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)
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https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-strike-on-gaza-school-kills-more-than-100-people-as-they-pray-day-307/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)
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https://israelpalestinenews.org/israeli-strike-on-gaza-school-kills-more-than-100-people-as-they-pray-day-307/
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