Horrific Israeli attack in Khan Younis with almost no warning – Day 289
[email protected] July 23, 2024 garbage in Gaza, israeli attack on UN convoy, israeli hostages killed, kamala harris, khan younis attack, knesset, october 7th myths, Palestinian journalists, polio vaccine, unrwa, west bank children, Yemen
Palestinians, including women and children, living in the east of Khan Younis city move towards safe areas with whatever belongings they can take with them after Israel announced that an operation will be carried out and ordered the Palestinians to evacuate the area immediately in Khan Yunis, Gaza on July 22, 2024. (photo)
A77 Gazans killed in Khan Younis with no chance to flee; Israeli army admits leaving Palestinian man with Down Syndrome to die; journalists killed by Israel reaches 163; Israeli forces fire on UN convoy; water and garbage crisis in Gaza; polio vaccines for Israeli soldiers, but not for Gazan civilians; Israel killed 2 more Israeli hostages; 250% increase in killing of West Bank children; Yemeni harbor still ablaze after Israeli strike; Knesset members listen to debunked myths of Oct 7; our founding fathers supported Israel?; JD Vance to skip Netanyahu speech; Dem Majority for Israel endorses Harris; potential VPs regarding Israel; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Israel gives 400,000 Palestinians minutes to flee Khan Younis before latest blitz

The Cradle reports: The Israeli army ordered the sudden evacuation of over 400,000 Palestinians taking shelter in eastern Khan Younis on 22 July, dropping leaflets in the besieged city moments before warplanes began their raids.

At least 77 deaths and 200 wounded have been reported in the aftermath of the attacks.

Ha’aretz reports that the death toll from this operation has risen to 89, that 68 are reported missing, and 263 more people were injured. 13 houses in the city were reportedly directly targeted.

Authorities at Nasser Medical Complex appealed for urgent blood donations, saying it faces a shortage of blood units, “which poses a serious threat to the lives of the sick and injured in light of the ongoing massacres carried out by the occupation forces against the innocent and civilians.”

“The IDF is about to forcefully operate against the terror organizations and therefore calls on the remaining population left in the eastern neighborhoods of Khan Younis to temporarily evacuate to the adjusted humanitarian area in Al-Mawasi,” the Israeli military said in a statement on Monday morning.

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.

Israeli Army Radio reported that Monday’s air raids in Khan Younis are the most violent since the end of the military operation in the city earlier this year.

Local reports say many victims are still under the rubble and scattered along the streets, with ambulance and civil defense crews unable to reach them due to the violent and continuous shelling.

AL JAZEERA ADDS: Many fleeing Palestinians are hesitant to join the swelling tent camps in al-Mawasi, declared a humanitarian zone in May, after a recent attack on the area killed at least 92 people and wounded more than 300, according to figures from the Health Ministry. That attack caused global outrage.

OCHA ADDS: The new evacuation order by the Israeli military encompasses about 8.7 square kilometres (3.4 square miles) in the so-called “humanitarian zone” in Al Mawasi area of Khan Younis decreases the area of the zone by nearly 15 per cent.




Gaza: Israeli army admits abandoning Palestinian man with Down syndrome

Middle East Eye reports: The Israeli army has admitted that a Palestinian man with Down syndrome who died after being attacked and injured by an army dog was abandoned by its soldiers.

The army’s admission comes two weeks after Middle East Eye originally reported on the death of Muhammed Bhar following a raid by Israeli soldiers on his family home in eastern Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood on 3 July.

His family told MEE they had been forced at gunpoint to leave behind the 24-year-old after he was mauled by the dog. Relatives described Muhammed as “like a one-year-old”, and said he needed help eating.

Family members contacted the Red Cross daily for a week, pleading for Muhammed’s release or medical treatment, but were told that the Israeli army was not cooperating.

After a week, and once Israeli troops withdrew from Shujaiya, they returned to find his decomposing body at their home.

An Israeli spokesperson said, “The IDF regrets the harm to civilians during the fighting.”

Number of journalists killed in Gaza rises to 163

The Israeli army struck a tent sheltering journalists in Al Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, central Gaza on Monday

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At least one person, journalist Haydar Ibrahim al-Msaddar, was killed while several others were wounded and suffered serious injuries.

Msaddar was a media researcher and a specialist in media affairs, according to local authorities.

According to his friend and fellow journalist Islam Bader, Msaddar had specialized in the study of propaganda and public opinion.

“All the contents in the tent are journalistic equipment,” Youssef al-Hindi, a rescue worker who attended the scene after hearing the explosion, told Middle East Eye.

Holding up a press helmet he found at the scene, Hindi said that he believes the journalists’ tent was intentionally targeted.

Khalil al-Dakran, a doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, agreed. It was the second time a tent in the grounds of the hospital had been hit, he said.



Israeli forces shoot at UN convoy heading for Gaza City

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN agency for Palestinians (UNRWA), said that Israeli forces shot at a UN convoy heading towards Gaza City on Sunday.

The movement of the convoy was coordinated and approved by the Israeli authorities.

“One vehicle received at least five bullets while waiting just ahead of the Israeli Forces’ checkpoint south of Wadi Gaza,” Lazzarini said on X.

“The car was severely damaged, it left the convoy. The teams re-assembled & finally reached Gaza City.”

He concluded saying that “those responsible must be held accountable.”


Medical Threat: Water and Garbage in Gaza

A new report by PAX, an international NGO, highlights the growing public health risks of solid waste exposure in Gaza due to the collapse of the waste management system and blocked access to designated landfills by Israeli forces.

The report especially highlighted the potential medical threat of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), whereby patients in conflict areas fail to respond to antibiotic treatments, which health experts have linked to the degradation and damage of water and wastewater treatment infrastructure as well as to heavy-metal exposure including munition remnants.

The environmental consequences of the crisis are also enormous, according to the report, as they can render Gaza wholly uninhabitable and cause grave ecosystem and public health problems in the overall region due to the contamination of agricultural lands and the aquifer and the possible penetration of toxic substances into the food chain.

The report presents a number of short-term and long-term recommendations for policymakers.

FOR A SAMPLING OF REPORTS ON ISRAEL’S RECENT HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, SEE Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)

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Israel launches polio vaccination campaign for soldiers in Gaza, nothing for Palestinians

The New Arab reports: On Sunday, the Israeli army launched a campaign to vaccinate its soldiers who are carrying out military operations in the Gaza Strip to avoid the infection of poliovirus, while ignoring the Palestinian population.

Israel’s vaccination campaign occurs after an official announcement issued by the Palestinian health ministry said it discovered the spread of the poliovirus in the wastewater in the war-torn, besieged Gaza Strip.

“The coastal enclave has been suffering from the lack of medicine and even vaccines that would be enough for the local people to avoid the spread of the poliovirus,” said sources.

Meanwhile, Israel claimed “it sent about 300,000 polio vaccines to Gaza in cooperation with international organizations since the beginning of the war […] which is enough for more than a million citizens in Gaza.”

“All the Israeli claims are not true […] it seems that the Israeli authorities decided to kill all the Palestinians in Gaza, either through the strikes or diseases and starvation,” Ismail Thawabta, the director of the Palestinian government media office in Gaza, remarked to TNA.

HA’ARETZ ADDS: The IDF stresses that the soldiers not make any use of the local Gazan water system, and that the army regularly brings in large quantities of water from Israel, including millions of bottles of water for drinking and bathing, and tons of ice, as well as field showers, soap and disinfectant wipes.

According to a recent Lancet study, the death toll in Gaza could be at least 186,000 dead due to direct and indirect impacts of Israel’s war on Gaza.

RECOMMENDED READING (March 2021): Israel’s pattern of broken Covid vaccine promises to Palestinians – is it genocide?

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Knesset passes bills to close UNRWA, label it ‘terrorist organization’

Middle East Eye reports: Israel’s parliament has passed three bills in their first readings to close the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and designate it a “terrorist organization”.

The first bill prohibits UNRWA from operating any mission, providing any service or conducting any activity on Israeli territory. It was passed 58-9, The Times of Israel newspaper reported.

The second bill was approved 63-9 and calls for stripping UNRWA personnel of their legal immunities and privileges offered to UN staff in Israel.

The third bill calls for designating the UN agency as a “terrorist organization” and requires Israel to cut ties with it. It was passed by a 50-10 vote.

The three bills will now go to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee for further deliberation. They will require two more readings to become effective.

Israel has lobbied hard to have UNRWA closed, especially since it began its war on Gaza in October.

RECOMMENDED READING: Designation of Palestinian Rights Groups as Terrorists is an Attack on the Human Rights Movement

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Two Israeli hostages confirmed dead – IDF admits likely at fault

Jerusalem Post reports: The Israeli military confirmed on Monday that two more hostages are dead, and that they were probably mistakenly killed by IDF forces during battles in Khan Younis some months ago.

On March 10, Hamas had announced that the two hostages had been killed, but Israeli officials chose to assume the announcement was a bluff, and did not believe it. Now, based on “new, unspecified intelligence,” they have accepted their deaths as fact.

The IDF did not disclose the exact circumstances of the hostages’ deaths, but did admit it is likely that they were mistakenly killed by Israeli forces.

NOTE: Hamas offered a prisoner swap immediately after October 7th, but Israel rejected it.

RECOMMENDED READING: Israel has repeatedly rejected Hamas truce offers

Israel’s Netanyahu says deal could be nearing for hostages

The New Arab reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told families of hostages held in Gaza that a deal that would secure their loved ones’ release could be nearing, his office said on Tuesday.

“The conditions are undoubtedly ripening. This is a good sign,” Netanyahu told the families on Monday in Washington, where was expected to meet US President Joe Biden later this week after making an address to Congress.

Efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire deal, outlined by Biden in May and mediated by Egypt and Qatar, have gained momentum over the past month. On Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said negotiators were “driving toward the goal line.”

Ruby Chen, father of dual US-Israeli citizen Itai Chen, a soldier whose body is being held in Gaza, was one of the family members who met with Netanyahu.

“He did say that conditions were ripening but I’m taking that with a pinch of salt,” Chen told Israeli Army Radio.

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Israel’s West Bank Assault Sparks 250% Surge in Killings of Palestinian Kids

Common Dreams reports: Three days after the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion stating that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza is unlawful, the United Nations children’s rights agency said that after decades of being “exposed to horrific violence,” the number of children who have been killed in the West Bank since last October has skyrocketed.

Since Israel began its bombardment of the Palestinian territories nearly 10 months ago, 143 Palestinian children have been killed in the West Bank, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The number represents a 250% increase compared to the nine months preceding October 7th.

“The situation has deteriorated significantly, coinciding with the escalation of hostilities inside Gaza,” said Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF. “We are seeing frequent allegations of Palestinian children being detained on their way home from school, or shot while walking on the streets. The violence needs to stop now.”

Some of the killings of children in the West Bank over the last 10 months have received international attention, like the Israeli forces’ shooting of two children, Basil Suleiman Abu al-Wafa and Adam Samer al-Ghoul, during a raid on the Jenin refugee camp in November.

Al-Ghoul, who was nine, was shown on CCTV footage trying to run away from IDF soldiers when he was gunned down.

Since October, two Israeli children have been killed in fighting the West Bank, said UNICEF.

RECOMMENDED READING: Genocide alert issued over Israeli violence in West Bank

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Yemeni harbor still ablaze two days after Israeli attack, as US says Israel justified

Al Jazeera reports: Firefighting teams are struggling to contain a blaze at Yemen’s Hodeidah port, two days after a deadly Israeli strike damaged oil storage facilities and endangered aid ships in the harbor, AFP reports.

Firefighting teams appear to have made little progress. The blaze appears to be expanding in some parts of the port amid fears it could reach food storage facilities.

High-resolution satellite images taken by Maxar Technologies showed flames consuming a heavily damaged fuel storage area at the harbor in Hodeidah, a city on the Red Sea.

An analysis of satellite imagery from Planet by the Dutch peace organization PAX showed at least 33 destroyed oil storage tankers, said Wim Zwijnenburg, a project leader with the organization.

“We expect [to find] more damage as not all storage tanks are visible because of heavy smoke” from the fire and burning fuel, Zwijnenburg said.

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Knesset hears [fictitious] accounts of Hamas rape, infanticide from “casualty identification unit”

Israel Hayom reports: In a chilling testimony before Knesset, Rabbi Moshe Dickstein, who served as a reservist in the IDF’s Southern Command, provided disturbing details of the alleged atrocities committed by Hamas members during the October 7 attack on Israeli communities.

NOTE: Israel has disseminated numerous atrocity stories about the October 7th attack that have since been proven untrue. In addition, an unknown but significant number of the Israeli soldiers and civilians killed on October 7 were shown to have been killed by Israeli fire. The Israeli military has also disseminated false stories about civilians captured.

Visit https://www.oct7factcheck.com/index for a growing list of debunked myths.

“The first body we came across was an overturned stroller. Inside the stroller was a baby, and his head was thrown aside with a knife in it. The woman we found, presumably the mother, was lying on the couch with blood flowing from her private area. We were told to collect only the bodies. In the next stage, they would come to clean up the blood and everything else,” Rabbi Dickstein said, choking back tears.

The rabbi continued with the difficult [and fabricated] descriptions: “And so we went from house to house and found women lying on the floor with legs spread, it’s indescribable. Another house and another house, then also in the field. They cut off men’s genitals, and we found women with severed breasts. A pregnant woman with her belly opened up to reveal the umbilical cord and the baby with a knife in its body.”

NOTE: There is zero evidence that any of these alleged incidents actually occurred. Israeli media and others have thoroughly debunked these and similar stories months ago.



Colonists break into Jerusalem’s Aqsa Mosque, perform Talmudic rituals

WAFA reports: Israeli colonists, under the protection of Israeli police, Monday morning broke into Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied Jerusalem.

Eyewitnesses said that dozens of colonists entered the holy site in groups, conducted provocative tours throughout the compound, and performed Talmudic rituals.

During the incursion, Israeli police imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian worshippers to the mosque.

Additionally, Israeli police intensified the restrictions at the gates of the Old City, effectively turning the area into a military zone.

Ahistorical statement by Speaker Johnson: Supporting Israel Is One of America’s ‘Founding Principles’

Antiwar reports: House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) described US support for Israel as one of America’s “founding principles” during a speech at an event hosted by the Republican Jewish Committee on July 18.

“It is an important principle that America and Israel stand together resolutely. That is part of who we are as a country. It’s one of our founding principles. I believe that we maintain peace through strength, and I think that the relationship with Israel is essential to who we are as Americans,” Johnson said.

Since the modern state of Israel was created in 1948, it’s unclear what Johnson meant when he said the US-Israel relationship is a “founding principle.” The most well-known Founding Fathers would also disagree with Johnson since they strongly warned against permanent alliances and “attachments” to other nations.

In his farewell address in 1796, George Washington said, “A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter, without adequate inducement or justification.”

Johnson also threatened Democratic lawmakers with possible arrest if they protest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress, which is scheduled for this Thursday.

“There’s a number of Democrats in the House who have said they are going to boycott the event, and then some others are gonna protest,” he said. “We’re gonna have extra sergeants at arms on the floor, and if anybody gets out of hand the Speaker of the House will bang the gavel. We’re gonna arrest people if we have to do it. We’re gonna get the message out.”

RECOMMENDED READING: Netanyahu purveyed a fictional history of Israel to Jordan Peterson


Palestinian families flee their village of Tantura, May 1948. During its founding war to create a Jewish state in Palestine, Israeli forces committed numerous massacres like the one in Tantura and worked to expel the indigenous population of Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Photo from National Library of Israel. (photo)
Democratic Majority for Israel endorses Harris: ‘She stands shoulder to shoulder with Israel’

Ha’aretz reports: The Democratic Majority for Israel has wholeheartedly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris for the party’s nomination for the upcoming presidential election.

“We proudly endorsed Kamala Harris as part of the Biden-Harris ticket in 2020 and again in 2024. Since then, the Vice President has helped lead the most pro-Israel administration in American history, standing shoulder to shoulder with Israel as it has faced unprecedented attacks on its homeland and people,” said DMFI President & CEO Mark Mellman.

RECOMMENDED READING: Democratic bigwigs create group DMFI to promote Israel to progressives

GOP Jewish group slams Harris for ‘snubbing’ Netanyahu; J.D. Vance won’t attend Netanyahu’s speech to Congress

Ha’aretz reports: The Republican Jewish Coalition has described as “disgraceful” what it described as “Kamala Harris’ first official act as the presumptive Democratic nominee for President of the United States […] to snub the leader of America’s key strategic ally, the Jewish state. Kamala Harris would be a total disaster for the US-Israel relationship,” the RJC said.

Prior to Biden’s withdrawal from the presidential race, Harris was scheduled to be on the road campaigning for him during Netanyahu’s address to Congress. She was also supposed to meet with the Israeli prime minister, though it remains unclear if this meeting will still occur.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s running mate and the Republican senator from Ohio, J.D. Vance, has opted to hit the campaign trail rather than attending Netanyahu’s speech. It remains unclear whether he or Trump will speak or meet with the Israeli prime minister during his U.S. visit.


Trump’s Ambassador to Israel David Friedman: VP Harris ‘never expressed sympathy for the Israelis suffering from Hamas’

Ha’aretz reports: Former U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said that Vice President and 2024 Presidential candidate Kamala Harris “has never expressed sympathy for the Israelis suffering from Hamas’ barbarism with the same fervor that she exhibits when speaking of Palestinian suffering.”

He continued criticizing Harris, saying, “she wrongly accused Israel of overseeing a famine in Gaza, proven to be totally false. She said that Palestinians in Rafah ‘had no place to go’ just before 900,000 were successfully evacuated in a week. Apart from that, she plainly is not up to the task of protecting Americans from the growing threats around the world — threats that will intensify further if our enemies see her campaign gaining strength.”

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

The Forward says Harris’s past statements on Israel-Hamas, “broadly speaking, do not differ much from those of President Biden”

Both centrist Democrats and those to the left are seeing what they want in Harris…

Jewish Republicans are smearing Harris as anti-Israel. “The shock troops of misinformation deserve high marks for speed, but not so much for accuracy…”

The veepstakes…

Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona has strong ties to Jews and Israel, starting with his marriage by a rabbi to Gabby Giffords, the Jewish former congresswoman who survived a mass shooting in 2011. Kelly, a former astronaut and Navy captain, co-sponsored the bipartisan Countering Antisemitism Act and has visited Israel at least twice since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack. Read the story ➤

Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania is proudly and publicly Jewish, and the experts we interviewed said that should help — not hurt — the campaign if he were chosen as Harris’ running mate. “The interesting thing is that, historically, that has always been a much greater concern for Jews,” while most other voters don’t care, said Jonathan Sarna, one of the leading historians of American Jewry. Read the story

Gov. Jared Polis of Colorado was asked Monday on CNN if he’d accept the offer to be vice president. “Look,” he quipped, “if they do the polling, and it turns out that they need a 49-year-old, balding gay Jew from Boulder, Colorado, they got my number.”

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Al Jazeera: Israel’s Netanyahu goes to the US: All to know about the visit

Mondoweiss: Looking at Kamala Harris’s record on Israel

Middle East Eye: Netanyahu’s US visit solidifies Israel’s upper hand in Washington

Middle East Eye: Even the US propaganda machine can’t whitewash Biden’s sordid record

The New Arab: Over half of European Jews feel ‘ashamed’ of Israel’s actions, survey shows

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 22:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 22: at least 39,668* (39,090 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,034 children as of June 17. [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 578 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 46 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 40 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 – July 22: at least 95,567 (including at least 90,147 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 – July 22: ~1,481 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 326 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)
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‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
Lancet: Counting the dead in Gaza – difficult but essential
‘Revealer of Inconvenient Truths’ – Julian Assange’s Impact on Palestine
Fact or Fiction: Is Israel Unfairly Singled Out for Global Condemnation?
How an Israeli colonel invented the burned babies lie to justify genocide
Widely reported Palestinian father-son ‘rape’ confession contradicted by piles of evidence
The Gaza Project reveals how Israel has targeted the press – in 3 stories
‘Buying Our Own Stolen Water’ in Bethlehem – Scorching Summer Awaits Palestinians in the West Bank
Israel’s covert info bots targeting America met with hypocritical silence
AIPAC: Has the pro-Israel lobby bribed and bought the US Democratic Party?
Israel’s war on Gaza is the deadliest conflict on record for journalists.
Israeli army hits Gaza family, uses them as human shields, and runs over their mother.
Strangling Israeli restrictions were in place long before October 7th.


https://israelpalestinenews.org/horrific-israeli-attack-in-khan-younis-with-almost-no-warning-day-289/

We deserve the truth about what happened on October 7
Stories of atrocity on October 7 have been used to justify the ongoing assault on Gaza. But several of these high-profile claims have been found to be based on unreliable witnesses or even fabricated entirely. We deserve to know the truth.

Nick BurbankFebruary 1, 2024
Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office)
Scenes of destruction in Kibbutz Nir Oz after the invasion of Hamas fighters on October 7, 2023. (Photo: Mishel Amzaleg/Israel Government Press Office)
In the immediate aftermath of the October 7 attacks by Hamas, narratives of atrocity dominated the news cycle. It is only now, four months later, that the events of that day are being clarified. The New York Times has reportedly pulled a high-profile podcast on the “weaponization” of rape in response to concerns of “major discrepancies.” Journalists are challenging state spokespeople, and researchers cross-referencing claims against the list of terror victims maintained by Israel’s own Social Security Administration have shown that several horrifying stories first responders and IDF members initially told reporters do not reflect actual people or deaths. The IDF itself has said it cannot confirm some of its own reporting.

Nevertheless, these stories spread widely. The founder of Oct7FactCheck.com saw how they impacted his friends and family. People who had previously protested Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government were now insisting that “these people,” Palestinians in Gaza, were irredeemable. They cited the atrocities in the news as evidence.

And yet, it has become apparent that many of the stories used to justify ongoing violence in Gaza are just that: stories.

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Oct7FactCheck.com is a six-member research group known collectively as “Nick Burbank.” The group, comprising an Ivy League law student, a policy graduate student, two intelligence analysts, a U.S. armed services veteran, and a tech entrepreneur, began fact-checking these claims in November. Their goal was to identify where a given claim originated, who propagated it, and whether the evidence confirmed or refuted the claim. Their findings are shared in a living document that’s updated as new information comes to light. Thus far, the team has come to conclusions on 12 different claims and identified major discrepancies in another: claims of weaponized rape that were reported on but are now being re-investigated by the New York Times.

To be clear:

There were no babies hung on clotheslines. There were no babies beheaded or put in ovens, no pregnant women with their stomachs cut open.

The sources responsible for those fabrications are cited in articles recounting the weaponized “mass rape” of Israeli women by Hamas fighters. Several stories shared by multiple outlets use these sources, raising open questions about the strength of this reporting. One January 19 Guardian article repeats the exact same language as an article published more than a month earlier on a different site. The New York Times article drew pushback on its reporting from the family of the victim they profiled, who argued she was not the victim of sexual violence; some of those family members have given new statements to the NYT.

Over the last four months, claims about October 7 have influenced the public narrative. Stories of atrocity, sometimes cobbled together from unreliable eyewitnesses, sometimes fabricated entirely, have made their way to heads of state and been used to justify Israel’s military violence.

As a result, 85% of Gaza is displaced. More than 26,000 Palestinians (including over 10,000 children have been killed), and nearly three times as many people have been injured. 70% of Gazan homes are flattened. Over 100 journalists have been killed. Every university in Gaza is now destroyed.

One of the claims determined to be definitively true is that IDF friendly fire on October 7 resulted in Israeli civilian deaths.

In the early hours of October 7, a deadly lack of communication made it difficult for Apache pilots and drone operators to distinguish targets, leading them to deputize civilians in the kibbutzim for target identification. But by noon on October 7, the Israeli military had issued a version of the “Hannibal Directive” (as reported to YNet, the second largest Israeli newspaper by readership, and translated by the Electronic Intifada). The Hannibal Directive is an order that allows Israeli forces to stop kidnappings at all costs, up to and including the death of the hostage if all else fails.

The order resulted in mass civilian deaths. Two personal accounts from civilians taken hostage on October 7 describe the IDF firing upon them while they were being kidnapped. In both instances, this resulted in the wounding or deaths of people they had been taken captive with, including one woman whose mother was killed. A similar report from YNet records the deployment of the Israeli Air Force to intercept 70 vehicles driven by Hamas militants as they returned to Gaza. The cars, some containing hostages, were destroyed before they could reach the border. An IDF military source reported that Israeli special forces were sent in the week after October 7 to recover bodies in this area. The number of Israeli dead found in these vehicles is currently not known.

One of the most chilling descriptions of friendly fire occurred in Be’eri, a kibbutz heavily damaged by the events of October 7. There, IDF forces killed up to 13 hostages in a single incident when they decided to fire two tank shells into a house controlled by militants, fully aware that there were still living civilians held captive inside. The IDF fired on the house during an active hostage negotiation. There were only two survivors, one woman who miraculously survived the shelling and Yasmin Porat, who had been released during the negotiations prior to the tank shells being fired. The shelling killed her husband, who remained under the control of the militants.

The aftermath of tank shelling looks very different from arson and small arms fire – there is more rubble, and less soot. In Be’eri, where fighting between IDF and militants was fiercest, homes were completely destroyed. Ha’aretz has reported that “half the damage” in Be’eri came from “munitions impacts,” the other half from “arson.” As a result, more than half of the 200 Israeli homes slated for demolition after the October 7 attack are located in Be’eri. In Nir Oz, where militants were not confronted by the IDF, houses were damaged mostly from arson.

Families of the victims are now calling for an investigation into the military and police units who were present and into whether or not the shelling of the house was an implementation of the Hannibal Directive. But initially, the commander responsible for firing a tank into a house full of hostages, General Barak Hiram, was hailed as a hero. Under the heading “A General’s Dilemma,” The New York Times describes Hiram as “a rising star” before quoting him as ending an active hostage negotiation by saying, “Break in, even at the cost of civilian casualties.” Months later, additional reporting by the Times underscores the impact of the intentional use of IDF munitions by Hiram. This incident alone is responsible for 12% of the civilian casualties in Be’eri.1

It’s no secret that Israel invests heavily in “public diplomacy,” known commonly as hasbara. The incredible violence of their military offensive relies on the willingness of nations to prioritize Israeli narratives over Palestinian lives and, in the case of the Hannibal directive, Israeli lives as well. Stories of irredeemable atrocity – regardless of their truth – are essential to manufacturing the acceptability of harming civilians and building support for the Netayahu-led destruction of Gaza.

The small-t truth of these stories, the facts of what happened, is less important than the capital-T Truth these stories gesture to. In one example, a YouTube advertisement created by Israel’s Foreign Affair Minister begins with the words “We know that your child cannot read this” while rainbows and unicorns frolic to a lullaby. As the music grinds to a halt, the unicorns disappear and “Forty infants were murdered in Israel by the Hamas terrorists (ISIS),” flashes onto the screen” before urging parents, “Now hug your baby and stand with us.”

Business Insider reported on the way this ad and others were being used to justify Israel’s offensive in Gaza as early as October 17. That video is unlisted now, but the claim continues to be repeated. On January 2024, yet another video recycling the claims of ‘beheaded babies,’ this one propagated by the online antisemitism watchdog CyberWell, gasps in horror at the idea of Israeli atrocity propaganda being corrected. A person, scrolling online past a video debunking this same story of beheaded babies says “What? How can they even say that?”

This video does not defend the claim that babies were beheaded. It can’t. Social security records make this an impossibility. Instead, it appeals to the viewer’s sense of horror and outrage. While this specific instance may not be true, this advertisement gives the viewer permission to believe a broader, truthier accusation: that Israel’s enemy is so depraved that such a thing could have happened then and may happen again in the future.

There were very real atrocities that happened on October 7, including the killing of civilians in their homes and at a music festival and the taking of hostages, some of them children. But somehow, the clearest crimes committed have been crowded out of the narrative in favor of obscene, attention-grabbing lies. This re-telling of the day is disrespectful to victims and survivors alike and only increases suspicion as to what really happened. It is a narrative that only serves those in power and those seeking to justify the genocidal assault on Gaza, not those rightfully seeking answers.

Notes

1. There are varying accounts of the number of those killed in Be’eri across different sources: 97 per the New York Times, 86 per Ha’aretz, 77 according to Social Security Administration records (but this may exclude captives later killed), and 98 per Oct7map.com. 12% represents the lower bound of the percentage of those killed attributable to the shelling of hostages.

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Wikipedia’s Smear Piece on WCH Represents a Badge of Honour
The World Council for Health's message of health sovereignty is clearly a threat to the establishment.

World Council for Health
Written by World Council for Health Correspondent Alice Ashwell, PhD.


They say that you pick up the most flack when you’re right over the target.

Since the Covid phenomenon began, the degree of flack has become a navigational aid in the pursuit of Truth. Wikipedia’s hit piece on the World Council for Health (WCH) is evidence that their message of health sovereignty has become a threat to the establishment.

Brainwashing goes global

Ever more brazenly over the past four years, members of the ‘Great Reset Establishment’ have been involved in a process of what Psychoanalyst Dr Bruce Scott calls ‘menticide’, or brainwashing on a global scale. Through the unethical use of applied psychology, governments, corporations, and organisations around the world have been manipulating the masses into compliance with their globalist agenda.

Whether the issue has been Covid-19, the war in Ukraine, economic meltdown, or climate hysteria, the outcome has been an environment of heightened fear and uncertainty. People seeking direction have been subjected to unprecedented levels of propaganda and censorship, which have added to the confusion by creating a ‘through-the-looking-glass’ world in which it feels like truths have become lies, and vice versa.

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Wikipedia - no longer reliable

One of the ‘trusted’ sources we have become accustomed to turning to when seeking information on a host of topics is Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. This online encyclopedia was established in 2001 with the aim of being a free, open, and neutral source of information that anyone could access and edit. The idea was that all sides of controversial issues would be welcomed and readers would be left to make up their own minds. But, as Wikipedia co-founder-turned-critic Larry Sanger complained in an interview with Glenn Greenwald in July 2023, “It didn’t work out that way.”

Over time, the platform has moved away from its non-negotiable editorial policy that content should strive to reflect a ‘neutral point of view’ (NPOV). As Kristin Heflin described in her PhD thesis in 2010, this means that:

… all Wikipedia content must represent―fairly, proportionately, and as far as possible without bias, all significant views that have been published by reliable sources. By insisting articles represent [―] all significant views without bias, the policy of striving for NPOV shares similarities with objectivity … (p. 89)

In 2015, Heather Ford observed in her D. Phil. Thesis that Wikipedia was by that time offering “a skewed representation of the world that favours some groups at the expense of others” (p. 3). She continued:

Instead of everyone having the same power to represent their views on Wikipedia, those who understand how to perform and speak according to Wikipedia's complex technical, symbolic and policy vocabulary tend to prevail over those who possess disciplinary knowledge about the subject being represented.

This means that Wikipedia is able to decide which facts are stabilised or destabilised on its platform, according to the ideological positions of its editors. While Wikipedia originally provided the opportunity for people to publish without the need for gatekeepers or mediators, this is no longer the case. Especially since the Covid-19 event boosted the fortunes of the Censorship Industrial Complex, Wikipedians have become foot soldiers in the battle to scrub from the Internet information they consider to be mis-, dis-, or mal-information.

Larry Sanger, in the interview mentioned above, described how he has watched Wikipedia’s neutrality evaporate over the years, shifting around 2005 to establishment views on topics like global warming and certain drugs, and starting to show bias against holistic medicine in the early 2010s. Its reliable sources of information are now left-of-centre media corporations such as CNN, MSNBC, and the New York Times, while in their policies 80% of news sources on the right are deemed unreliable. Independent news outlets and self-published subject experts are also not able to edit a Wikipedia page. Before it is deemed acceptable, information needs to be filtered through a mainstream news source, which in turn is constrained by fact-checking services.

Misrepresenting Covid dissidents

The World Council for Health (WCH) is one of many organisations and individuals who have been defamed by Wikipedia since the advent of Covid-19. As discussed at the WCH’s 83rd General Assembly meeting in April 2023, this has been part of a much broader strategy to silence dissent with regard to the so-called pandemic and its protocols.

WCH was established to challenge the official Covid response and its Wikipedia article was created in September 2022. The current Wikipedia entry is fairly close to the original version, although it has been edited a number of times. However, a number of Wikipedia pages created prior to Covid-19 have been completely amended since 2020, resulting in a ‘hero-to-zero’ fall from grace for people such as the author Dr Vernon Coleman (compare his October 2019 entry with the current article), and the early developer of the mRNA vaccine technology, Dr Robert Malone, whose role in this invention has been deleted from the page on mRNA vaccines.



https://worldcouncilforhealth.org/multimedia/fact-checkers-independent-media/
Who’s fact-checking the fact-checkers? A trio of independent media creators—Derrick Broze, Jason Bassler & Joe Martino—reveal their eye-opening shared experience in dealing with fact-checkers and censorship dating back years before Covid-19 emerged.


Scarcely worth commenting on … but we shall!

Let’s take a look at the WCH Wikipedia article (accessed 18 December 2023) to see just how deeply flawed and factually incorrect it is.

Firstly, the content – comprising just eight paragraphs – is entirely inadequate. Other than stating that the organisation “appears to have been formed in September 2021” [emphasis mine], and that it was “founded by Jennifer A. Hibberd and Tess Lawrie”, nothing substantive is mentioned about what WCH is or what it does, despite its goals, values, and initiatives being clearly represented on its website and social media channels.

Secondly, most of the article attempts to smear WCH by association. The bulk of the content refers to people or organisations who are part of the broader health freedom network but neither WCH staff nor council members, including Robert F Kennedy Jr of Children’s Health Defense and esteemed cardiologist Dr Aseem Malhotra. Wikipedia maligns these experts for their efforts to cancel the rollout of the experimental Covid-19 gene therapies which, contrary to the protestations of the fact-checkers, have caused millions of deaths worldwide. Ironically, Wikipedia accuses Dr Malhotra of “cherry-picking” sources to substantiate his concerns about the jab, yet they themselves cherry-pick tangential content and questionable opinions from, with only two exceptions, rather dubious sources.

So, thirdly, let’s have a look at the references Wikipedia uses to back up its potentially libelous statements.

The reference to Kerr et. al (March 2022) is simply a brief Erratum, noting that some of the authors of the paper quoted were using ivermectin to treat patients, which one would expect as they were reporting on its efficacy.

The flawed Cochrane Review by Popp et. al (2022) that criticised a systematic review by Bryant et. al (2021) on the use of ivermectin to prevent and treat Covid-19 was thoroughly debunked in a letter sent to them by Fordham and colleagues in September 2021, but this has not been acknowledged on Wikipedia. The Bryant et al review remains in the top 10 most read out of 23 million tracked scientific papers.

Three references are to fact-checking sites: AAP FactCheck (Australia), AFP Fact Check (France), and Health Feedback (USA), which employ teams of people to prevent the dissemination of information that is not in line with the menticidal narratives of the Great Reset Establishment.

Four of the nine sources come from two Vice magazine journalists, Anna Merlan and Tim Hume. Their articles are replete with worn-out terms such as right-wing, conspiracy theorist, Covid-denier, anti-vaxxer, and mis-/disinformation-peddler. They also predictably take issue with ivermectin, common law, and even the notion of sovereign citizens! The tone of the articles ranges from wryly dismissive to scathingly scornful, with words such as discredited, nonsense, completely false, misleading, and fringe peppering the text. They also delight in reporting cases of doctors and scientists who have been barred from their professions for refusing to deny their professional oaths and personal principles. Underlying the supercilious slurs, however, runs a definite current of concern that these ‘discredited conspiracy theorists’ who are promoting health, freedom, and human rights may actually be gaining traction.

Larry Sanger reflects on how far Wikipedia has departed from its original commitment to neutrality by pointing out the features of biased reporting, all of which apply to the Wikipedia article on WCH:

negative information is so predominant that readers can infer that the authors harbor great hatred, resentment, or strong disapproval of the subject (especially when the target has a popular following among many ordinary people);

dismissive epithets and judgments are used in Wikipedia’s own voice; or

what a person is legitimately famous for is omitted, dismissed, or misrepresented

While WCH might wish to create a more accurate Wikipedia entry, this is not possible. According to the view source button, only registered users are allowed to edit this article. In other words, WCH has no right of reply.


Wikipedia, like a child having a tantrum, refuses point-blank to engage with those people and ideas it just WILL NOT acknowledge.
Is there a future for Wikipedia?

Why anyone would bother to search Wikipedia for information about WCH, which has a perfectly informative website and Substack, is anyone’s guess. But the more Wikipedia produces atrocious articles like the one on WCH, the faster they will lose credibility among those who simply want information and do not have an ideological axe to grind.

In fact, it is worth subjecting this article to a well-known credibility test developed by California State University, and appropriately named the CRAAP test!

Its five components (plus comments on the WCH article) include:

Currency: Is the source up-to-date? – No, for one thing, it does not mention WCH’s second conference in 2023. Although editing of the Wikipedia article continues, no up-to-date information has been added.

Relevance: Is the source relevant to your research? – Not if one wants to know anything about WCH. But it has been very relevant to an investigation into the decline and fall of Wikipedia.

Authority: Where is the source published? Who is the author? Are they considered reputable and trustworthy in their field? – Absolutely not. Wikipedia’s policy on Reliable Sources specifically discounts independent experts in favour of large news corporations, which are committed to promoting Establishment narratives.

Accuracy: Is the source supported by evidence? Are the claims cited correctly? – Not at all. Please visit the WCH website to confirm this.

Purpose: What was the motive behind publishing this source? – The only purpose appears to be to discredit WCH.

At least in the case of the WCH article, Wikipedia’s credibility is clearly questionable. More broadly, Wikipedia co-founder, Larry Sanger, believes that the platform can no longer be trusted. Observing that it has become a useful propaganda mouthpiece for the Establishment, he mused: “If only one version of the facts is allowed, then that gives a huge incentive to wealthy and powerful people to seize control of things like Wikipedia in order to shore up their power.”

Indeed, in recent years, Google has invested substantially in the Wikipedia Foundation, paying them to provide the “most accurate and up-to-date information” for its search engine. Google is now elevating Wikipedia articles in Internet searches, using their content to populate their ‘knowledge panels’, and inserting their articles under videos on YouTube (its subsidiary) in an effort “to fight misinformation and conspiracy theories.” In this way, the actual spreaders of misinformation flood the Internet with their post-truth propaganda, causing those who value Truth, Beauty, and Goodness to look elsewhere for information.

What is particularly interesting, though, is that the Wikipedia edifice may be crumbling from within. Thanks to the transparency of the Wikimedia system, one is able to peer behind the curtain into the online discussions of the various editors working on a particular article. And here we discover dissention in the ranks. Recent discussions between Wikipedia editors working on the WCH article reveal anything but agreement regarding this flimsy hit-piece. For example, one editor asks why the article on WCH focuses on Dr Lawrie. The person then asks why Dr Lawrie’s qualifications, directorship, publication record, and over 4,000 citations are not mentioned (actually Dr Lawrie has over 5,000 citations and is ranked among the top 5% of Researchgate scientists), but only her prior role as an obstetrician. It is encouraging to read the following comment:

Science is research and debate, not dogma; even in the case Lawrie could be wrong on some things, that doesnt's [sic.] make her a conspiracy theorist, but a good researcher. Suppression of scientific debate is not scientific method.

Later, and for good reason, concerns are expressed about the use of Vice magazine as a ‘reliable source’ (RS).


Anna Merlan, author of three of the Vice articles.
Conclusion

WCH’s Wikipedia experience is the tip of a very large iceberg of censorship and suppression (Shi-Raz et al. 2023) that, especially over the past four years, has been threatening to sink those opposing Establishment narratives. Media and tech companies, including Wikipedia, Google, and the fact-checkers mentioned in this article, have played a central role in stifling debate and attempting to constrain narratives and minds. But, as Larry Sanger puts it, “people have natural BS detectors” and are not satisfied with condescending journalists or one flavour of opinion.

Instead, as described by Shi-Raz et al., many people who are concerned about public health and committed to freedom of speech have not been deterred by the efforts of the Establishment. Instead, they have been motivated to create a world in parallel to the mainstream, using alternative channels of communication, establishing multi-disciplinary support networks, and developing alternative medical and health information systems such as, of course, the World Council for Health.

And, recognising the decline of Wikipedia, Larry Sanger is in the process of creating what he calls the ‘Encyclosphere’, a massive network of online encyclopaedias covering a plethora of specialist and generalist areas of knowledge, that is set to literally put Wikipedia in its place as an equal among many others.

So, while Wikipedia spends an inordinate amount of time, energy, and money on a business that not only lacks substance but is also mean-spirited and divisive, initiatives like WCH and the Encyclosphere shine like candles in the dark, illuminating a better way.

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https://worldcouncilforhealth.substack.com/p/wikipedia-smear-piece-wch?utm_medium=ios

Consortium News Sues “Misinformation” Arbiter NewsGuard

NewsGuard Technologies Inc., an organization focused on combating “misinformation” in news media, along with the federal government (which has a contract with NewsGuard), is facing legal challenges over alleged defamation and First Amendment breaches, respectively. The plaintiff in the case is the Consortium for Independent Journalists, which initiated the litigation in the Southern District of New York.

...Founded in 1995 by the late investigative journalist Robert Parry, Consortium has contributed an impressive 27,000 articles to the journalistic landscape. Yet, amidst this vast collection, NewsGuard has taken issue five articles, the news outlet alleges, and, as a result of this has put a mark next to every news article on the site in its ratings system.

The entirety of CN’s online archive now bears a red mark when viewed through search engines or social media platforms that use the NewsGuard system.

“NewsGuard attaches an electronic ‘label’ to every CN item on search engines and social media that warns NewsGuard subscribers to ‘Proceed with caution’ because Consortium News ‘fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability,’ the complaint alleges. “Such statements slander and defame Consortium News and are arbitrary, wanton, malicious and reckless.”

The lawsuit takes particular offense with NewsGuard’s system of attaching a label next to all articles from the outlet.

🔗Source: ReclaimTheNet

https://reclaimthenet.org/consortium-news-sues-misinformation-arbiter-newsguard #news #factcheck #factcheckers #freespeech