‘Hallmarks of atrocity crimes’ – war on Gaza Day 539

contact@ifamericansknew.org March 29, 2025 civil war in israel, ethnic cleansing Gaza, Forced Displacement, healthcare workers in Gaza, mike huckabee, palestinian prisoners, quakers, starvation in gaza, war crimes israel

Palestinians walk amid the rubble of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, southern Gaza Strip, despite ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza on March 21, 2025. (Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 43 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry said on Friday.

At least 921 Palestinians have been killed and 2,054 others injured in a surprise aerial campaign by Israel on Gaza since March 18, shattering a ceasefire and prisoner exchange agreement that took hold in January.

Five Lebanese were killed and 18 others injured on Friday in a series of Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

According to the Lebanese state news agency NNA, the Israeli army committed 45 violations of the ceasefire agreement in a day.

RELATED: Netanyahu Vows to Attack ‘Everywhere in Lebanon’ as Israel Bombs Private Beirut School

Relatives of the Palestinians, who died in Israeli attacks on Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City, mourn, in Gaza City, on March 29, 2025. (Dawoud Abo Alkas – Anadolu Agency)

Israel executes, buries 9 medics in Rafah

Israeli occupation forces executed nine missing Palestinian medics from the Red Crescent and Civil Defense in Rafah, buried them and destroyed their ambulances, the Palestinian Civil Defense has confirmed.

The team had been dispatched on Sunday to rescue paramedics from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society who had been surrounded by Israeli forces.

Their fate remained unknown until a rescue team, coordinated with the Red Cross, entered the area. The team was left in “shock after discovering the dismembered remains of their mission leader, Anwar Abdel Hamid Al-Attar.”

They discovered that Israeli occupation troops had executed the missing medics and buried them near the barracks.

They also found the Civil Defense ambulances and fire trucks, along with Palestinian Red Crescent Society vehicles, “completely destroyed by Israeli strikes,” noting that “safety gear worn by the team was discovered torn apart, suggesting that Israeli forces directly targeted them before using bulldozers and heavy machinery to conceal bodies.”

Five Civil Defense personnel remain missing in Tel Sultan, it said.

The Israeli occupation army has acknowledged that it had fired on ambulances in the Gaza Strip, claiming the vehicles were deemed “suspicious.”

At least 400 aid workers, including teachers, doctors and nurses, have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, OCHA said in an update earlier this week. The death toll includes 289 UN staff and 34 Palestinian Red Crescent Society medics, as well as 76 from other NGOs.

Medical personnel inspect the wreckage of an ambulance after an Israeli attack, in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on January 11, 2024. (Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency)

UN humanitarian office says Gaza violence bears ‘hallmarks of atrocity crimes’

The UN humanitarian office warned Friday that the ongoing Israeli military campaign in Gaza may amount to atrocity crimes, as the humanitarian situation reaches a new low following the collapse of a ceasefire deal.

“The acts of war that we see bear the hallmarks of atrocity crimes,” Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office, told a UN briefing in Geneva. “It has been 10 days of witnessing … a callous disregard for human life and dignity.”

Laerke described a worsening toll on civilians, saying: “Hospitals are once again battlegrounds. Patients killed in their beds. Ambulances shot at and first responders killed,” he said, adding that “hundreds of children and other civilians have been killed in Israeli air strikes.”

About the humanitarian access, which has been cut off entirely, he said the progress that was made during the ceasefire has been reversed.

“We are back to where we were before — just this time, it’s worse because of the complete shutdown of entry of supplies,” he stressed.

“Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,” Laerke added.

“International law is clear … yet the alerts that we issue in report after report reveal an utter lack of respect for the most basic principles of humanity.”

Food waiting just over the border

According to the World Food Program’s (WFP) latest operational update, the agency has about 5,700 tons of food stocks left in Gaza, enough to support its operations for two weeks at most, Laerke said.

WFP and its partners from the food security sector have positioned more than 85,000 tons of food commodities outside Gaza, ready to be brought in if border crossings are opened, the update noted.

The agency underlined that it needs 30,000 tons of food per month to meet the basic needs of around 1.1 million people in the besieged strip.

It also drew attention to the soaring food prices in Gaza, noting that the price of a 25-kilogram (55-pound) bag of wheat flour sells for up to $50 — a 400% increase compared to prices before March 18.

Meanwhile, it added that cooking gas prices have increased by 300% compared to February.

In addition, the Gaza Media Office said the Israeli army since October 2023 has directly targeted 26 food-kitchens and 37 aid distribution centers across Gaza.

“These food-kitchens were providing meals to displaced and starving civilians,” said a statement.

It added that the attacks reaffirm “to the world that it (Israel) deliberately pursues a systematic starvation policy as a tool of war and genocide against over 2.4 million Palestinians trapped under siege in Gaza.”

RELATED: Israel’s Systematic Destruction of Life Essentials in Gaza Has Forced Palestinians into a Hunt for Survival

UN rights office warns of ‘shrinking space’ for civilians amid forced displacement in Gaza

The UN human rights office on Friday voiced alarm over the displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, warning that Israeli evacuation orders since mid-March have forced civilians into increasingly unsafe and overcrowded areas.

“We are deeply concerned about the shrinking space for civilians in Gaza who are being forcibly displaced by the Israeli army from large swaths of territory,” spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan said in a statement.

According to the office, the Israeli military has issued 10 evacuation orders since March 18, covering wide parts of Gaza’s territory, including more than half of northern Gaza. The movement of civilians, however, has not translated into increased safety.

“Those who are displaced are not guaranteed safety,” Al-Kheetan said. “The Israeli army ordered the population from western Rafah to go to Al Mawasi, which has been reportedly bombarded.”

“Israel is not taking any measures to provide accommodation for the evacuated population, nor ensure that these evacuations are conducted in satisfactory conditions of hygiene, health, safety and nutrition,” he said.

Palestinians, including children, who are struggling with hunger wait in line to receive meals distributed by charities while the humanitarian crisis is increasing as Israel continues to attack the Gaza Strip by breaking the ceasefire and keeping the borders closed on the 23rd day of Ramadan at Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on March 23, 2025. (Moiz Salhi – Anadolu Agency)

Israel releases 30 Palestinian prisoners amid reports of poor health

Israel released around 30 Palestinian prisoners on Friday after they completed their sentences, but many were in critical health condition, with some requiring immediate hospitalization.

The Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement that many of the freed detainees, particularly those from Megiddo Prison in northern Israel, were suffering from scabies and other medical complications due to harsh prison conditions.

Photos shared by the organization showed visible signs of severe mistreatment and neglect.

Among those released was Saeed Salameh, who had spent 24 years behind bars. Some prisoners were reportedly subjected to severe beatings until the moment of their release, according to the statement.

On March 24, the Palestinian Prisoner Media Office accused Israeli authorities of “deliberately spreading scabies among Palestinian detainees at Gilboa and Megiddo prisons,” stating that this had resulted in multiple deaths.

Israeli Mossad asks African countries to take Palestinians from Gaza

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu tasked Israel’s Mossad foreign intelligence agency with finding countries that would agree to receive large numbers of Palestinians displaced from the Gaza Strip, two Israeli officials tell Axios.

Talks have already taken place with Somalia and South Sudan — two poor conflict-plagued countries in East Africa — as well as other countries including Indonesia, according to the two Israeli officials and a former U.S. official.

Netanyahu gave Mossad the secret assignment several weeks ago, the Israeli officials say. The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment.

Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials have vowed to occupy more and more of Gaza if Hamas refuses to release the remaining hostages.*

Israeli officials have discussed, but not yet ordered, a massive ground invasion of Gaza that would involve forcing most of the population into a small “humanitarian area” in the south of the Strip.

Around 90% of Gaza’s residents have already been displaced by the war, and over 50,000 have been killed according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Despite the horror they have endured, many Palestinians vehemently oppose any efforts to remove them from their homeland.

The Palestinian Authority, numerous Arab countries and most Western countries have long opposed the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza.

**NOTE: Israel and Hamas signed a ceasefire agreement in January; Hamas complied with its obligations under the ceasefire agreement, releasing 33 hostages.*

Meanwhile, Israel violated the agreement hundreds of times, killing at least 150 Palestinians.

The 42-day ceasefire (“Phase One”) between Israel and Gaza ended on Saturday night, March 1. Phase Two, which all parties agreed to in January, would include a permanent end to the war, the return of all remaining living Israeli hostages and a number of Palestinian prisoners, and the withdrawal of all Israeli troops from Gaza.

Israeli leaders’ assertion that the only way to stop the war and get the hostages back is through force, ignores the deal that they themselves agreed to, and endangers the lives of the hostages still in Gaza.

Israel on ‘verge of civil war’ and ‘full-fledged fascist dictatorship’: Leftist Israeli politicians

The Netanyahu government is becoming “a full-fledged fascist dictatorship” and pushing Israel perilously close to civil war, a prominent left-wing lawmaker has warned.

“I think we are on the verge of a civil war,” Ofer Cassif, a member of the Israeli Knesset representing the left-wing Hadash-Ta’al coalition, told Anadolu.

Cassif, currently suspended from parliament for his outspoken stance against the Gaza genocide, painted a grim picture of Israel’s immediate future.

“I won’t be surprised if very soon – in a matter of days, weeks, or maximum months – we are going to see people shooting each other in the streets,” he said.

On Thursday, his coalition passed a highly controversial law giving the government greater influence over judicial appointments, with the opposition boycotting the final vote.

As political and societal tensions threaten to boil over, Cassif cited a recent statement from a “fascist” Israeli professor as an ominous sign of where things could be headed.

“She said we’ve already conquered the police. We’ve already conquered the military. Now, we are going to conquer the Shin Bet,” said the lawmaker.

“She actually said that they are preparing for a civil war in which the police, the military, the Shin Bet will support the fascist mobs and militias” (continue reading here).

Trump’s Pick for Israel Ambassador Leads Tours That Leave Out Palestinians — and Promote End of Days Theology

In his long career as a politician and media personality, Mike Huckabee has made his views on the Israel–Palestine conflict well known. He believes that, according to the Bible, only Israel has legitimate claim to the Holy Land and that Palestinians who can’t accept this should leave.

Now, if he can be confirmed by the Senate, where he faced his first hearing before the Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday, Huckabee can bring his religious worldview to bear as the U.S. ambassador to Israel — and find allies in Trump’s White House.

Little attention has been paid to how Huckabee and others have inspired such fervent support for Israel among grassroots American evangelicals. Part of the answer lies in the cottage industry of evangelical pilgrimages to the Holy Land — led by religious leaders like Huckabee himself.

In all-inclusive package tours, Huckabee whisks pilgrims to dozens of sites around Israel and the West Bank. The journeys cover “the teachings, battles and miracles of the Bible,” according to a promotion on Huckabee’s Facebook page. Travelers learn about ancient Israel and trace its lineage to the modern, powerful state they see today. Then they fly home with a message imprinted on their souls: Israel is the Jewish homeland, blessed by God, and America must safeguard it.

“It’s like Disneyland on steroids,” said John Munayyer, a Palestinian native of Jerusalem and theologian of Palestinian Christianity.

“It reaffirms everything they believe,” Munayyer said of people who take the tours. “To them, everything is a fulfillment of prophecy” (continue reading here).

RELATED: Harvard University dismisses Center for Middle Eastern Studies leadership

Met police smash down Quaker meeting house doors to raid anti-genocide gathering

Quakers in Britain strongly condemned the violation of their place of worship which they say is a direct result of stricter protest laws removing virtually all routes to challenge the status quo.

Just before 7.15pm more than 20 uniformed police, some equipped with tasers, forced their way into Westminster Meeting House.

They broke open the front door without warning or ringing the bell first, searching the whole building and arresting six women attending the meeting in a hired room.

The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 have criminalized many forms of protest and allow police to halt actions deemed too disruptive.

Meanwhile, changes in judicial procedures limit protesters’ ability to defend their actions in court. All this means that there are fewer and fewer ways to speak truth to power.

Quakers support the right to nonviolent public protest, acting themselves from a deep moral imperative to stand up against injustice and for our planet.

Many have taken nonviolent direct action over the centuries from the abolition of slavery to women’s suffrage and prison reform.

Paul Parker, recording clerk for Quakers in Britain, said: “No-one has been arrested in a Quaker meeting house in living memory.

“This aggressive violation of our place of worship and the forceful removal of young people holding a protest group meeting clearly shows what happens when a society criminalizes protest.

“Freedom of speech, assembly, and fair trials are an essential part of free public debate which underpins democracy.”

MORE NEWS:

The Guardian: The US government is effectively kidnapping people for opposing genocide

Anadolu Agency: OPINION – Rumeysa Ozturk case: Shattering the myth of freedom in the US

IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 28, 2025:

At least 51,198 Palestinians killed, 122,097 injured – including:
at least 50,251 killed in Gaza (~15,500 children)
at least 947 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 114,025 injured in Gaza
at least 8,072 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, during the ceasefire Jan. 19- March 18 2025, Israeli attacks killed at least 150 Gazans, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations.

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – March 28, 2025: ~1,592 – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 407 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, 46 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

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

Sunday, 30 March 2025