Horrific Israeli massacre kills over 100 in northern Gaza – Day 388

contact@ifamericansknew.org October 30, 2024 Ada Colau, Bezalel Smotrich, chuck schumer, famine, francesca albanese, gaza massacre, Jaume Asens, Lisa Johnson, medical evacuation

At least 93 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a five-story building in Gaza's Beit Lahia (AFP via Getty Images)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Tuesday was the twenty-fifth consecutive day of the Israeli occupation forces’ aerial, ground, and naval bombardment of northern Gaza. The siege has included blocking supplies of food, water, medicine, and fuel, destroying homes, demolishing entire residential blocks, attacking hospitals, and assassinating individuals trying to escape.

Over 1,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its siege of northern Gaza.

At least 143 Palestinian people were killed in Israeli strikes across Gaza on Tuesday, with 132 of those killed in northern Gaza, according to medical sources.

One of the mages posted to social media by Israeli soldiers, indicating that the army set shelters in Jabaliya on fire after forcibly evacuating Palestinians, to prevent them from returning. (social media)

Israeli massacre in northern Gaza kills over 100

109 were killed in a single incident Tuesday when Israeli forces hit a five-story residential building sheltering displaced families in Gaza’s Beit Lahiya.

“It was bombed without warning. As you can see, there are martyrs all over the place. Bodies hanging over the walls,” said eyewitness Ismail Ouaida.

Most of those killed in the strike were women and children, according to medics. The few survivors were left to try and identify their relatives.

Survivors also report that these families were taking refuge in that building after being displaced from the Jabalia refugee camp.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says that US officials have reached out to Israel to explain what happened.

The Israeli military said it’s “looking into the reports” of the strike in Beit Lahiya.

World Food Program Calls for Urgent Action as Food Insecurity in Gaza Reaches Critical Levels

The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) warns that the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza could soon escalate into famine unless immediate action is taken.

The U.N. World Food Program currently has approximately 94,000 metric tons of food – enough to feed 1 million people for four months – ready to go to Gaza.

The U.N. World Food Program stands ready to bring the urgently needed supplies into Gaza but is calling on Israel to open more crossings, vet more drivers to operate inside Gaza, provide safe and timely access inside Gaza, and expedite paperwork for an increase in trucking capacity.

Palestinian people with empty bowls wait for food at a donation point in Rafah. (Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel’s refusal to issue medical evacuations for Gaza’s children is yet another way to die: UNICEF

UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a press conference,

Children are being medically evacuated from Gaza at a rate of fewer than one child per day. If this lethally slow pace continues, it would take more than seven years to evacuate the 2,500 children needing urgent medical care.
As a result, children in Gaza are dying – not just from the bombs, bullets and shells that strike them – but because, even when “miracles happen”, even when the bombs go off and the homes collapse and the casualties mount, but the children survive, they are then prevented from leaving Gaza to receive the urgent care that would save their lives.

Elder added that before Israel closed the Rafah crossing, children were being medically evacuated at a rate of 296 per month. Since then, thanks to Israel’s “indifferent bureaucracy,” just 22 have been allowed to leave per month – “many suffering from head trauma, amputations, burns, cancer, and severe malnutrition.”

Ahmad Shabat and his uncle Ibrahim Abu Amsheh at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip (Atia Darwish/Al Jazeera)

Gaza’s “safe” zone expands to cover 19 percent of Gaza’s total area

According to the UN office on humanitarian affairs, on 26 October, the Israeli military announced the expansion of the zone in Al Mawasi to which it has been ordering Palestinian to move.

The order revokes previous evacuation notices affecting 11 square kilometers in Khan Younis and Deir Al Balah, therefore expanding the zone to 68 square kilometers or about 19 per cent of Gaza’s total area.

In total, since October 2023 and as of 29 October, the Israeli military has issued over 65 evacuation orders, including four that were subsequently revoked.

Palestine official calls for Israel’s ouster from UN over UNRWA ban

The president of the Palestinian National Council, Rawhi Fattouh, has reportedly called for Israel’s expulsion from the United Nations if it fails to reverse its ban on UNRWA functioning in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory.

Fattouh said Israel’s decision is in clear violation of the UN Charter and part of Israel’s policy is “ethnic cleansing.”

He urged UN member states to hold a General Assembly session to compel Israel to reverse its legislation or face legal consequences that could result in expulsion from the world body.

Eight UN peacekeepers wounded in southern Lebanon

Eight Austrian soldiers belonging to the peacekeeping group the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) were lightly wounded in a rocket strike on Camp Naqoura near the Israeli border.

“We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms and demand that it be investigated immediately,” Austria’s Defence Ministry said in a statement, adding it’s unclear where the attack came from.

UNIFIL has faced a series of Israeli attacks on its peacekeepers. The Israeli government has demanded that UNIFIL leave its positions in Lebanon, an order the UN force has refused.

This photo is taken from Lebanon showing the Israeli border as the United Nations Interim Peacekeeping Forces (UNIFIL) patrol the border-line between Lebanon and Israel, at the Lebanese town of Dhayra on October 11, 2023 (Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu Agency])

West Bank: Israeli army attacks int’l delegation to Palestine

The former mayor of Barcelona and a Spanish Member of the European Parliament denounced being attacked Tuesday by the Israeli army while visiting an olive grove with local farmers in the West Bank.

Ada Colau and Jaume Asens are part of an international delegation that arrived Monday, and visited olive groves near the town of Qusra on the second day of the trip.

Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona, said as soon as the delegation arrived with local farmers, the Israeli army and armed illegal settlers began surrounding them.

“Indiscriminately, without hardly a word … they started firing tear gas and sonic bombs at people, putting them in danger,” Colau said in a video on Instagram. “We were just here to pick olives – something so simple and innocent – and the Israeli army and armed settlers turned it into an act of war.”

Asens, in a separate video on social media, said they were accompanying a group of farmers who had been consistently prevented from harvesting olives on the farms of their families.

“We thought our presence could dissuade those blocking them, but it did not,” he said. “But we can verify that they were attacked, which violates international law.”

Smotrich urges full annexation of West Bank and Gaza, expulsion of Palestinians

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called Sunday for Israel to effectively annex the West Bank and Gaza Strip, calling for the establishment of new settlements deep inside Palestinian areas and the departure of Arabs harboring nationalist aspirations – a common theme in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s political circle.

Addressing the Middle East Summit, a conference in Jerusalem organized by Israel 365, an Israeli media outlet aimed at American evangelicals, Smotrich urged an “unequivocal Israeli statement to the Arabs and the entire world that a Palestinian state will not be established.”

Smotrich also called for Israeli control over Gaza to be solidified by establishing a permanent civilian and military presence.

He argued that without civilians, Israel’s military gains in Gaza would be unsustainable, claiming, “Where there is no civilian presence, there is no long-term military presence, there is no security and there is an existential threat to the State of Israel and its citizens, and we must not allow this.”

NOTE: The idea of an Israeli civilian presence on Palestinian soil as a deterrent to Palestinians amounts to using Israelis as human shields.

UN rapporteur’s latest report accuses Israel of ‘settler-colonial genocide’ against Palestinians

The UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, Francesca Albanese, issued a report late Monday accusing Israel of a systematic campaign of forced displacement, destruction and acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

The report focused on “genocidal intent, contextualizing the situation within a decades-long process of territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing aimed at liquidating the Palestinian presence in Palestine.”

“The violence that Israel has unleashed against the Palestinians post-7 October…is part of a long-term intentional, systematic, state-organized forced displacement and replacement of the Palestinians,” Albanese warned.

“The persistent denial of access to United Nations mechanisms and investigators of the International Criminal Court (ICC) may constitute obstruction of justice, in defiance of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order that Israel allow international investigators to enter Gaza and take measures to ensure the preservation of evidence,” it said.

She noted that the ongoing “genocide is doubtlessly the consequence of the exceptional status and protracted impunity that has been afforded to Israel.”

“Israel has systematically and flagrantly violated international law, including (UN) Security Council resolutions and ICJ orders,” she said. “This has emboldened the hubris of Israel and its defiance of international law.”

Irish PM calls on EU to review trade relations with Israel

The Republic of Ireland’s Prime Minister Simon Harris has called on the EU to review its ties with Israel following its ban on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. “More people will die, more children will starve,” he said.

“The most important action that the European Union could take right now is reviewing trade relations,” Harris told reporters in Dublin.

Harris said there’s “no alternative” to UNRWA and will discuss “how Europe now needs to find the moral courage … to act in relation to this”.

Norway asks ICJ to clarify Israel’s aid obligations to Palestinians

Norway has asked the ICJ to clarify Israel’s aid obligations to Palestinians, a day after Israel banned the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began, Norway has been one of the more vocal European countries in supporting Palestinian rights.

NOTE: South Africa accused Israel of genocide, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled by an overwhelming majority, that there was a “plausible” case for genocide.

Numerous experts and human rightsorganizations have joined in declaringIsrael’s actions against Gaza (and the West Bank) to be genocide, while the US government is nearly alone in denying it.

American mainstream media have tried tohide this from readers.

Spain cancels arms deal with Israeli company worth billions

The Spanish government has canceled a contract to buy ammunition for its Civil Guard police force from an Israeli defense company, Madrid announced in a statement on 29 October.

“The Spanish government maintains the commitment not to sell weapons to the Israeli state since the armed conflict broke out in the territory of Gaza,” Spain’s Interior Ministry announced.

This decision marks the first signal that the Spanish pledge will include purchases from Israel and not just sales.

US ambassador to Lebanon promotes ‘internal uprising’ to assist Israel: Report

A high-ranking Lebanese security source revealed to Al-Akhbar newspaper that the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Lisa Johnson, is continuing her agenda to prepare Lebanon for a “post-Hezbollah era” by mobilizing “internal” forces against the Islamic resistance movement while it fights the Israeli Army.

In discussions with Lebanese politicians, Johnson reportedly said, “Israel cannot achieve everything through war; it’s time for you to do your part and launch an internal uprising under the banner of ‘Enough.'”

According to the high-level Lebanese security source, Ambassador Johnson’s allies are conducting incitement operations to stoke internal sectarian tensions in areas where displaced persons, mostly Shia from Beirut’s southern suburbs and the south of Lebanon, are now staying after fleeing their homes due to Israeli bombing.

In an effort to weaken Hezbollah, Johnson has also begun calling on politicians, civil organizations, and media professionals with whom she has influence to drive a wedge between Lebanon’s Shia community and Hezbollah.

The source said that Johnson has clearly stated her wish to take advantage of the current Israeli war to completely eliminate Hezbollah, not only militarily but politically as well.

“We do not only want to limit Hezbollah’s influence, but we will strike its support lines, and we are working non-stop to bring down the regime in Iran as well,” Johnson reportedly said.

Schumer pledges to pass antisemitism bill in Senate’s lame-duck session

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) recently promised Jewish leaders that he would try later this year to pass a bill aimed at curbing antisemitism on college campuses, Axios has learned.

The bill would be Congress’ most forceful response to the pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses across the country this spring, which sometimes led to the harassment of Jewish students.

However, critics argue the definition of antisemitism the legislation offers is overly broad.

Schumer has privately said he plans to attach the Antisemitism Awareness Act — making the federal government adopt a broad definition of antisemitism to enforce anti-discrimination laws — to a must-pass defense bill after the election, multiple sources told us.

NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is to pressure universities to officiallyadopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic.

Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more.

Typically, any move that defies the standard pro-Israel position is followed by an apology like the one Sonoma State University’spresident 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.

MORE NEWS:

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 29, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 29, 2024: at least 43,926* ( 43,163 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 763 in the West Bank (~166 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 29, 2024: at least 107,810 (including at least 101,510 in Gaza and 6,300 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 29, 2024: ~1,570 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 392*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Oct 29); 39 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 2,792, with 12,772 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.

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

Thursday, 31 October 2024