64 children, 57 women, 37 elderly, 3 hostages killed in Israel's Nuseirat attack

The Israeli massacre in Gaza's Nuseirat camp killed over 270 Palestinians and injured many more. Survivors say the horrors they witnessed will stay with them for the rest of their lives. (screenshot)

Saturday’s attack on Nuseirat in central Gaza: horrific stories of terror and destruction; war crime; Biden administration culpability; US assistance in attack makes US a party, places U.S. forces at risk; 85% of Jewish Americans say it’s important for the US to continue to support Israel; holocaust miniseries; more

By IAK staff, from reports.

Staggering number of children killed in Israel’s Nuseirat attack

Among the 274 dead from Israel’s army incursion are at least 64 children, 57 women, and 37 elderly people, Gaza’s health ministry says. Another 798 Palestinians were wounded in the Israeli raid.

The Palestinian death toll is the worst over a 24-hour period of the Gaza war for months.

Hamas says 3 hostages were killed in Israeli operation in Gaza

Reuters reports: Hamas’ armed al-Qassam Brigades said in a video posted on its Telegram channel on Sunday that three hostages were killed, including a U.S. citizen, in an Israeli military operation on Saturday in which some hostages were freed.

The group did not release the names of those said to be killed, but the video showed what appeared to be three unidentifiable corpses using censor bars over their faces.

“Your captives will not be released unless our prisoners are freed,” the video added.

Nuseirat eyewitness: ‘Houses destroyed with occupants inside’

Soon after the Israeli raid started at about 11am (08:00 GMT) in Nuseirat’s busy market area, bombs rained down and turned the neighborhood into “smoke and flames”, said Muhannad Thabet, 35, a resident.

“People were screaming – young and old, women and men. Everyone wanted to flee the place, but the bombing was intense and anyone who moved was at risk of being killed because of the heavy bombardment and gunfire.

“Houses were destroyed with their occupants inside. There were also large numbers of displaced people and shops, stalls and cars were on fire because of the bombing.”

From Reuters: “It was like a horror movie but this was a real massacre. Israeli drones and warplanes fired all night randomly at people’s houses and at people who tried to flee the area,” said Ziad, 45, a paramedic and resident of Nuseirat, who gave only his first name.

"The occupation has annihilated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Innocent and unarmed civilian were bombed in their homes. I've never seen anything like this. It's a catastrophe," local resident Nidal Abdo said. — “The occupation has annihilated the Nuseirat refugee camp. Innocent and unarmed civilian were bombed in their homes. I’ve never seen anything like this. It’s a catastrophe,” local resident Nidal Abdo said. (screenshot)

NOTE: The Israeli spokesperson said Saturday’s operation began with the targeting of “militant infrastructure with pre-planned strikes.”

Witnesses: Israeli soldiers disguised as displaced Palestinians in Nuseirat attack:

Two witnesses have told Al Jazeera how a unit of Israeli soldiers arrived in a truck carrying furniture to apparently appear as if they were displaced Palestinians moving into a residential building in the Nuseirat refugee camp.

“They arrived in an undercover truck, pretending to be moving furniture as if they were displaced individuals,” one witness said. “They bombed my house, as well as my brother’s and the neighbors’.”

Another witness told Al Jazeera that Israeli soldiers used a ladder to climb into his home as he was preparing breakfast for his wife and baby.

“I caught sight of a specialized forces unit. It had furniture in the vehicle to make it look like it belonged to displaced people. Suddenly the operative got out two ladders and came into our home fully armed. Chaos erupted with gunfire and explosions,” he said.

The Washington Post corroborates this story with a verified video of a white Mercedes truck, filmed from the balcony of a residential building in the center of the camp. Two ladders can be seen resting against the side of a house, leading to an upper floor next to the truck. “Here they have arrived,” says the witness filming.

Another eyewitness described two men in plainclothes and about 10 heavily armed soldiers coming out of the back of the Mercedes. They shot the man’s brother.

The Washington Post reports: Palestinian witnesses described some troops arriving in two undercover vehicles, one of which resembled the trucks used by Israel to bring commercial goods into Gaza. The other was a white Mercedes truck, piled high with furniture and other belongings, a common sight in a camp that’s home to thousands of displaced families.

Two videos verified by The Washington Post show a box truck marked with a brand of dishwashing soap traveling in the company of Israeli armored vehicles on a road about a mile west of the raid. Mondoweiss describes other videos that confirm these accounts. Such actions violate international law.* The Israeli military denies using any civilian trucks.

Call for an investigation into use of US pier for military purposes

Euro-Med Monitor statement: The massacre carried out by the Israeli army today, Saturday, in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip is strongly condemned by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor. Grave concern is also expressed over reports that Israel may have used for military purposes the US pier intended for transporting humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

After the widespread assault, the Israeli army declared that four Israeli detainees had been freed in an operation conducted by special forces in the Nuseirat camp, working in tandem with the Israeli Police (Al-Yamam) and the General Security Service (Shin Bet).

Massive, indiscriminate air and artillery attacks were launched by the Israeli army during the operation in order to conceal the withdrawal of Israeli forces. This caused an excessive number of civilian casualties and extensive damage to civilian property, and also violated numerous principles of international humanitarian law, such as those pertaining to humanity, distinction, military necessity, proportionality, and due diligence.

As part of their international obligations, all countries should put Israel under strong sanctions, halt all financial, political, and military assistance, and immediately halt all arms transfers to Israel—including export permits and military support.

Biden has “placed U.S. forces at risk for attack as legitimate military targets”

DAWN (Democracy For The Arab World Now) statement: In response to the Israeli military operation on June 8, 2024 that freed four hostages, killed 274 Palestinians, and injured 698, and which according to Hamas, killed three other hostages including a U.S. citizen, DAWN issues the following statement:

“Israeli officials should be held responsible for this grotesque, botched Israeli operation – massacring not only 274 Palestinians, mostly women and children, but reportedly also killing three hostages, including a U.S. citizen – because it has violated the most basic laws of war requiring distinction and proportionality,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Executive Director of DAWN.

“By providing intelligence and logistics support for this operation, the Biden administration has now made the U.S. a party to this conflict and placed U.S. forces at risk for attack as legitimate military targets.”

“This entire stunt was unnecessary given the ongoing ceasefire negotiations that include the release of all civilian hostages,” said Whitson.

“Israel didn’t need to carry out this operation; a diplomatic solution was already on the table, which would have secured the safe release of all hostages without further bloodshed.”

Israel & US celebration after operation is ‘shortsighted’, even ‘tragic’, says analyst

Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said the celebrations following the Nuseirat refugee camp attack were “the most tragic aspect of it all”.

It is one thing for families and relatives to celebrate the return of loved ones who were held captive, Bishara said.

But it is something entirely different for the Israeli and US governments to “turn it into some kind of national holiday”.

“That is just so tragic and so shortsighted,” Bishara said.

“After more than 40,000 Palestinians have already been killed. They want to celebrate the rescue of four captives that could have been easily rescued in any exchange deal?”

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Children walk with other displaced Palestinians taking the coastal Rashid road to return to Gaza City as they pass through Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip on April 14, 2024.

Gaza health facilities have dangerously low oxygen supplies

The New Arab reports: The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza on Monday issued an urgent plea for oxygen as medical supplies reach critically low levels in the besieged enclave.

In a statement, it said that the “only oxygen station” in Gaza is threatened with “completely stopping” and is risking the lives of dozens of patients.

Health services are in need of diesel fuel to operate the generators which are powering refrigerators and the oxygen stations. Israel’s months-long blockade on the Strip means power supplies have been reduced to generators but there are major shortages of fuel.

Al Aqsa and Al Awdi hospitals near Nuseirat were overwhelmed with injured and dead from Israel's Saturday attack. — Al Aqsa and Al Awdi hospitals near Nuseirat were overwhelmed with injured and dead from Israel’s Saturday attack. (screengrab)

Continuing Biden support green lights Netanyahu to pursue ‘war crimes strategy’ in Gaza: rights expert Kenneth Roth

Excerpts from Al Jazeera’s interview with Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch and a visiting professor at Princeton University:

International pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war on Gaza “clearly is good, it’s just insufficient”, Roth told Al Jazeera.

“If you look at President Joe Biden, he says the right things. He says take more care to spare Palestinian civilian life. Let in more food and humanitarian aid. But he doesn’t back that up with action,” Roth said.

“He continues supplying the arms and the military aid that is used to bomb and starve Palestinian civilians. When the International Criminal Court prosecutor sought an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, Biden said it was, basically, an outrage.

“So he is not providing real backing to his appropriate words of caution. And Biden is the most important backer of Netanyahu. Until that changes, I fear that Netanyahu is going to feel that he still has a green light to keep going with the war crimes strategy that he has been pursuing.

“The Israeli military said that it deliberately launched this rescue operation [in Nuseirat] during the day, hoping to surprise Hamas. Hamas would have expected it to come at night,” Roth said.

“The one problem with operating during the day is that civilians are all about. And some of the bombs clearly fell either on or right adjacent to a market in al-Nuseirat which was filled with people,” he said.

“And in those circumstance, you predictably will get larger numbers of civilian casualties than if it had been a night-time operation. That is inconsistent with the duty to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians harm.”

UN food agency pauses Gaza aid operations on US pier citing safety concerns

Middle East Eye reports: The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said its aid delivery operations through the US-built pier in Gaza have been “paused” due to safety concerns amid Israeli attacks on the strip.

WFP Director Cindy McCain told US broadcaster CBS that concerns over the safety of her team was the main reason behind this decision.

“I’m concerned about the safety of our people,” she said. “We’ve stepped back for the moment … to make sure we’re on safe terms and on safe ground before we’ll restart. But the rest of the country is operational. We’re doing everything we can in the north and the south”

West Bank: Israeli Army Kills 15 year old, Injures Six

IMEMC reports: During the ongoing military incursion into the Al-Far’a refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian youth, injured six, abducted five young men, and caused destruction to vital infrastructure and citizens’ property.

The teen, Mahmoud Ibrahim Nabrisi, 15, was shot in the back with live ammunition when occupation forces opened fire towards citizens and their homes.

Israeli Minister Benny Gantz resigns, accuses Netanyahu of playing wartime politics:

Gantz says: “Netanyahu not putting the country’s best interests first,” Jewish Insider reports.

“Months after the October disaster, the situation in the country and the rooms in which decisions are made changed,” Gantz said. “Strategic, fateful decisions are met with hesitations and deferrals out of political considerations … Netanyahu is preventing us from progressing to true victory.”

85% of Jewish Americans say it’s important for the U.S. to continue to support Israel:

A survey of the U.S. Jewish community by the American Jewish Committee also found that 93% of Jews think that antisemitism is a problem.

Sixty-one percent said they plan to vote for Biden. The poll also found that Jews remain a predominantly Democratic-identifying population — 68% said they were Democrats or lean Democratic, while 31% said they were Republican or lean Republican. Fifty-nine percent of Jews who lean Democratic said they identify as progressives.

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Palestinians evacuate the area following an Israeli airstrike on the Sousi mosque in Gaza City on October 9, 2023.

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A man carries an injured Palestinian child as Israeli attacks continue on the 25th day at Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza City, Gaza on October 31, 2023.

Rep. Ritchie Torres says secret Israeli influence op was “embarrassing” and “racist”

JTA reports: New York Rep. Ritchie Torres, one of Israel’s staunchest supporters in Congress, said a reported clandestine campaign by the Israeli government that aimed to influence him and other Black Democratic U.S. lawmakers was “embarrassing” and “racist.”

The effort, according to a report this week in The New York Times [see this] was orchestrated by Israel’s Diaspora Ministry and targeted members of Congress and the U.S. public with a pro-Israel social media campaign using hundreds of fake social media profiles.

The $2 million project in conjunction with Stoic, a Tel Aviv-based marketing firm, began in October and continued at least until this week. Involving multiple fake news sites and the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, the operation urged lawmakers to fund Israel’s military effort. (It also included some missteps, such as accounts supposedly of Black men posting as a “middle-aged Jewish woman.”)

The campaign focused on several members of the Congressional Black Caucus, including Torres, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, and Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia.

JTA reports: “Netflix’s ‘Hitler and the Nazis: Evil on Trial’ aims to make the Holocaust hit home for a younger generation”

The six-part documentary is constructed more like a narrative thriller miniseries than a documentary.

While the Nazis were defeated 79 years ago, some people point out that Israel is now perpetrating a holocaust against Palestinians, and using the memory of the Nazi holocaust to do it:

MORE NEWS:

Al Jazeera: The Harvard graduating students denied their degrees over Palestine protest

Al Jazeera: Israel war cabinet minister Benny Gantz quits Netanyahu’s government

Palestine Chronicle: End of an Era: What the Shifting Discourse on Palestine Teaches Us about the Future of Israel

The New Arab: Netanyahu slammed for ‘cynical’ captive PR stunts, shunning bereaved families

IMEMC Reports.

*NOTE: Under international humanitarian law, it is prohibited to kill, injure or capture an adversary by resort to perfidy; one example of perfidy is feigning civilian or non-combatant status.

Israel’s denial carries little weight: historically, Israel has not proven itself trustworthy. Among Israel’s lies are numerous atrocity stories about the October 7th attack that have since been proven untrue (more examples here). In addition, a number of the Israeli soldiers and civilians killed on October 7 were shown to have been killed by Israeli fire – a fact that is absent from the official Israeli narrative. The Israeli military has also disseminated false stories about civilians captured. Previously, Israel has been caught in many lies – for example, this and this and this.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 9:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 9: at least 37,658* (37,124 in Gaza* – 4,959 women (20%), 7,797 children (32%). This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 534 in the West Bank (~131 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 43,640 Palestinian deaths. (Ralph Nader has estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.)
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank).
At least 37 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – June 9: at least 89,752 (including at least 84,712 in Gaza and 5,040 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – June 9: ~1,449 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 295 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel 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.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

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

64 children, 57 women, 37 elderly, 3 hostages killed in Israel’s Nuseirat attack – day 247