Gazans flee (again) as Israel, Hezbollah conflict heats up – Day 323

contact@ifamericansknew.org August 26, 2024 ben gvir, child malnutrition, evacuation gaza, Hezbollah, polio vaccine, torture, west bank deaths

Palestinians flee Israeli bombing in Gaza (Photo credit: Amnesty International) (photo)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Chaotic scenes as central Gaza residents evacuate after Israeli orders

Al Jazeera reports:

Palestinians have shared videos on Instagram documenting the displacement of residents from Deir el-Balah after Israeli evacuation orders.

The videos show residents carrying their belongings with some even transporting mattresses on their backs as they navigate crowded roads.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military issued a new evacuation order in an area of eastern Deir el-Balah amid an expanding ground offensive.

The latest attacks between Israel and Hezbollah

Al Jazeera reports:

Hezbollah and Israeli forces have exchanged attacks across the Lebanon-Israel border in a marked escalation of the tit-for-tat engagement they have been undertaking since October 7.

Israeli jets attacked southern Lebanon in the early hours of Sunday morning, saying it was a preemptive strike against Hezbollah rocket launchers that were preparing to attack Israel……

Global fears of an all-out regional conflict multiplied after the assassination last month of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and of Shukr in Beirut, both blamed on Israel.

Here’s everything you need to know about what happened on Sunday morning… (Read the full article here.)

Report: US aided Israel with intelligence in attack on Hezbollah

Middle East Monitor reports:

The US provided intelligence assistance to Israel for its “pre-emptive strike” against Hezbollah, the Israeli state-run broadcasting authority reported on Sunday, citing an American official.

The official, who was not named, said that Washington “provided intelligence assistance to Israel in the (Sunday) pre-emptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon,” without providing further details.

As of yet, there has been no official response from Israel regarding the American official’s statement. However, the White House previously stated that President Joe Biden “is closely monitoring events in Israel and Lebanon.”

Israel claimed to have launched preemptive strikes on southern Lebanon after detecting plans of an attack targeting Israeli soil. Hezbollah said it fired at least 340 rockets into Israel. (photo)

WHO says nearly 15,000 Gaza children are acutely malnourished

The New Arab reports:

Nearly 15,000 children in Gaza have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition since early this year, according to the United Nations.

The UN humanitarian office OCHA has said that 239,580 children were checked since mid-January, leading to 14,750 diagnoses of malnutrition affecting children aged between six months to just under five years, including 3,288 cases of severe acute malnutrition.

Kamal Adwan Hospital director Hossam Abu Safiya said that a quarter of these cases “were classified as malnutrition with complications”.

“The influx of cases with complications means that this is the stage – God forbid – that comes before death.”

Kamal Adwan Hospital is located in northern Gaza and has a malnutrition treatment center supported by WHO.

Palestinians in Jabalia Refugee Camp wait in line to receive food distributed by charitable organizations in Jabalia, Gaza on August 1, 2024. [Mahmoud İssa – Anadolu Agency] (photo)

First shipment of polio vaccine arrives in Gaza as disease resurfaces after 25 years

The National reports:

Unicef says aim is for 640,000 children to be vaccinated in the Palestinian enclave amid a high risk of the disease spreading

Gaza has received the first batch of poliovaccines needed for a mass immunisation drive among children, following its first confirmed case in a quarter of a century.

About 1.3 million doses were delivered to the Palestinian enclave by UN children’s fund Unicef through the Karam Abu Salem border crossing after the disease left a 10-month-old child paralysed, the Health Ministry said on Sunday evening. There are two other suspected cases.

Polio was eradicated from Palestine 25 years ago but returned amid a complete breakdown of sanitary infrastructure in Gaza. Its spread was exacerbated by overcrowding in Al Mawasi’s “humanitarian zone” where the population density is at least 30,000 people a square kilometre, with most living in tents….

The arrival of the vaccines – a rare piece of positive news in Gaza, where more than 40,400 people have been killed – comes as patients flee Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Hospital in Deir Al Balah, putting even more strain on what remains of Gaza’s healthcare system.

The area surrounding the hospital has been declared a military zone, the Health Ministry announced on Sunday night, “causing panic” and prompting many to flee the hospital, currently home to 100 patients, including seven in intensive care. The medical centre currently remains open to patients, the ministry added, calling for the site to be protected.

Deir Al Balah is in central Gaza, currently the focus of intense Israeli air strikes and shelling along with the southern city of Khan Younis.

A worker unloads a shipment of polio vaccines provided with support from UNICEF to the Gaza Strip through the Karm Abu Salem crossing, also known as Kerem Shalom, at a depot belonging to Gaza’s health ministry on August 25, 2024 [EYAD BABA/AFP via Getty Images] (photo)

Israel’s military tortured Palestinian healthcare workers, HRW says

Middle East Eye reports:

In its latest report, Human Rights Watch (HRW) says that Israel has arbitrarily detained Palestinian healthcare workers since the war on Gaza began on 7 October, deported them to detention facilities in Israel, and allegedly tortured and ill-treated them.

“The detention of healthcare workers in the context of the Israeli military’s repeated attacks on hospitals in Gaza has contributed to the catastrophic degradation of the besieged territory’s healthcare system,” the report reads.

Released doctors, nurses and paramedics told the organisation of their mistreatment, which included “humiliation, beatings, forced stress positions, prolonged cuffing and blindfolding, and denial of medical care”.

“They also reported torture, including rape and sexual abuse by Israeli forces, denial of medical care, and poor detention conditions for the general detainee population.”

Balkees Jarrah, acting Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said that “the torture and other ill-treatment of doctors, nurses, and paramedics should be thoroughly investigated and appropriately punished, including by the International Criminal Court (ICC)”.

Palestinian youth succumbs to injuries sustained from Israeli gunfire near Jenin

WAFA reports:

JENIN, Sunday, August 25, 2024 (WAFA) – A young Palestinian man, identified as Ahmad Mohammad Khalil Al-Anteer, 18, succumbed this morning to injuries sustained from Israeli occupation forces’ gunfire near the Jalameh military checkpoint, north of Jenin.

Local sources reported that Israeli forces had opened fire earlier today on three young men who were in a vehicle near the checkpoint.

The sources added that the Israeli forces prevented ambulances from reaching the scene and detained the three individuals from the vehicle.

Later, Palestinian security sources confirmed that one of the three young men had died from his injuries, while the condition of the other two remains unclear.

With this latest murder in Jenin, the total number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since October 7 has risen to 644, including 147 children.

Shot Palestinian Youth, Used by Israel as Human Shield, Dies of Injuries in Israeli Custody

Palestine Chronicle reports:

Zahir Tahseen Raddad, 19, from the town of Saida, north of Tulkarm, died on Sunday morning, the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) and the Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said in a joint statement.

Raddad had sustained serious injuries on July 23, following a siege by Israeli forces on the house in the Azbat al-Jarad neighborhood east of Tulkarm.

An Israeli drone reportedly targeted the house, and Raddad was arrested along with three other young men, one of whom had moderate injuries.

The prisoner organizations confirmed Raddad’s death at the Israeli Meir Hospital.

Raddad was shot by Israeli forces and used as a human shield after he was placed on the front of an Israeli military vehicle, as documented in video footage of the military operation in Tulkarm, the organizations said.

The statement further said that Raddad had been held in hospital under critical and unstable health conditions, reliant on artificial respiration after undergoing several surgeries.

Despite his grave condition, the Israeli authorities continued his detention until his death, which amounts to medical neglect.

Israeli forces kill Two in occupied West Bank

IMEMC reports:

On Sunday evening, the Palestinian Health Ministry confirmed the death of two Palestinians who were shot after Israeli soldiers opened fire at their car near the northern entrance of Salfit, in the central West Bank, and prevented Palestinian medics from approaching them.

The two were kidnapped by a paramilitary Israeli colonizer and managed to escape before the soldiers killed them when they accidentally entered Ariel illegal colony.

The Health Ministry said the soldiers killed Odai Nizar Nimir Abu Na’sa (Troush), 27, and Mos’ab Hassan Ali Moqasqas, 17, before taking their corpses to an unknown location.

The Israeli army claimed the two Palestinians drove a car into oncoming traffic, hitting vehicles while trying to ram into a military post.

Israeli National News claimed that the vehicle driven by the two Palestinians collided with other cars “and attempted to ram soldiers operating in the area, lightly wounding one,” before the soldiers “eliminated the two.”

It added that one soldier was mildly injured before he was taken to a medical center to receive medical treatment.

Ben-Gvir’s call to build synagogue at Al-Aqsa ‘to drag region into religious war’: Palestine

Andalou Agency reports:

Palestine denounced a call by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday to build a synagogue inside Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem as an attempt to drag the region into a “religious war.”

“The Palestinian people will not accept any harm to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is a red line that cannot be crossed under any circumstances,” Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh said in a statement.

“These calls to alter the status of the Al-Aqsa Mosque are attempts to drag the region into a religious war that will burn all,” he added.

The Palestinian Foreign Ministry warned of grave consequences from Ben-Gvir’s call to build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

“This is an explicit and public call to demolish Al-Aqsa and build the alleged temple in its place,” a ministry statement said.

Ben-Gvir claimed Monday that Jews have the right to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque, saying that he would build a synagogue at the flashpoint site.

It was the first time for the Israeli minister to openly speak about building a synagogue inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (2nd L) forces his way into the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex under police protection in East Jerusalem on 18 July 2024 [Stringer/Anadolu Agency] (photo)

Israel’s new police chief, a Ben-Gvir appointee, ‘brings a Zionist and Jewish agenda’

Ha’aretz reports:

The government approved the appointment of Danny Levy as the new Israel Police Commissioner on Sunday at the request of National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Levy “brings a Zionist and Jewish agenda and will lead the police according to the policy I have laid out for him,” Ben-Gvir said, following his approval.

At the appointment ceremony for Levy in Jerusalem, the incoming police commissioner stated, “We will strengthen governance and fight anyone who tries to undermine authority.” He added that “governance and sovereignty are the cornerstones of a well-functioning society.”

Ben-Gvir echoed this, saying, “We are the lord of this lands – it’s time for us to take control.”

The incoming police commissioner, closely linked with the far-right national security minister, saw rising crime and murder during his brief stint as Coastal District commander and led a harsh crackdown on anti-government and anti-war protesters.

A RECENT HA’ARETZ EDITORIAL ADDS: “Itamar Ben-Gvir supports Jewish terrorists. As national security minister, he uses the power, authority and resources that are at his disposal to protect them.

“Make no mistake: The Jewish terrorists are the military wing of the organization to which Ben-Gvir belongs and whose interests he represents as a cabinet minister. Ben-Gvir serves in the government, but he remains loyal to a bigger idea. And in a choice between his loyalty to the state and his loyalty to a Kahanist Greater Land of Israel, he will choose the latter.”

US to keep two aircraft carrier strike groups in Middle East: Pentagon

Al Jazeera reports:

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered the presence of two aircraft carrier strike groups in the Middle East, the Pentagon says as it strengthens the US military presence amid soaring regional tensions.

The announcement, made in a summary of a call between Austin and his Israeli counterpart, represents a shift. The Pentagon had initially deployed the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group into the region with a plan to replace the Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Common Dreams: Rashida Tlaib Says She Is ‘Ashamed of Our Country Looking Away’ as Gaza Faces Polio Crisis

Palestine Chronicle: Subsidizing Racism – end tax breaks for “charities” pushing genocide, to save kids

Middle East Eye: Gaza family accuses Israel of killing Palestinian with Down syndrome during incursion

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 25:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 25, 2024: at least 41,079* (40,435 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [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 644 in the West Bank (~147 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 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 23 from West Bank).
  - At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
  - 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 – August 25: at least 98,954 (including at least 93,534 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 25, 2024: ~1,452 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 288*** 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.

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.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 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.

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

Monday 26 August 2024