UN: Israel committing “deliberate war crimes” against Gaza’s healthcare system – Day 390
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Thursday was the twenty-seventh 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 1,200 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its siege of northern Gaza.
At least 55 people were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the past 24 hours, according to the enclave’s Health Ministry.
In Lebanon, Israeli attacks killed 45 people in the past 24 hours, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Israel bombs medical equipment in besieged north Gaza hospital
Israel bombed Beit Lahia’s besieged Kamal Adwan Hospital in north Gaza on 31 October, killing several people and causing serious damage to essential departments within the medical facility.
Palestine Today’s correspondent reported “four martyrs, including two children, in the occupation’s bombing of the third floor of Kamal Adwan Hospital.”
The attack targeted the hospital’s kidney dialysis department, the engineering and maintenance departments, and water tanks, and led to the burning of a warehouse of medicines and medical supplies that had been received by the World Health Organization (WHO) just five days ago.
The attack on the hospitals came just days after Israel’s deliberate bombing of the oxygen station in the hospital, which led to the death of several patients, among them children.
I’m a surgeon, and I’ve been refused re-entry to Gaza – we need a medical ceasefire now
On 1 July 2024, the European hospital in Gaza evacuated all patients and staff. On that day I should have been shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues. I should have been tending gravely injured patients. I should have been helping them to flee. On ventilators, hooked up to IV fluids, on gurneys, in and out of consciousness and clinging to life, they had done nothing to deserve their situation, and they deserved my help.
Instead, I watched from my home in Texas and read messages from the other medics, as an overcrowded hospital transformed into a ghost town. With anguish, I witnessed the tragedy unfold from afar.
A week earlier, I had been in Jordan with the rest of my team, preparing to cross into Gaza for our humanitarian mission. However, less than 48 hours before we attempted the Rafah border crossing, the Israeli military refused my entry “due to Palestinian roots”…
(Read the rest of this doctor’s story here.)
UN report accuses Israel of ‘deliberate war crimes’ against Gaza’s healthcare system
Navi Pillay, a member of the UN Commission of Inquiry on the occupied Palestinian territory, says an independent investigation found Israel is carrying out a “concerted policy” to destroy Gaza’s health system.
“This is just not reporting what we see on social media, but a very carefully fact-checked account of the destruction of hospitals, the deliberate targeting of doctors,” Pillay told Al Jazeera.
“It’s also the first United Nations report that … drew the conclusion there is the deliberate targeting of healthcare workers, the healthcare system in itself – which is a crime, a war crime.”
Israel makes it difficult to probe its deadly attacks by denying entry to independent investigators, Pillay added.
The report, delivered on Wednesday, concluded: “Israel has perpetrated a concerted policy to destroy Gaza’s healthcare system as part of a broader assault on the Strip, committing war crimes and a crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities.”
Palestinian rights groups report harsh conditions for Gaza detainees in Israel’s Ofer Prison
Detainees from Gaza held in Israel’s Ofer Prison near Ramla are facing “degrading and shocking conditions,” two Palestinian rights organizations have said.
The report, released by the Commission of Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners Society on Wednesday, follows recent visits by lawyers to meet six Gaza detainees.
The report details “tragic conditions and shocking accounts of torture and abuse” observed during these visits, including practices that the groups claim amount to systematic torture.
According to the rights organizations, the prison administration continues to “strip detainees of their rights in a manner that constitutes abuse,” describing torture as “a core experience” for Gaza prisoners.
Gaza Aid at Its Lowest Level Yet
Only 704 truckloads of aid have entered Gaza between October 1 and October 22 and besieged areas of the north have been completely cut off.
The amount of aid entering Gaza has fallen to its lowest level since Israel unleashed its brutal military campaign on the territory in October 2023 as Israel imposed a starvation blockade on northern Gaza earlier this month.
According to the UN, only 703 truckloads of aid entered Gaza between October 1 and October 22. The number marks a significant decline in the previous rate of aid entering the Strip. In September, just over 3,000 aid trucks were allowed into Gaza, which was already the lowest rate in any month of the past year.
Witnesses say the Israeli army is using facial recognition technology in its assault on north Gaza
Survivors of the Israeli military’s expulsion from Jabaliya report that the Israeli army is using facial recognition technology to screen residents in the ongoing assault, often identifying people from long distances and picking them out from a crowd.
Witnesses say that the Israeli army has set up security checkpoints throughout northern Gaza where the facial recognition technology is being deployed. The military is also reportedly using this technology when it storms shelters for the displaced.
Witnesses report that in these cases Israeli forces will corral people in enclosed places, usually ditches dug by military bulldozers, and process them individually.
Mondoweiss spoke to several survivors from Jabaliya, who said that the Israeli army is using quadcopter drones to “identify people immediately from a distance,” and that soldiers are stopping people at checkpoints to conduct “camera scans” that last for several minutes.
Witnesses also report that the army picked people out of a crowd at checkpoints using what they described as a “red laser pointer” that was either mounted on a tank or on a soldier’s rifle.
Witnesses told Mondoweiss that after the army scans people’s faces, most people are detained for field interrogations. During these encounters, soldiers use what Ishaaq al-Daour describe as “psychological tactics” to unsettle the people being questioned, claiming that they know everything about their lives and that if they lie in their answers, “they will be killed”…
(Keep reading here.)
Lebanon: At least 178 medics killed since war with Israel started
Israel released a statement after a wave of air strikes in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre saying it targeted a Hezbollah “command-and-control center”. This is the same language Israel has used for months with Hamas, and now Hezbollah – whenever it attacks civilian targets. It has yet to provide evidence for any of these allegations.
There were more attacks also in the east of the country, in the Bekaa Valley, at least two large air strikes in the last couple of hours.
Six medics were killed today in Lebanon; the Health Ministry said 178 medics have been killed since the war started, and 279 were injured.
![Lebanese Red Cross teams conducted search and rescue operations in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an Israeli army attack in Nabatieh province of southern Lebanon, on September 27, 2024.[Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9-29-a-300x200.jpg)
Israel Demolished Hundreds of Buildings in Southern Lebanon, Videos and Satellite Images Show
From the New York Times: Satellite imagery and videos show widespread destruction in six villages along Lebanon’s southern border with Israel, revealing 1,085 buildings that have been leveled or badly damaged since its Oct. 1 invasion aimed at crippling the militant group Hezbollah.
Earlier this month, The New York Times, using satellite imagery, verified the destruction of scores of buildings in two other villages.
The images offer only a glimpse at the situation in southern Lebanon. There has been little access to the area since the invasion began and the extent of the damage is unclear.
Israel says it is targeting Hezbollah, which began launching rocket attacks from southern Lebanon in solidarity with Hamas after its Oct 7. attacks on Israel and the country’s ensuing retaliation in Gaza. Both Israel and Lebanon have since traded fire across the border.
(Read more about the destruction in Lebanon here.)
West Bank: Israeli Army Assassinates 3 Palestinians In Tulkarem
Early Thursday morning, the Israeli army assassinated two Palestinians in Nur Shams refugee camp, in Tulkarem, in the northwestern West Bank, after firing a missile at them from a military drone.
A medical spokesperson has confirmed that the soldiers killed Abdul-Aziz Mahmoud Abu Saman, 22, and Ahmad Essam Fahmawi, 18.
Many Israeli military vehicles invaded the city of Tulkarem and the Nur Shams refugee camp before initiating searches and destroying infrastructure.
The invasion led to protests; Israeli forces fired barrages of live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, gas bombs, and concussion grenades.
Palestinian resistance fighters also exchanged fire with the invading Israeli soldiers and armored military vehicles and detonated explosive charges near the armored vehicles.
Israeli forces shot and killed another Palestinian man, on Thursday, in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem in the northwestern part of the West Bank.
Media sources said that occupation forces killed Moatasem Saleh Aisha, 32, on Thursday afternoon, with a gunshot wound to the head, in the Nur Shams refugee camp, east of Tulkarem.
Israeli forces mark Palestinian detainees in West Bank with numbers on their foreheads
Troops humiliate Palestinians swept up in West Bank raid by referring to them only by their numbers instead of by name.
The Israeli army launched a massive arrest campaign in Dura, south of Hebron, on Thursday morning, targeting more than 20 Palestinian former prisoners.
During their re-arrest, the detainees faced familiar treatment. They were blindfolded, handcuffed, insulted and kept in inhumane conditions. More unusual was that each man had a number written on his forehead.
(Read the story here.)
Illegal Israeli settlers severely disrupt Palestinian olive harvest
Between 1 and 28 October, OCHA, the UN humanitarian affairs agency, documented nearly 270 settler-related incidents affecting Palestinians and their property in about 110 communities across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.
Of these, more than half were directly related to the olive harvest, resulting in 59 Palestinians injured by settlers, 12 injured by Israeli forces, more than 1,000 mostly olive trees burnt, sawed-off or otherwise vandalized, and many crops and harvesting tools stolen.
Humanitarian and human rights partners, and international volunteers, are currently delivering protective presence interventions and emergency response training in 70 West Bank communities highly affected by settler attacks and access restrictions during the current olive harvest season.
Netanyahu thanks US for advice, but adds ‘I say no when it’s needed’
Speaking at a military academy in Israel’s Negev desert, Prime Minister Netanyahu told reservists he appreciated American support in the ongoing wars against Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
He added that he would not accede to any and all US demands.
“My policy is simple. I say yes when it’s possible, but I say no when it’s needed,” he told trainee officers.
“Hamas will no longer control Gaza and Hezbollah will not settle on our northern border.”
NOTE: Netanyahu has never said no to US military aid from the Biden administration – and previous administrations.
On April 24, 2024, legislation was signed into law giving $49 million per day in military aid to Israel and $2.7 million per day in foreign aid to the Palestinians. (For information on expenditures on behalf of both populations, go here.
Rapporteur urges Israel’s UN membership suspension
A UN rapporteur urged the suspension of Israel’s UN membership on Wednesday, citing repeated violations of international law and the occupation of Palestinian territories.
“I do believe that the impunity that has been granted to Israel has allowed it to become a serial violator of international law,” Francesca Albanese, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories, said at a news conference.
Albanese issued a report earlier this week that accused Israel of a systematic campaign of forced displacement, destruction and acts of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
In the report submitted to the UN General Assembly, Albanese described the “long-term, intentional, state-organized forced displacement and replacement” of Palestinians, particularly following the escalation of violence after Oct. 7, 2023.
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
Scheerpost: Chris Hedges: Israel’s War on Journalism
Mondoweiss: Witnesses say the Israeli army is using facial recognition technology in its assault on north Gaza
Electronic Intifada: Israel is “perfecting” crimes committed by Britain
+972 Magazine: The Israeli task force deporting foreign activists from the West Bank
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 31, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 31, 2024: at least 44,026* ( 43,259 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 767 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 31, 2024: at least 108,127 (including at least 101,827 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 31, 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 2,865, with 13,047 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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