Israel may be using internationally banned weapons against Gazans – Day 282
Israel’s possible use of internationally banned weapons; new allegations of rape and torture of Palestinian prisoners; 13 human rights groups accuse Israel of blocking aid to Gaza; municipality runs out of fuel, water pumps cease; estimated 15 years, $500 million to clear rubble in Gaza; EU sanctions settlers; Israel ‘explains’ its failed attack on Mawasi; West Bank death, home demolitions; Smotrich opposes release of any Palestinian prisoners; RNC platform mentions one foreign country – Israel; a quick look at JD Vance’s position on Israel; Biden’s delusional statement on Palestinians; more.
By IAK staff, from reports.
Gaza hospitals report injuries consistent with internationally banned weapons
Al Jazeera reports: The Government Media Office in Gaza says in a statement that at least 320 dead or wounded Palestinians have been brought to hospitals across the enclave in a particularly bloody 48 hours.
It quoted healthcare officials as saying that many of the dead and injured arrived with third-degree burns caused by internationally banned weapons like thermal bombs.
“These weapons cause chemical substances to interact with the skin and directly cause chemical corrosion of the tissues in the bodies of the martyrs and the injured. They also cause severe pain.”
The office said many victims die in a little more than a day after being wounded by such weapons, adding that it holds Washington fully responsible for arming Israel and causing the many “massacres” committed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip.
New testimonies of Palestinians raped and tortured in Israeli detention
Middle East Eye reports: New incidents of abuse suffered by Gaza detainees at the hands of Israeli forces have come to light following a news conference held on Monday by the Commission of Detainees Affairs, a Palestinian prisoner’s organization.
Speakers at the press conference in Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, provided updates on the conditions faced by Palestinians taken from Gaza and held in Israeli custody.
Khaled Mhajne, the commission’s lawyer, recently spoke to television correspondent Mohammed Arab in Israel’s Ofer prison in the West Bank. Arab had previously spent time in the notorious Sde Teiman detention center in Israel’s Negev desert.
Sde Teiman came under scrutiny after investigations and reports exposed severe torture inflicted on prisoners abducted from Gaza.
Despite Israel’s previous announcement to phase out the use of Sde Teiman, Mhajne said that detainees from Gaza continued to be brought to the detention center.
Mhajne’s conversation with Arab confirmed that the conditions in Ofer are just as bad as those in Sde Teiman.
“Mohammed also spoke of cases of abuse, where detainees were tied up to walls, with dogs released to attack them,” Mhajne said.
He described other types of torture, including beatings and rape.
(Read the full article here.)
RECOMMENDED READING: Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment
13 prominent relief organizations accuse Israel of blocking aid to Gaza
AFP reports: Access to war-torn Gaza has become increasingly difficult for humanitarian groups, 13 leading NGOs warned on Monday, accusing Israel’s military of blocking much-needed aid from reaching the besieged Palestinian territory.
Denouncing “Israel’s systematic obstruction of aid and its ongoing attacks on aid operations”, the humanitarian organizations said that Israel had facilitated only 53 — less than half — of the 115 relief missions they had recently planned.
They said the so-called “humanitarian zone” where most of the strip’s population of 2.4 million people now reside had become “an active combat zone” and “extremely unsafe”.
Oxfam, Doctors Without Borders, Save the Children and the Norwegian Refugee Council were among the charities to contribute to the document.
Israel’s capture at the beginning of May of the Rafah crossing, which has since been destroyed, brought aid deliveries to a “complete halt”, the NGOs said, adding that tons of “absolutely necessary aid” were left blocked at the crossing points in the south “due to the deterioration in security conditions”, the statement said.
Oxfam said it took it five weeks to transport just 1,600 food parcels from Jordan to Gaza — a journey it said “should take no more than six hours”.
Israel denies any famine in Gaza and accuses the United Nations of blocking aid deliveries.
NOTE: Since the beginning of this war, thousands of aid trucks have reportedly been kept waiting just outside Gaza, as Israel has delayed delivery through complicated and arbitrary procedures. In addition, Israel has on multiple occasions fired at individualswaiting for food aid (once killing over 100); Israel has also attacked food aid convoys. Additionally, Israeli citizens have blockedborder crossings, and attacked and looted trucks they believed were heading to Gaza – all with no meaningful attempt by Israel to stop them.
In mid-March, Israel promised to “flood” Gaza with aid, but has failed to do so.
The US has for months expressed its desire to see appropriate amounts of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza on one hand, whileundermining Gaza’s largest aid organization on the other.
Deir Al-Balah municipality runs out of fuel, leaving 700,000 people in area without drinking water
The Guardian reports: In Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip, where Israel hasn’t yet invaded and hundreds of thousands of people have taken refuge, the municipality issued an urgent statement saying it was no longer able to provide 700,000 people in the area with drinking water after running out of fuel.
The statement said: “We urge citizens to preserve what is left in their private tankers and we stress the need to maintain the spirit of cooperation and sharing.”
Aid agencies have warned that the lack of clean water and flows of untreated sewage pose a serious threat to health for Palestinians in Gaza.
When Israel cut off fuel to Gaza after 7 October, the resulting power cuts meant wastewater could not be pumped to treatment plants, leading to 100,000 cubic meters of sewage a day spewing into the sea, according to the UN Environment Programme.
A BBC Verify investigation found in May that hundreds of water and sanitation facilities in the devastated enclave had been damaged or destroyed since October.
UN: It will take 15 years to clear the rubble from Gaza
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has highlighted data from the UN Environment Programme, which says that it will take a decade and a half to clear the roughly 40 million tonnes of rubble created by Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.
This would require over 100 trucks and cost more than $500m, but is an essential effort, UNRWA said, because debris created by war can contain unexploded bombs and “harmful substances”.
Turkey condemns Israeli attacks on Gaza cancer hospital
EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers, entities over rights abuses against Palestinians
Andalou Agency reports: The EU on Monday announced sanctions on extremist Israeli settlers, illegal outposts, and a far-right group over severe and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The five individuals and three entities sanctioned are “responsible for serious and systematic human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank, including abuse of the right of everyone to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental integrity, the right to property, the right to private and family life, to freedom of religion or belief and the right to education,” the EU Council said in a statement.
The council identified the settlers as Moshe Sharvit, Zvi Bar Yosef, Baruch Marzel, Ben-Zion Gopstein, and Isaschar Manne. Marzel had who openly called for the ethnic cleaning of Palestinians, while Gopstein is the founder and leader of extremist group Lehava.
It also slapped sanctions on the Moshe’s Farm, an outpost owned by Moshe Sharvit in the Jordan Valley, and Zvi’s Farm, which was established by Bar Yosef.
A violent Israeli far-right group known as Tzav 9 was also sanctioned.
NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.
A number of settler groups (beyond those sanctioned), moreover, have a history ofviolence against Palestinians, often with theassistance of Israeli military forces.
Israel reveals details on Saturday’s attack that missed its target
New York Times reports: For weeks, Israel kept watch on a palm-tree-dotted villa in southern Gaza where it believed a top Hamas lieutenant was staying with his family, but it held off on a strike, according to three senior Israeli defense officials. The Israelis had a bigger target in mind: Muhammad Deif, the elusive leader of Hamas’s military wing and allegedly an architect of the October 7th attack.
On Saturday, believing Deif was present, the Israeli government sent in fighter jets that devastated the compound and killed 90 Palestinians in the area, which was an Israeli-designated safe zone.
The strike killed the lieutenant, Rafa Salameh, but apparently not Muhammad Deif.
The strike used at least five U.S.-made precision-guided bombs, and included an additional strike near Palestinian emergency responders.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference on Saturday after the brutal Al-Mawasi attack that there was no certainty Deif was killed in the strikes. He claimed, however, that Hamas was becoming weaker and vowed that the war would continue until all its aims were achieved.
“We tell Netanyahu that Mohammed Deif is listening to you now and laughing at your empty statements,” Hayya told Al Jazeera on 13 July.
East Jerusalem: Israeli forces displace family of 50 as homes demolished
Al Jazeera reports: Palestinian channels on Telegram have shared videos of the destruction caused by the Israeli forces’ demolition of four houses of the al-Araj family in the town of al-Walaja, south of occupied East Jerusalem.
Footage shows about 50 family members standing in the open, looking at the debris of their destroyed homes.
West Bank: Israeli Army Kills 20-year-old Near Ramallah
IMEMC reports: Medical sources said Israeli soldiers killed Ahmad Ramzi Abed Sultan, 20, after shooting him with live fire to the chest and the abdomen, and detained his corpse for several hours at a military base in Beit El illegal colony and security center. The incident occurred during an invasion of the town of Al Biereh in the occupied West Bank.
The army later handed the slain young man’s body to Palestinian medics who moved him to Palestine Medical Complex.
Ahmad’s uncle, Ahmad Ramzi, said that his nephew was just walking to the mosque when the soldiers invaded the town, and when he saw the army, he tried to hide in a building because he carries a Gaza ID card, and didn’t want the army to abduct him and send him to Gaza, and that is when the soldiers opened fire at him.
Israeli finance minister rejects release of Palestinian prisoners for Gaza cease-fire deal
Andalou Agency reports: Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Monday opposed releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of any potential Gaza cease-fire agreement with Hamas.
Smotrich described the release of Palestinian prisoners as a “terrible and horrific event,” saying “I will not agree to it; a red line must be drawn.”
Tel Aviv estimates 120 Israelis are still held in Gaza, while Hamas says many of them have been killed in indiscriminate Israeli airstrikes. Israel holds at least 9,500 Palestinians in its prisons.
In October 2011, Hamas released Shalit in exchange for Israel freeing 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including Sinwar.
Smotrich, leader of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, added: “I will oppose this, even if it ends my political career.”
Israel singled out for ‘extraordinary’ US support in Republican party platform
The Cradle reports: Israel is the only foreign nation mentioned in the Republican Party’s newly published platform, signaling Donald Trump’s strong support for Israel should he win November’s US presidential election, Israel Hayom reported on 15 July. [It actually signals the Israel lobby’s power over the US.]
The platform was published ahead of the Republican Party’s national convention, which began Monday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
During the convention, Republican party members will ratify the party platform, which details Trump’s agenda for the next four years if he defeats President Joe Biden. The platform confirms Trump’s strong support for Israel, stating, “We will stand with Israel, and seek peace in the Middle East.”
In an interview with Israel Hayom several months ago, Trump said he “was the best president in the history of Israel.”
The Republican Party is known to have strong ties with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his governing Likud Party.
The platform states that NATO member states must “meet their obligations to invest in our Common Defense and by restoring Peace to Europe.” However, no such demand is made of Israel.
The Council on Foreign Relations notes, “Israel has been the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid since its founding, receiving about $310 billion (adjusted for inflation) in total economic and military assistance.”
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October, the US has enacted legislation providing at least $12.5 billion in military aid to Israel.
What a JD Vance vice presidency would mean for American Jews and Israel
The Forward reports: Vance has said that antisemitism must be prosecuted. “If you beat up a Jew and don’t face consequences, the attacks will continue and get worse,” he said in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in 2022.
In response to campus pro-Palestinian protests, Vance introduced a bill that would bar colleges and universities from receiving federal financial assistance if they do not remove disruptive encampments from their campuses. He also said the government should target organizations that fund the protests.
[Vance is going on along with what Congress members have done for years: pander to the pro-Israel lobby. When voters demand that this stop, American politicians will finally be free of this destructive foreign influence.]
NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations and politicians consistently work to silencePalestine advocacy on campus. Besides demonizing protests and stifling free speech, they often pressure universities to officiallyadopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blockingprestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threateningto withhold major donations, bullying administrators, and more.
Typically, any move that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by a compulsory apology like the one Sonoma State University’s president Mike Lee issued – an apology that recognizes only the sentiments of pro-Israel students and ignoring the actual issues of free speech and divestment from Israel.
Pro-Palestine demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful andnon-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewishstudents. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.
The Forward claims: But Vance was also a promoter of replacement theory during the 2022 campaign, versions of which implicate Jews as the orchestraters of a plan to replace white Americans with people of color. He warned of an immigrant “invasion” ahead of the midterm elections to influence the vote.
In May, Vance explained his strong opposition to Ukraine aid and his commitment to supporting Israel.
“If we are going to support Israel, as I think that we should, we have to articulate a reason why it’s in our best interest,” he said in a speech at the Quincy Institute. “A big part of the reason why Americans care about Israel is because we are still the largest Christian-majority country in the world, which means that a majority of citizens of this country think that their Savior, and I count myself a Christian, was born and died and resurrected in that narrow little strip of territory on the Mediterranean. The idea that there is ever going to be an American foreign policy that doesn’t care a lot about that slice of the world is preposterous.”
[It’s not known whether Vance has watched Tucker Carlson’s interview with the Palestinian Pastor in Bethlehem and their discussion about how Israel treats Christians.]
Lee Fang reports: “In many ways, he is the most pro-worker, anti-war running mate of any Republican of the modern era…. Vance was one of the first modern Republicans to walk the picket lines in support of the United Autoworker Union strike for higher wages and benefits last year.
He has repeatedly savaged the neoconservatism establishment, claiming that they have entrenched America in unwinnable “forever wars” that serve no strategic interest for the country.
The Daily Beast reports: “Elon Musk and Tucker Carlson ‘Secretly Lobbied’ for Vance”
Biden says he has done ‘more for the Palestinian community than anybody’
Complex reports: US President Joe Biden said that he has been “very supportive of the Palestinians” and has done “more for the Palestinian community than anybody”, in an interview in which he also labelled himself a “Zionist”.
“I’m the guy that opened up all the assets, I’m the guy that made sure that I got the Egyptians to open the border to let goods through, [like] medicine and food,” he told journalist Speedy Morman on Youtube talk show, 360 With Speedy.
When asked about his support for Israel, including the supply of weapons and military aid, Biden said he has “denied them offensive weapons. I made it real clear, [Israel] cannot use weapons that we provide them, to use in civilian areas,” he said.
NOTE: This is completely false. The US has supplied billions of dollars’ worth of offensive weapons, including tanks and bombs. The Biden administration has withheld one shipment of one-ton bombs because they are inappropriate for use in crowded urban areas – but Israel has had plenty of those and other highly destructive bombs – which the Israel military has used every day for massacring Palestinians.
Palestinians and their allies have been showing their disappointment and angerover Biden’s strong pro-Israel position, and many have let him know that they have lost his vote.
The Biden administration has so far not used its leverage as the provider of billions of dollars in military aid to and for Israel (with one exception), a move that could potentially end the war in short order.
US congressman lauds Google’s possible purchase of Israeli tech firm
Al Jazeera reports: Google’s possible acquisition of Israeli tech company Wiz is a “$23 billion middle finger” to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement against Israel, US Representative Ritchie Torres has said in a post on X.
“The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement should itself be boycotted, divested, and sanctioned,” said Torres, a Democratic Party representative in Congress from New York, in the post which was also shared by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
US Big Tech companies and Israel’s tech industry have both been accused of profiting from Israel’s pervasive surveillance of Palestinians.
Protesters oppose Israeli participation in Tour de France
Translation: Protests against the participation of an Israeli team in the Tour de France.
Demonstrators in Japan demand Gaza ceasefire
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
Consortium News: Chris Hedges: The Old Evil
The Guardian: Living in a tent with premature triplets: how fear and anxiety haunt Gaza’s new mothers
Middle East Monitor: Israel army admits it suffers shortage of tanks, ammunition amid Gaza war
Middle East Monitor: The Zionist entity is in a strategic impasse due to its failure to achieve its declared goals
The New Arab: Decomposed bodies, burnt homes, and smell of death everywhere: Tal al-Hawa’s residents describe Israel’s crimes
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 15:
Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 15: at least 39,240* (38,664 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,034 children as of June 17. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]
This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 576 in the West Bank (~140 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37,396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.
Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 46 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
- At least 40 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
- About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
- 2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – July 15: at least 94,517 (including at least 89,097 in Gaza and 5,420 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 – July 15: ~1,481 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 326 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.**
Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Col. Douglas MacGregor: US is under the control of Israel, likens Gaza to Warsaw Ghetto
- Israel’s leading paper says its own army deliberately killed Israelis on October 7
- Gaza has turned into Biden’s most perplexing moral and foreign policy failure
- ‘Suffering horrifically’: 10 months of Israel’s ‘war on children’ in Gaza
- Pro-Israel ADL ‘spied on’ African American activist over opposition to US-Israel police exchange programme
- ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
- Lancet: Counting the dead in Gaza – difficult but essential
- ‘Revealer of Inconvenient Truths’ – Julian Assange’s Impact on Palestine
- Fact or Fiction: Is Israel Unfairly Singled Out for Global Condemnation?
- How an Israeli colonel invented the burned babies lie to justify genocide
- Widely reported Palestinian father-son ‘rape’ confession contradicted by piles of evidence
- The Gaza Project reveals how Israel has targeted the press – in 3 stories
- ‘Buying Our Own Stolen Water’ in Bethlehem – Scorching Summer Awaits Palestinians in the West Bank
- Israel’s covert info bots targeting America met with hypocritical silence
- AIPAC: Has the pro-Israel lobby bribed and bought the US Democratic Party?
- Israel’s war on Gaza is the deadliest conflict on record for journalists.
- Israeli army hits Gaza family, uses them as human shields, and runs over their mother.
- Strangling Israeli restrictions were in place long before October 7th.
- The day Israeli tanks fired directly at AFP’s Gaza Bureau.
- The craziest ‘pro-Israel’ votes on the Hill today.
- Israeli documents show expansive government effort to shape US discourse around Gaza war.
- Why As A Christian, I Won’t Be Condemning Hamas Anytime Soon.
- Is “Israel Has a Right to Defend Itself” Code for “We Are Killing the Geneva Conventions”?
- ‘I heard all of my friends’ last breath’: Testimonies from the Nuseirat massacre.
- Rep. Thomas Massie: Every congressperson has an AIPAC babysitter.
- (VIDEO) Col. Douglas Macgregor: US seen as taking orders from Netanyahu.
- UN finds at least 14 Israelis likely intentionally killed by own army on October 7.
- ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism.
- Fear, hunger and displacement follows Israel’s worsening abuse of Palestinians in Hebron.
- Rafah Attack: Netanyahu’s Lies Expose The Truth About Israel.
- Veterans For Peace: U.S. Army Major Quits Over Israel.
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