Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza’s “safe” space shrinks – Day 313

contact@ifamericansknew.org August 16, 2024amputation, arms embargo, ceasefire, east jerusalem water crisis, evacuation, israeli economy, israeli outposts, israeli settler violence, pogrom, west bank deaths

The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood

+972 Magazine reports: In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week. Their complaints have been redirected from one official to the next, yet no one has provided them with a solution — nor taken responsibility for the problem.

Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks.

“We have hospitals, nurseries, and schools in the area,” Iyad Sanduka, a member of the neighborhood’s residents’ committee, told +972 Magazine and Local Call. “Everyone suffers from the water shortage.”

Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.

This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity. For Palestinians in Gaza, it is currently as low as 3 liters.

(Read the full article here.)

Israeli economy on the brink as it awaits retaliation from Resistance Axis

The Cradle reports: The Israeli economy is on the ropes as the country awaits retaliation for its attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen over the past month, according to reports in Hebrew media.

“These two weeks have exhausted the market, as some economic activities have been canceled, and another part has been reduced due to public fear,” the economic affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 13 News said on 15 August.

Israel’s tourism industry, in particular, has recorded massive losses due to the broad cancellation of flights by international airlines.

Israel’s education sector will also be severely affected if the wait continues into September, as institutions will have to “maneuver within combat scenarios,” according to the Israeli broadcaster.

The Israeli economy has already taken several hits 10 months into the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, with the most recent one being the decision by US financial services firm Fitch to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.

UN rapporteur says ‘shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable

Al Jazeera reports: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza, which has reached a landmark 40,000 people, was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence.

In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict.

“The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”.

The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”.

Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] (photo)

“Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice

The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel.

Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. We demand concrete results from the current Biden-Harris Administration to end the Gaza Genocide and a credible commitment from a Harris-Walz ticket which will pressure Israel to achieve a just and lasting solution to the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

“We hereby pledge to vote Democratic on November 5th only if the current administration: 1) enforces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) ends all military aid to Israel.”

The pledge can be viewed and signed here.

Pledging arms embargo on Israel would help Harris gain more voter support: Poll

Middle East Eye reports: According to a new poll, roughly one-third of Democratic Party voters in the US states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have said they are more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election if she were to agree to stop sending arms to Israel.

In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Harris if she agreed to the arms embargo, while 44 percent were more likely to vote for her if Biden achieved a ceasefire.

In Georgia, an arms embargo would make 39 percent of voters more likely to vote for Harris, and a ceasefire would similarly make 44 percent of voters more likely to choose the vice president.

Arizona showed similar numbers, with 35 percent of voters more inclined to choose Harris if she agreed to an arms embargo on Israel, while 41 percent of voters would do so if Biden achieved a ceasefire in Gaza.

Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo)

Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

From Consortium News: In an open letter to Antony Blinken, 113 journalists, 7 press freedom groups and 20 news outlets accused the U.S. secretary of state of being “complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today” in Gaza. Here are excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to the State Department on Thursday morning with a request to meet with the Secretary of State.

Dear Secretary Blinken,
Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists.
Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.
On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”
As journalists, publications and press freedom groups in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza, we call on you to do more to protect journalists and show unwavering support for free and independent media by supporting an arms embargo against Israel…
Under international law, the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.5 While all governments are bound by international law protecting reporters, U.S. domestic law also prohibits the State Department from providing assistance to units of foreign security forces credibly accused of gross violations of human rights.6 Israel’s well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions of journalists is a gross violation of human rights.
Additionally, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the American people’s right to receive information and ideas.7 Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists follows a longstanding pattern by the Israeli government to suppress truthful reporting on its treatment of Palestinians and its war in Gaza. By providing Israel with the weapons used to kill journalists, the State Department is abetting Israel’s violent suppression of journalism.
The U.S. is providing the weapons Israel continually uses to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This is a violation of International law and U.S. domestic law. We urge you to immediately cease the transfer of all weapons to Israel.

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

Al Jazeera: Israel-Hamas ceasefire talks: A timeline of obstruction

Middle East Eye: UK judge tells Muslim man jailed for fighting back against rioters to ‘rise above’ racism

Middle East Eye: ‘Good riddance’: Ex-Columbia University president remembered for silencing pro-Palestine speech

The New Arab: Polio: Israel’s dirty bioweapon is bringing Gaza to its knees

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 15:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 15: at least 40,634* (40,005 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 632 in the West Bank (~145 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, 18 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 15: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 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 – August 15: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36were children); 290*** 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 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.

***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 41 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

Friday 16 August 2024