Israel wipes out healthcare in northern Gaza; what’s true and false about Israel’s attack on Iran – Day 385
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Saturday was the twenty-second 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 820 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its siege of Jabaliya and northern Gaza.
Jabaliya, Gaza, October 21, 2024 (Muhammad Safia - Quds Press)
Israeli army ransacks last functioning hospital in northern Gaza, withdraws, leaving total destruction
The Israeli army withdrew on Saturday from Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, one of the few remaining medical centers serving the area, after wreaking havoc and destruction on the facility.
Eyewitnesses reported that the Israeli army left behind Palestinian casualties and extensive damage, having bulldozed the hospital’s walls, along with makeshift shelters for the displaced inside and around the facility, and fired shells in the hospital courtyard.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus noted that 44 male staff members were detained by Israeli forces, leaving only female staff, the hospital director, and one male doctor to care for roughly 200 patients in urgent need of medical attention.
The Gaza Health Ministry announced that injured patients at the hospital had also been detained.
In an urgent alarm, the UN’s top humanitarian aid official on Saturday warned that “the entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying.”
Northern Gaza’s health system is now completely out of service following an Israeli invasion of the last operational hospital in the area on Friday, a health official said.
The other two hospitals, the Indonesian Hospital and al-Awda Hospital, ceased operations in recent days due to Israeli attacks and severe shortages of food, medicine and fuel.
Until the Israeli raid on Friday, Kamal Adwan Hospital had been operating at minimal capacity, providing life-saving care to newborn infants in neonatal intensive care units and other patients in ICUs.
According to Marwan al-Homs, the director of field hospitals at the Palestinian health ministry, around 200 critically wounded patients at the Kamal Adwan Hospital are at risk of imminent death after an invasion by Israeli forces that destroyed medical supplies and detained staff.
“Israeli soldiers destroyed all drug inventories at the hospital yesterday, claiming they were looking for militants. Now, all drug stocks have been deliberately damaged to prevent doctors from saving the lives of the wounded.
“The smell of death is everywhere at the hospital and in its vicinity,” he added.
The assault began with air strikes targeting the hospital and its courtyards, including the medical oxygen generator, according to Dr Munir al-Bursh, director general of the Palestinian health ministry.
The bombing of the oxygen supply caused the deaths of children in the hospital and wounded medical staff, Bursh said.
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel’s Gaza genocide: How Netanyahu has blocked cease-fire efforts for a year
Iran
Why you will not find mainstream media quotes here about Israel’s attack on Iran
As is often the case when it comes to news about Israel, Western mainstream media (MSM) can not be trusted to tell the truth about this weekend’s confrontation between Israel and Iran.
Alternative media have documented MSM’s pro-Israel bias over a span of years, includingstudies by If Americans Knew and investigation of coverage by outliets like the Associated Press, CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, NPR, and the BBC, as well as many detailed analyses of mainstream media as a whole.
Media bias case in point: the current escalation between Israel and Iran.
A number of MSM platforms have falsely framed this affair – not because it’s murky or controversial. The timeline of events between the two states is straightforward, recent, and well-documented.
Context matters
The Cradle is one alternative news site that focuses on stories from West Asia from journalists with roots there (and no one setting the agenda for them). The site has covered news from the region with integrity, and provides us with an accurate timeline of eventsleading up to Israel’s Saturday attack:
Israel launched Saturday’s attack in response to Iran’s attack on Israel on 1 October, Operation True Promise 2.
In that attack, the Islamic Republic launched some 200 ballistic missiles at three different Israeli airbases. Video filmed by Israeli citizens and posted to social media showed the missiles making numerous direct hits.
The Iranian attack was in response to multiple Israeli aggressions, including the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July in Tehran and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and IRGC commander Abbas Nilforushan in Beirut in September.
The Israeli Air Force dropped over 80 one-ton bombs, flattening multiple high-rise buildings in the Beirut suburbs to carry out the assassinations of Nasrallah and Nilforushan.
By contrast, CNN, the New York Times, and Fox News headlines all framed Israel’s attack as “retaliatory” (see below), as if Iran had started the cycle and Israel was an innocent victim, merely defending itself by striking back at Iran.
If one is willing to read to the bottom these articles, one may discover that Israel was the provocateur – but news outlets know that most readers will not make the effort. Hence, headlines provide the message of Israel’s victimhood.
For the past year and more, this is how much of MSM reporting has framed the entire Israel-Gaza conflict: as if Israel was an innocent victim on October 7th, 2023, rather than the instigator, with more than 76 years of provocations against Palestinians.
RECOMMENDED READING: Leaked New York Times Memo Tells Journalists To Avoid Words “Genocide,” “Ethnic Cleansing,” and “Occupied Territory”
So what actually happened?
Israel’s military claimed it carried out “precise strikes” targeting strategic military sites, including ballistic missile manufacturing sites and air defense batteries, on Saturday.
Iran said it “successfully confronted” the Israeli attack by activating its missile defenses.
Four Iranian soldiers were killed in Israel’s overnight attack on the country, the Iranian military announced in a statement Saturday.
Iran’s armed forces said that, while most of the missiles were intercepted, some did cause “limited damage.”
Iran blames the US
Alternative media that did not center their reporting on the US and Israeli perspectives, noticed that the US and UK were the only cheerleaders for Israel’s strike, claiming it was carried out in “self defense” (absent context, “self defense” may seem plausible).
Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, and Anadolu Agency from Turkey point out that Iran’s mission to the UN on Saturday announced that Israeli warplanes attacked Iran from Iraqi airspace, which is “under the occupation, command and control of the US military. Conclusion: The US complicity in this crime is certain.”
Israel- and other Western Asia-based outlets also reported on the US connection – which means that in the event of an Iranian retaliation, the US might take a hit – but MSM seems not to be interested in this fact.
MSM reported an American defense official’s claim that the US was not involved in the strike – a claim that may not be entirely true. Iran’s permanent mission to the United Nations accused the United States of complicity in recent Israeli airstrikes on Iranian military sites, claiming that Israeli warplanes used Iraqi airspace under US control to launch their attacks.
Again, only non-Western media seem to be covering this – although American audiences might be interested to know that Iran reserves the right to attack US assets because of its collusion with Israel.
Al Jazeera was nearly alone in quoting US National Security Council spokesperson Sean Savett, who told reporters, “[Israel’s] response was an exercise in self-defense and specifically avoided populated areas and focused solely on military targets, contrary to Iran’s attack against Israel that targeted Israel’s most populous city.”
Savett’s statement, in addition to decontextualizing the incident, once again falsely paints Israel as an innocent victim: Iran’s recent attack targeted military objects – which Israel had placed in population centers, essentially using civilians there as human shields (something Israel consistently blames both Hamas and Hezbollah for, without providing proof).
RECOMMENDED READING: U.S. Media’s Doublespeak: Israelis Live in “Densely Populated Areas,” Palestinians Are “Human Shields”
Lebanon
1 more health worker killed in Lebanon, bringing death toll to 164 since Oct. last year: Health Ministry
An Israeli airstrike on a health center in Bazouriye, southern Lebanon, killed a civil defense medic and injured five others, including three medics, on Saturday, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, bringing the total number of health workers killed since October 2023 to 164, with 275 others injured.
Hezbollah orders ‘immediate’ evacuation of 25 settlements in northern Israel
Hezbollah issued orders Saturday evening for the immediate evacuation of 25 settlements in northern Israel, warning residents that these areas are now “legitimate military targets.”
In a video message posted on Telegram, Hezbollah addressed residents directly, stating, “You are requested to evacuate immediately. Your settlements have become a place for the deployment and stability of enemy military forces that are attacking Lebanon. As a result, they have become legitimate military targets for the air and missile power of the Islamic resistance.”
Israeli forces launch phosphorus bombs on southern Lebanese villages
Israeli forces on Saturday deployed phosphorus bombs on villages in Nabatiyeh, southern Lebanon, accompanied by airstrikes on villages in Tyre, triggering multiple fires, according to local media.
NOTE: Use of white phosphorus in civilian areas is considered a war crime due to its extremely dangerous effects on the human body. White phosphorus ignites instantly when in contact with oxygen. It can burn through the human body, including through bone, causing severe, excruciating damage.
It can also cause extreme harm when inhaled, with risks of suffocation, cardiovascular failure, coma, death, and other lifelong effects. The substance burns at temperatures of up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
West Bank
Israel kills two Palestinian young men
Israeli forces executed a Palestinian young man and shot another, on Saturday, after besieging and bombing a residential building in the city of Tulkarem, in the northwestern part of the West Bank.
On Saturday afternoon, the Civil Affairs Authority informed the Palestinian Health Ministry of the death of the young man, Islam Jamil Awda, 29, after Israeli soldiers shot him with live ammunition, during the military assault in the “Al-Salam” neighborhood.
On Saturday evening Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian young man while he was in the vicinity of the Apartheid Wall, near the village of Azzun Atma, southeast of Qalqilia in the northwestern part of the West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced the death of the young man, Sabri Samer Ahmad, 23, after occupation forces shot him with live ammunition while he was near the village of Azzun Atma, southeast of Qalqilia.
MORE NEWS:
The Intercept: Israel’s Invasion of Lebanon May Doom Kamala Harris’s White House Chances
Mondoweiss: Generating consent for genocide: The BBC’s complicity in Israel’s crimes in Palestine and Lebanon
Mondoweiss: ‘Our freedom is close’: why these young Palestinian men choose armed resistance
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 26, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 26, 2024: at least 43,607* ( 42,847 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 760 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 26, 2024: at least 106,794 (including at least 100,544 in Gaza and 6,250 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 26, 2024: ~1,561 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 386*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Oct 22); 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 2,653, with 12,360 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
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