As journalist burned alive, deportations from Gaza begin – War on Gaza Day 549

contact@ifamericansknew.org April 8, 2025 deportation, ethnic cleansing, humanitarian aid gaza, Morag, Netanyahu, Omar Rabea, trump on Gaza

Smoke and flame rise on a journalists' tent after the Israeli army launched an attack in Khan Yunis, Gaza, on April 07, 2025. (screengrab)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

At least 57 Palestinians were killed in latest Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry said on Monday. A medical source said seven people were killed, including three children, when Israeli forces bombed a food delivery spot in Khan Younis, and fighter jets struck a tent for journalists, killing 2 journalists and a civilian, and injuring nine other journalists, including some in critical condition.

A Lebanese civilian was killed in an Israeli drone strike in southern Lebanon on Monday, in the latest violation of a November ceasefire agreement, the Health Ministry said. Lebanese authorities reported nearly 1,400 Israeli violations of the ceasefire, including at least 120 fatalities and more than 366 injuries.

Palestinian journalist burnt alive in Israeli strike on press camp in Gaza

A Palestinian journalist was burned alive, and at least 10 other people were wounded in an Israeli airstrike on Sunday night that targeted a tent accommodating reporters in the southern Gaza Strip.

Videos shared online appear to show journalist Hilmi Al-Faqaawi on fire after the tent he was in in Khan Younis was struck by the Israeli military, as his colleagues tried to rescue him, but to no avail.

Another video shows his charred body wrapped in a blanket and carried out by people.

Nine other journalists and another individual were injured and treated at the nearby Nasser Hospital, which was targeted in an airstrike last month.

One of the journalists has been identified as Ahmed Mansour, with Palestinian journalists and activists sharing his image on social media and stating he remains in “critical” condition.

The horrific scenes were reminiscent of an Israeli airstrike in October last year, which struck a campsite next to Al-Aqsa Hospital, when scores of civilians were burned alive.

Al-Faqaawi’s death brings the number of Palestinian journalists killed in Gaza since the war began in October 2023 to at least 210.

Deliberately targeting journalists or failing to distinguish between civilians and combatants in a conflict zone may constitute a war crime under international humanitarian law.

Mixed messages about Israeli plans to allow aid into Gaza

An Israeli daily reported that the Israeli army was working on a pilot project to distribute aid to the population while not delivering any to Hamas, in response to international pressure and to avoid facing legal consequences.

“Israel is expected to allow the resumption of humanitarian aid deliveries into Gaza within weeks, and in some cases even sooner, following a five-week halt of supplies,” the daily Yedioth Ahronoth said.

According to the newspaper, army commanders and lawmakers discussed the urgent need to resume food supplies to Gaza “to avoid violations of international law that could implicate top military and political figures, particularly those in the IDF (army) Southern Command.”

Israel’s Finance Minister Smotrich dismissed the report, and openly admitted that Tel Aviv is deliberately starving Palestinians, saying, “Not a single grain of wheat will enter the territory.”

The Israeli military also dismissed the media reports.

Since March 2, Israel has shut down Gaza’s border crossings, halting the flow of humanitarian, relief, and medical aid into the territory, leading to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, according to local government and human rights reports.

NOTE: According to international law, “To the fullest extent of the means available to it, the occupying power must ensure sufficient hygiene and public health standards, as well as the provision of food and medical care to the population under occupation.” International consensus (including the US) is that Israel is indeed occupying Gaza.

People gather to receive food distributed on Palestinian Child’s Day in Gaza City (Ashraf Amra/Anadolu)

Israel begins deportation flights to ethnically cleanse Gaza

Israel has started its plan to forcibly remove Palestinians from Gaza, with deportation flights already commencing from Ramon Airport, Israel’s interior minister, Moshe Arbel, said on Monday.

Arbel announced that more than 16 flights carrying Palestinians from Gaza had departed from Ramon Airport, in what appears to be a state-backed effort to forcibly remove Palestinian residents from the besieged enclave under the guise of “voluntary migration”.

“I can say that this will likely increase in the coming period,” the minister added.

He did not, however, specify the aircraft’s size or capacity, the number of passengers from the Gaza Strip, or their destination.

While Israel keeps referring to its plan as “voluntary migration”, human rights organizations and Palestinian advocates have condemned it as an attempted mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing – a clear violation of international law (continue reading here).

Deportation flights for Palestinians in Gaza have already started, an Israeli minister said (Getty)

‘America First?’: US under fire for ignoring Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American teen

Social media is being flooded with criticism of the US government’s reaction to Israel’s killing of Palestinian-American teen Omar Rabea, 14, in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, a day before US President Donald Trump hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

Amer Mohammad Sa’ada Rabea’, 14 — 14-year old Amer, a U.S. citizen, was visiting with his family and other relatives in Ramallah. (source)

On Sunday, Rabea and two other Palestinian-American teens were reportedly protesting against an Israeli incursion into their village, Turmus Ayya, when they were shot.

Mayor Adeeb Lafi told Reuters that the boys were shot at by an Israeli settler, but Israeli forces ultimately took responsibility for killing the American teenager.

CNN reported that Israeli forces said in a statement that their soldiers opened fire during “a counterterrorism operation” when they saw three “terrorists” throwing stones toward the village’s entrance road.

They released a video that apparently shows the three teens right before they were attacked (continue reading here).

To this day, the DOJ has never investigated or prosecuted an Israeli soldier or illegal settler for the killing of a U.S. citizen.

The U.S. government has similarly failed to act in multiple cases involving American citizens murdered by Israeli military forces and illegal settlers, including:

Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist killed while wearing a press vest.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Turkish-American peace activist fatally shot in the head by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful protest.
Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old American killed by an off-duty Israeli officer in the West Bank.
Mohammad Khdour, another U.S. citizen and teen killed in a similar incident.
Omar Assad, an 80-year-old Palestinian-American who died after being detained and abused by Israeli soldiers.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American activist crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer in 2003 while trying to protect a Palestinian home in Gaza.
Jacob Flickinger, a 33-year-old US-Canadian dual citizen, aid worker with World Central Kitchen, killed in an Israeli airstrike on Gaza in 2024.

NOTE: Without a doubt, the most egregious example of Israel murdering American citizens with zero repercussions was the USS Liberty incident.

On June 8, 1967, 34 American servicemen were killed (see list with photos and bios) and 174 were wounded during an Israeli attack on the USS Liberty. According to former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas Moorer, “Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government.” The survivors are still awaiting justice.

Read about the USS Liberty here.

Trump and Netanyahu Reaffirm Their Vision for the Ethnic Cleansing of Gaza

President Trump and Israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu met at the White House on Monday and reaffirmed their desire for the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, both claiming that there are other countries willing to take in the Palestinian population.

Trump also said it would be a “good thing” for the US to take over and control Gaza. “Well, you know how I feel about the Gaza Strip. I think it’s an incredible piece of important real estate,” he told reporters at the Oval Office. “I think it’s something we would be involved in, you know, having a peace force like the United States there, controlling and owning the Gaza Strip, would be a good thing.”

The president said that if the Palestinians are “moved around to different countries,” it would create a “freedom zone” in Gaza. “You call it the freedom zone, a free zone, a zone where people aren’t going to be killed every day,” he said.

Netanyahu framed the idea of expelling Palestinians from Gaza as voluntary. “We’re committed to getting all the hostages out, but also eliminating the evil tyranny of Hamas in Gaza and enabling the people of Gaza to freely make a choice to go wherever they want,” he said.

Netanyahu said that he and President Trump discussed countries that are willing to take in Palestinians from Gaza, but he didn’t mention any by name. “I think this is the right thing to do. It’s going to take years to rebuild Gaza; in the meantime, people can have an option. The president has a vision. Countries are responding to that vision, and we’re working on it,” he said.

NOTE: There is nothing “voluntary” about the Trump’s scheme for removal of Gazans from their homeland. Forced population transfer is a crime against humanity, and a form of ethnic cleansing.If world leaders truly want to offer Gazans a good life outside Gaza, the just solution would be toreturn them to their homes in historic Palestine.

‘Uninhabitable kill zone’: Israel occupies 50 percent of Gaza

The Israeli military now occupies 50 percent of Gaza and has doubled the size of its so-called buffer zone since relaunching its war against the strip last month.

As a result, Israel has dramatically expanded its occupation of Gaza and is “squeezing Palestinians into shrinking wedges of land,” AP reported on 7 April.

The buffer zone, where the Israeli army “has razed Palestinian homes, farmland, and infrastructure to the point of uninhabitability,” now extends as far as three kilometers into Gaza in some places, according to a map issued by the Israeli military.

Israeli troops also occupy the Philadelphi Corridor, a strip of land along the Gaza–Egypt border, and the Netzarim Corridor, which bisects Gaza in two from north to south.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israeli forces would occupy a third corridor, “Morag,” which will further divide Gaza and cut off the city of Rafah on the Egyptian border from the city of Khan Yunis.

Israel claims it is occupying new territory in Gaza to pressure Hamas into releasing the remaining captives taken on 7 October 2023.

However, AP notes that the land Israel occupies “could be used for wielding long-term control” (continue reading here).

Palestinians passes through the Gaza Valley in the Nuseirat area on al-Rashid Street on February 11, 2025 (Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency)

White House says Hamas ‘entirely responsible’ for Israeli execution of Palestinian medics

The Trump administration has doubled down on its position that Hamas is to blame for Israeli troops executing 15 Palestinian medical workers in Gaza, even after a video showed that the Israeli military was lying about the incident.

The Israeli soldiers tried to cover up the crime by burying the 15 medics and their ambulances in a shallow grave. The IDF has since changed its story, acknowledging the lights were flashing and that they opened fire on unarmed men but claiming six of them were linked to Hamas while offering no evidence.

Despite the clear evidence of a war crime, the US is still backing the IDF’s conduct. “Hamas uses ambulances and more broadly human shields for terrorism,” White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told Reuters. “President Trump understands the impossible situation this tactic creates for Israel and holds Hamas entirely responsible.”

Before the video came out, State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce was asked about the executions and also said that Hamas was to blame. “Every single thing that is happening in Gaza is happening because of Hamas. Every single dynamic,” she said.

NOTE: Bruce’s comment (a pro-Israel talking point) implies that history began on October 7th, as though the Hamas fighters attacked Israel for no reason. In fact, Israel has been oppressing Palestinians since its creation in 1948, and even before that.

The people of Palestine have many legitimate grievances for which resistance is an appropriate response. Israel is, according to the International Court of Justice, plausibly committing genocide,illegal occupation, apartheid, extermination, and a targeted campaign of starvation – to name a few.

International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance.

Israel’s Netanyahu lobbying US against F-35 sale to Turkey, sources say

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been lobbying US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to block the sale of F-35 warplanes to Turkey, citing concerns over Ankara’s growing influence in Syria, three sources, including two senior western officials, told Middle East Eye.

Netanyahu raised the F-35 issue during multiple calls with Rubio in March and April, the two western officials said. A third source familiar with the matter confirmed that Netanyahu had pressed Rubio on the arms sale.

Rubio is one of the top Turkey hawks in Trump’s cabinet. He was one of the few American officials to express concern over the arrest on 19 March of Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu. The imprisonment of Imamoglu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s top rival, sparked mass protests in Turkey.

Amid fallout over the arrest, Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, said Trump held a “really transformational” phone call with Erdogan, saying there was “just a lot of good positive news coming out of Turkey right now” (continue reading here).

MORE NEWS:

Al Jazeera: Targeted, killed, burned alive: Journalists in Gaza attacked by Israel

Al Jazeera: Palestinian Bedouins say Israeli settlers terrorizing them off their land

The Cradle: UK lawyers to charge 10 Britons for Gaza war crimes

The Guardian: Ten Britons accused of committing war crimes while fighting for Israel in Gaza

IMEMC Daily Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – APRIL 6, 2025:

At least 51,647 Palestinians killed, 123,410 injured – including:
at least 50,695 killed in Gaza (~15,600 children)
at least 952 killed in the West Bank (~187 children)
at least 115,338 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 – April 6, 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

Tuesday, 8 April 2025