in Gaza: Rights monitor

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor reports that out of nearly 17,000 Palestinian children killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip since October 7, about 2,100 were babies under the age of two.

“The number of Palestinian children – whether infants or children in general – killed by the Israeli army is horrifying, and the rate of their killing is unprecedented in the history of modern wars,” says the Geneva-based organization.

“It also represents a dangerous trend based on the dehumanization of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s military targets Palestinians and their children daily, methodically, and widely in the most heinous and brutal ways possible, and virtually without pause for 10 consecutive months.”

Palestinian triplets with their mother flee following the Israeli army’s attacks on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on March 21, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency]
Palestinian triplets with their mother flee following the Israeli army’s attacks on Shifa Hospital in Gaza City, Gaza on March 21, 2024 [Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Israel shoots dead 2 firefighters in Gaza


Middle East Monitor reports: Two civil defense crew members were shot dead today by Israeli occupation forces in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip.

The General Directorate of Civil Defence confirmed the death of firefighter Suhaib Abu Taqiya and Hussein Abu Jamous after they were shot while carrying out their work in Rafah.

Their deaths bring to 82 the number of civil defense crew members who have been killed since the outbreak of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza in October 2023, the directorate added.

Since the beginning of the Israeli war of genocide, the IOF has targeted dozens of civil defense and ambulance crew members while they were providing services to displaced Palestinians in addition to destroying civil defense facilities and vehicles to prevent rescue and evacuation efforts.

Firefighters intervene fire broke out following Israeli attack on the house of the Al-Tavil family as Israeli attacks continue at Az-Zawayda town of Gaza City, Gaza on December 27, 2023 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]
Firefighters intervene fire broke out following Israeli attack on the house of the Al-Tavil family as Israeli attacks continue at Az-Zawayda town of Gaza City, Gaza on December 27, 2023 [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Israel’s intensifying attacks on Gaza schools

Al Jazeera reports: Israel has hit more than 500 of Gaza’s 564 schools in the past 10 months. Within a 10-day period in August, Israeli forces struck five schools in Gaza City, killing more than 179 people and injuring scores more.

Last week, more than 100 people were killed after Israel hit a school in Gaza City sheltering displaced Palestinians. The UN accused Israel of intensifying attacks on schools.

Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, schools are considered civilian objects and should be protected from attacks.




West Bank: Israeli occupation forces kill five Palestinians in assault on Tubas

WAFA reports: Five Palestinians today were killed during the ongoing Israeli aggression on the city of Tubas and the town of Tamoun, southeast of the city.

Security sources reported that four Palestinians were killed when an Israeli drone bombed a group of young men in the town of Tamoun, southeast of Tubas.

They also said that the occupation forces withheld the bodies of the four young men after killing them.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that the occupation prevented its crews from reaching the targeted location.

Meanwhile, the fifth Palestinian was killed after Israeli occupation forces besieged his house in the early morning hours in the city of Tubas.

Israeli army vehicles near Tubas, occupied West Bank
Israeli army vehicles near Tubas, occupied West Bank (screengrab)
Shocking news in OCHA’s weekly report on the West Bank

Since October 7th, there have been over 100 instances of Palestinian bodies being withheld by Israeli forces.

In the last week, Israeli settlers perpetrated 25 attacks against Palestinians, while Palestinians perpetrated three attacks against settlers. Between 7 October 2023 and 12 August 2024, OCHA recorded around 1,250 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, of which around 120 led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries.

On 12 August, Israeli settlers physically assaulted and injured two 15-year-old Palestinian boys near Artas, Bethlehem, attacking them with knives. The settlers assaulted the boys, broke their legs, and urinated on them, then handcuffed the boys and threw them in an open area near Artas. A local resident discovered them and called for an ambulance. The boys were then taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

On 7 August, the Israeli Civil Administration along with Israeli forces dismantled and confiscated three donor-funded tents in the Birin herding community, Hebron governorate. As a result, three families comprising 15 people including 6 children were displaced. The tents had been provided by the Palestinian Authority as a response to a previous demolition that took place on 4 July 2024 in the same area.

Between 7 October 2023 and 12 August 2024, Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced the demolition of 1,380 Palestinian structures across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, displacing more than 3,100 Palestinians, including 1,375 children.

Israeli forces, and in some cases settlers, have killed over 570 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, with near total impunity.
Israeli forces, and in some cases settlers, have killed over 600 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7th, with near total impunity. (photo)
Israel approves new West Bank settlement on UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem

The Cradle reports: The Israeli government on 14 August officially approved municipal boundaries for a new settlement on a UNESCO World Heritage Site near Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank.

Jewish supremacist Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said his office had “completed its work and published a plan for the new Nahal Heletz settlement in Gush Etzion,” a bloc of settlements south of occupied Jerusalem.

“No anti-Israeli and anti-Zionist decision will stop the development of settlements. We will continue to fight against the dangerous project of creating a Palestinian state by creating facts on the ground. This is my life’s mission, and I will continue it as much as I can,” the Israeli official, who lives in an illegal settlement, said via social media.

All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law, regardless of whether they have planning permission or not.

According to the Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now, the intended area of the new settlement was declared a World Heritage site by UNESCO. “Smotrich continues to promote de facto annexation, disregarding the UNESCO Convention that Israel is a signatory to, and we will all pay the price,” the organization said in a statement, calling the move by the Civil Administration a “wholesale attack” on an area “renowned for its ancient terraces and sophisticated irrigation systems, evidence of thousands of years of human activity.”

“These actions are not only fragmenting Palestinian space and depriving large communities of their natural and cultural heritage, but they also pose an imminent threat to an area considered to be of the highest cultural value to humanity,” Peace Now added.

The Times of Israel reports: “The new settlement will be built on land it says belongs to Battir, home to ancient hillside agricultural terraces that have been designated a world heritage site by UNESCO.”

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. As the ICJ ruling confirms, Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.

Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.



Map: Israel attacked ‘nearly every inch of Gaza with US-made bombs’

Jewish Voice for Peace, a US-based advocacy group, has made a map of the more than 70,000 bombs that Israel has dropped on the Gaza Strip since October 7 using UN satellite data.

“With the US as its collaborator, the Israeli military is carrying out the goal of Zionism: the complete and total ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land,” the group says.

“The US isn’t just allowing the Israeli government to commit a genocide, it’s actively assisting it. It’s well past time for a weapons embargo. We demand a complete end to US funding, arming, and backing of the state of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.”


She wrote an op-ed criticizing Biden on Gaza. The Justice Department accused her of breaking the law.


Emma West Rasmus wrote in The Hill: I used to see myself as part of the future of the Democratic Party, but I just got back from Palestine, and I will now work to ensure it never wins again.” (photo)
The Intercept reports (excerpt): In March, Justice Department employee Emma West Rasmus wrote an [extremely powerful, personalized] op-ed criticizing the Biden administration over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

he next business day, she was accused by senior Justice Department attorneys and ethics officials of violating the Hatch Act. The Hatch Act prohibits federal employees from using their “official authority” to engage in certain political activity, especially advocating for or against a particular candidate or political party.

Five months later, however, the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates Hatch Act violations, determined there was no Hatch Act violation in the first place.

“Although you engaged in political activity while referencing that you work for the federal government in the op-ed, and specifically the Department of Justice in the byline, these references do not constitute a use of official authority rising to the level of a Hatch Act violation,” reads an August 8 determination letter from OSC.

West Rasmus, who still works for the Justice Department, says this decision lifted a huge weight off her shoulders, but that the investigation itself “absolutely had a chilling effect” on her and other federal employees trying to galvanize internal dissent on Gaza policy.

“I always felt like putting the op-ed out there in the way that I did was worth the risk,” she said. “That speaks to how urgently I and other federal employees feel about the need to take actions that we wouldn’t otherwise take.”

(Read the full article here.)



Columbia University president Minouche Shafik resigns in wake of Gaza protests


Al Jazeera reports: Minouche Shafik, the president of Columbia University, has announced her resignation after a tumultuous year marked by tensions with staff and students over her handling of campus protests against the Gaza war.

The university announced her departure in a statement on its website on Wednesday.

“This period has taken a considerable toll on my family, as it has for others in our community,” Shafik wrote in a letter to the university’s staff and students. “It has also been a period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community.”

Protests against the Gaza war began on Columbia’s New York City campus in April inspiring similar encampments at other institutions across the United States and beyond.

As the protests gathered momentum, Shafik was summoned to a congressional committee over allegations the university had failed to protect students and staff from rising anti-Semitism.

The next day, she allowed New York City police onto the campus to clear the protests and about 100 people were arrested, triggering outrage from protesters and some academics and calls for her resignation. Tensions rose further at the end of April, when police returned again to campus, arresting some 300 people and removing the encampment.

THE GUARDIAN ADDS: Meanwhile, Elise Stefanik, one of the congressional representatives most critical of Shafik’s handling of reports of antisemitism on campus, wrote: “THREE DOWN, so many to go,” adding “after failing to protect Jewish students and negotiating with pro-Hamas terrorists, this forced resignation is long overdue”.


Sludge reports: Stefanik’s trip to Israel was paid for by the Jewish Policy Center, a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit that describes its mission as “educat[ing the American public about Israel, foreign affairs and domestic issues of importance to the Jewish community.” The organization spent nearly $48,000 on the trip, including on business-class airfare tickets for the representative and stays at luxury hotels.

[The Jewish Policy Center has multiple individuals on its board of fellows who have been identified as anti-Muslim hate figures, including Daniel Pipes and David Horowitz.]

This election cycle, the PAC of lobbying group the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has given $284,000 to Stefanik’s campaign in conduit contributions through April 30, placing her in its top 10 recipients among House Republicans.

New York county signs first mask ban into US law, sparking controversy


Bruce Blakeman hosts a number of rabbis for a mezuzah instalation at his new office ahead of his inauguration as Nassau County’s first Jewish County Executive on Dec. 31, 2021. The Forward reports: “Blakeman situated himself at the right on issues related to Israel.” (photo)
The Guardian reports: Nassau county in New York implemented a controversial ban on wearing face coverings in public on Wednesday, in a move criticized by state politicians and civil rights advocates. Opponents of the bill have described it as “a dangerous misuse of the law to score political points and target protesters”, given it was introduced in response to protests against Israel’s war on Gaza.

The Mask Transparency Act, signed into law by Bruce Blakeman, the Republican county executive, makes it a misdemeanor for anyone to wear a facial covering to hide their identity in public.

[Vote Smart reports that Blakeman has been a board member of the American Jewish Congress, which advocates for Israel.]

People who defy the law could be sentenced to up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine, although there are some exemptions for health or religious reasons.

Susan Gottehrer, the regional director of the Nassau county New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), said after the bill was passed, “Masks protect people who express political opinions that are unpopular. Making anonymous protest illegal chills political action and is ripe for selective enforcement, leading to doxxing, surveillance and retaliation against protesters.”

Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo)
Melbourne orchestra cancels pianist’s performance after he speaks out on Gaza

Al Jazeera reports: Musician Jayson Gillham was scheduled to perform at Melbourne Town Hall on Thursday, but he was dropped after he discussed the media workers killed in Gaza in a Sunday performance.

“The killing of journalists is a war crime in international law, and it is done in an effort to prevent the documentation and broadcasting of war crimes to the world,” the musician told the audience, adding that Israel has killed more than 100 journalists since October 7.

UPDATE FROM VARIETY: The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra on Thursday tried to extricate itself from controversy caused by its earlier decision to cancel future performances by Australian-British classical pianist Jayson Gillham.

“The MSO acknowledges that an error was made in asking Jayson Gillham to step back from his performance on Thursday 15 August,” it said in a new statement.


MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Intercept: Israeli Society Is in a Deepening State of Contradiction

Middle East Eye: Pro-Palestinian campus protests: What have they achieved so far?



STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 14:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 14: at least 40,634* (40,005 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 629 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 14: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 14: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/official-gaza-death-toll-passes-40000-over-92000-injured-day-312/

US approves “historic” $20B arms sale to Israel, as Gazans die – Day 311
[email protected] August 14, 2024 ben gvir, Bezalel Smotrich, ceasefire, free speech on campus, Iran, israeli gang rape, Josep Borrell, palestine olympics head, twins in gaza, weapons to israel
Destroyed buildings last month in Beit Lahia, one of the northernmost cities in the Gaza Strip.Credit...Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo)
More weapons for Israel; newborn twins killed in Gaza; Israel shoots American activist; two Palestinians killed in West Bank; Israel detains Palestine Olympic head; California mulls anti-free speech on campus bill; Ben Gvir leads provocative march on Temple Mount; EU leader calls for sanctions against Israeli Smotrich for calls to starve Gazans; house arrest for gang-rape suspects; yes, Netanyahu has been messing with ceasefire details;

Iran says Europe’s silence on “inhumane crimes” in Gaza encouraged Israel to continue atrocities while threatening global peace; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

US State Department Approves Over $20 Billion Arms Package for Israel

AntiWar reports: On Tuesday, the State Department approved a series of potential weapons sales to Israel worth over $20 billion that includes F-15 fighter jets and tank munitions. The approval comes as Israeli airstrikes continue to slaughter civilians in Gaza, including newborn twins who were killed hours before the State Department announced the new support for Israel.

Ha’aretz reports the transaction as “among the most significant arms sales to Israel in American history.”

In total, the US announced five new arms deals for Israel. The biggest is for 50 F-15 fighter jets and related equipment, worth $18.8 billion. Israel will also receive $102.5 million in advanced air-to-air missiles, about 33,000 120mm tank cartridges worth $774 million, 50,000 high-explosive 120mm mortar rounds worth $61.1 million, and $583.1 million worth of medium tactical vehicles.

It’s unclear how much of the massive weapons sale will be funded by US military aid. The announcement came a few days after the State Department said it was releasing $3.5 billion in military assistance for Israel in the form of Foreign Military Financing, a program that gives foreign governments money to buy US weapons.

It will take years before the F-15s and other weapons will be delivered to Israel, although, according to Reuters, the tank rounds would be almost immediately available for delivery. The notification begins a period where Congress could potentially block the sales, but it’s expected to breeze through since only a few dozen progressive Democrats are opposed to arming Israel.

The U.S. has sent Israel more than 10,000 highly destructive 2,000-pound bombs and thousands of Hellfire missiles since the start of the Gaza war in October, U.S. officials told Reuters in June.

RECOMMENDED READING: Rafah attack: Netanyahu’s lies expose the truth about Israel

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images)
An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)
Newborn twins killed in Israeli strike in Gaza as father collects their birth certificates

Andalou Agency reports: Newborn twins were killed in an Israeli airstrike in the central Gaza Strip on Tuesday as their father went to collect their birth certificates.

The two babies were born on Saturday in the city of Deir al-Balah, but an Israeli strike on their apartment shattered the family’s joy of their newborns.

“I have just obtained the birth certificates for my newborn babies Aysel and Asser,” their father Mohammad Abu al-Qumsan told Anadolu as tears rolled down his cheeks.

“They were born on August 10. I was outside the house, finalizing the paperwork, and then I got the call… I didn’t expect to find them all gone.”



Israeli hardliner Ben-Gvir “put lives at risk” with Jerusalem prayer call

Reuters reports: Israeli Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Tuesday visited the Al-Aqsa mosque compound known to Jews as Temple Mount, and said Jews should be allowed to pray there, freshly challenging rules covering one of the most sensitive sites in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly denied there would be any change to rules prohibiting Jews from praying at the site, which is holy to Muslims as well.

The Al-Aqsa compound, revered by Jews as a vestige of their two ancient temples, is administered by a Jordanian religious foundation and under rules dating back decades, Jews are allowed to visit, but may not pray there.

“Our policy is to allow prayer,” Ben-Gvir said as he passed a line of Jewish visitors who prostrated themselves on the ground, while others sang and clapped their hands in celebration. The Waqf, the foundation that administers the site, said around 2,250 Jews entered the site on Tuesday.

The spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas denounced Ben-Gvir’s visit as a “provocation” and called on the U.S. to intervene “if it wants to prevent the region from exploding in an uncontrollable manner”.

HA’ARETZ ADDS: What happened on the Temple Mount Tuesday categorically puts lives at risk, and is further evidence of the chaos being caused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government and his irresponsible leadership.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and another minister ascended the Temple Mount (known as Al-Aqsa to Muslims), and dozens of Jewish visitors prayed on the compound in violation of the status quo. All this happened in front of the police who were stationed there, but they refrained from enforcing the ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.

The fact that Ben-Gvir oversees the police doubles the threat he poses, because the police exist in part to deal with criminals like him. But when the criminal is the very minister in charge of the police, who can you turn to? When the person endangering national security is the minister in charge of preserving it, what do you do?

And the helplessness becomes absolute when you realize the prime minister can’t be relied upon in this situation, since Netanyahu is the one who appointed Ben-Gvir despite very well knowing that he is dangerous.


An American was just shot in the West Bank. The American press can’t be bothered.

DropSite News reports: Last Friday, Amado Sison, an activist from New Jersey with the solidarity group Faz3a, joined fellow demonstrators near the West Bank village of Beita. In an interview with Drop Site after being discharged from the hospital, Sison said he was taking part in a “protective presence” exercise aimed at defending Palestinian citizens living in the West Bank from settler and military violence.

“The Palestinians were holding a rally and doing chants, when Israeli soldiers at a nearby outpost started shooting tear gas and aiming weapons at us,” said Sison. “

This was only my second demonstration, but some of the more experienced demonstrators shouted that live rounds were being fired and everyone began to run.”

Sison and others ran from the gunfire into a nearby olive grove. It was then that he felt a “blunt impact” in the back of his leg. He initially thought he had been hit by a tear gas canister.

It turned out to have been a live bullet, which entered his thigh and exited from the front of his leg.

In video of the incident taken by Anthony C., an activist with Faz3a, and provided to Drop Site, a group of protesters and local Palestinians can be seen screaming as they attempt to carry a wounded Sison to safety after the shooting.

(Read the full article here.)

West Bank: Two Palestinian young men killed by Israeli forces

WAFA reports: A Palestinian teenager succumbed to serious wounds he sustained earlier Tuesday after being shot by Israeli occupation forces in the town of Anata, east of occupied Jerusalem.

The Jerusalem Governorate Media Department said in a statement that Shadi Wisam Shehada, 17, was shot by the Israeli occupation in the town of Anata while he was working at his privately-owned car wash shop in the area, for allegedly throwing stones at the occupation soldiers.

Another Palestinian young man, Moataz Sarsour, was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces during a raid on the cities of Ramallah and Al-Bireh at Tuesday dawn.

Shadi Wisam Shehada and Moataz Sarsour, killed by Israeli forces
Shadi Wisam Shehada and Moataz Sarsour, killed by Israeli forces (photo)
Israeli authorities detain head of the Palestine Olympic Committee

Middle East Eye reports: Jibril Rajoub, who is also a member of Fatah’s Central Committee, was reportedly detained by Israeli authorities upon his return from the Paris Olympics while en route to the occupied West Bank.

The 71-year-old was searched, had his passport confiscated, and was summoned for questioning at the Ofer military compound near Ramallah on Tuesday.

Rajoub has previously faced threats of imprisonment from some members of the Israeli government due to his efforts to have Israel barred from the Olympics and the football World Cup, citing violations of the Olympic Charter and FIFA regulations against apartheid in sports.

In May, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz threatened to revoke Rajoub’s travel pass.

“We will work to thwart his plans, and if he doesn’t stop, we will imprison him in the Muqataa [presidential compound in Ramallah], where he will be left to play stanga by himself between the walls,” Katz said, referring to a popular Israeli street game involving a football.

Anti-free speech California bill inspired by opposition to pro-Palestine campus protest

The Intercept reports: A bill making its way through the California legislature would stifle free speech on public university and college campuses, specifically around protests against Israel’s war in Gaza and its occupation of Palestine, according to civil rights advocates.

The American Civil Liberties Union in California is ringing the alarm bell on Senate Bill 1287, saying that it will “set a dangerous precedent of chilling speech on campuses across the state.”

The bill, introduced in February by Democratic state Sen. Steve Glazer, would require schools to adopt and enforce rules against harassment, discrimination, or any behavior that “creates a hostile environment on campus.”

The bill’s supporters include a host of pro-Israel advocacy groups. [Glazer has made many trips to Israel and lived in Israel for six months working on a kibbutz.]

Among the bill’s most vocal detractors has been ACLU California Action, which said in a letter sent last week to Glazer’s office that the bill would suppress free speech. In the letter, obtained by The Intercept, the ACLU highlighted areas of the bill that are “overly broad” and vague, such as leaving terms like “harassment,” “discrimination,” and “hostile environment” with no clear definitions that may allow institutions to apply them in ways that prohibit students’ free speech.

Across the U.S., lawmakers on the state and federal level have introduced bills cracking down on campus protests. In Congress, Republican lawmakers proposed a slate of bills, including measures that would revoke visas and deport any international student convicted of a crime related to protests on campus; bar students convicted of a protest-related crime from receiving financial aid; make federal accreditation and funding for schools contingent on their policies toward protests; barring a student of faculty member from student loan forgiveness if they are expelled or fired due to protests; and withholding federal funds from schools that don’t clear encampments.

Rep. Andy Ogles, a Republican from Tennessee who is behind several of the bills, also introduced one that would require a student convicted of a protest-related offense to do community service in Gaza for six months.

(Read the full article here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: Unmasking counterprotesters who attacked UCLA’s pro-Palestine encampment

In early May, police arrested around 200 protesters from the anti-war encampment at UCLA, with the campus police restricting access to the area, and police helicopters hovering overhead.
In early May, police arrested around 200 protesters from the anti-war encampment at UCLA, with the campus police restricting access to the area, and police helicopters hovering overhead. (photo)
Iran says silence of UK, France, Germany on “inhumane crimes” in Gaza encouraged Israel to continue atrocities while threatening global peace

The Cradle reports: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a phone call that the silence of the international community in the face of Israel’s “unprecedented and inhumane crimes” in Gaza encouraged it to continue committing atrocities while threatening regional and global peace and security, IRNA reported on 13 August.

Pezeshkian added that war in any part of the world is not in the interest of any country while emphasizing that a “punitive response to an aggressor is a legal right of states and a way to stop crime and aggression.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani issued a similar message Tuesday, saying the Islamic Republic will defend its national security and sovereignty and does not ask for permission to exercise its rights.

Kanaani made the statement in response to a letter published by the UK, France, and Germany, urging Iran not to retaliate for the assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on 1 August.

The Foreign Ministry spokesman added that the three European countries have been indifferent to Israel’s continued “genocidal acts and war crimes against defenseless Palestinians.”

He stated that the European nations’ request that Iran not respond to the Hamas leader’s assassination would “encourage the criminals to continue massacre, genocide, and crime against humanity.”

The spokesman said if those mentioned countries were really after peace and stability in the region, they should stand against Israel and seek to end the war on Gaza and the killing of children and women.

Israeli troops accused of gang raping Palestinian detainee released on house arrest

The Cradle reports: The Israeli military attorney’s office and defense lawyers agreed on the release to house arrest of the five soldiers accused of raping a Palestinian man in the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp, Haaretz reported in Hebrew on 13 August.

The Israeli army spokesman said the five soldiers will be released to house arrest for 10 days during the investigation.

On 8 August, a leaked surveillance video from Sde Teiman was broadcast on Israeli news network Channel 12, showing the Israeli soldiers gang-raping the Palestinian man.

Members of the Knesset and Hebrew media have strongly criticized the military for detaining the soldiers, arguing that it is morally acceptable to do anything to Hamas fighters, including rape.

Military police officers who arrested the soldiers have faced death threats.

Israel’s military advocate general, Major General Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi responded to criticism over the arrests by saying they were crucial for shielding Israel from war crimes charges in international courts and ensuring continued weapons deliveries from the US and European nations.

RECOMMENDED READING: Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment.



Documents confirm Netanyahu responsible for obstructing Gaza ceasefire

New York Times reports: For weeks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel has denied that he is trying to block a cease-fire deal in Gaza by hardening Israel’s negotiating position.

Mr. Netanyahu has consistently placed all blame for the deadlocked negotiations on Hamas, even as senior members of the Israeli security establishment accused him of slowing the process himself.

But in private, Mr. Netanyahu has, in fact, added new conditions to Israel’s demands, additions that his own negotiators fear have created extra obstacles to a deal.

According to unpublished documents reviewed by The New York Times that detail Israel’s negotiating positions, Israel relayed a list of new stipulations in late July to American, Egyptian and Qatari mediators that added less flexible conditions to a set of principles it had made in late May.

The documents reviewed by The Times make clear that the behind-the-scenes maneuvering by the Netanyahu government has been extensive — and suggest that agreement may be elusive at the talks set to begin this week.

(Read more here.)

Israel defense ministry expects 100,000 disabled veterans by 2030, half to be related to mental health

Ha’aretz reports: A recent forecast by the rehabilitation division of Israel’s Defense Ministry expects there to be 100,000 disabled IDF veterans by the year 2030, with half being related to mental health.

According to the data, since October 7 the rehabilitation division has seen 10,056 wounded individuals. The Defense Ministry is now discussing a strategy to absorb and treat those wounded in the war, on top of approximately 62,000 disabled IDF veterans already being treated by the division before the war.

NOTE: Over 92,000 Gazans have been injured in just ten months – at least 3,000 children have had a limb amputated. Mental health issues are widespread, including nearly every child in Gaza.

Josep Borrell calls for sanctions against Israeli ministers for ‘incitement to war crimes’

The Cradle reports: EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell [from Spain] said on 11 August that the bloc must consider imposing sanctions against Israeli far-right ministers Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich for “incitement to war crimes.”

Borrell urged the Israeli government to clearly dissociate itself from individuals who incite war crimes and to work seriously towards a ceasefire deal.

The high-ranking EU official also denounced Ben Gvir for urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt all humanitarian aid and fuel to the Gaza Strip amidst the ongoing genocide.

Finance Minister Smotrich’s comments about starving two million Gazans by withholding aid in exchange for Israeli captives as “sinister,” in stark contrast to the Israeli minister’s assertion that the approach is “justified and moral.”

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Guardian: Why should US troops pay the price for Biden’s failure to rein in Netanyahu?

Mondoweiss: The ICJ finds that BDS is not merely a right, but an obligation

+972 Magazine: In Jenin and Tulkarem, Israel’s war on Palestinian armed resistance is failing

CNN: Rep. Ilhan Omar will win primary in Minnesota, CNN projects, breaking ‘squad’ losing streak

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 13:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 13: at least 40,590* (39,965 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 625 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 13: at least 97,714 (including at least 92,294 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 13: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children

https://israelpalestinenews.org/us-approves-historic-20b-arms-sale-to-israel-as-gazans-die-day-311/

Gazans are “running from death to death” – Day 309
[email protected] August 12, 2024 al-aqsa mosque, evacuation, fajr massacre, fake terrorist list, truce talks, US warships
Gazans are “running from death to death” – Day 309
Palestinians inspect the destruction following the Israeli attack on the Al-Taba’een school, where displaced people took shelter, in al-Daraj neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Evacuation orders keep exhausted Palestinians on the move; the “Fajr massacre” left no intact bodies behind; Israeli “terrorist” hit list is fake; dwindling numbers of aid trucks means famine; US warships assembling in Middle East; Hamas calls for enforcing Biden’s truce instead of more talks; Israeli settlers storm Al Aqsa mosque under heavy police protection; Hamas claims responsibility for shooting Israeli in the Jordan Valley; Israel poised to ban another media company

By IAK staff, from reports.

‘We’re running from death to death’: Palestinian in Khan Younis

Al Jazeera reports: Tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forced to leave their homes and shelters in the middle of the night in Khan Younis, heading west towards al-Mawasi and north towards Deir el-Balah, already overcrowded with hundreds of thousands of displaced people.

“We’re exhausted. This is the 10th time I and my family have had to leave our shelter,” said Zaki Mohammad, 28, who lives in the Hamad housing project in western Khan Younis, where the occupants of two multistorey buildings were ordered to leave.

“People are carrying their belongings, their children, their hopes and their fears and running towards the unknown, because there is no safe place,” he said. “We are running from death to death.”



The Fajr massacre: Every 70 kg bag of human remains is considered a martyr

Mondoweiss: At dawn on Saturday, August 10, the Israeli army bombed a mosque while dozens of displaced people were praying the Fajr prayer, the daily Islamic prayer offered in the early morning. The bombing killed more than a hundred people, most of whom were dismembered or destroyed beyond recognition. For this reason the identification of the bodies has so far been incomplete.

The majority of the martyrs in this latest massacre are first- or second-degree relatives because the prayer hall that the Israeli army bombed belongs to a school housing displaced families from Gaza City. The decimated prayer hall belongs to the Tabi’in School, and is only used by the displaced people sheltering in the school.

At the time of the bombing the prayer hall was filled with men. Now, many women who may have become widows and many children who may have become orphans, are sitting in front of the classrooms that were not reached by the bombing waiting to be told the fate of their families.

The Israeli army said that it bombed the prayer hall because there were armed elements from the Islamic Jihad movement and Hamas there, but the displaced people in the school confirmed that there were no armed men among them. Hamas also denied the Israeli allegations and issued a statement saying that there were no armed men in the school.

(Read the full article here.)

RECOMMENDED READING: US weapon used in Gaza City school massacre that killed 100




Israeli military “terrorist” hit list is a fake

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli military claimed that it killed 19 members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in its attack on the school in Gaza City, but more accounts are coming out that are challenging that narrative.

Ramy Abdul, a Palestinian national and chairman of the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, wrote after investigating sources on the ground that of the 19 people identified by the Israeli military, at least three were killed in prior incidents and nine were civilians, including university and municipality officials.

Ahmed Ihab Baker al-Jaabari, who was claimed to be a PIJ operative, was a civilian killed in December, according to the rights group.



More identified civilians here.

Gaza confronting Israeli-created Famine as Kerem Shalom Food Aid Trucks drop 80% to 24 Trucks a Day

Juan Cole reports: Although the United Nations has not officially declared a famine in Gaza, people living there are in no doubt about it.

The New Humanitarian quotes Diana Harrara, a 33-year-old mother of three in Gaza: “No word better describes what we’re experiencing than ‘famine.’ Firstly, we have nothing to eat but flour and canned food which we can only obtain as aid. This aid is inconsistent – either small in quantity or infrequent. And even when we do get it, we end up leaving the food behind when rushing from one shelter to the next.”

The severe food shortages in Gaza is caused by Israeli bombing of farms and gardens and its restrictions on the number of aid trucks permitted in, as well as the chaos and destruction wrought on the networks of food delivery activists.

Last week Minister of Finance Bezalel Smotrich ignited a firestorm when he maintained that it would be morally and legally justified to starve all 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza to death.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported this week that since early May, the quantity of aid shipments that entered Gaza through the Kerem Shalom Crossing and were collected by relief organizations plummeted by more than 80%, declining

from an average of 127 trucks per day in April
to approximately 23 trucks per day in July.
(Read more here.)

Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
US deploys guided missile submarine to Middle East

Reuters reports: US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East, the Pentagon said.

While the USS Georgia, a nuclear-powered submarine, was already in the Mediterranean Sea in July, according to a US military post on social media, it was a rare move to publicly announce the deployment of a submarine.

In a statement after Austin spoke with his Israeli counterpart, the Pentagon said Austin had ordered the Abraham Lincoln strike group to accelerate its deployment to the region.

“Secretary Austin reiterated the United States’ commitment to take every possible step to defend Israel and noted the strengthening of US military force posture and capabilities throughout the Middle East in light of escalating regional tensions,” the statement added.

The US military had already said it will deploy additional fighter jets and Navy warships to the Middle East as Washington seeks to bolster Israeli defenses.

Israel drops leaflets with cigarettes in Gaza as reward for information

Al Jazeera reports: An Israeli quadcopter has dropped leaflets over the tents of displaced people in al-Mawasi, west of Khan Younis, footage shared on social media shows.

The leaflets, which had single cigarettes attached, said people who call a number with information about fighters in Gaza would receive more tobacco.

The leaflets read: “Hamas is burning Gaza” and “Smoking is dangerous, but Hamas is even more so. Want more? Give us a call.”


Hamas calls for enforcing Biden truce outline instead of more talks


Middle East Eye reports: Hamas has urged mediators to focus on implementing the ceasefire deal currently on the table rather than initiating new talks, which it says aims to provide Israel with “cover” to continue its war on Gaza.

The call, made on Sunday, comes days after US, Qatari and Egyptian mediators invited Israel and Hamas to attend a summit on 15 August to finalise an agreement.

While Hamas did not confirm whether it would participate or boycott the meeting, the Palestinian movement appeared to doubt participating.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been accused of blocking a ceasefire and perpetuating the war, said he would send a negotiations team to the summit.

In its statement, Hamas said that it had previously accepted a ceasefire proposal from mediators in May, welcomed US President Joe Biden’s outline later the same month and showed further flexibility towards new Israel demands.

Israeli colonists break into Al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy Israeli police protection

WAFA reports: Sunday morning, scores of Israeli colonists forcefully entered the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem, under the protection of Israeli police forces. According to eyewitnesses, the colonists broke into the mosque in groups, performing Talmudic rituals within its courtyards.

Coinciding with the incursion, Israeli police transformed the Old City of Jerusalem into a heavily fortified military zone. Hundreds of officers were deployed in close proximity around the mosque’s gates and throughout the Old City. The heightened security measures included strict controls on access for worshippers.

Preparations are underway by groups affiliated with the so-called Temple Mount movement to commemorate what they refer to as the “Destruction of the Temple.” Their plans include a human chain around the walls of the Old City scheduled for Monday evening, with the event starting from the Buraq Wall and extending towards the Old City. This will be followed by a flag-waving march.

Additionally, these groups are calling for a large-scale incursion into the Al-Aqsa Mosque on Tuesday to mark the same event.

Israeli forces take safety measures as fanatic Jewish settlers organize a provocative march in the Old City under the protection of Israeli forces on July 27, 2024 in Hebron, West Bank. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli forces take safety measures as fanatic Jewish settlers organize a provocative march in the Old City under the protection of Israeli forces on July 27, 2024 in Hebron, West Bank. [Amer Shallodi – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Hamas claims responsibility for Jordan Valley attack

Middle East Eye reports: Hamas has taken responsibility for a shooting attack in Jordan Valley, which killed an Israeli and injured another.

In a statement, the military wing of Hamas, Qassam Brigades, identified the man as 23-year-old Yonatan Deutsch, who was killed in the attack near an illegal Israeli settlement, and said he was a “Zionist soldier”.

It said the attack on the Israeli soldier comes as a response to the killing of more than a 100 people in Tabin school in Gaza on Saturday, stating that Hamas fighters in the occupied West Bank have “renewed their allgiance” to the new Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar.

Israel approves proposal to ban another media company

The Cradle reports: Israel approved on Sunday a proposal by Minister of Communications Shlomo Karhi to ban the Al Mayadeen media network from working inside of Israel for a second time. The decision includes the confiscation of its equipment and the blocking of its websites.

The Israeli government issued a previous order to block the Lebanese-based network from working in Israel in November 2023, claiming harm to Israel’s national security. The order expired in January, and Al Mayadeen resumed its work.

The decision to again block the network, viewed as sympathetic to the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, came after “the reappearance of terrorist representatives posing as journalists about two weeks ago,” a spokesman for Karhi said in a statement.

Al Mayadeen’s Hanaa Mahameed reported from Majdal Shams, a Druze town in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights, one day after a rocket killed 12 children on a soccer field there.

Mahameed reported that the rocket was fired by Israel, while Israel claimed it was fired by Hezbollah and that the children were Israeli rather than Syrians under Israeli occupation.

Days later, Israel used the killing of the 12 children as a pretext to launch an airstrike to assassinate top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr. Israel assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh one day after killing Shukr.

Al Jazeera has also been banned from reporting in Israel.


MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 11:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 11: at least 40,519* (39,897 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 622 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 11: at least 97,572 (including at least 92,152 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 11: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Palestinians’ harrowing stories of rape by Israeli soldiers (including female soldiers)
A Palestinian journalist visited Ismail Haniyeh’s home in Gaza to report on his death. Israel assassinated him too.
I reported a piece for the New York Times on antisemitism. I found a major error, but the Times didn’t care.
How Israel plans to whitewash its war crimes in Gaza
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children
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https://israelpalestinenews.org/gazans-running-from-death-day-309/

Israel has killed 1.8% of Gaza’s population – using American weapons – Day 308
[email protected] August 11, 2024 american weapons in gaza, gaza school bombing, genocide, occupation, uncommitted movement
Relatives of Palestinian children, who lost their lives following the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
The staggering death toll Israel has imposed on Gaza; update on horrific school bombing that killed 100: American-made weapon, Israel issues fake “terrorist” list, accuses Hamas of inflating fatality numbers; Israeli leaders speak openly about permanent occupation of Palestinian territories, tell US to mind its own business, support rapists over law; Uncommitted Movement says “arms embargo now”; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Israel has killed 1.8% of Gaza’s population, official figures show

Andalou Agency reports: Israel has killed around 1.8% of Gaza’s population since 7 October amid a devastating war on the enclave, according to figures released by the Palestinian Center Bureau of Statistics.

In a statement, the center said more than 39,000 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023.

“This constitutes around 1.8% of the total population in the territory,” it added.

According to the center, around 24% of the Palestinian victims in Gaza were young people.

These figures do not include the approximately 10,000 buried under rubble and presumed dead.

Relatives of Palestinians killed by the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Relatives of Palestinians killed by the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. (Photo by Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images) (photo)
US weapon used in Gaza City school massacre that killed 100

Electronic Intifada reports: Israel killed at least 100 Palestinians at a school being used as a shelter for displaced people in central Gaza City on Saturday, according to Gaza officials.

Many of those killed were shredded or burned beyond recognition, as documented in horrific video and photos of the carnage. Others who were present at the school remained unaccounted for after the massacre.

Video broadcast by Al Jazeera showed what the broadcaster’s correspondent Anas al-Sharif said was an “indescribable” scene as a camera panned across a room containing countless bodies in pieces:


Ramy Abdu, director of the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, said that some of the supposed Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives that Israel claimed to have targeted at Tabaeen school on Saturday were known to be uninvolved civilians; some had in fact been killed in other locations in previous days:



The deadly attack destroying the bodies of dozens of Palestinians also came one day after the US State Department announced that Washington would provide Israel $3.5 billion for additional US weapons and military equipment.

Israel’s chief military spokesperson claimed without evidence that the number of fatalities given by Palestinian officials was inflated.

“This was verified by intelligence, and the strike was carried out using three small, precise munitions which cannot cause the scale of damage that the Palestinians are reporting,” the spokesperson said.

According to Al Jazeera, the spokesperson also claimed that “no women and children were present” in the area that was targeted by three bombs.

Israeli officials have told their American counterparts they used small munitions – as opposed to larger bombs – during the airstrike in Gaza specifically to mitigate civilian harm, a US official familiar with the matter said.

When asked about the strike, an Israeli military official earlier told CNN the Israel Defense Forces had used “three small and precise munitions that cannot cause the damage the Palestinians claim they have caused.”

CNN also reported earlier that Israel used at least one US-manufactured precision-guided bomb during the strike, according to weapons experts.


Footage of the aftermath filmed by CNN showed parts of an explosive device that Trevor Ball, a former US Army explosive ordnance disposal technician, confirmed were from a GBU-39 small diameter bomb.

[NOTE: This “small diameter bomb” is housed in a 250-pound casing that is 6 feet long, with a 7.5-inch diameter. Its wingspan, when the wings are extended, is over 5 feet.

This is the same type of bomb that Israel used in its May attack on Rafah, which killed 45 mostly women and children in a location Israel had deemed safe. Again, the IDF spokesman claimed that care was taken to protect civilians, and precision bombs had been used. He added, “Our munition alone could not have ignited a fire of this size,” implying that Palestinians themselves were responsible for the death toll.]

Here is what it looks like when this type of bomb explodes:



Netanyahu insists occupied West Bank is ‘part of our homeland’, saying Israel will not give it up


Middle East Monitor reports: Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that the occupation will not relinquish control of the West Bank to the Palestinians, putting the opportunity for a two-state solution further out of reach.

In an interview with TIME Magazine which was published this week, Netanyahu stated that the occupied Palestinian territories of East Jerusalem and the West Bank are “part of our homeland. We intend to stay there”.

The Israeli premier reiterated his opposition to the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, saying he would only allow limited self-rule for the Palestinians in the occupied territories while Israel maintains security control, as is currently the case as the Palestinian Authority (PA) is limited to administrative duties and partial internal security.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation controls the territories’ security, airspace, ports of entry, planning policy, and partly its economy and tax collection, giving Tel Aviv overwhelming advantages and leverage in the dynamic.

“We don’t rule their land. We don’t run Ramallah. We don’t run Jenin”, Netanyahu claimed. “But we go in and take action when we have to prevent terrorism”, referring to the Palestinian resistance fighters and factions that inhabit the West Bank towns and cities.

NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance. Hamas has clearly and openly stated that its enemy is not the Jewish people, but the racist ideology of Zionism – the ideology under which Israel dispossessed 750,000 Palestinian people and exiled them to Gaza and other locations.

Ben Gvir calls for Gaza Strip to be under Israeli control ‘permanently’

Middle East Eye reports: Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, posted a message on X, calling for Israel to occupy the Gaza Strip permanently.

Ben Gvir voiced his opposition to US-backed ceasefire efforts, saying that Hamas must be “crushed” until it “completely surrenders”.

He proposed halting all humanitarian aid and fuel shipments into Gaza until all Israeli captives held by Hamas were released.

Ben Gvir also urged Israeli authorities to “encourage emigration” and advocated for permanent Israeli control over the Gaza Strip.

“Encourage emigration and occupy the territories of the Gaza Strip in order to keep them in our hands permanently. It’s in our hands,” he wrote.

Smotrich tells US to ‘respect Israeli democracy’

Middle East Eye reports: Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said the US needs to “respect Israeli democracy” when it comes to matters of Israel’s security.

Smotrich’s comments were in response to White House national security spokesperson John Kirby, who said the US would not allow “extremists” to push Gaza ceasefire negotiations off course.

“I respect the US’ position and thank it for its support for Israel in the face of regional threats, but I expect it to respect Israeli democracy and the position of Israel’s citizens and elected officials in relation to decisions that will affect the country’s security,” Smotrich said.

Israeli lawmaker calls for top Israeli military lawyer to stand trial, because she betrayed Israeli soldiers in rape case

Ha’aretz reports: Likud lawmaker Tali Gottlieb criticized the IDF’s Military Advocate General, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, during a discussion in the Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, and called for her to be put on trial.

Gottlieb accused Tomer-Yerushalmi of betraying Israel’s soldiers, referring to the case involving the abuse of a Palestinian detainee at the Sde Teiman facility.

Another lawmaker also criticized the Military Advocate General, accusing her of “obsessive persecution of our soldiers,” adding “Everyone should ask themselves whether they stand with our soldiers or with an obsessive Military Advocate General and an obsessive Attorney General … History will judge them.”

A new investigation from Israeli human rights organization reports that Israel is carrying on a "systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel."
A new investigation from Israeli human rights organization reports that Israel is carrying on a “systematic, institutional policy focused on the continual abuse and torture of all Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.” (screengrab)
Israeli army ‘still far from victory’ in Gaza: Army officers

Middle East Monitor reports: The Israeli army is “still far from victory” in the Gaza Strip as Tel Aviv continued its deadly offensive on the Palestinian enclave since 7 October, dozens of Israeli reserve officers said in a letter on Sunday, Anadolu reports.

“In the past few days, we have been astonished by repeated statements from senior army officials that victory is within reach and it is possible to move to the stage of pinpoint raids,” reads the letter signed by around 100 officers to Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi.

“We, who came from the field, know very well that the situation is still far from victory.”

The army officers said that Palestinian resistance factions still have cross-border capabilities such as UAVs, explosive drones and mortars.

“This is not what victory looks like!”

In February, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told ABC News that “victory is within reach.”

Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9.
Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9. (screengrab)
UNICEF faces challenges getting ‘simple materials’ into the Gaza Strip

Al Jazeera reports: UNICEF spokesperson Tess Ingram tells Al Jazeera the agency continues to face challenges in transporting materials into the Palestinian enclave and her colleagues have reported the UN children’s agency is still unable to provide recreational and stationary kits to children so they can resume learning after 10 months of no school.

She said UNICEF is trying to get in vaccinations to fight against polio after the virus was detected in sewage. It is also trying to bring in supplies like medicines, hygiene kits and construction equipment to help rebuild toilets.

Ingram explained that UNICEF had been able to access the central and northern Gaza Strip recently and the teams there had reported “increasing outbreaks” of various diseases, including scabies.

“Parents are trying to do whatever they can to treat rashes by boiling water with lemon and putting that on their children in the absence of having the proper medicine from health care centers,” she said.

A Palestinian girl clings to her mother in Gaza City, June 2 [Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu]
A Palestinian girl clings to her mother in Gaza City, June 2 [Dawoud Abo Alkas/Anadolu] (photo)
‘Arms embargo now’, says Uncommitted Movement after Harris speech

The Uncommitted Movement in the US that has been refusing to vote to show displeasure with Washington’s handling of the war on Gaza believes an arms embargo is the only way to show support for Palestinian civilians.

“Being pro-ceasefire must mean committing to not send another bomb dropped on Palestinians in Gaza,” the movement said in a post on X.

This comes after Kamala Harris told pro-Palestinian demonstrators in a rally speech that “now is the time” to achieve a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement amid the latest US push, as the administration prepares to send more funds to Israel to purchase weapons.


MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Mondoweiss: Toronto ‘charity’ trains students to join the Israeli military

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 10:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 10: at least 40,406* (39,790 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 616 in the West Bank (~140 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 10: at least 97,422 (including at least 92,002 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 10: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children
Hundreds of social media influencers attend Israel strategy summit in NYC
Supporting Israel Is Big Business in the U.S. for Israel partisans
Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza
Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli occupation, reactions, and take-aways

https://israelpalestinenews.org/israel-has-killed-1-8-of-gazas-population-using-american-weapons-day-308/

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills more than 100 people as they pray – Day 307
[email protected] August 10, 2024 anti-boycott legislation, ben gvir, gaza school bombing, military aid to israel, netzah yehuda, palestinian journalists killed, polio, sexual violence, torture, war crime
Palestinians inspect the destroyed building after an Israeli attack at the Et-Tabiin school where displaced people took shelter in the Ed-Deraj neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
Israel drops 6,000 pounds of bombs on Gaza school; US poised to send Israel $3.5 billion, including to extremist battalion; two more journalists killed; waiting for “inevitable” polio outbreak as Israel blocks vaccines; new possible war crime revealed; more displacement; water and sanitation systems in shambles; more on Israeli torture of Palestinian prisoners – as Biden admin shrugs; Israeli alleged rapist calls for support;

yet another anti-boycott bill introduced in Senate;

more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Israeli strike on Gaza school kills more than 100 people

Al Jazeera reports: More than 100 Palestinians have been killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City, according to officials in the enclave.

Three Israeli bombs hit al-Tabin school, located in the Daraj district, Gaza’s civil defense agency said of the attack on Saturday, which it described as a “horrific massacre”.

Women, children and the elderly are reported to be among the dead and the toll was expected to rise. The attack took place while people were performing morning prayers and triggered a fire that ripped through the building.

Ismail al-Thawabta, the head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, told Al Jazeera that the Israeli army used three bombs weighing 2,000 pounds (907kg) each in its attack.

Without providing evidence, the Israeli military said that it had intelligence indicating there were 20 Hamas and Islamic Jihad fighters, including senior commanders, operating from the school.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked schools used as shelters in Gaza, claiming they are command centers for Hamas, the Palestinian group that governs the territory, to hide fighters and manufacture weapons.

Mahmoud Basal, a spokesman for the civil defense agency, said: “The school area is strewn with dead bodies and body parts. It is very difficult for paramedics to identify a whole dead body. There’s an arm here, a leg there. Bodies are ripped to pieces.”

Al Jazeera’s Mahmoud said among those killed were survivors of attacks in different evacuation centers over the last 10 days.

MIDDLE EAST EYE ADDS: The civil defense said the strikes targeted two floors of the school, with the first striking an area inhabited by displaced women, and the second hitting the ground floor area which was used as a prayer hall.

As rape charges multiply, US to release $3.5 billion in military assistance for Israel

AntiWar reports: The State Department is set to release $3.5 billion in Foreign Military Financing to Israel. The massive transfer of funds comes as the White House is asking Israel to investigate claims of rape in its detention centers for Palestinians.

CNN reported speaking with multiple officials who confirmed the funds will be released. The money was allocated by Congress in the $95 billion foreign military aid bill that included $61 billion for Ukraine and $14 billion for Israel.

Foreign Military Financing (FMF) is a State Department program that gives US taxpayer dollars to foreign governments to purchase weapons from American arms dealers. However, Tel Aviv is allowed to use some of the FMF funds on Israeli-made weapons.

As the funds are used to contract with arms deals, the weapons are typically not delivered immediately.

Israel is heavily dependent on the US to arm its military, giving Washington significant leverage over Tel Aviv. Over the ten-month Israeli onslaught in Gaza, the White House has resisted domestic pressure to condition arm sales to Israel.

The release of funds will likely be viewed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a green light for Israel to continue its brutal treatment of the Palestinians.

AL JAZEERA ADDS: The new funds for Israel to spend on US weapons and military supplies come from a supplemental funding bill of $14.5bn that was passed by Congress in April and has been announced as criticism of Israel grows over the killings of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

Part of the new military aid will also go to an Israeli army unit, which has been accused of carrying out serious human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and which had faced sanctions amid an investigation by US authorities into its abuses.

RECOMMENDED READING: To continue the Gaza genocide, Israel and the US must destroy the laws of war.

A Palestinian woman, Miada Abu Anza takes shelter with her five children in a UN school in Khan Younis on August 6, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu]
A Palestinian woman, Miada Abu Anza takes shelter with her five children in a UN school in Khan Younis on August 6, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu] (photo)
US declares controversial Israeli battalion eligible for assistance

Al Jazeera reports: The United States has announced that Netzah Yehuda, a controversial Israeli battalion notorious among Palestinians for repressive activities in the occupied West Bank, is eligible for US military assistance.

The administration of President Joe Biden had considered blocking the battalion from receiving US assistance amid reports of involvement in human rights violations, but Department of State spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Friday that such abuses had been “effectively remediated”.

Under federal regulations known as the Leahy Law, the US is required to cut off assistance to military units involved in gross violations of human rights, but critics say that the US has long failed to apply the rule to Israel.

In a column for the legal forum Just Security, Charles Blaha, who directed the office of the State Department tasked with enforcing the Leahy Law from 2016 to 2023, said, “The decision [to fund Netzah Yehuda] strongly suggests that the US position is likely a result, in significant part, of pressure by Prime Minister Netanyahu.

“Months ago, when news broke that the State Department was considering Netzah Yehuda for ineligibility, Netanyahu expressed outrage and vowed to oppose application of the law,” the column reads.

“Against that backdrop, the Secretary’s decision sends a terrible message to Israel and others: that pressure on US officials works, and that Israel is essentially de facto exempt from US law.”

ELSEWHERE: The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) says the US secretary of state has “knowingly violated US law by backtracking” on plans to sanction the Netzah Yehuda battalion over rights abuse allegations.

The Israeli military unit “has clearly committed gross human rights violations using US weapons”, CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

“Secretary Blinken’s cowardly, morally reprehensible and blatantly illegal decision confirms what numerous State Department whistleblowers have said: he is disregarding the conclusions of career diplomats, as well as experts on federal and international law,” Mitchell said.

RECOMMENDED READING: Inside Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Israel’s army unit bracing for US sanctions

Israeli soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion hold morning prayers as they take part in their annual unit training in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, near the Syrian border, May 19, 2014. — MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images
Israeli soldiers of the Netzah Yehuda Battalion hold morning prayers as they take part in their annual unit training in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights, near the Syrian border, May 19, 2014. — MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images (photo)
Two more journalists killed in Gaza

Al Jazeera reports: Gaza’s government media office has identified the latest journalist fatalities as:

Tamim Abu Muammar, who worked for Palestine TV.
Abdullah Maher al-Suwaisi, who worked for al-Aqsa news channel.
This brings the total number of journalists killed in Gaza since the start of Israel’s assault on the besieged enclave to 168, the office said.

“The media office strongly condemns the targeting and killing of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation,” it said in a statement. The number of journalists killed since October 7th is now 168.

Polio outbreak in Gaza ‘inevitable’ and a matter of ‘days or weeks’: Experts

Andalou Agency reports: Warnings of an imminent polio outbreak in Gaza are growing as Israel shows no signs of either ending its deadly assault on the devastated Palestinian enclave or lifting a crippling blockade on essential supplies.

Gaza’s Health Ministry declared the Palestinian territory a “polio epidemic zone” on July 30 after samples of the virus were detected in wastewater, triggering fears of a resurgence of a disease eradicated from the region over 25 years ago.

With millions of displaced Palestinians living in appalling conditions with no healthcare facilities or even basic medical supplies, experts see an outbreak of the viral disease as “inevitable.”

“We’re expecting a polio outbreak in the next number of days or weeks,” Francis Hughes, Gaza Response Director for global humanitarian agency CARE International, told Anadolu.

Polio is a particular threat to children under age 5 and especially infants less than 2 years old. The virus attacks the nervous system, leading to spinal and respiratory paralysis, and can prove fatal.

ELSEWHERE: The Palestinian Health Ministry accused Israel on 7 August of preventing the entry of over a million desperately needed polio vaccines into the Gaza Strip.

“The Gaza Strip needs 1.3 million doses of polio vaccine … Israel is still refusing to allow vaccines into the Strip,” said Musa Abed, Director of Health Care at the ministry.




HRW: Pregnant woman among seven killed in possible Israeli ‘war crime’


Human Rights Watch reports: In its latest report, Human Rights Watch documented an incident on 21 December in which Israeli forces stormed a home in Gaza City, “throwing grenades inside and opening fire on a room where a civilian family was sheltering”.

The organization said the attack killed seven people, including a pregnant woman, and severely injured two, including a five-year-old.

“Witnesses also allege that Israeli forces shot a blind 73-year-old man after securing the building and forcing all other family members out,” the report read.

“The incident should be investigated as a possible war crime, and forces involved should be held accountable.”

Belkis Wille, the associate crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch, said: “There is no excuse for soldiers storming into a home full of civilians and firing without precaution. They decimated a Palestinian family and orphaned a small child who may never be able to walk again.”

Wille added that “this incident highlights the deadly cost of Israeli forces’ failure to safeguard, and in some cases to apparently target civilian lives in Gaza, including children”.

Israel targets shelter schools in systematic forced evacuation of the displaced people of Gaza

Euro-Med Monitor reports: The Israeli army is increasingly targeting schools that provide shelter for the displaced population in Gaza City, killing and wounding hundreds of them in the process. It has also issued orders for the illegal forced evacuation of Gaza from the north to the south, in a systematic effort fueled by revenge to drive residents from their homes and places of displacement and rob them of any stability.

In just eight days, Israeli aircraft attacked nine schools in Gaza City that served as shelters for thousands of displaced people. They destroyed the schools above the heads of the occupants, killing 79 Palestinians and injuring 143 more—mostly women and children—in addition to several other victims who were buried beneath the rubble and could not be retrieved due to the lack of the necessary tools.

(Read the full article here.)

Palestinians mourn after an Israeli attack at the Et-Tabiin school where displaced people took shelter in the Ed-Deraj neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians mourn after an Israeli attack at the Et-Tabiin school where displaced people took shelter in the Ed-Deraj neighborhood in Gaza City, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency] (photo)
As many as 70,000 Palestinians displaced from Khan Younis

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) says an estimated 60,000 to 70,000 people have been forced to flee the southern Gaza city towards al-Mawasi since Thursday.

“Displacement continues for thousands of families across Gaza,” UNRWA said.

“People in Gaza are exhausted, and they have nowhere to go.”

Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9.
Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9. (screengrab)
Gaza’s water, sanitation, and hygiene systems in shambles, at high risk of flooding

OCHA reports: Water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) Cluster partners are ramping up preparedness actions for the winter season, with a particular focus on flood risks, amid severe shortages of essential WASH supplies and widespread damage to WASH infrastructure, including the stormwater drainage system.

Already before the war, approximately 180 locations across Gaza were identified as being at high-risk of flooding and the stormwater drainage network was deemed inadequate.

The situation is estimated to have significantly deteriorated due to extensive damage to wastewater networks, storm drainage and canals, combined with blockages caused by debris and rubbish.

In heavily affected areas such as Khan Younis, where over 80 per cent of infrastructure has been assessed as compromised, there is already significant clogging and flooding, and raw sewage is accumulating in streets and at IDP sites, particularly in areas where there is a high concentration of people such as Al Mawasi.

During the rainy season, this deterioration poses a dual threat of increased flooding and water source contamination, which could lead to serious public health risks, the WASH Cluster warned.

Water in Jabaliya is hard to come by and mixed with sewage. Here, people wait for hours and receive just one gallon of contaminated water.
Water in Jabaliya is hard to come by and mixed with sewage. Here, people wait for hours and receive just one gallon of contaminated water. (screenshot)
Israeli minister Ben-Gvir extends visitor ban for Palestinian prisoners

Al Jazeera reports: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has signed an order banning all visits to Palestinian prisoners for another month, extending a ban that has been in place since Israel launched its war on Gaza.

In a post on social media, Ben-Gvir said: “The damned terrorists deserve the minimum provided by law”.

“This is how I act and this is how I will continue to act,” he wrote.

Palestinian prisoners, thousands of whom are held without charge or trial, have not received visits since October 2023, according to reports, as Ben-Gvir has extended his ban on visits for 10 consecutive months.

Itamar Ben-Gvir was among the demonstrators at Sde Teiman protesting the detention of soldiers for allegedly raping a Palestinian prisoner. He called them the “best heroes” and described their arrests as “shameful”.

NOTE: Israel is currently holding nearly 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 250 of them are children, 86 are women, and over 3,400 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.

Video of sexual abuse at Israeli prison is just latest evidence that Sde Teiman is a torture site

The Intercept reports: As early as the first month of Israel’s war on Gaza, Sde Teiman, a secretive Israeli military prison in the Negev desert, had been raising alarm bells for Israeli human rights attorney Roni Pelli and other rights advocates.

Pelli and her colleagues started to hear reports from whistleblowers about poor conditions for Palestinians imprisoned inside Sde Teiman. They heard of instances of violence committed by soldiers against detained Palestinians, and, in one case, a Palestinian who died there.

Since then, media reports about the prison have mounted. A CNN investigation in May revealed that Palestinian detainees were restrained, beaten, and blindfolded; wounded Palestinians were strapped down onto beds, forced to wear diapers, and fed through straws; and prisoners’ limbs were amputated due to untreated wounds from restraints, and such operations took place without anesthesia.

Later in May, an Intercept investigation found that hundreds of Palestinian doctors have disappeared into Israeli detention. A month later, a separate report from Haaretz revealed the Israel Defense Forces were investigating 48 deaths of Palestinians from Gaza who were in Israeli custody, among them 36 who were detained at Sde Teiman. Israeli media began to refer to the prison as “Israel’s Guantánamo Bay.”

The U.S. State Department only commented on Sde Teiman when pressed by reporters after the release of the CNN report. In May, Vedant Patel, deputy spokesperson for the department, said “we’re looking into these and other allegations of abuse against Palestinians in detention.” He added that the U.S. had been “clear and consistent with any country, including Israel, that it must treat all detainees humanely, with dignity, in accordance with international law, and it must respect detainees’ human rights.”

He then claimed the U.S. had asked the Israeli government to investigate the claims itself.

(Read the full article here.)

NOTE: This US State Dept response is typical after allegations are made against Israel: framing the issue as a hypothetical while refusing to acknowledge the facts as presented by multiple human rights organizations – and ignoring the fact that Israel is incapable of investigating its own crimes.

Israel’s self-investigations consistently whitewash its crimes and fail to appropriately punish the perpetrators. Israeli sources, including the government itself, have a long track record of lying (for example, this and this and this.)

A leaked video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza has emerged. (Photo: video grab)
A leaked video showing Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee from Gaza has emerged. (Photo: video grab) (photo)
Israeli soldier, accused of raping a Palestinian prisoner, reveals his identity

A masked Israeli soldier, accused of participating in the rape of a Palestinian prisoner, revealed his identity in a video, appealing for support from the Israeli public.

Republican senators introduce bill banning boycotts of Israel

Middle East Eye reports: Twelve Republican US senators have introduced the Countering Hate Against Israel by Federal Contractors (Chai) Act, which would prohibit federal contracts with entities that boycott Israel.

The lead sponsor, Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, said in a press release that “businesses who boycott Israel only seek to normalise antisemitism”.

His move follows the same bill’s introduction in the House of Representatives in July of last year, sponsored by Republican Representative Claudia Tenney. The Chai bill remains in the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, pending a vote.

Risch previously wrote an opinion article in The Washington Times arguing that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (Unrwa) should be disbanded.

In February this year, the House also passed the IGO Anti-Boycott Act, which prohibits US citizens from participating in boycotts organised by any “international governmental organisation” against US allies.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Mondoweiss: End Israel’s system of economic apartheid in Palestine

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 9:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 9: at least 40,406* (39,790 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]

This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 616 in the West Bank (~140 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 9: at least 97,422 (including at least 92,002 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 9: ~1,486 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 331 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**

Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.

† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
Why the West Bank is on the verge of economic collapse
Netanyahu’s plan to involve US in regional war on its behalf
Western media continue to withhold the truth about Israel and Gaza – 4 stories
“Well What SHOULD Israel Have Done After October 7?”
Welcome to Hell
More dead children. More BBC ‘news’ channelling Israeli propaganda as its own
U.S. media downplays and ignores ICJ ruling declaring Israeli occupation illegal
Israeli soldiers tell story of savage cruelty in Gaza – one given blessing by the West
Searching for Gaza’s missing children
What Would You Do With An Extra $320 Million?
Assassination of Haniyeh an intentional, dangerous escalation – Parsi, Macgregor
When Israel Burned Refugees Alive, Establishment Media Called It a ‘Tragic Accident’
Israel has turbocharged West Bank housing demolitions under the cover of war
Western media ignores Israeli confirmation of Hannibal Directive on 7 Oct
US Should Arrest Benjamin Netanyahu When He’s in Washington
Airwars investigation: Israeli airstrikes uniquely lethal (video)
Hesen Jabr paid the price of conscience
Gaza genocide denial
Why the news media’s job is to groom us
‘Disappeared, buried, detained’: The horrors of Gaza’s missing children
Hundreds of social media influencers attend Israel strategy summit in NYC
Supporting Israel Is Big Business in the U.S. for Israel partisans
Toys, spices, sewing machines: the items Israel banned from entering Gaza
Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli occupation, reactions, and take-aways


https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-strike-on-gaza-school-kills-more-than-100-people-as-they-pray-day-307/

The oligarchs are stronger than ever
CPT (NS) BRANDON
Two significant events happened this year.

Firstly, there was a purge in the cabinet. Though the hardcore oligarch loyalists WKS and MBT were kicked out (they had to be), the real purge took place against GY, LBH, RL, Zainul and GCT. This completes the work that was started in 2006, when Tan Soo Khoon, Tan Cheng Bock and Wang Kai Yuen were retired.

Secondly, TCB narrowly failed in his bid to upset the elite oligarchy's apple cart to at least wrest one national institution from their grasp. He failed because the invisible hand that controls Singapore decided to create a four-cornered contest to give the illusion of democracy, but which actually served only to make TJS a lightning rod for opposition votes, thus denying TCB the chance to win.

Every institution in Singapore is now under the control of Singapore's own version of the Illuminati.

Government - LHL
President - TT
Temasek - Ho Ching
GIC - LHL, LKY

The cabinet is now staffed with more hardcore loyalists than ever, with the likes of Shanmugam being promoted to high office. Besides that, we also have Lawrence Wong (ex-PPS to LHL), Ong Ye Kung (ex-PPS to LHL, who thankfully lost), Khaw Boon Wan (ex-PPS to LKY), Gan Kim Yong (ex-PPS to whoever) and of course Tin Pei Ling (wife of LHL's current PPS). There is also Grace Fu, whose father James Fu was LKY's loyal press secretary, and Ong Teng Koon, whose father was LKY's infamous underground 'fixer'.

Most notably there are no moderates or reformists left. Vivian has sold his soul to the dark side after finding that resistance was futile. Tharman, as good a man as he may be, is beholden to LHL for saving his arse. Ng Eng Hen has been described as being a mini-LKY. Teo Chee Hean also has blood ties with OCBC and by extension, our new President.

It's all one big incestuous orgy.

Anyone who is on the outer circle is just treading carefully because they know that one wrong step could ruin their career. The likes of Gan Kim Yong, Lim Hng Kiang, Lim Swee Say and S Iswaran are just studious and obedient bureaucrats who do as they're told. The likes of Chan Chun Sing, Inderjit Singh, Irene Ng, Cynthia Phua and Josephine Teo on the other hand are just zealots who think that by loudly parroting what their bosses are saying, it will endear them to the elite oligarchy and pave the way to higher office.

Singapore needs more TCBs - people from the inside, but who are brave enough to stand up to whatever they perceive as wrong.. even if it means ruffling a few powerful feathers.

The only hopes? I am thinking that the only people who even have the slightest chance of standing up for their conscience are George Yeo, Tan Chuan Jin and to a much smaller extent Lily Neo, Denise Phua and Heng Swee Keat (even though he was also ex-PPS to LKY)


Thoughts?

https://www.sammyboy.com/threads/the-oligarchs-are-stronger-than-ever.100388/