Biden administration sends troops, missile defense to Israel – Day 372
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli forces killed 52 people and injured 128 others in four massacres of families in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry of health in Gaza.
- More than 300 people have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in the northern Gaza Strip since last week, local authorities said on Sunday.
The Lebanese health ministry said Israeli attacks killed 51 people and injured 174 others over the last 24 hours.
FLASHBACK: Gaza Genocide
DAY 8 (OCT 14, 2023) If Americans Knew wrote:
ON THIS DATE: Israel begins its ground invasion into Gaza (see info on weapons here).
- SINCE THIS DATE, OTHER THAN A SHORT HUMANITARIAN PAUSE IN NOVEMBER 2023, ISRAEL’S INVASION OF GAZA HAS CONTINUED RELENTLESSLY FOR 372 DAYS AND NIGHTS.
ON THIS DATE: Video shows ‘families killed amid their belongings’ along the “safe passages” specified by the IDF. Israel has demanded that half of Gaza’s population, 1.1 million people, immediately move to southern Gaza.
- SINCE THIS DATE, LIFE IN GAZA HAS REMAINED PRECARIOUS, WITH NEARLY 100% OF RESIDENTS HAVING BEEN DISPLACED AT LEAST ONCE – MOST OF THEM MANY TIMES. WHEREVER THEY ARE TOLD TO FLEE, THEY HAVE FACED MASSACRE BY ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES, AS WELL AS STARVATION, DISEASE, LACK OF SHELTER, AND LACK OF MEDICAL CARE.
ON THIS DATE: A lawsuit has been filed stating that while the State Department has a duty to ensure that U.S. citizens are protected abroad, “credible reports have shown that the State Department has thus far not engaged in evacuation efforts to safely evacuate US citizens and their family members that are currently in the besieged Gaza Strip.” Part of the problem is that Israel’s blockade is preventing the US from transporting its citizens out of the strip. Notably, the United States and the Israeli government have been cooperating to get Americans still in Israel out of harm’s way.
- SINCE THIS DATE, AMERICAN CITIZENS AND/OR FAMILY MEMBERS ARE REPORTEDLY STILL STUCK IN GAZA.
Israeli Defense Officials Come Clean: Forget Hostage Deal – We Want Gaza
Ha’aretz reports:
According to senior defense officials, the Israeli government is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.
In behind-the-doors discussions, these officials say the chances of reaching a hostage dealappear slim right now. One of the reasons cited is that since negotiations were suspended, there has been no discussion among international players involved in the talks.
Army commanders told Ha’aretz the recent decision to launch operations in northern Gaza was taken without any in-depth discussion. They said it appeared that the operations were aimed principally at pressuring local residents, who were again told to evacuate the area for the coast as winter is approaching.
The 162nd Division, which had been operating in southern Gaza, was ordered to prepare a major assault on Jabalya refugee camp in the north, even though there was no intelligence to justify the move. The security establishment didn’t unanimously back the move, and some in the army and the Shin Bet security service warned that it might endanger the lives of hostages.
The operation may be laying the groundwork for a decision by Israel to put into effect the so-called surrender or starve plan of Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland (or “the general’s plan”). That plan calls for all the residents of northern Gaza to be evacuated to humanitarian zones in the south, with those choosing to remain deemed Hamas operatives and legitimate military targets. While Gazans in the south are getting humanitarian assistance, those who remain in the north will face hunger.
Defense officials who were asked to respond to the Eiland plan pointed out that it violated international law and that the chances of the United States and the international community supporting it were virtually zero. They said it would further undermine the legitimacy of Israel’s entire Gaza offensive.
Israel kills 5 children playing in Gaza’s al-Shati refugee camp
Anadolu Agency reports:
Hamas on Sunday described the Israeli army’s targeting of a group of children playing at the al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza City a “horrific crime.”
At least five Palestinian children were killed and 12 others, including women and children, were injured in an Israeli airstrike on the al-Shati refugee camp.
“The targeting by the terrorist Zionist occupation of a group of children playing in al-Shati camp is a horrific crime and a moral degradation that exceeds all limits and norms,” Hamas said in a statement.
Israel “kills merely for the sake of killing and ethnic cleansing,” it added.
RECOMMENDED READING: War on Gaza: Israeli attack on Al-Aqsa Hospital burns Palestinians alive
Pentagon confirms US military will have boots on the ground in Israel
The Cradle reports:
The US military will send a missile defense battery and troops to operate it in Israel, the Pentagon said on 13 October, amid warnings from Iran that Washington should keep all US military forces out of Israel. An unnamed Pentagon official told CNN that about 100 US troops are deploying to Israel.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin authorized the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery at the direction of President Joe Biden, the Pentagon said in a statement.
The Biden administration is seeking to help bolster Israel’s air defenses following a large-scale Iranian ballistic missile attack on Israeli airbases on 1 October. Tehran launched the ballistic missile barrage in retaliation for multiple aggressions carried out by Tel Aviv, including the assassinations of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in July and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on 27 September.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi delivered a warning to US leaders in a statement on X, saying they were risking American soldiers’ lives by sending them to Israel.
The US military reportedly has seven THAAD batteries. Each consists of six truck-mounted launchers, holds 48 interceptors, radio and radar equipment, and requires 95 soldiers to operate.
Israeli leaders claim they are preparing to launch a harsh military response to the Iranian attack, including possibly bombing Iran’s nuclear energy program.
However, a New York Times report from 7 October cast doubt on this claim, saying that “former and current senior Israeli officials acknowledged doubts about whether the country has the capability to do significant damage to Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
With booby-trapped robots loaded with explosives, Israel escalates killing and destruction in northern Gaza
Euro Med Monitor reports:
The Israeli occupation army is using booby-trapped robots equipped with tons of explosives to commit massive acts of destruction and killing, including massacres, willful killing, enforced starvation, and widespread forced displacement in northern Gaza.
Israel’s army has completely cut off the northern Gaza Governorate from Gaza City by deploying military vehicles, placing sand barriers and the rubble of destroyed homes, in addition to fire cover from drones.
Numerous testimonies have been provided to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor regarding the Israeli army’s use of booby-trapped robots that are remotely detonated, causing extensive damage to surrounding homes and buildings and a significant loss of life at a time when the work of civil defense and ambulance crews is nearly entirely disrupted.
Israel’s use of booby-trapped robots is prohibited under international law, as these robots are considered indiscriminate weapons that cannot be directed or limited to military targets. Due to their nature, they directly hit civilians, or hit military targets, civilians or civilian property indiscriminately. As such, they are illegal weapons under international law, and using them in residential areas is a crime against humanity in and of itself.
In his testimony to the Euro-Med Monitor team, one of the people trapped in an area near the Al-Qassabi neighborhood, southwest of Jabalia camp described an explosion near him that was caused by a robot equipped with tons of explosives, destroying roughly six or seven houses at once.
During the second incursion into Jabalia camp last May, the Israeli army started using these robots for the first time in Gaza. As a result, many civilians were killed and numerous homes in the camp were destroyed. At the end of last May, photos of two booby-trapped robots ready to explode surfaced from the Tamraz Station area in the center of the Jabalia camp.
Israel running low on ammo
The Israeli army has raised the command level required to authorize the use of heavy weapons, according to local media on Sunday.
Under the new order, the use of heavy weapons such as shells must be approved by a brigadier commander, Haaretz reported.
The move came after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant postponed his visit to Washington, where he was scheduled to discuss Israel’s arms needs with US officials.
It also came amid an ammunition shortage in the Israeli army against the backdrop of bans imposed by some Western countries on weapons exports to Tel Aviv over its ongoing war on the Gaza Strip.
A win for Netanyahu
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali echoed the thoughts of many when he argued that the U.S. deployment of troops and the THAAD system shows that “the Israelis are clearly planning something for Iran that is going to cause a retaliation they know their own systems are unable to take.”
“U.S. troops being deployed to Israel in this matter is seismic,” Malekafzali added. “The U.S. military is now inextricably involved in this war, directly, without any illusions of barriers. Netanyahu is as close as he has ever been to his ultimate wish: making the U.S. fight Iran on Israel’s behalf.”
RELATED READING: US Snubs Letter Defending United Nations Chief From Israeli Attack
Lebanon: Israel pummels hospital, civilian structures, medics
A government hospital in the Baalbek region of eastern Lebanon said Saturday that several patients were injured and it sustained severe damage from Israeli airstrikes near the hospital.
The Tamnin General Hospital said that “for the third consecutive time today, the aggressive Israeli enemy has targeted the area surrounding the hospital.”
The strikes “resulted in significant and severe damage to the hospital, in addition to injuring many patients present in the hospital due to flying glass and shrapnel.”
In a series of pre-dawn airstrikes on Sunday, Israeli warplanes targeted multiple locations in southern Lebanon, causing significant destruction, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
At approximately 3:45 a.m., an airstrike leveled the historic old mosque in the center of the town of Kfar Tibnit, completely destroying the structure, the agency reported.
Earlier, at around 12:15 a.m., another airstrike targeted a three-story building next to Ghabris station on the Zefta-Nabatieh highway, also destroying it, it added.
The strike caused the closure of the road as debris from the building blocked access. The same building had been previously struck in an air raid a week earlier, partially damaging it.
A third airstrike was carried out at approximately 1:30 a.m., this time targeting the town of Aita al-Shaab. No further details on casualties or additional damage were immediately available.
Four Lebanese Red Cross volunteers were injured Sunday during an Israeli airstrike while responding to casualties from an earlier attack on a home in Srobbine, a village in Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh governorate, according to the Red Cross.
In a statement, the Red Cross reported that emergency teams were dispatched to the site of the first Israeli airstrike in Srobbine around 8.00 am (0500GMT), in coordination with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). As the volunteers searched for victims, the house was struck again, injuring four Red Cross responders and damaging two ambulances.
UNIFIL: Israel soldiers blasted through our perimeter to order us out
Middle East Monitor reports:
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has reported that it observed violations by the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) against its personnel and positions in southern Lebanon.
In a statement issued on X yesterday, UNIFIL said: “Early this morning, peacekeepers at a UN position in Ramyah observed three platoons of IDF soldiers crossing the Blue Line into Lebanon.”
“At around 4:30 a.m., while peacekeepers were in shelters, two IDF Merkava tanks destroyed the position’s main gate and forcibly entered the position. They requested multiple times that the base turn out its lights,” the UN mission added.
The attack resulted in injuries to 15 peacekeepers, some of whom experienced skin irritation caused by smoke from multiple shells fired at the site.
UNIFIL described the Israeli incursion as a “shocking” violation and has sought clarification from the Israeli army regarding the incident.
The Israeli occupation soldiers left the site 45 minutes later, the statement said, “after UNIFIL protested through our liaison mechanism, saying that IDF presence was putting peacekeepers in danger.”
In a statement released late on Sunday, the Israeli military said a Merkava tank had been trying to evacuate injured soldiers and had backed into the UNIFIL post accidentally.
Five peacekeepers have been injured since Friday, as the death toll in Lebanon now stands at more than 1,400 since late September.
In a videoed statement Sunday addressed to UN secretary general, António Guterres, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said, “The time has come for you to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the combat zones,” he said. “The IDF has requested this repeatedly and has met with repeated refusal, which has the effect of providing Hezbollah terrorists with human shields.”
UNIFIL’s right to fire back
CONSORTIUM NEWS ADDS: United Nations peacekeepers who have been fired upon by Israel can fire back at them according to a 2006 U.N. Security Council resolution.
Paragraph 12 of Resolution 1701, which helped bring about an end of fighting in the 33-day Israel-Hezbollah conflict in 2006, says that the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL):
Acting in support of a request from the Government of Lebanon to deploy an international force to assist it to exercise its authority throughout the territory, authorizes UNIFIL to take all necessary action in areas of deployment of its forces and as it deems within its capabilities, to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind, to resist attempts by forceful means to prevent it from discharging its duties under the mandate of the Security Council, and to protect United Nations personnel, facilities, installations and equipment.
Repeated attacks by Israel Defense Force (IDF) beginning last week and continuing until at least Sunday, accurately fit the description of “hostile activities” in UNIFIL’s “areas of deployment.”
(Read more about UNIFIL’s mandate and authority here.)
NOTE: Recently, Hezbollah ordered its fighters not to attack Israeli forces who established a forward operating base behind UN peacekeeping troops (UNIFIL) near a Lebanese border village: “the Israeli enemy is attempting to use UNIFIL forces as human shields,” a statement issued by the Islamic resistance movement on 7 October said.
Israel has blatantly used Palestinians as human shields on many occasions (see this, this, this, this, this for example.)
Iran missile attack causes $53M in damage in Israel: Media report
Anadolu Agency reports:
An Iranian missile attack on Israel has caused extensive damage worth around $53 million, according to Israeli media on Sunday.
The Oct. 1 attack has caused estimated damage between 150 to 200 million shekels ($40 to $53 million), said Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, citing property tax data.
“This was the largest damage caused by a single missile attack on Israel since the outbreak of the (Gaza) war on Oct. 7, 2023,” it added.
According to the newspaper, around 10 locations sustained damage in the Iranian missile attack, including several military bases. No injuries, however, were reported, except the death of a Palestinian near the West Bank city of Jericho after being hit by shrapnel from an interceptor missile.
Iran fired around 180 missiles at Israel on Oct. 1, which it said was in retaliation for the recent assassinations of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, and an Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander.
Israel has vowed a military response to the Iranian attack.
Israel confirms 4 soldiers killed in Hezbollah drone attack near Haifa
Middle East Monitor reports:
The Israeli army announced yesterday evening that four soldiers were killed and others were injured following a Hezbollah air strike on a military base south of Haifa, northern Israel.
In a video statement, military spokesperson Daniel Hagari provided the first official comment on the attack, which Israeli media reported had caused 67 injuries.
Hagari said a Hezbollah drone struck “a military base near Binyamina [south of Haifa], and all casualties were transported to hospitals, and their families have been notified.”
“Four Israeli soldiers were killed, and seven others were seriously wounded,” he confirmed.
Israeli Army Radio reported that the military had opened an investigation into why the warning sirens were not activated when the drone entered northern Israel.
The Israeli defense system failed to detect the drone, and there was no attempt to intercept it, according to the radio.
Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli hospital: Palestinian authority
Anadolu Agency reports:
A Palestinian prisoner receiving treatment in an Israeli hospital has died, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs announced on Sunday.
According to the commission, Muhammad Munir Musa, a 37-year-old resident of Bethlehem in the southern West Bank, died at Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel.
The authority stated that Musa had been detained by Israeli authorities since April 20, 2023, and was transferred to the hospital while still in custody.
Musa had three daughters, the youngest being three years old.
The commission highlighted that Musa had been suffering from diabetes prior to his arrest, adding that no further details were provided regarding the circumstances of his death.
It also noted: “The systematic crimes of the occupation (Israeli forces), including torture, medical negligence, and starvation, have been the primary causes of the deaths of 40 detainees since Oct. 7, 2023.”
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
UNICEF: Remarks at the UN Security Council briefing on the protection of children in Gaza
Truthout: Chalking Bans and ID Checks at Protests Repress Palestine Solidarity on Campus
Middle East Eye: Mass burials and unidentifiable bodies: Horror accounts of Israeli attacks in south Lebanon
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 13, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 13, 2024: at least 43,040* ( 42,289 in Gaza* – 69% are women and children, according to Gaza’s Media Office). [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 751 in the West Bank (~164 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186,000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.
Ralph Nader earlier estimated 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
- At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
- Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – October 13, 2024: at least 104,884 (including at least 98,684 in Gaza and 6,200 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 13, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.
The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is at least 2,306 and 10,698 injuries. An estimated 1.2 million have been displaced.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.
**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 56 Israeli soldiers – nearly 16% of the total Israeli military deaths – killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on October 7
- The most precarious place in the world to be a child: Israel’s year of war on children
- Every accusation a confession: Israel and the double lie of ‘human shields’
- Most Americans want to stop arming Israel. Politicians don’t care.
- Happy 100th birthday, Jimmy Carter – loved by many, smeared by some
- You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?
- How Does Israel Justify Mass Killings? It Starts in the Schools.
- From the Americas to Gaza: Spreading disease has long been used by colonizers to commit genocide
- Contrived charges of antisemitism are the new ‘Red Scare’
- How Israel’s quadcopters traumatize, maim and kill Palestinians in Gaza
- Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute
- The unpublished genocide diaries of Refaat Alareer
- An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law
- Israel is redrawing the West Bank, cutting into a prospective Palestinian state
- Gaza breakdown: 20 times Israel used US arms in likely war crimes
- U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.
- ‘Words like Slaughter:’ A comparative study of The New York Times reporting in Ukraine and Gaza
- Cracks in the Dome: Israel’s security mirage
- Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers
- Americans are always the last to know…about Israel’s crimes
