Palestinians show steadfastness on Eid amid violence, grieving, death – Day 254

contact@ifamericansknew.org June 17, 2024 al aqsa, eid, Gaza, hitler, humanitarian aid, israel weapons sales, Lama Tatour, religious freedom, tactical pause, West Bank

The moments following an Israeli airstrike Sunday in Al Bureij refugee camp, Gaza (screenshot)

Beatings in Jerusalem; bombs, prayers, and gravesite visits in Gaza; Netanyahu doesn’t want humanitarian pauses; 7-year-old detained in West Bank; Israel’s record-high weapons sales; freed Israeli hostage looks well cared-for; Israeli former legislator invokes Hitler; Israel lobby news; more

By IAK staff, from reports.

In Jerusalem, Israeli forces beat, bar worshippers:

The New Arab reports: Around 40,000 Palestinians performed Eid al-Adha prayers at Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque on Sunday, amid restrictions imposed by occupying Israeli forces.

Al-Aqsa director Sheikh Omar al-Kiswani told The New Arab‘s Arabic-language sister site, Al-Araby al-Jadeed, that worshippers were beaten by Israeli forces, who prevented thousands of young men from entering the gates of the mosque compound.

Dozens were injured from beatings with batons and rifle butts, particularly at the King Faisal, Hatta and Al-Silsilah Gates.

During the Eid sermon, Sheikh Youssef Abu Sneineh addressed the Israeli restrictions on Al-Aqsa, as well as Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

AL JAZEERA ADDS: This year’s numbers pale in comparison to 2023’s estimate of 100,000 worshippers who managed to pray despite Israeli security forces’ aggression.

Muslims around the world are celebrating Eid al-Adha. But in Gaza, festivities are muted, with many facing the brink of famine and families having been torn apart. Worshippers are gathering in the ruins of destroyed mosques to hold prayers. — Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Sunday. But in Gaza, festivities are muted, with many facing the brink of famine and families having been torn apart. Worshippers gathered in the ruins of destroyed mosques to hold prayers. (screenshot)

Israeli forces kill 40, injure 102 in Gaza on Eid

WAFA reports: Medical sources within Gaza announced that within the last 24 hours, the Israeli occupation forces committed four massacres in the Strip, resulting in the killing of 41 people and injuring 102 others.

Heartbreaking graveside visits mark Eid:

Israeli military’s announced ‘tactical pause’ causes domestic ‘firestorm’:

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli military came out Sunday morning with a statement saying there is going to be a “tactical pause”, essentially during daylight hours, from the Karem Abu Salem crossing towards the European Hospital, just north of Rafah. The suggestion is that this is some sort of gift to allow more aid to get through.

Then, we heard the defense minister and the prime minister had not heard about the pause. The military then said fighting will actually continue in Rafah and [the area the pause applies to] is just a particularly small route. So it’s not really giving a lot to the Palestinians or giving much extra humanitarian aid that’s much needed.

The announcement has set off a predictable firestorm, particularly from the Israeli far right who keep Netanyahu in power, including Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. Some of their far-right views are not that far from those held by a lot of the Israeli population.

Ben-Gvir has instructed his police not to stop protesters attacking convoys going into Gaza. Around 70 percent of Israelis in recent polling don’t support aid going into Gaza.

How much aid really enters Gaza?

Al Jazeera reports: As the population of Gaza starves, there seems to be no reprieve in sight to allow a sufficient ramping-up of aid deliveries.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) claims there are no restrictions on the entry of trucks, that more than 8,600 aid and commercial trucks have entered Gaza from all crossings from May 2 to June 13, an average of 201 a day. [NOTE: before the war, a daily average of 500 trucks entered Gaza.]

But much of that aid has piled up at the crossings and not reached its final destination because movement within Gaza is so dangerous.

Meanwhile, a floating pier the US built on Gaza’s coast, ostensibly to provide humanitarian aid, has not worked since the end of May.

The pier worked for 11 days before it was paused and now has to be towed to the southern Israeli port of Ashdod for repairs,US Central Command announced Saturday.

Salama Marouf, head of Gaza’s Government Media Office, has said the pier was “useless” from the beginning, having channelled a total of just 120 trucks worth of humanitarian aid.

Aid deliveries over land have also been attacked by Israeli settlers, who have been holding up the aid trucks and destroying the supplies on them.

According to Amjad Shawa of the Palestinian NGOs Network, “thousands” of families in Gaza, especially children, have been hit by a lack of food and water amid the ongoing war as a maximum of 200 aid trucks cross into Gaza “on good days”.

“These quantities are not enough to feed the children … most families are spending their days with less than one meal a day, many of them children,” Shawa said.

NOTE: For months, thousands of aid trucks reportedly waited at the southern border of Gaza, where Israel made it extremely difficult to pass, employing complicated and arbitrary procedures. Israel has on multiple occasions fired at individuals waiting for food aid (recently killing over 100 at one time), at least once allegedly sending fake text messages to Gazans, telling them to assemble and then shooting at them when they did; Israel has also attacked food aid convoys and those who accompanied them several times.

Additionally, Israeli citizens have blocked a border crossing for weeks with no meaningful attempt by Israel to reopen it; they have also attacked trucks they believed were heading to Gaza, destroying their contents and in some cases starting them on fire.

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

With this history of violence and broken promises around humanitarian aid – in the midst of an imposed famine in Gaza – one might understandably be skeptical about Israel’s new “Rafah pause.”

Another relevant incident is Israel’s attack on a convoy of Gazan civilians as they followed Israel’s instructions to evacuate “for your own safety and the safety of your families,” which killed seventy mostly women and children.

The war on Gaza has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian children. In the the city of Deir el-Balah, displaced families say they're dealing with constant grief. Many of the children living there, are now orphans. — The war on Gaza has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian children.
In the the city of Deir el-Balah, displaced families say they’re dealing with constant grief.
Many of the children living there, are now orphans. (screenshots)

‘Strange’ quiet in northern Gaza:

Al Jazeera reports: While attacks continue in southern Gaza, residents in the north say there’s been an unusual day of quiet.

“Since this morning, we’ve felt a sudden calm with no gunfire or bombings… It’s strange,” said Haitham al-Ghura, 30, from Gaza City.

AFP news agency correspondents reported that there were no reports of strikes or shelling since dawn. The brief respite in fighting allowed worshippers a rare moment of calm on the Eid al-Adha holiday.

The sound of prayers travelled down some of Gaza City’s destroyed and abandoned streets. For many, a halt in fighting can never bring back what has been lost.

“We’ve lost many people, there’s a lot of destruction,” said Umm Muhammad al-Katri from the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza.

West Bank: Israel detains 7-year-old boy near Ramallah:

Al Jazeera reports: Israeli forces have detained a seven-year-old child in Mughayyer, east of Ramallah, according to his father.

The boy, Bahaa Kazim Haj Mohammed, had been held in an Israeli military jeep for an hour when the father spoke to Al Jazeera’s team on the ground about the ongoing ordeal.

Three days ago, the Israeli forces detained the boy’s older brother and ransacked his house.

In 2023, Israel set record for defense exports, report shows:

Ha’aretz reports: Israel’s defense exports in 2023 set an all-time record, amounting to over 13 billion dollars, according to an annual report by the Defense Exports Department of the Defense Ministry.

The report shows that 36 percent of the defense export deals in 2023 were related to air defense systems. This is compared to the 19 percent the year before. Other significant exports were radar and electronic warfare systems (11 percent), fire and launch equipment (11 percent), drones and avionics (9 percent) and ammunition and armaments (8 percent).

In the last five years, the scope of Israel’s defense exports has doubled, and the record of exports has been broken each year in the last three years, according to the report. In 2023, almost half of defense exports (48 percent) were destined for countries in Asia and the Pacific. 35 percent were for Europe, 9 percent for North America, 4 percent for Latin America, 3 percent for the countries that are part of the Abraham Accords and 1 percent for countries in Africa.

2003 video on Israeli arms industry:

Israeli Channel Fires Anchor After Comments About Rescued Hostage’s Appearance:

Ha’aretz reports: Arab Israeli actress and news anchor, Lama Tatour, was fired from Channel 12 after taking to social media on Saturday criticizing the appearance of Noa Argamni, one of four hostages rescued from Hamas captivity after being kidnapped during the October 7 massacre.

“This is what a girl that’s been in captivity for nine months looks like?” Tatour said in Arabic on an Instagram post on Saturday.

Tatour added, “Look at her eyebrows, they look better than mine! Her skin! Her Nails! What is this? This is what innocent women and children are being killed for in Gaza?”

Khaled Natour, the show’s producer, stated that “Tatour’s comments are unacceptable and as a result her employment on the show has been terminated immediately “

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

By contrast, Israel holds 9,300 Palestinian political prisoners – of which over one third have not been charged with a crime. 250 of them are children. Overall, prison conditions for Palestinians are horrific, and include torture (including for children), in violation of international law and medical ethics. This torture has been ongoing since at least 1968. In the case of Gazan prisoners since October 7th, many were restrained so tightly for so long, that they required amputation of limbs; others were sodomized with burning hot objects.

Hamas offered to release hostages… over 40 have been killed by Israel… enormous disparity in treatment of prisoners:

More on the Tamimi family is here. Israeli torture has gone on for decades, including torturing Americans.

Israel: Former MP invokes Hitler in call to expel Gaza’s ‘Islamo-Nazi’ population:

Israel lobby tidbits (from Jewish Insider and JTA)

The White House Gender Policy Council, which has been working closely with the National Council of Jewish Women and the Hostage and Missing Families Forum in recent weeks to promote (discredited) claims of Hamas sexual assaults. They sent invitations to all the major feminist and women’s rights organizations to attend a June 17 White House event featuring a screening of Sheryl Sandberg’s film.
University of Minnesota rescinds offer to academic who alleged Israel was committing ‘genocide’ – The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas also pushed for the revocation of Segal’s appointment. In a statement on Monday, the group called on “members of the community to continue voicing their opposition to the appointment of Professor Raz Segal to be the next Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.”
Alex Katz, a managing director for government relations at Blackstone [Trustee of the AIPAC Spinoff Washington Institute for Near East Policy], and CNN anchor and correspondent Jessica Dean were married… The bride’s CNN colleague Kaitlan Collins, previously [anti-Arab] White House correspondent for The Daily Caller, officiated – joked she is “Rabbi In Name Only”. The groom’s sister quipped during her remarks that the wedding felt like “the White House Correspondents Dinner meets Rosh Hashanah at Temple Emanu-El.” “Notable attendees at the macher table included Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer(D-NY), the New York Public Library’s Iris Weinshall [Schumer’s wife], Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY), Loews CEO James Tisch, former Chancellor of the New York Regents Merryl Tisch, Blackstone’s Jon Gray, Mindy Gray, CNN executive editor Virginia Moseley and former U.S. Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, Chris Isham and Jennifer Maguire Isham. Schumer led the hora.” [Embedded links indicate that all, except possibly Isham, are Israel partisans.]
JTA: An Israeli-born Dutch politician will not serve as immigration minister after the security found indications that he was passing information to a “foreign power” — widely assumed to be Israel.

MORE NEWS:

Middle East Eye: Blinken is dragging the US ever deeper into Israel’s quagmire

The New Arab: Is the US lying about Hamas blocking Israel peace deal in Gaza?

Al Jazeera: How not to show solidarity with the Palestinian people.

IMEMC Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 16:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 16: at least 37,895* (37,347 in Gaza* – 4,959 women (20%), 7,797 children (32%). This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 548 in the West Bank (~134 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 45,223 Palestinian deaths. (Ralph Nader has estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.)
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 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.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – June 16: at least 90,572 (including at least 85,372 in Gaza and 5,200 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – June 16: ~1,466 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 311 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.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

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

Monday 17 June 2024