“Distribution of aid is almost impossible” – Day 61
Israeli attacks in Gaza, Palestinian prisoners & West Bank news, Friends School students sing, former top Pentagon & State Dept officials speak out, Israeli incitement march planned, former hostages call out Israel, US leaders out of touch with Americans…
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Humanitarian update: On 5 December, dozens of aid trucks carrying humanitarian supplies and fuel entered Gaza; however, as of 23:00, figures were not available. The ability of the UN to receive incoming aid has been significantly impaired over the past three days by several factors. These include a shortage of trucks within Gaza, some being stranded in the Middle Area; the telecom blackout on 4 December; and staff who were unable to report to the Rafah crossing due to the hostilities. On 4 December, coordinator Lynn Hastings stated that “the use of only the Rafah crossing – meant for pedestrians – to bring in trucks of goods does not work.”
On 5 December, for the third consecutive day, Rafah was the only governorate in Gaza where limited aid distributions took place. In the adjacent Khan Younis governorate, aid distribution largely stopped due to the intensity of hostilities.
On 3 December, the Israeli military designatedan area covering about 20 per cent of Khan Younis city for immediate evacuation. Similar evacuations orders were issued in previous days for a large area east of Khan Younis. Together, these areas in Khan Younis governorate encompass about 22 per cent of the Gaza Strip. Add in the large-scale evacuation of northern Gaza, and the number of refugees on the little remaining land is inconceivable.
On 5 December, the World Food Programme (WFP) stated that “the resumption of hostilities in Gaza will only intensify the catastrophic hunger crisis that already threatens to overwhelm the civilian population.” The statement indicated that “the renewed fighting makes the distribution of aid almost impossible and endangers the lives of humanitarian workers.”
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Jabaliya (northern Gaza) under attack: The Israeli military intensified its attacksWednesday on the Jabaliya refugee camp in an area repeatedly targeted since the beginning of the war with massive air raids and relentless artillery shelling. Israel is using coordinated air, land, and sea attacks in the densely populated area where thousands of people are still stranded and cannot evacuate. Residential buildings have been leveled to the ground along with public facilities.
Khan Younis (southern Gaza) under attack:The sounds of explosions have been constant Wednesday in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis and with no safe place to shelter from Israel’s bombing, all that the approximately 1,200 displaced people staying at a school in the city can do is stay inside and try to stay alive.
Rafah (southern Gaza) unable to recover bodies: More than 100 residential homes, including multi-story buildings, have been destroyed in Rafah in the past weeks. On the north side of Rafah, one can see on the walls of residential buildings, written statements of the names of people who were still under the rubble. Civil defense crews in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza are unable to remove bodies from under the rubble. They lack the equipment and the machinery, and they rely on their hands to remove rubble.
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Flushing Hamas tunnels with seawater would cause ‘many deaths’: According to Israeli reports, the Israeli army is considering a plan to flood Hamas’s vast network of underground tunnels with seawater to drive out fighters. Flushing Gaza tunnels with seawater would be deadly and disastrous as it would lead to the collapse of infrastructure, including residential buildings, in targeted areas, the Palestinian Authority (PA) warns.
“This will lead to a serious deterioration in the humanitarian situation as it will lead to many deaths when residential buildings collapse,” the PA’s ministry of public works said in a statement. “It will also lead to a mixing of seawater with groundwater and waste water, leading to a public health disaster.”
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West Bank, Jerusalem news
Recent Palestinian deaths: Israeli soldiers killed a 16-year-old and a 23-year-old when forces stormed areas south of Tubas in the occupied West Bank. 11 others were injured.
Another Palestinian succumbed Wednesday to injuries sustained last week.
Home demolition: Israeli occupation forces Wednesday demolished an inhabited house, claiming it had been built without a permit, and built a colonial road south of Bethlehem.
Israeli colonists build a settler-only road near Hebron: Armed Israeli colonists began building a road on Palestinian lands. The road, which is almost 2 miles long, aims to connect the illegal Israeli settlement of Beni Hever, which was established on Palestinian’ lands to the east, with the new colonial outpost that was established last year on Palestinians’ lands in the village of Birin.
Israeli settlers break into Jerusalem’s Aqsa mosque: As was the case Tuesday, dozens of fanatic Israeli settlers Wednesday morning broke into the compounds of al-Aqsa Mosque under heavy protection from the Israeli police. The extremist settlers divided into groups, raided the holy Islamic Mosque from al-Maghariba gate and took provocative tours in its compounds. The settlers performed Talmudic rituals in the eastern part of the Mosque.
Israel is turning Palestinian prisons into ‘cemeteries for the living’: The Commission for Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners’ Affairs gave examples of Israeli prison guards’ mistreatment of prisoners, for example, raiding the various sections almost daily, during which they assault the prisoners, severely beat them with batons and guns, spray them with toxic gas, and fire rubber-coated metal bullets at them; and forcing them to sleep without blankets on the floors, in cold cells where windows have no glass.
Israel is currently holding about 7,800 Palestinians in its prisons, including 166 children, 33 female prisoners, and 2,873 administrative detainees, while before October 7, the number of prisoners was 5250, including 180 children, 37 women, and 1319 administrative detainees.
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At least 7,800 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails, according to a local non-governmental organization on Tuesday, Anadolu Agencyreports. The detainees include 33 women, 166 children, and 2,873 people held without trial or charge under Israel’s notorious policy of administrative detention, the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.
Before the outbreak of the Gaza conflict, the number of Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails was estimated at around 5,250, including 1,319 held without charge or trial. Israeli forces detained 3,580 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October,” the NGO said.
From the Friends school in the Occupied West Bank. (The school was founded over 100 years ago; students are both Christian and Muslim.)
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Israel news
Former Israeli captives recount fears of being bombed by Israel’s army: Former Israeli captives have told Netanyahu they feared being killed by Israeli attacks on Hamas tunnels during a tense meeting with Israel’s war cabinet, Israeli news outlet Ynet reports. One recently released captive told the meeting: “Every day in captivity was extremely challenging. We were in tunnels, terrified that it would not be Hamas, but Israel, that would kill us.”
Another said, The reality is that I was in a hideout that was bombed and we became wounded refugees. This doesn’t even include the helicopter that fired at us on our way to Gaza.”
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Israeli police greenlight right-wing march in Jerusalem: Israeli police approved the “March of Maccabees” in the Old City of occupied East Jerusalem that will take place this Thursday, Israeli news channel Kan reports. The march is being held under the banner: “Remove the Waqf [Islamic endowment] from Temple Mount [Al-Aqsa Mosque compound]. Renew full Jewish control in Jerusalem and Temple Mount.”
The march is expected to pass through the Muslim quarter.
The Palestinian Authority‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs is calling for international pressure to halt the march.
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Israeli army announces deaths of two soldiers: This raises the death toll of Israeli soldiers to 85 since the beginning of the ground operation in Gaza.
Rocket injuries: The Israeli ambulance service has said that two people have been lightly injured – two 60-year-old women – in an attack on Ashkelon. (Information on rocket attacks is here.)
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Elsewhere
Pro-Israel Lobby Groups Allegedly Spending Millions to Unseat Progressive Democrats: The Atlanta Black Star reports:
One of the nation’s most formidable pro-Israel lobbying groups has strategically recruited candidates for more than a year to contest seats held by progressive members of the Congressional Black Caucus in the upcoming 2024 primaries, according to an investigation by The Intercept (read full article here).
Newly uncovered documents from the Federal Election Commission reveal the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, has spent about $3.6 million on the effort since February 2022 as the group works quietly behind the scenes to unseat at least three House members in the bloc of eight progressive Democrats known as “the Squad.”
US-made munitions killed 43 civilians in Israeli army attacks: Amnesty: An Amnesty International investigation has revealed that US-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAM) were used in two separate air attacks on civilian homes. The rights watchdog has also called for the attacks that killed 19 children, 14 women, and 10 men to be investigated as war crimes. The two homes were in Wadi Gaza, where the Israeli military had ordered residents of northern Gaza to evacuate on 13 October.
“The fact that US-made munitions are being used by the Israeli military in unlawful attacks with deadly consequences for civilians should be an urgent wake-up call to the Biden administration. The US-made weapons facilitated the mass killings of extended families,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
U.S former State Department director saysUS arms transfers are causing “not only a disaster in Caza,” but also “a foreign policy disaster for the United States.”
White House interns demand Biden to call permanent ceasefire A group of White House interns are applying internal pressure on President Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire. Their letter, shared with NBC News, addressed to Biden and VP Harris, reads in part,
We, the undersigned Fall 2023 White House and Executive Office of the President interns, will no longer remain silent on the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. We heed the voices of the American people and call on the Administration to demand a permanent ceasefire.
We are not the decision makers of today, but we aspire to be the leaders of tomorrow, and we will never forget how the pleas of the American people have been heard and, thus far, ignored.
US Army colonel Douglas MacGregor says: “Washington is now firmly under the control Of Israel and its supporters in the United States.” Colonel McGregor is a 20-year veteran of the US Army who previously served as Senior Advisor to the US Secretary of Defense.
Judge Napolitano interviews former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, head of the Council for the National Interest (CNI). Giraldi statesthat the US relationship with Israel does profound harm to the US.
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US House adopts resolution declaring ‘anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism’: The Republican-controlled chamber passed the measure in a 311-14 vote, with 94 Democratic members voting present – essentially abstaining. The symbolic resolution is one of several pro-Israel motions approved by Congress since October 7.
The resolution “clearly and firmly states that anti-Zionism is antisemitism”. It also condemned the slogan “From the River to the Sea”, an aspirational call for equality in historic Palestine, falsely describing it as a “rallying cry for the eradication of the State of Israel and the Jewish people”. (The groundwork for the legislation was laid by an Israeli official decades ago.)
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US Congress support for Gaza ceasefire lower than American public: US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib has questionedwhy so few members of Congress support a ceasefire in comparison with the American public. Tlaib cited new polling data from Data for Progress which showed that 61 percent of Americans support a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, noting that only 11 percent of Congress has called for a ceasefire.
Tlaib, who was censured by the US house on November 7, has been calling for a ceasefire alongside 39 other lawmakers in the House and the Senate.
New poll: 61% of likely US voters support Gaza ceasefire: The poll conducted by progressive think-tank Data for Progress found 76 percent of likely Democratic voters supported a ceasefire, along with 57 percent of Independents. In turn, 49 percent of Republicans support ending the fighting. Meanwhile, 63 percent of likely voters support conditioning military aid to Israel based on human rights.
The poll is the latest to indicate the Biden administration’s refusal to support a ceasefire or condition aid could increasingly represent a political liability.
US will start sanctioning violent settlers:Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian mission to the UK, has welcomed an announcement by the US State Department saying it will impose visa restrictions on Israeli settlers involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the occupied West Bank.
Calling it a “step in the right direction”, Zomlot also stressed that “all illegal colonial settlers, including dual nationals, the state that sponsors and enables them, and the organizations that fund them, must be sanctioned,” adding, “International law is clear: there are no bad or good settlers; settlements are clearly defined as war crimes. All of them.”
Ariel Gold, the executive director of the US-based Fellowship of Reconciliation, said earlier today that the policy is “virtue signaling,” as many settlers hold dual citizenship and don’t require a visa to enter the US.
Statistics as of Dec. 5:
Palestinian death toll: OCHA reports at least 15,688* (~15,777 in Gaza** (4,885 women and 7,112 children), and at least 260 in the West Bank). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble. Euro-Med Monitor reports 20,360 Palestinian deaths.
*IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation. Israel killed more Palestinians in a little over a month after Oct. 7 than in all the previous 22 years combined.
Palestinian injuries: 44,595** (including at least 43,616 in Gaza** and 3,365 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to offer an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption.
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. in Gaza**. About 1.9 million people have been displaced (about 85% of the population).
Reported Israeli death toll ~1,200 (7 killed in West Bank, 85 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 5,431 injured, approximately 30 children).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here.**** Live broadcast news from the region is here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
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