Israeli legislature votes to ban critical UN humanitarian aid group – Day 387

contact@ifamericansknew.org October 29, 2024cultural boycott, icj genocide case, marwan barghouti, northern Gaza, south africa, unrwa

Palestinians carry their belongings as they flee areas north of Gaza City on 12 October 2024. (Omar Al-Qattaa/AFP/Getty Images)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Monday was the twenty-fourth 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.

In Gaza, at least 41 Palestinians were killed and 113 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period, the health ministry reported.

In Lebanon, at least 20 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Monday, according to Lebanese media. Three of the dead were paramedics.

FLASHBACK: Gaza Genocide

DAY 23 (OCT 29, 2023) If Americans Knew wrote:
ONE YEAR AGO: Palestinian death toll 8,120 (8,005 in Gaza (66% are women and children, and at least 115 in the West Bank).

ONE YEAR LATER: Palestinian death toll is 43,824 ( 43,061 in Gaza – 69% are women and children, and at least 763 in the West Bank. This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble.

Medical teams needed in north Gaza hospital after Israeli raid, health ministry says

The Ministry of Health in Gaza Monday appealed to international organizations to quickly send surgical teams to Kamal Adwan Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, after the occupation arrested and deported all the medical staff present in the hospital, leaving only one pediatrician.

The ministry urged anyone with surgical skills to join the hospital to save whoever they can.

Israeli occupation forces besieged the hospital last week and forced displaced families who had taken shelter there, and wounded Palestinians seeking treatment out of it. Men and young boys were stripped and detained, while women and young children were forced to walk towards southern Gaza.

Medical teams were detained and taken away by the occupation leaving the wounded with no one to care for them.

Occupation forces withdrew from the hospital on Saturday after causing severe damage to the building and bombing its oxygen supply.

An interior view of destroyed infant intensive care unit of Kamal Adwan Hospital after targeting by Israeli army in Beit Lahia, Gaza (Abdulqader Sabbah – Anadolu Agency)

UNRWA outlawed – US “concerned”

Israeli lawmakers vote to ban UN agency for Palestinian refugees

The Israeli Knesset on 28 October passed two laws banning the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) from operating inside Israel, Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and occupied East Jerusalem.

In a 92-10 vote, the Knesset approved the first law, which says that the UN agency cannot “operate any institution, provide any service, or conduct any activity, whether directly or indirectly.” Moments later, lawmakers voted 87-9 for the second law, which states that no Israeli government official or agency may contact UNRWA, effectively prohibiting Israeli officials from providing services or dealing with UN employees.

Ahead of the Knesset vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the bills a “catastrophe.”

UNRWA was created over 70 years ago to provide essential services — education, healthcare, and emergency aid — to Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, and neighboring countries following the Nakba and colonization of Palestinian land by Jewish settlers.

This picture shows a general view of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) during a meeting, in Jerusalem on 30 June, 2022 (MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. “deeply concerned” new Israeli laws will worsen Gaza crisis

The Biden administration is “deeply concerned” that two bills passed by the Israeli Knesset on Monday will exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza and harm Palestinians in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, a State Department spokesman told reporters – at a time when than 1.8 million people across Gaza are experiencing high levels of acute food insecurity.

The U.S. and other Western countries pressed Israel not to move forward with the bills against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Their passage will likely increase pressure on the Biden administration to suspend military assistance to Israel.

Israel has long opposed UNRWA, and has claimed some of the agency’s staff took part in the Oct. 7 attack. UNRWA has repeatedly denied allegations of the agency having widespread links to Hamas, and a UN-appointed independent commission in April said Israel “had yet to provide supporting evidence” of its claims.

Two weeks ago Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin sent a letter to Israeli leaders demanding Israel take steps within 30 days to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza or risk the supply of U.S. weapons to Israel being affected. The letter also expressed their concern about the UNRWA bills, as well as a warning of policy implications should those bills pass.

The two bills will take effect in 90 days, during which time Netanyahu said Israel will “work with our international partners to ensure Israel continues to facilitate humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza in a way that does not threaten Israel’s security.”

US president Joe Biden said on Monday, “We need a cease-fire. This war should end.”

Israel’s Netanyahu rejects Egyptian cease-fire initiative in Gaza

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected an initiative proposed by Egypt on Sunday for a short-term cease-fire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi announced the proposal, according to Israeli media.

“We proposed a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip for two days to exchange four (Israeli) hostages for some (Palestinian) prisoners, and then negotiations would take place over 10 days to turn the cease-fire into a permanent truce,” al-Sisi said during a joint press conference with Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune in the capital Cairo.

Despite the support of most Israeli ministers for the Egyptian proposal, Tel Aviv decided to reject the deal due to opposition from Netanyahu, who emphasized that “negotiations will take place only under fire,” according to Israel’s Channel 12.

A view of a collapsed building after an Israeli attack on the Shati Refugee Camp leaving at least 38 Palestinians, including children dead in Gaza City, Gaza (Anadolu via Getty Images)

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti brutally assaulted at Israeli prison

Prominent Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti was injured in a “brutal assault” in Megiddo Prison in northern Israel, according to prisoners’ affairs groups on Monday.

Barghouti suffered injuries after the assault in his solitary confinement on Sept. 9, the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a joint statement.

Barghouti was detained in 2002 by the Israeli forces and is currently serving a life-term sentence over charges of “directing armed groups that killed and injured Israelis” during the second Palestinian intifada.

The Israeli army has detained over 11,400 Palestinians in the West Bank since the start of its deadly war on the Gaza Strip in October last year, according to Palestinian figures.

The figure doesn’t include all those arrested from the Gaza Strip whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands.

NOTE: Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian politician, activist and militant leader, has been shut away from the outside world for over 20 years, but he is more popular with Palestinians than any other politician. A poll published in March 2024 by Khalil Shikaki, a Palestinian researcher, suggested that if there were an election Barghouti would win more votes than both his nearest rivals combined.

A Palestinian man passes the graffiti showing Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian imprisoned politician on December 24, 2023 in Bethlehem, West Bank (Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

South Africa submits 750 pages of evidence in genocide case against Israel

South Africa’s legal team on 28 October submitted hundreds of documents to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) offering “undeniable evidence” of genocidal intent and actions by the Israeli army.

“The evidence will show that undergirding Israel’s genocidal acts is the special intent to commit genocide, a failure by Israel to prevent incitement to genocide, to prevent genocide itself, and its failure to punish those inciting and committing acts of genocide,” a statement from Pretoria says, adding, “South Africa’s Memorial is a reminder to the global community to remember the people of Palestine, to stand in solidarity with them, and to stop the catastrophe.”

Officials say that the submission, also called a memorial, is presented in more than 750 pages of text, in addition to over 4,000 pages of annexes.

Mr. Vusimuzi Madonsela presents on behalf of South Africa at the public hearings in the case South Africa v. Israel at the International Court of Justice, May 16, 2024. (photo)

UN official calls on ‘all states not to provide weapons, munitions to Israel’

The UN special rapporteur on human rights in counter-terrorism, Ben Saul, criticized on Monday Israel’s military actions in Gaza and called on all nations to stop supplying weapons, citing violations of humanitarian law.

Speaking at a news conference in New York, Saul highlighted “a pattern of deliberate indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks harming large numbers of civilians” by Israel.

Saul described Israel’s use of “high explosive munitions in densely populated areas, which by nature cannot distinguish between civilians and military targets,” and its use of starvation as well as denial of aid relief as a “weapon of war.”

Highlighting concerns over Israel’s actions violating international norms, Saul reaffirmed call “on all States not to provide weapons or munitions to Israel, because that would breach the obligation of other states to ensure respect for humanitarian law.”

“Unfortunately, Israel hasn’t taken the message from the Security Council, the International Court of Justice, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, many governments, the General Assembly, and the Human Rights Council,” he said.

Saul further clarified the distinction between legitimate resistance and terrorism, saying that under international law, people facing occupation or colonialism have a right to resist.

He stressed that “this right to resist has to be exercised in accordance with international humanitarian law,” adding that “national liberation and self-determination is a just cause, but…you can’t murder civilians or deliberately attack civilians or take hostages.”

Saul said that “these are red lines in international law for everybody,” underscoring the importance of upholding these standards in all conflicts.

The Israel Ministry of Defense recently received a cargo plane from the United States, carrying the initial shipment of armored vehicles designated for use by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They are being transferred to the IDF to replace vehicles damaged during the war. (Credit above @Israel_MOD) — The Israel Ministry of Defense recently received a cargo plane from the United States, carrying the initial shipment of armored vehicles designated for use by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They are being transferred to the IDF to replace vehicles damaged during the war. (Israel_MOD)

‘Largest’ cultural boycott against Israeli institutions launches: Statement

More than 1,100 authors – including winners of the Nobel Prize, Booker Prize, Pulitzer Prize, and National Book Award – have launched “a mass boycott of Israeli publishers complicit in the dispossession of the Palestinian people”, a coalition of solidarity groups has said in a press statement.

The declaration is the biggest cultural boycott against Israeli institutions in history, it said, adding that “signatories have stated that they cannot in good conscience engage with Israeli institutions without interrogating their relationship to apartheid and displacement”.

See the letter and list of signatories here.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Guardian: The lesson of Israel’s unfathomably cruel war: ours is still a world where might is right

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 28, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 28, 2024: at least 43,824* ( 43,061 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 28, 2024: at least 107,523 (including at least 101,223 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 28, 2024: ~1,562 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 387*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Oct 27); 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 2,710, with 12,592 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

Tuesday, 29 October 2024