Situation in Gaza is quickly unravelling – War on Gaza Day 536

contact@ifamericansknew.org March 26, 2025 Dr. Hussam Abu Safia, hamdan ballal, Hossam Shabat, mike huckabee, October 7 Joint Task Force

Palestinians flee Israeli attacks on the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya, on Tuesday, March 25, 2025 (Abd Khaled/Anadolu)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Across Gaza, at least 37 Palestinians were reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes on Tuesday amid a deadly onslaught on the enclave. Among the dead are a mother and her children. The youngest was only six months old, meaning that he was born and killed during the ongoing genocide.

In Gaza, more than 270 children have been killed by Israel over the past week, according to Save the Children.

According to the Health Ministry’s data, Israel has carried out 11,850 attacks on Palestinian families. These assaults have completely wiped out 2,165 families, killed 9,272 people from 5,064 families, left 365,000 homes uninhabitable, including 165,000 destroyed and 200,000 damaged, and displaced 2 million Palestinians.

In the West Bank Tuesday evening, Israeli forces killed Mohammad Hassan Hosni Abu Hammad, 41, after shooting him near the town of Al-Eizariya, east of occupied Jerusalem, in the occupied West Bank. They then confiscated his body.

In Syria, at least seven people were killed on Tuesday in Israeli attacks – the latest of several recent strikes on the country.

RELATED: ‘Child After Child’: Israel Has Killed 270+ Gaza Children Since Ditching Cease-Fire Last Week, Says NGO

Palestinians carried as much of their remaining belongings as they could as they again tried to escape the Israeli army in the northern Gaza towns of Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya, on Tuesday March 25, 2025 (Abd Khaled/Anadolu)

Israeli army admits to assassinating Al Jazeera journalist in Gaza

The Israeli army on Tuesday admitted assassinating a journalist for the Qatari television Al Jazeera in the Gaza Strip.

Hossam Shabat, journalist with Al Jazeera (screengrab)

Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said that Hossam Shabat was killed on Monday in a joint operation by the army and the Shin Bet domestic security agency.

He alleged that Shabat, a correspondent for Qatar-based Al Jazeera Mubasher channel, was a sniper in Hamas’ Beit Hanoun Battalion and participated in attacks against Israeli targets during the Gaza war, a claim vehemently denied by Palestinian journalists.

At least 208 Palestinian journalists have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip since October 2023, according to the government media office.

Mondoweiss points out regarding Hossam Shabat’s assassination:

The idea that Western journalists are responsible for Hossam’s martyrdom today is not a slogan. Their total journalistic malpractice and regurgitation of Zionist propaganda has left Palestinian journalists exposed, as a precious few who publish the truth, and, therefore: targets.

Their failure to accurately report on the targeting of their colleagues, their reluctance to challenge Israeli narratives, and their tendency to frame these killings as unfortunate byproducts of conflict rather than deliberate acts—these journalistic failures have real consequences.

They have left Palestinian journalists vulnerable, bearing alone the responsibility of documenting atrocities that many Western outlets refuse to acknowledge (continue reading here).

Gaza authorities accuse Israel of abducting 15 paramedics in Rafah

Gaza’s government media office accused the Israeli army on Tuesday of abducting 15 paramedics and civil defense personnel in the southern city of Rafah.

“The Israeli occupation army continues its crimes against the Palestinian people in blatant violation of international humanitarian law,” the office said in a statement.

It said 15 emergency responders were abducted in Rafah as they were rescuing injured people in western Rafah, holding Israel and the US administration responsible for the safety of the personnel and calling the escalation “a war crime that demands immediate accountability.”

“The Israeli occupation is deliberately targeting medical and relief workers, in direct defiance of international agreements that guarantee their safety,” it said.

https://vimeo.com/1069672832

More than 175,000 tonnes of waste piling up in Gaza City: Municipality official

People in Gaza City, unable to access their main landfill due to Israeli military restrictions, have been forced to dispose of waste at smaller dumps near areas where displaced people are sheltering, a municipality spokesperson has told our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic.

More than 175,000 tonnes of waste have accumulated in these makeshift landfills, creating a health hazard for nearby residents, said the official.

They called for the entry of machinery that could transport the waste to more suitable landfills, away from people’s shelters.

A child is seen on a trash pile as Palestinians face accumulated garbage and leaked sewage in Deir al Balah, Gaza on 26 May, 2024 (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency)

Israeli court extends Dr Hussam Abu Safia’s detention

Lawyers for the director of Gaza’s Kamal Adwan Hospital say that an Israeli court has extended his detention for another six months, claiming the pediatrician poses a “threat to the security of the State of Israel”.

Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, Director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beita Lahia in northern Gaza (social media)

The ruling was based on a “secret file” of evidence submitted to the court by prosecutors.

The Al Mezan Center for Human Rights said its legal team “asserted [Dr Abu Safia’s] innocence and emphasized that he was solely performing medical and administrative duties at Kamal Adwan Hospital”.

The lawyers asked for access to the secret files but the prosecution declined to do so and the court upheld that refusal, it said.

“This ruling underscores the role of Israeli civilian courts in sustaining the illegal occupation of the [occupied Palestinian territory] and reinforcing Israel’s apartheid regime against the Palestinian people,” Al Mezan added, noting that Abu Safia was being held under Israel’s Unlawful Combatants Law.

Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal released from Israeli jail, receiving treatment in Hebron

Israeli police on Tuesday released Oscar-winning Palestinian filmmaker Hamdan Ballal, arrested a day earlier after what witnesses described as an attack on him by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank.

Basel Adra, who worked with Ballal on the Oscar-winning documentary film “No Other Land”, posted on X a photo of him from a hospital after his release, which police have also confirmed, with blood stains on his shirt.

“Hamdan has been released and is currently in the hospital in Hebron, receiving treatment. He was beaten by soldiers and settlers all over his body,” said Adra, adding that “soldiers left him blindfolded and handcuffed” overnight.

RELATED: Brazil demands explanation over death of Brazilian-Palestinian teen in Israeli prison

Israeli occupation authorities released Oscar winning Palestinian director Hamdan Ballal after he was beaten and detained by Israeli occupation forces on 24 March 2025 (basilaladraa/IG)

(L-R) Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal,Basel Adra, and Yuval Abraham accept the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature Film, March 2, 2025 (screengrab)

65+ Progressive Groups Urge Senate to Reject Mike Huckabee as Israel Envoy

Dozens of progressive, faith, and human rights groups on Monday sent a letter to U.S. Senate leaders and the top lawmakers on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urging them to oppose the nomination of former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee as ambassador to Israel, calling him “unfit” and citing his “extreme views supporting the Israeli government’s genocide of Palestinians.”

The letter was released a day prior to Huckabee’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The hearing on Tuesday was interrupted by protestors who had messages such as: “Huckabee uses his Christianity to justify ethnic cleansing.” Huckabee is an evangelical Christian and longtime supporter of Israel who has pushed Christian Zionist views.

Huckabee, who has taken more than 100 trips to Israel since 1973, has “consistently engaged in inflammatory and discriminatory statements that demonize Palestinians and Muslims,” according to the letter.

On the campaign trail in 2008, Huckabee told a rabbi in Massachusetts that “there’s really no such thing as a Palestinian.” During a trip to the West Bank in 2017, Huckabee said: “there is no such thing as a West Bank… There’s no such thing as a settlement. They’re communities, they’re neighborhoods, they’re cities. There’s no such thing as an occupation.”

At the confirmation hearing, Huckabee attempted to distance himself from his past statements about Palestinians, according to The Associated Press, and said he would “carry out the president’s priorities, not mine.”

Trump launches ‘October 7 Joint Task Force’, as war on Palestine protesters widens

Last week the Trump administration announced the formation of a joint task force that it said is meant to hold Hamas leaders accountable for the October 7 attack. But many fear it will be yet another weapon the administration will use to target activists within the United States.

The Joint Task Force October 7 (JTF 10-7) will “investigate acts of terrorism and civil rights violations by individuals and entities providing support and financing to Hamas, related Iran proxies, and their affiliates” which is similar to work that began under the Biden administration. The new task force however is also targeting “acts of antisemitism by these groups,” which the administration has indicated refers to campus activism for Palestine.

“The victims of Hamas’s decades-long violent campaign of terrorism against Israel will always have the support of the U.S. government, and the Department will no longer permit illegal support of Hamas on our campuses and elsewhere in the homeland,” said Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a statement. “Antisemitic acts of terrorism – whether here or abroad – will never go unpunished” (continue reading here).

Protesters rally outside the Israeli Consulate, demanding an end to violence in Gaza after Israel broke the ceasefire, in Chicago, United States on March 18, 2025. (Jacek Boczarski – Anadolu Agency)

Complaint submitted in Romania calling for arrest of Israeli soldier

A criminal complaint has been submitted to Romanian authorities calling for the investigation and arrest of a suspected Israeli soldier currently in Romania.

The complaint was filed on Tuesday by the International Centre of Justice for Palestinians (ICJP), working with a local Romanian legal team, as part of its Global 195 initiative.

ICJP submitted evidence of the named suspect, including a photograph of them in Gaza alongside another soldier who was wearing clothing belonging to Palestinian civilians. The legal group alleged that the individual took part in Israeli military operations which may constitute war crimes under Romanian and international law.

The submission referred to the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) arrest warrants issued for senior Israeli officials, and urged Romanian authorities to act in accordance with their obligations under the Rome Statute, which Romania has ratified. It also referenced the Romanian Criminal Code’s provisions on war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Under domestic and international law, if a suspected war criminal is on Romanian soil, the country’s legal system must respond, ICJP said (continue reading here).

MORE NEWS:

Anadolu Agency: Trump’s pick for Israel envoy, Mike Huckabee, scrutinized about Gaza, West Bank stance in Senate hearing

Middle East Eye: Witkoff and Trump’s Gaza dream has one thing missing: Palestinians

The Forward: There’s a bleak historical explanation for why Columbia’s capitulation to Trump is so concerning

Jewish Telegraphic Agency: Trump can’t deport Columbia undergraduate pro-Palestinian activist, Jewish judge rules

Informed Comment: SecDef Hegseth’s Errant Signal Messages show Trump bombing of Yemen just for Show, Ignores Dead Yemeni Children

The Cradle: US intel report determines Iran ‘not building nuclear weapon’

IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 25, 2025:

At least 51,025 Palestinians killed, 121,022 injured – including:
at least 50,082 killed in Gaza (~15,500 children)
at least 943 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 112,950 injured in Gaza
at least 8,072 injured in the West Bank

According to Palestinian authorities, at least 150 people were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza during the ceasefire, and Israel committed at least 962 ceasefire violations since the ceasefire came into force in November.

WAR STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 (Hamas attack) – JANUARY 22, 2025 (Ceasefire):

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 19, 2025: at least 48,143 – including at least 47,283 in Gaza (~20,600 children), and 916 in the West Bank (~183 children). Palestinian injuries: at least 118,472 – including at least 111,629 in Gaza, and 7,000 in the West Bank.

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 – January 19, 2025: ~1,616 (or 1,590) – including ~1,139 on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 436 (or 405) 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

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Wednesday, 26 March 2025