After 400 days of war and genocide, are the people of Gaza any closer to peace? Is justice nearer?
As we peruse stories that If Americans Knew covered one year ago, and revisit them today, we can see how much has changed – for the worse – thanks in great part to the Biden administrations relentless support for the occupying power and refusal to acknowledge the truth of Israel’s genocidal ambitions.
(We will return to regular coverage tomorrow.)
THIS WEEK LAST YEAR, in If Americans Knew:
A message to President Biden turns out to be prophetic
NOVEMBER 8, 2023: Over 500 alumni of Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign banded together to urge a ceasefire – including from his 2020 campaign headquarters, the DNC, and state staff and leadership from 21 states are represented, including key battlegrounds like Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. The statement reads, in part:
President Biden, it is becoming increasingly clear that this is a moment that may very well define your legacy…
As President of the United States, you have significant influence in this perilous moment — you must call for a ceasefire, hostage exchange, and de-escalation, and take concrete steps to address the conditions of occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing at the root of the horrific violence we are witnessing now…in this moment of pain, we cannot condemn violence and the murder of some civilians while simultaneously justifying and enabling it for others…
As a person of conscience with enormous influence, you have a special responsibility to lead this call…We are not alone in this demand. The majority of Americans (66%) and Democrats (80%), are in agreement — a ceasefire is the bare minimum.
ONE YEAR LATER: The Biden administration claims that it is working tirelessly to end the war – but at the same time is sending massive quantities of weapons to Israel, much of it paid for by Americans.
Analysts have hypothesized that his refusal to end the genocide (and Kamala Harris’ lockstep policy) contributed to the Democrats’ historic loss in the presidential election – and that Biden’s legacy may indeed be defined by his unqualified support for genocide in Gaza.
By the way, 61% of Americans oppose sending weapons and supplies to Israel.
RECOMMENDED READING:
Most Americans want to stop arming Israel. Politicians don’t care.
US unlikely to halt arms sales to Israel due to AIPAC lobbying: Expert
US ‘quietly’ ramping up weapons transfers to Israel
NOVEMBER 14, 2023: Bloomberg reported that the Pentagon has been filling Israeli requests that include weapons, ammunition, and new army vehicles.
ONE YEAR LATER: Far from an arms embargo, the US military has completed well over 500 flights to Israel, airlifting over 50,000 tons of weapons and equipment to the Israeli army for its onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza.
Besides the weapons and equipment airlifted to Israel since 7 October, Washington has sent Tel Aviv 107 shipments of military supplies by sea.
Two of these weapons transfers drew heavy criticism when the State Department invoked an emergency provision that enabled the massive sales to be completed without congressional oversight.
In addition, Secretary of State Blinken and US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew ignored reports that Israel had been using American-made bombs in attacks that killed large numbers of civilians – actions that should have triggered laws restricting weapons sales (reports of Israel blocking of humanitarian aid were similarly ignored).
RECOMMENDED READING: The State Department Says Israel Isn’t Blocking Aid. Videos Show The Opposite.
U.S. Postal Workers Union first major national labor union to call for ceasefire
NOVEMBER 9, 2023: The US Postal Workers union, which consists of 300,000 active and retired postal workers and endorsed Joe Biden in 2020, joined more than a dozen other unions to call for a ceasefire in Gaza.
ONE YEAR LATER: Since the war began, representatives of over 200 U.S. unions — from many dozens of participating locals, to the leaderships of multiple leading national unions — banded together to form The National Labor Network for Ceasefire (NLNC). Seven national unions with a combined membership comprising nearly half of all union members in the US have made public a letter sent to President Biden calling for an embargo on delivery of all military aid to Israel.
Biden has yet to agree to an embargo.
The bombing of Gaza never stops
NOVEMBER 10, 2023: The Israeli military has dropped about 32,000 tons of explosives on Gaza since the start of the war.
ONE YEAR LATER: The Israeli military has dropped more than 85,000 tons of bombs inside the besieged Gaza Strip since the start of the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza in October 2023.
Palestinian officials say the continuous bombing “has caused the destruction of vast areas of agricultural land and contaminated soil with toxic chemicals, which will hinder agriculture in the enclave for decades.”
Furthermore, the officials say Israeli attacks have caused significant damage to Gaza’s water sources, “causing polluted water to seep into groundwater basins, [posing] a health and environmental crisis that endangers hundreds of thousands of residents for future generations.”
Additionally, hundreds of thousands of people in the besieged and bombarded enclave are suffering breathing problems and respiratory issues, as Israeli bombs disperse chemicals into the air, mixing with dust from the unending mounds of rubble throughout Gaza.
The Israeli and Palestinian hostage situations
NOVEMBER 10, 2023: The Hamas resistance group is currently holding about 240 hostages, captured on October 7th for the purpose of a prisoner swap. Israel currently holds 7,000 Palestinians as political prisoners, and has agreed to such a swap in the past.
ONE YEAR LATER: 117 of the 240 Israeli prisoners have been returned alive to Israel – 105 were released in a prisoner exchange deal; Hamas released 4 unilaterally; Israel killed dozens more in bombings or friendly fire. 101 still remain in captivity (for documentation, go here).
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu continues to prolong the war, although the hostages’ chances of survival drop with every airstrike on Gaza.
Today, Israel holds over 10,000 Palestinian political prisoners, subjecting them to horrific conditions that has included torture and rape.
RECOMMENDED READING: Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: Testimonies of 100 released Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment.
West Bank death toll
ONE YEAR AGO: Israeli forces have killed another Palestinian in the West Bank, taking the death toll in the occupied territory since October 7 to 186, the Health Ministry has said.
ONE YEAR LATER: Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 781 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 167 children, and injured 6,300.
RECOMMENDED READING: Genocide alert issued over Israeli violence in West Bank
False allegation that hostages were kept beneath hospital
NOVEMBER 13, 2023: Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari has alleged “signs indicating hostages were held” in a basement room within al-Rantisi hospital in north Gaza had been discovered. Hagari made the claims in a video shot by Israeli forces supposedly in the children’s hospital. In the video, Hagari pointed to women’s clothing, what appeared to be a rope on the leg of a chair, as well as an “improvised” toilet and other infrastructure.
He also pointed to what he called a “guardian list” on the wall, where he claimed fighters signed into shifts to watch the captives. He called the items evidence that captives had been held there. The guardian list turned out to be a calendar listing not Hamas signatures, but days of the week.
ONE YEAR LATER: Israeli forces continue to destroy hospitals, claiming they house Hamas “command and control centers” (more recently, Israel alleges that Hamas has begun using schools-turned-shelters, and has been destroying those).
Israel has provided no evidence to back up its claims of Hamas presence in the hospitals or schools. Hamas has denied using civilian facilities.
Clarion calls for ethnic cleansing in Gaza
NOVEMBER 11, 2023: Avi Dichter, Israel’s Minister for Agriculture and former head of Shin Bet, said: “We are now actually rolling out the Gaza Nakba,” Gaza Nakba 2023. That’s how it’ll end.” [Nakba is the Arabic word for Israel’s 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestnians.]
AND
NOVEMBER 13, 2023: Ethnic cleansing recommended in Wall Street Journal: Lawmakers Danny Danon, former ambassador to the UN, and Ram Ben-Barak, former deputy director of the Mossad, published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal in which they urged the “voluntary” immigration of Gazans to countries around the world:
The international community has a moral imperative—and an opportunity—to demonstrate compassion, help the people of Gaza move toward a more prosperous future and work together to achieve greater peace and stability in the Middle East…
We simply need a handful of the world’s nations to share the responsibility of hosting Gazan residents. Even if countries took in as few as 10,000 people each, it would help alleviate the crisis.
ONE YEAR LATER: While these blatant ethnic cleansing recommendations were tabled, the idea is still very much alive.
Israel has (unofficially) begun implementing the so-called Generals Plan, in which the Israeli military forcibly expels Palestinians from northern Gaza, ethnically cleanses any remaining civilians, and then takes over or annexes the area for Jewish Israeli settlement ( forced transfer is a crime against humanity).
For over a month, Israeli occupation forces have been using aerial, ground, and naval bombardment against the population 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 – while at the same time ordering all residents to leave.
Gazans face arrests, beatings, humiliation on “safe” evacuation route
NOVEMBER 11, 2023: Those fleeing to southern Gaza along the so-called safe “corridors” established by Israeli forces face arrest, and the UN has received reports of beatings and people being stripped of their clothes by Israeli soldiers. Palestinians fleeing south are also “reporting the presence of dead bodies in the streets”.
ONE YEAR LATER: The same policies are being used against Palestinians in northern Gaza. Over 1,800 Palestinians have reportedly been killed since Israel began its siege of northern Gaza.
MEMORABLE TWEETS FROM THIS WEEK LAST YEAR:
Doctor breaks down while reading an emergency message on behalf of the Director of the Major Trauma Hospital in Gaza.
Healthcare workers gathered in front of the PM’s office in London, raising placards with the names of 200+ physicians who have been killed so far. pic.twitter.com/r2WCVEu83J
— Rami Jarrah (@RamiJarrah) November 11, 2023
NOTE: International volunteers in Gaza and locals have made similar heartfelt pleas for help in the last year – but nothing has changed. The World Health Organizations stated that Israel has killed about 1,000 healthcare workers in Gaza. Israel has also withheld essential medical supplies and medicines, as well as fuel to keep hospital equipment running.
🚨 Doctors at besieged Al-Shifa Hospital have removed 39 premature babies from incubators due to lack of oxygen. At least one baby has already died.
Israeli forces have surrounded Al-Shifa and are shooting anyone who tries to leave, including doctors moving between buildings. https://t.co/psg1d3lyO8
— Defense for Children (@DCIPalestine) November 11, 2023
NOTE: The infants were evacuated from Al-Shifa days after Israeli airstrikes on the hospital caused power outages and a dangerous environment.
Of the original 39 babies referenced in this tweet, at least 8 died during their transfer. Several other infants were found in another hospital, in the neonatal intensive care ward a few weeks later, dead and decomposing. The staff had concluded they could not safely evacuate five babies.
Lives of one million children ‘hanging by a thread,’ as child health services almost collapse across the Gaza Strip
Press release: https://t.co/U4LzYzxzTx pic.twitter.com/tl8UF0MApR
— UNICEF MENA – يونيسف الشرق الأوسط وشمال إفريقيا (@UNICEFmena) November 10, 2023
NOTE: The medical situation has only gotten more dire since this tweet. Hospitals have so few supplies that people have been dying of treatable illnesses and wounds.
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – NOVEMBER 10, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – November 10, 2024: at least 44,384* ( 43,603 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. This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children).
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 781 Palestinians (~167 of them children).
In July 2024, the Lancet said: “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 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons.
- 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.
- About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – November 10, 2024: at least 109,229 (including at least 102,929 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 – November 10, 2024: ~1,574 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 396*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Nov 2); 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 3,136, with 13,979 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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