After assassinating top Hamas leader, Israel not ready to stop killing in Gaza – Day 376
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Gaza’s health ministry stated, “The Israeli occupation committed two massacres of families in Gaza, resulting in 29 deaths and 93 injuries in the past 24 hours.”
- Ten Palestinians, including three children and their mother, were killed, and others were injured on Thursday in a new Israeli attack on a house in central Gaza, the Palestinian civil defense said.
A Lebanese health ministry statement said that 45 people were killed and 179 others injured in Israeli attacks over the last 24 hours.
Death of Yahya Sinwar
Various agencies report:
On Thursday, October 17, the Israeli army radio said that Israel had killed Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar in combat in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army’s initial statement claimed that Israeli troops engaged three Palestinian fighters in battle in Rafah’s Tal al-Sultan neighborhood on Wednesday night before killing them. After the Israeli soldiers inspected the bodies of the slain fighters, they reportedly noticed that one of them closely resembled the Hamas leader.
Later in the day, the Israeli army said that the collected samples matched the DNA record that Israel had on Sinwar from his years of imprisonment in Israeli custody.
Israeli officials have stated that the alleged killing of Sinwar “was coincidental and not based on intelligence” and that no hostages were involved, Axios reported.
The footage as well as Israel’s description of his killing run contrary to Israel’s claims that Sinwar was hiding among Israeli captives in Hamas’s intricate tunnel system underneath Gaza.
US President Joe Biden said, “Israel has had every right to eliminate the leadership and military structure of Hamas. Hamas is no longer capable of carrying out another October 7.”
However, in a video statement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, “Today evil has been dealt a blow but our task has still not been completed”; former Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz said that Israel would continue to operate in Gaza “for years”.
FURTHER READING: Hamas chief’s killing may revive peace talks, but US sincerity and Israeli defiance raise doubts
FLASHBACK: Gaza Genocide
DAYS 11-12 (OCT 17-18, 2023) If Americans Knew wrote:
ONE YEAR AGO, October 17-18, 2023: Massive blast at Gaza hospital; Israel implausibly blames Hamas
Forensic Architecture reported:
On 17 October 2023, a devastating explosion took place in the car park of the al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City. The Gaza Health Ministry reported that 471 people were killed and 342 injured.
Israeli officials have suggested that a failed rocket launch by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) was responsible for the explosion, while Palestinian authorities and reports from the ground blame an Israeli airstrike. Specifically, Israeli officials pointed to a salvo of seventeen rockets fired from within Gaza in the direction of the hospital, claiming that one of these rockets misfired and was responsible for the blast at al-Ahli and resulting destruction.
After the explosion, Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesperson appeared on CNN and the BBC, pointing to a still from an Al Jazeera livestream showing a mid-air explosion. Lerner claimed that this footage captured the misfiring rocket responsible for the blast at al-Ahli.
According to our analysis, this missile is likely an Israeli interceptor, unrelated to the al-Ahli blast.
Independent investigations by the New York Times and the Washington Post corroborate our analysis.
While what happened at al-Ahli remains inconclusive, it is clear that in the aftermath of the explosion, the Israeli military launched an aggressive disinformation campaign.
As it stands, Israel has yet to provide any conclusive visual evidence to support the claim that the source of the deadly blast at al-Ahli hospital was a Hamas or PIJ rocket.
NOTE: Israel’s denials of guilt carry little weight: historically, Israel has not proven itself trustworthy. Among Israel’s lies arenumerous atrocity stories about the October 7th attack that have since been proven untrue (more examples here). In addition, anumber of the Israeli soldiers and civilianskilled on October 7 were shown to have beenkilled by Israeli fire – a fact that is absent from the official Israeli narrative. The Israeli military has also disseminated false storiesabout civilians captured.
Previously, Israel has been caught in many lies – for example, this and this and this.
ALSO READ:
The latest from Gaza
Israeli airstrike kills dozens
At least 22 Palestinians were killed and dozens more injured in an Israeli airstrike on a school-turned-shelter in northern Gaza’s Jabaliya on 17 October, which targeted a school housing displaced people.
Among the dead were young children, as seen in the video footage circulating social media.
The Israeli army claimed that it attacked “in a targeted and precise manner,” hitting “many terrorists … who were operating in a command-and-control complex” on the grounds of the Abu Hussein school.
NOTE: Israel continues to repeat the “human shields” mantra, in spite of the logical and moral problems it raises. +972 Magazineconducted in-depth investigations that prove Israel prefers to kill Gazan fighters when they are at home (or sheltering away from home with their families), rather than on the battlefield or elsewhere – creating a situation where civilians are likely to be killed. (An excellent commentary on the topic is here.)
Meanwhile, Israel has been extensively documented using Palestinians as human shields (see this, this, this, this, this for examples).
Israel rarely, if ever, provides evidence of the presence of Hamas fighters in a targeted area.
Moreover, Israel locates its own military bases in civilian population centers – the IDF headquarters is located in the heart of Tel Aviv.
RECOMMENDED READING: Not Just Its Neighbors, Israel Makes War on the Entire World
Aid airdrop malfunction
Aircraft on Thursday conducted the first humanitarian aid airdrop since mid-July over the Al-Mawasi area, west of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Witnesses reported that unidentified planes dropped relief supplies via parachutes. However, a “technical malfunction” caused aid boxes to fall onto tents housing displaced persons, resulting in casualties and destruction, according to witnesses.
One elderly person was reportedly killed and others were injured in the incident.
‘Staggering’ unemployment in Gaza a year after war: UN
More than a year into Israel’s war on Gaza, “nearly 100 percent” of the besieged territory’s population has been plunged into poverty with a ruined economy and “staggering” unemployment, the UN said Thursday.
Ruba Jaradat, UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) regional director for Arab States, said in a statement, “The impact of the war in the Gaza Strip has taken a toll far beyond loss of life, desperate humanitarian conditions and physical destruction. It has fundamentally altered the socioeconomic landscape of Gaza.”
She added, “Nearly 100 percent of the population now lives in poverty…The impact will be felt for generations to come.”
Unemployment in Gaza averaged a staggering 79.7 percent, and its gross domestic product (GDP) dropped 84.7 percent.
Food aid dried up
Israel has stopped processing requests from traders to import food to Gaza, according to 12 people involved in the trade, choking off a track that for the past six months supplied more than half of the besieged Palestinian territory’s meager provisions.
Since Oct. 11, Gaza-based traders who were importing food from Israel and the Israeli-occupied West Bank have lost contact with COGAT, their Israeli governmental intermediary.
Between Oct. 1 and Oct. 16, the overall flow of shipments to Gaza – including both aid and commercial goods – fell to a daily average of 29 trucks, according to COGAT statistics.
That compares with a daily average of 175 trucks between May and September – of which over half was commercial, not aid, the data shows.
Following recent international criticism, COGAT said in statements this week that Israel had allowed scores of trucks of aid into Gaza, including dozens via crossings in the north. It did not provide full details.
Palestinian media sources say no aid has entered the besieged areas in the northern Gaza Strip despite “misleading” Israeli claims otherwise. Israeli forces continue to besiege Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, blocking the entry of food and medicine, Al Jazeera correspondent in Gaza has said.
Before the war, some 500 trucks per day entered Gaza carrying a mix of aid and commercial imports, such as food, building materials and agricultural supplies.
West Bank woman shot in the back by Israeli soldiers while harvesting olives
Middle East Eye reports:
A 59-year-old Palestinian woman has been shot dead by Israeli forces while attending to her family’s olive grove in the village of Faqqua, east of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Hanan Abu Salami was shot in the back on Thursday morning as she was picking olives with other members of her family when soldiers stationed on the nearby separation wall opened fire, her son told Middle East Eye.
Faris Abu Salami, who was with his mother when she was shot, said the local council had negotiated permission from the Israeli army for the family and other villagers to pick olives on their lands providing they stayed at least 100 metres from the wall.
Abu Salami said: “We were much further than that from the wall. All of a sudden they started shooting randomly. We started collecting our things to leave and moved away.
“My father waved his white hat in the air hoping they would stop. They shot her in the back as we were fleeing.”
“She was taken immediately to the hospital but it seems that she died before reaching it,” said Abu Salami.
“We had permission to pick the olives but despite that they shot at us and killed my mother.”
World Health Org accuses Israel of blocking medical specialists from entering Gaza
CNN reports:
The World Health Organization (WHO) has accused Israel of blocking multiple medical organizations from entering Gaza, marking the first time entire health agencies have been denied access to the enclave during the more than year-long war.
The United Nations health agency said it was notified that more than 50 specialist personnel were affected by blockages.
CNN has reached out to COGAT, the Israeli agency that coordinates the inspection and delivery of humanitarian assistance for Gaza.
The specialists were supposed to support medical treatments including surgeries, hemodialysis and mental health support for health workers, at facilities such as the Nasser Medical Complex and the European Hospital in southern Gaza and Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza, WHO said.
Last week, a UN inquiry accused Israel of carrying out a “concerted policy” of destroying the health care system in Gaza during its war with Gaza in attacks it said amount to war crimes.
CNN reported earlier this month that at least seven medical nongovernmental organizations had been banned from entering the Palestinian enclave, according to two sources. The ban came just days after the United States warned Israel it needs to do more to improve the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza or risk losing military assistance.
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
The Intercept: She Exposed a Prestigious Medical Journal’s Silence on the Holocaust. Now She’s Asking About Gaza.
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 17, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 17, 2024: at least 43,192* ( 42,438 in Gaza* – 69% are women and children, according to Gaza’s Media Office). [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 754 in the West Bank (~165 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death 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 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
- At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- 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 – October 17, 2024: at least 105,446 (including at least 99,246 in Gaza and 6,200 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, 2023 – October 17, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 297*** 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.
The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is at least 2,412 and 11,285 injuries. An estimated 1.34 million have been displaced.
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.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 56 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.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- FLASHBACK 2014: U.S. Senators Are Nearly All Stooges for Israel
- More on Israeli Atrocities: Attacking UN peacekeepers is a dangerous policy
- How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on October 7
- The most precarious place in the world to be a child: Israel’s year of war on children
- Every accusation a confession: Israel and the double lie of ‘human shields’
- Most Americans want to stop arming Israel. Politicians don’t care.
- Happy 100th birthday, Jimmy Carter – loved by many, smeared by some
- You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?
- How Does Israel Justify Mass Killings? It Starts in the Schools.
- From the Americas to Gaza: Spreading disease has long been used by colonizers to commit genocide
- Contrived charges of antisemitism are the new ‘Red Scare’
- How Israel’s quadcopters traumatize, maim and kill Palestinians in Gaza
- Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute
- The unpublished genocide diaries of Refaat Alareer
- An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law
- Israel is redrawing the West Bank, cutting into a prospective Palestinian state
- Gaza breakdown: 20 times Israel used US arms in likely war crimes
- U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.
- ‘Words like Slaughter:’ A comparative study of The New York Times reporting in Ukraine and Gaza
- Cracks in the Dome: Israel’s security mirage
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