Khan Younis empties, Netanyahu faces crisis after crisis of leadership – Day 270
With Khan Younis evacuation, 1.9 million Palestinians packed into middle area of Gaza; unexploded bombs; Hind’s father killed; West Bank deaths; report: Israeli prisons shockingly overcrowded, inhumane – Ben Gvir gives his approval; Israeli troops tired, low on munitions, want a truce – Netanyahu fumes; more incidents of Palestinians tied to hood of Israeli vehicles; another Biden appointee resigns, group statement from 12 fellow resignees; Francesca Albanese targeted by smear campaign; The first-ever Knesset-House Parliamentary Friendship Group held its inaugural meeting in Jerusalem , with its US chairman Rep. David Kustoffmore…
By IAK staff, from reports.
Palestinians flee Khan Younis as 1.9 million are crammed into central Gaza:
Associated Press reports: Palestinians are streaming out of eastern Khan Younis, the second-largest city in Gaza, as an Israeli evacuation order affects roughly 250,000 people, the United Nations said Tuesday.
Around 1.9 million people — more than 80% of all Palestinians in the Gaza Strip — are now clustered into the territory’s central region.
On Monday, Israel’s military instructed Palestinians to evacuate a wide swath of Khan Younis and nearby areas, and go to the Israeli-declared safe zone, suggesting Israel will launch a new ground assault into the city.
However, an Israeli strike inside the safe zone Tuesday killed at least 12 people,including nine members of the same family. Some of the dead had reportedly just fled Khan Younis hours earlier.
AL JAZEERA ADDS: The Israeli army has instructed people fleeing Khan Younis head to the “al-Mawasi humanitarian zone.”
Though al-Mawasi is described as a “humanitarian zone”, Palestinians have fled the area in recent weeks after Israeli tank fire and air strikes. At least 25 people were killed in two Israeli strikes on June 21, while at least 21 people were killed there in another attack on May 28, according to Gaza officials.
Strike kills 3 generations of a family in “safe zone”:
Associated Press reports: The Hamdan family — around a dozen people from three generations — fled their home in the middle of the night after the Israeli military ordered an evacuation from the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis.
They found refuge with extended relatives in a building further north, inside an Israeli-declared safe zone.
But hours after they arrived, an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday afternoon hit their building in the town of Deir al-Balah, killing nine members of the family and three others.
In all, five children and three women were among the dead, according to hospital records and a relative who survived.
Gaza littered with unexploded bombs, putting children at risk, says UN:
OCHA reports: Explosive remnants of war and unexploded ordnance (UXO) continue to pose significant risks of injury or death to people across the Gaza Strip, with IDPs, people returning to areas that have been bombarded or seen heavy fighting, and children being particularly affected.
On 29 June, a nine-year old girl was reportedly killed, and three others were injured, by UXO in the Qizan An Najjar area, south of Khan Younis.
Earlier on 5 June, six children were reportedly injured when a UXO reportedly exploded near Al Aqsa University in western Khan Younis.
Father of Palestinian girl Hind Rajab killed in Gaza – Report:
The father of six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab – whose killing in an Israeli tank attack in January garnered global attention – has also been reported killed in Gaza.
Hind’s mother found out her husband had been killed by text message after the family was separated under Israel’s ongoing Gaza siege, Scahill said.
The Israeli tank attack that killed Hind also killed her three cousins, her aunt and uncle. Two Palestinian Red Crescent paramedics sent to rescue Hind were also killed.
RECOMMENDED READING: You need to meet this little girl named Hind.
West Bank – Four Palestinians killed in Israeli drone raid:
WAFA reports: The Ministry of Health said that four Palestinians were killed just before midnight on Tuesday in an Israeli drone raid on Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem, in the northern occupied West Bank.
The killing of the four youths brings the number of Palestinians killed in Tulkarem over the past 24 hours to six.
On Monday, a woman and child were killed during the occupation’s incursion into the city of Tulkarm and the camp of Nur Shams. The woman was killed by shrapnel injuries, and the child was shot and killed by an Israeli forces bullet to the head.
Shin Bet reveals 21,000 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails:
The Cradle reports: The head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service, Ronen Bar, warned in a recent letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir that 21,000 Palestinians are imprisoned in jails across Israel – despite prison capacity allowing for no more than 14,500.
The letter’s contents were revealed in a report by Hebrew news site Ynet on Tuesday.
The conditions and conduct towards Palestinians in these prisons “borders on abuse,” and in some cases violate international law, according to Bar. He called the situation a “time bomb” because the prison issue opens individuals within Israel’s government to prosecution at the Hague-based International Criminal Court (ICC).
Bar strongly criticized Ben Gvir, who is in charge of the prison system, who has implemented “various measures that harmed the conditions of the prisoners.”
In recent months, Ben Gvir has significantly tightened already brutal and restrictive measures against Palestinian prisoners – including a recent call for the execution of Palestinian prisoners.
It was previously assumed that around 9,000 to 10,000 Palestinians were detained across Israeli prisons.
“This crisis arose despite warnings that were sent to the Ministry of National Security to prepare for this about a year ago,” Bar said in his letter.
He also warned that the incarceration crisis harms Israel’s ability to “counter terrorism.” The security establishment has had to cancel arrests of suspects or of “those who are defined as posing a clear and immediate danger to security.”
“Bottom line, the incarceration crisis creates threats to Israel’s national security.”
AL JAZEERA ADDS: Ben-Gvir has called for the notorious Sde Teiman prison to keep its doors open to Palestinian detainees, despite overcrowding.
“We are overcrowded in prisons, and it is a good thing,” Ben-Gvir was quoted as saying by Israeli media outlets.
“This is not a reason to release [Palestinian detainees], that is how they are supposed to be. These are terrorists, I give them what is required by law – the minimum,” he said.
NOTE: The use of the word “terrorist” for a group that resists occupation and oppression is a political, not fact-based choice. In reality, international law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, the UN extending that right to the point of armed resistance.
RECOMMENDED READING: Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans.
Short on ‘munitions, motivation, and troops,’ Israeli army wants Gaza truce – Report:
New York Times reports: Israel’s top generals want to begin a cease-fire in Gaza even if it keeps Hamas in power for the time being, widening a rift between the military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has opposed a truce that would allow Hamas to survive the war.
The generals think that a truce would be the best way of freeing the roughly 120 Israelis still held, both dead and alive, in Gaza, according to interviews with six current and former security officials.
Until recently, the military publicly maintained that it was possible to simultaneously achieve the government’s two main war goals: defeating Hamas and rescuing the prisoners. Now, the military high command has concluded that the two goals are mutually incompatible, several months after generals began having doubts.
Nearly nine months into a war that Israel did not plan for, its army is short of spare parts, munitions, motivation and even troops, the officials said. In an army largely reliant on reservists, some are on their third tour of duty since October and struggling to balance the fighting with their professional and family commitments.
Fewer reservists are reporting for duty, according to four military officials. And officers are increasingly distrustful of their commanders, amid a crisis of confidence in the military leadership propelled in part by its failure to prevent the Hamas-led attack in October, according to five officers.
Netanyahu slams report saying army wants Gaza truce:
Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli prime minister, in response to the [above] report by the New York Times, says his country will end the war only after achieving all of its goals.
“I don’t know who those unnamed parties are, but I am here to make it unequivocally clear: It won’t happen,” Netanyahu said in a statement released by his office.
“We will end the war only after we have achieved all of goals, including the elimination of Hamas and the release of all our hostages.”
West Bank – more incidents of Palestinian detainees tied to IDF jeep hoods:
Jerusalem Post reports: Last week, the IDF admitted that a Palestinian resident of Jenin, Mujahed Azmi, had been tied to a jeep hood and had condemned the soldiers involved, opened a criminal probe, and sought to present the episode as an isolated incident.
However, the IDF has now admitted to The Jerusalem Post that at least two other incidents, revealed first by the BBC on Sunday, of tying West Bank Palestinians detainees to car hoods have occurred recently.
Further, the IDF is not 100% sure that the tactic has been completely rooted out of its culture, though it is making efforts to do so.
All three men were unarmed at the time of their capture and quickly released by the Israeli army after identity checks.
Another Biden admin appointee resigns over Biden policy in Gaza:
Andalou Agency reports: Another Biden administration appointee has resigned, joining a chorus of those who have criticized the president’s policy on the war in the Gaza Strip that is being prosecuted by Israel.
Maryam Hassanein, a special assistant at the Interior Department, said Tuesday, “As a Muslim American, I cannot continue working for an administration that ignores the voices of its diverse staff by continuing to fund and enable Israel’s genocide of Palestinians.”
She said she joined the administration with the belief that her voice and diverse perspective would lend a hand in the pursuit of justice, but since the war in Gaza began, “this administration has chosen to uphold the status quo instead of listening to the diverse voices of staff urgently demanding freedom and justice for Palestinians.”
Joint Statement of U.S. Government Officials who have resigned over U.S. policy towards Gaza, Palestine, and Israel (excerpts):
We are former U.S. Government Officials who resigned from our respective positions over the last nine months due to our grave concerns with current U.S. policy towards the crisis in Gaza, and U.S. policies and practices towards Palestine and Israel more broadly.
We are subject matter experts representing the interagency, and are a multifaith and multiethnic community of professionals and patriots dedicated to the service of the United States of America, its people, and its values.
Each of us has sworn an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States…we resigned from government not to terminate that oath but to continue to abide by it; not to end our commitment to service, but to extend it.
[T]oday we stand united in a shared belief that it is our collective responsibility to speak up.
The Administration’s policy in Gaza is a failure and a threat to U.S. national security. America’s diplomatic cover for, and continuous flow of arms to, Israel has ensured our undeniable complicity in the killings and forced starvation of a besieged Palestinian population in Gaza.
This is not only morally reprehensible and in clear violation of international humanitarian law and U.S. laws, but it has also put a target on America’s back.
Despite this, the Administration’s choices have continued to threaten U.S. interests throughout the region. Our nation’s political and economic interests across the region have also been significantly harmed, while U.S. credibility has been deeply undermined worldwide.
In this Statement, we describe the current crisis, explain what we have seen, and address the Biden Administration with policy proposals that we, based on our extensive experience in government, believe must be adopted, including to ensure that catastrophic policy failure like this can never happen again.
(Read the full statement here.)
‘You do this, and I’m out’ – Biden warned Netanyahu against Iran strike:
New York Times reports: Aides present in the Situation Room the night that Iran hurled a barrage of missiles and drones at Israel portrayed a president in commanding form, lecturing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone to avoid a retaliatory escalation that would have inflamed the Middle East. “Let me be crystal clear,” Mr. Biden said. “If you launch a big attack on Iran, you’re on your own.”
Mr. Netanyahu pushed back hard, citing the need to respond in kind to deter future attacks. “You do this,” Mr. Biden said forcefully, “and I’m out.” Ultimately, the aides noted, Mr. Netanyahu scaled back his response.
Israel and it’s American advocates has targeted Iran for decades.
UN rapporteur for Palestine is targeted by smear campaign:
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the occupied Palestinian territory, has been accused by the pro-Israel group UN Watch of improperly using $20,000 “from pro-Hamas groups” to pay for a trip to Australia; the organization revealed that it had filed papers with the UN to “terminate her mandate.”
UN Watch is an NGO with the stated purpose of monitoring the performance of the UN, and has accused the world body of having an anti-Israel bias.
UN Watch, according to Albanese, falsely claimed that the UN had opened an investigation against her. She said she welcomed a review of her mandate as she “never had, and will never have, anything to hide”.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has describedU.N. Watch as a pro-Israel organization.
Knesset, House launch parliamentary friendship group to strengthen U.S.-Israel ties
Jewish Insider reports: The first-ever Knesset-House Parliamentary Friendship Group held its inaugural meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday.” Its American chairman is Rep. David Kustoff (R-TN).
Kustoff noted the bipartisan effort behind the parliamentary friendship group’s founding, which began with former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and continued with current Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) with the support of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
The Nation: “I Heard a Machine Gun Being Loaded”: A Harrowing Escape From Gaza.
Responsible Statecraft: Biden’s mixed messages to Israel are coming home to roost.
Al Jazeera: ‘Agony and pain’: US health professionals reflect on the Gaza war.
Mondoweiss: The Toronto Jewish community has a genocide problem.
Electronic Intifada: Israeli spy still working for Labour during UK election campaign.
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 2:
Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 2: at least 38,509* (37,953 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 15,747 children as of June 17.
This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 556 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 45 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 2: at least 92,636 (including at least 87,266 in Gaza and 5,370 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 2: ~1,474 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 319 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
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