Northern Gaza has become a killing field – Day 367
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Tuesday that Israeli forces killed at least 56 Palestinians and wounded another 278 in the previous 24-hour period as Israel continues to launch strikes across the Strip.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said in a statement that during the past 24 hours 36 people were killed and 150 others injured.
In Syria, at least seven people, including women and children, have been killed by an Israeli strike on a residential building in Damascus.
Israel has dropped more than 85,000 tonnes (94,000 tons) of explosives on Gaza; about 17 percent of these ordnances remain unexploded,” according to Gaza’s civil defense.
‘Humanitarian situation in northern Gaza becoming more dangerous’
Al Jazeera reports:
The Palestinian Civil Defense said the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza is becoming more dangerous following a large-scale Israeli military attack on Beit Hanoon, Beit Lahiya and Jabalia that has been ongoing for four days.
“Israeli forces have imposed a tight siege on these areas and are preventing the entry of water, food and medical supplies. The occupation has committed massacres against civilians, killing dozens and injuring hundreds. People’s bodies are strewn in the streets and it is difficult to reach them because soldiers are targeting ambulance and civil defense crews,” it said in a statement.
The Palestinian Civil Defense added that the Israeli military is forcing the more than 200,000 citizens in these areas to evacuate their homes and medical staff and patients to leave hospitals in the northern Gaza.
Palestinians in the north say the Israeli forces are wiping everything out: agricultural land, houses, water plants. Any source of life is being wiped from the Israeli forces.
Israel orders 3 hospitals to be evacuated in northern Gaza: Health Ministry
Anadolu Agency reports:
The Israeli army ordered the evacuation of patients and staff at three hospitals in the northern Gaza Strip, the enclave’s Health Ministry said Tuesday.
Israel “demands the evacuation of Kamal Adwan Hospital, the Indonesian Hospital, and Al-Awda Hospital from patients and health personnel,” it said in a statement.
Israeli troops arrested “a paramedic who accompanied a critical care patient during their transfer from Kamal Adwan Hospital despite prior coordination,” according to the statement, that noted the army is besieging the Kamal Adwan Hospital and firing at its administrative headquarters.
The army threatened the hospitals with “destruction, killing, and arrest” if they did not evacuate.
According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, Israeli forces threatened Kamal Adwan Hospital staff and opened fire at the administration office.
The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital stated,
It is evident that there is a new plan to displace our people in northern Gaza by dismantling the healthcare system across all its sectors in this region. We urge the world to intervene to stop this terrifying decision, which does not serve the people of northern Gaza.
We have informed everyone that the northern region is densely populated with a significant number of residents. We have the right to continue providing services to these people.
We will remain steadfast, we will stay and we will continue to offer medical services no matter the cost.
On Monday, the Jerusalem Post reported that the IDF has was providing “expanded” services in northern Gaza, including field hospitals, tent compounds, and supplies of food, water, and medicine.
Local Palestinians in Jabaliya report that there is nowhere to receive healthcare, nowhere to live, as buildings have been turned to rubble, As has been reported for 12 months, Israel has destroyed hospitals, schools and residential areas.
Tuesday’s evacuation orders are a continuation of this policy. The Jerusalem Post report appears to be fictional.
NOTE: Israel’s attacks are wreaking havoc on healthcare in Lebanon too.
RECOMMENDED: Israel’s war on Gaza:Before and after satellite images reveal the extent of ruin to civilian infrastructure after a year of war
Gaza faces one of largest cases of ecocide in recent history, including contamination from “depleted uranium bombs”
Various agencies report:
Israel’s attacks in Gaza, in addition to causing massive loss of life and shelter, have brought about ecocide – “the destruction and devastation of the environment at any cost.”
Ecocide is recognized as a crime under the category of war crimes in the Rome Statute.
In the first four months of the attacks, Israel dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on the region.
Various analyses have concluded that bombings, damage caused by heavy vehicles, airstrikes, and other elements of conflict have severely impacted agricultural areas.
Approximately 75% of the agricultural land in northern Gaza has suffered damage.
According to the Environmental Quality Authority affiliated with the Palestinian Authority, Israeli attacks are putting Gaza’s biodiversity at risk, including between 150 and 200 bird species, around 20 mammal species, and 20 rare and endangered reptile species.
Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, head of the Biodiversity and Sustainability Center at Bethlehem University, told Anadolu that some of the environmental damage in the region is now irreversible.
He noted that the water aquifers in the region have suffered significant damage and may not recover; if they do, it could take decades.
The president of the Lebanese Association of Social Medicine, Raif Reda, said Israel has been using banned bombs with uranium warheads in south Beirut. and called for an international investigation.
Warheads made with depleted uranium casings are designed to penetrate deep fortifications, causing significant destruction and releasing toxic gases. They are also radioactive and have been linked to massive increases in cancer rates in Iraq following the US wars on that country in 1991 and 2003.
Israeli air forces may have used depleted uranium bombs on at least four residential buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs on September 27 to kill Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The Israeli air force has already been known to use these bombs in Gaza. A UN Human Rights report documented airstrikes by the Israeli air force carried out on residential buildings, a school, refugee camps, and a market between October 9 and December 2, 2023.
Depleted uranium munitions pose a risk to civilians years after a site is bombed because they release radioactive particles upon impact and contaminate the soil and surrounding environment.
Radioactive dust emitted by depleted uranium munitions has been linked to rises in cancer and congenital defects in babies following the US bombing of Iraq.
RELATED READING: ‘Death sentence’: Asbestos released by Israel’s bombs will kill for decades
‘Undeniable’ – Probe Confirms Israeli Army Presence when Hind Rajab was Killed in Gaza
Sky News reports:
Even though the Israeli military denies being in the area on the day that six-year-old Hind Rajab and six members of her family were killed in Gaza, a Sky News investigation has found that the army’s presence in the area was “undeniable.” Two paramedics who were trying to rescue her were also killed.
The channel analyzed satellite imagery, Israeli military press materials, and interviewed weapons and forensics experts.
(Read the full analysis here.)
RECOMMENDED READING: You need to meet this little girl named Hind
FOR HIND’S STORY, ALSO WATCH: The Night Won’t End: Biden’t War on Gaza
Hezbollah says Israel using UN troops as ‘human shields’ in south Lebanon, as Israel expands ground operation
Various agencies report:
Hezbollah has ordered its fighters not to attack Israeli forces who established a forward operating base behind UN peacekeeping troops (UNIFIL) near a Lebanese border village: “the Israeli enemy is attempting to use UNIFIL forces as human shields,” a statement issued by the Islamic resistance movement on 7 October said.
“The operations room of the Islamic Resistance instructed the fighters to hold back and not engage with the movement to protect the lives of international soldiers,” the statement added, just a day after UNIFIL warned Israel’s operations near their position at Maroun al-Ras were an “extremely dangerous development.”
“It is unacceptable to compromise the safety of UN peacekeepers carrying out their Security Council-mandated tasks,” UNIFIL stated while reminding all actors in the conflict of their obligations to protect UN personnel and property.
NOTE: Israel has blatantly used Palestinians as human shields on many occasions (seethis, this, this, this, this for example.)
RECOMMENDED READING: Every accusation a confession: Israel and the double lie of ‘human shields’
Israel has said it is expanding its ground operation in Lebanon with the deployment of a fourth division after another night of intense airstrikes across the south and east of the country.
Launching what it has called Operation Northern Arrows last week, the Israeli army said the ground offensive would involve “limited, localized and targeted raids” to remove Hezbollah infrastructure along the disputed de facto border between the two countries, known as the blue line.
The rapid deployment of four divisions operating across south Lebanon, alongside evacuation orders for Lebanese villages upwards of 20 miles from the blue line and the intensive bombing of the country’s south, east and the capital, suggests however that Israel is preparing for a wider offensive against the Lebanese militia.
Since 1978 a series of Israeli military operations in southern Lebanon, including a years-long occupation, have failed to bring security and calm to northern Israel.
RECOMMENDED READING: How does Israel’s Lebanon invasion compare with its previous operations?
Support for Israel Has Cost US Taxpayers At Least $22.76 Billion in One Year
Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University reports:
U.S. spending on Israel’s military operations and related U.S operations in the region total at least $22.76 billion and counting. This estimate is conservative; while it includes approved security assistance funding since October 7, 2023, supplemental funding for regional operations, and an estimated additional cost of operations, it does not include any other economic costs.
This figure includes the $17.9 billion the U.S. government has approved in security assistance for Israeli military operations in Gaza and elsewhere since October 7 – substantially more than in any other year since the U.S. began granting military aid to Israel in 1959. Yet the report describes how this is only a partial amount of the U.S. financial support provided during this war.
Related U.S. military operations in the broader region since October 7 are part of the fuller picture. In particular, the U.S. Navy has significantly scaled up its defensive and offensive operations against Houthi militants in Yemen, which the Houthis claim is related to Israel’s war in Gaza. Hostilities have escalated to become the most sustained military campaign by U.S. forces since the 2016-2019 air war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria. U.S. operations in the region, including in Yemen, have already cost the U.S. government $4.86 billion (included in the overall figure, above, of $22.76 billion).
(Access the full report here.)
NOTE: US voters strongly favor ceasefire and de-escalation. This military spending goes against the will and priorities of Americans.
Report: US Considers Launching Airstrikes Against Iran To Support Israeli Attack
NBC News reports:
American military officials have discussed possibly supporting Israeli retaliation with intelligence or airstrikes of their own, according to two U.S. officials.
The U.S. has long supported Israel with intelligence and that support could continue during Israel’s retaliatory strikes against Iran, the two officials said.
NOTE: Characterizing Israel’s strikes against Iran as “retaliatory” de-contextualizes the conflict, which began when Israel attacked the Iranian consulate in Syria on April 1, then killed Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran on July 31; Israel also assassinated Hezbollah leader Nasrallah on September 27th.
Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi correctly declared that Iran’s missile attack was an act of “self-defense” that only targeted military and security sites used for attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. He pointed out that Iran’s measured attack came “after exercising tremendous restraint for almost two months [after the attack inside Iran], to give space for a ceasefire in Gaza.”
The foreign minister added that Iran’s action was “concluded” unless Israel “decides to invite further retaliation” – words that indicate that Western leaders who want an end to the conflict ought to counsel Israel to let the matter drop.
NBC continues: Senior U.S. military officials have also discussed conducting very limited strikes against Iranian targets, the two officials said. Strikes inside Iran have been discussed, as have strikes on targets outside Iran, though strikes of any kind are less likely than intelligence sharing, the officials said.
The U.S. could target Iranian assets at sea, the officials said, or try to disrupt Iran’s military assistance to proxies in the region by hitting Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sites that support militia groups in Yemen or Syria.
A U.S. strike on an Iranian target could be considered defensive if it eliminates a possible threat to the U.S. or allies, like previous American strikes on Iran-linked targets inside Yemen, Iraq, and Syria.
NOTE: Iran has already declared that Israel’s allies ought to “part ways with the [Israeli] regime,” suggesting that an attack on Iran by the US would not go unanswered – that is, while some players might consider a US strike on Iran to be “defensive,” Iran would not.
ALSO NOTE: The US has offered Israel a “compensation package” if it avoids hitting certain targets in its planned attack on Iran, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday, citing the Israeli TV channel Kan 11.
The Guardian: Rashid Khalidi, America’s foremost scholar of Palestine, is retiring: ‘I don’t want to be a cog in the machine any more’
The Cradle: Israel looking at $66bn war bill as economic woes deepen
Anadolu Agency: UN official warns about ‘use of reproductive violence in unfolding genocide in Gaza’
Jonathan Cook: Why is the ‘liberal’ media peddling the vilest genocide apologism?
Sky News investigation: ‘Undeniable’ – Probe Confirms Israeli Army Presence when Hind Rajab was Killed in Gaza
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 8, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 8, 2024: at least 42,753* ( 42,010in 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 743 in the West Bank (~160 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more 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 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 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 8, 2024: at least 103,920 (including at least 97,720 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 8, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** 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 2,119 and 10,019 injuries. An estimated 1.2 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)
- 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
- Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers
- Americans are always the last to know…about Israel’s crimes
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