We know the names of 15,613 children that Israel has killed in Gaza – Day 535

contact@ifamericansknew.org March 25, 2025 blaming the victim, hamdan ballal, Hossam Shabat, israeli whitewashing, journalists killed gaza, Mohammad Mansour, no other land, unrwa

A child is brought to the mortuary of Nasser Hospital after being killed in Israeli strike on Khan Younis, Gaza on March 23, 2025. (Abdallah F.s. Alattar – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

15,613 children have been confirmed killed during Israel’s genocidal war, 31 per cent of the martyrs in the Gaza Strip, which stands at 50,082 – this from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. That comes to more than 29 a day. Their names are available here.

NOTE: This number represents those children who have been identified, and is not the total number killed. Thousands have yet to be named and/or recovered from under debris.

Israeli forces killed at least 65 people in Gaza on Monday. Among the dead were two beloved journalists: Al Jazeera reporter Hossam Shabat, and Mohammad Mansour.

The health ministry in Gaza said that 792 peoplehad been killed in the week since Israel resumed bombardments on the Palestinian territory.

The Israeli military has ordered a new forced displacement of Palestinians from Jabaliya in the northern Gaza Strip.

Palestinians flee to Khan Younis as the Israeli army continues to attack in Rafah, Gaza on March 23, 2025. (Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency)

Israel kills Al Jazeera and Palestine Today journalists in separate attacks in Gaza

Israel killed two Palestinian journalists in separate attacks in Gaza on Monday, bringing the total number of press workers killed in the Palestinian territory since October 2023 to 208.

Palestine Today correspondent Mohammad Mansour was killed in an air strike north of Khan Younis while Al Jazeera Mubasher correspondent Hussam Shabat was hit in his car in Salah al-Din Street in the north of the enclave.

The Government Media Office in the Gaza Strip said it condemned “in the strongest terms the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation”.

It urged media watchdogs to condemn “these systematic crimes against Palestinian journalists and media professionals in Gaza”.

The statement added that the Gaza government held Israel, the United States, as well as “the countries participating in the genocide, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, and France, fully responsible for committing this heinous crime” (continue reading here).

Palestinian journalist killed by Israeli strike in Gaza leaves pre-written message

Hossam Shabat, a Palestinian journalist killed by Israel in the Gaza Strip, who spent 18 months documenting Israel’s war on Gaza, left a pre-written message to be shared after his death, urging his readers to “keep fighting, keep telling our stories – until Palestine is free”.

“If you’re reading this, it means I have been killed – most likely targeted – by the Israeli occupation forces,” Shabat’s message read.

He goes on to detail how his college life and dreams were shattered by the war and explains his decision to document Israel’s war as he slept on the streets and endured hunger and Israeli shelling.

“By God, I fulfilled my duty as a journalist. I risked everything to report the truth, and now, I am finally at rest – something I haven’t known in the past 18 months,” he wrote.

“I did all this because I believe in the Palestinian cause. I believe this land is ours, and it has been the highest honor of my life to die defending it and serving its people,” he added.

The message was shared on X by “Hossam’s team.”

Palestinian Oscar winner missing after being severely beaten by Israeli settlers

Palestinian film director and Academy Award-winner Hamdan Ballal was violently attacked by what his colleague described as a “lynch mob” of Israeli settlers on Monday night in the Palestinian village of Susya, south of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.

Susya is also the site of an Israeli settlement, which is illegal under international law and something most American administrations have agreed violates Article 49 of the Geneva Convention.

Ballal’s whereabouts are now unknown after Israeli soldiers then seized him from the ambulance that arrived to treat him, his co-director and fellow Oscar winner of the documentary No Other Land, Yuval Abraham, said on X.

Abraham, a journalist for +972 magazine, said in a separate post featuring a shaky cell phone video that masked settlers “attacked Hamdan’s village, they continued to attack American activists, breaking their car with stones”.

Basel Adra, the Palestinian resident of Masafer Yatta whose story is told in the film, said on Monday that he was “standing with Karam, Hamdan’s 7 year old son, near the blood of Hamdan’s in his house, after settlers lynched him”.

Ballal “is still missing after soldiers abducted him, injured and bleeding”, Adra said (continue reading here).

The Israeli army confirmed on Monday that it had arrested Palestinian film director and Academy Award-winner Hamdan Ballal “for throwing stones.”

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

UN to ‘reduce footprint’ in Gaza citing Israeli attacks on staff

The UN announced on 24 March it would “reduce its footprint” in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli tank strike hit one of its compounds last week, killing one staffer and wounding five others.

In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that the UN “has made taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar.”

He said the UN “is not leaving Gaza” but would withdraw one-third of its approximately 100 international staffers from the strip.

In addition, five staff members of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, were killed last week, the agency’s Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday.

“In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors, and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement posted on X.

Palestinians and UN workers examine the destroyed makeshift tents and shelters after Israeli attack hits a United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) school, killing and injuring many in Nuseirat Refugee Camp of Deir al-Balah, Gaza on July 15, 2024. (Abed Rahim Khatib – Anadolu Agency)

Israel refuses to coordinate rescue operation for Palestinian paramedics trapped in Rafah

Israel refused to coordinate a rescue operation for paramedics stuck in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society said.

In a statement, the agency said it lost contact with a team of paramedics in Rafah since early Sunday after Israeli forces besieged it amid a rescue mission.

“We are still awaiting a green light (from Israel) to reach out to the team in Rafah,” it added.

According to the organization, several paramedics were injured and four ambulances were besieged by Israeli forces in the city since Sunday.

Medical personnel inspect the wreckage of the ambulance after the Israeli army’s attack targeted on Wednesday in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, on January 11, 2024 (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu Agency)

Israeli army ‘is investigating’ officer who ordered destruction of cancer hospital in Gaza

The Israeli army on Monday launched an investigation into the explosion at the Turkish Hospital in central Gaza, amid suspicions that a senior Israel Defense Forces commander ordered the building’s demolition without the required authorization.

According to military protocol, the destruction of buildings designated as “sensitive” in the Gaza Strip – such as hospitals and universities – requires approval from the head of the Southern Command or the Chief of Staff. However, 252nd Division, Brig. Gen. Yehuda Vach allegedly unilaterally downgraded the building’s classification as sensitive, thereby circumventing the need for high-level approval. The IDF confirmed the details to Haaretz and said that “the incident is being examined.”

Following the release of the footage, the military issued an official statement claiming the strike targeted “terrorists located in a Hamas terror infrastructure in an area that previously served as a hospital in central Gaza.”

However, Haaretz has learned that the IDF was surprised by the decision to demolish the building, prompting the Military Advocate General to instruct Southern Command head Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman to investigate the circumstances of the incident.

In December, Haaretz published an investigationfeaturing testimonies from soldiers and officers who said that the division under Vach’s command had significantly relaxed the rules of engagement along the Netzarim corridor – such that any Palestinian crossing an arbitrary line was shot dead, even in cases involving children and the elderly.

NOTE: Israel’s self-investigations consistently whitewash its crimes and fail to appropriately punish the perpetrators. Israeli sources, including the government itself, have a long track record of lying (for example, this and this and this.)

The Israeli military’s self-investigation – including this one – tend to focus on individuals and individual incidents, ignoring the dangerous, far-reaching policies and assumptions rampant in Israeli thinking: impunity, lethality, and dehumanization.

US deflects questions on Israeli killings of journalists in Gaza, blames Hamas

The US State Department on Monday deflected questions about the killings of two journalists in Israeli attacks on Gaza, including Al Jazeera’s Hossam Shabat, placing blame on Hamas.

“I would say that every single thing that’s happening is a result of Hamas and its choices to drag that region down into a level of suffering that has been excruciating and has caused innumerable deaths,” Tammy Bruce told reporters during a press briefing.

Bruce further reiterated US support for Israel, stating that Washington stands by Israel’s “needs as it defends itself.”

She framed Hamas as an entity that has “destroyed lives for generations and continues to.”

Pressed on whether the killing of journalists could be considered a war crime, Bruce declined to provide a direct answer, instead attributed responsibility for all events in Gaza to Hamas.

“I’m not going to stand here and declare what’s a war crime and what isn’t,” she said. “But what we do know is a crime is the mass slaughter of any individuals, certainly the targeting of people simply because of who they are.”

NOTE: Tammy Bruce’s comments, blaming Hamas for “every single thing,” centering Jewish suffering, and dismissing Palestinian suffering, echo Israeli talking points.

Israel’s narrative has it that Hamas “started a war” on October 7th, implying that on October 6th there was peace. In reality, Israel has been at war with the Palestinian people since its creation.

Hamas was exercising – albeit imperfectly – its internationally recognized right to resist the oppressor and occupier of its people.

For years, Palestinians have tried rational, peaceful methods of achieving justice: they have petitioned the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. They have heldthousands of peaceful protests. In the ICC and ICJ, the United States always exercises veto powerin Israel’s favor. When it comes to peacefulprotests, Israeli soldiers shoot to kill.

In 2018 thousands of families in Gaza gathered every week for over a year and a half in unarmed, Gandhian style demonstrations. Israeli snipers shot one after another, and the world was silent.

There is no indication that the events of October 7th were antisemitic. In fact, Hamas hasexplained in no uncertain terms why it carried out its attack.

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IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – MARCH 24, 2025 (ongoing count):

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

Wednesday, 26 March 2025