Skyrocketing number of orphans in Gaza; Israel committing “horrific crimes”; calls for global strike; general strike in West Bank; UN 377 invoked in attempt to override Security Council failure; Israel has imprisoned 142 females from Gaza, including nursing babies and elderly;
Over 1 million Americans participated in protests since Gaza-Israel war began on Oct 7; Prominent Jewish journalist complains ‘Jewish establishment supporting genocide’; Bethlehem churches letter; US universities under fire; updated statistics
Number of Gazans killed since the Biden administration vetoed UNSC ceasefire resolution: at least 600 (approximately 278 children)
From reports – sources in embedded links
Calls for a global strike on Monday: Activists and international influencers join call for global strike on December 11 as Israel pummels Gaza to demand an immediate ceasefire. Some Americans are honoring the strike by telling their Congress members to demand a ceasefire and to oppose the additional $14 billIon to Israel.
“We expect the entire globe to join the strike, which comes in the context of a broad international movement involving influential figures. This movement stands against the open genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing and the colonial settlement in the West Bank,” said a statement released by the coalition.
Imminent vote on UN General Assembly ceasefire resolution using 377: The UN General Assembly (UNGA) is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday on a resolution for an immediate ceasefire, after Egypt and Mauritania invoked Resolution 377 “Uniting for Peace” in the wake of the US veto.
Adopted by the UNGA in 1950, Resolution 377 allows the 193-member body to act where the UNSC has failed to “exercise its primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security”.
Their letter also referred to Guterres’s invoking Article 99 of the UN Charter on December 6.
Humanitarian update
Disturbing news from Palestinian medical agency head: According to Dr Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian leader who heads the Union of Palestinian Medical Relief Committees with 25 teams working in Gaza, “half of Gaza is now starving’:, he also said 350,000 people have infections, including 115,000 with severe respiratory infections. Many people lack warm clothes, blankets and protection from the cold rain.
Barghouti said many are suffering from stomach ailments because there is little clean water and not enough fuel to use to boil it, risking outbreaks of dysentery, typhoid and cholera. “To add insult to injury, we have 46,000 injured people who cannot be treated properly because most of the hospitals are not functioning,” he said.
About 50,000 people injured in northern Gaza alone: The director of the Health Ministry in Gaza, Munir al-Barsh, says there are 50,000 people injured in northern Gaza. Of those injured, only 422 have been transferred out of Gaza and 8,000 of them need immediate medical intervention. So far, they have not received any medical or fuel supplies.
Healthcare facilities & personnel attacked: On 9 and 10 December, multiple health facilities and personnel were attacked across the Gaza strip (see Health Care section for more details). Personnel attacked included Gaza’s MoH Director General of Pharmacy, alongside two other staff, who were shot and injured while trying to reach the MoH’s warehouses to provide medical supplies to Shifa and Al Ahli Hospitals and other health facilities in northern Gaza and Gaza city. Reportedly, an ambulance rushing to the scene was also hit.
Still insufficient aid entering Gaza: On 10 December, as of 22:00, 100 trucks carrying humanitarian supplies entered from Egypt into Gaza, the same volume as in most days since the resumption of hostilities on 1 December. This is well below the daily average of 500 truckloads (including fuel) that entered every working day prior to 7 October.
A Qatari aircraft carrying 116 tons of humanitarian aid for Gaza landed at Egypt’s El Arish airport on Sunday.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Mariam Barghouti: The media is complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza
The following are among the deadliest incidents reported in the past 24 hours, involving the striking of residential buildings (all took place on 9 December):
- At about 21:50, 39 people were reportedly killed when a six-storey building was hit in An Nazla area in the city of Jabalia, northern Gaza.
- At about 22:15, six people, including children, were reportedly killed when a residential building was hit near Al Maghazi market.
- At about 12:45, ten people were reportedly killed and 20 others injured when a residential building was hit in western Khan Yunis, southern Gaza.
‘No water, no toilets’ for evacuees in al-Mawasi: The mass exodus continues. For those fleeing northern Gaza in order to survive, they’re describing it as the ‘journey of death’. Many Palestinians have been killed while evacuating. The areas in the south were designated as ‘safe areas’ by the Israelis, but now, they’re under attack too.
Those in Khan Younis have been ordered to flee to al-Mawasi on the coastline – an area considered to be very dangerous. It’s also a region without any infrastructure – including access to water, food and electricity. There’s also no access to toilets. The situation is deteriorating extremely fast now.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Israeli military tells Palestinians in Gaza to move to ‘humanitarian zone’ in al-Mawasi in the south
Skyrocketing number of orphans in Gaza: Initial figures from Gaza indicate that 24,000-25,000 Palestinian children in Gaza have become orphans as a result of Israel’s genocidal bombing campaign on the besieged enclave, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said.
Other Gaza news
Another video has surfaced purporting to be a group of Hamas fighters surrendering. As with the first one, the Israeli army is again being accused of staging the video.
In the latest video, a man is seen walking towards a soldier and handing over a rifle, in his left hand, and a hand gun to his right. But it appears that the clip was staged, with a slightly different second version also appearing online, raising questions about the video’s authenticity.
It also emerged that the person in the video is a well-known man in Gaza, who owns an aluminum workshop, and who was allegedly kidnapped in a different town in northern Gaza.
Israel says it wants to prevent further dissemination of images showing Palestinians detained in the Gaza Strip stripped to their underwear, following outrage over the humiliating photos shared by local media. He said there would be no further distribution of such images.
Read about the earlier video here, watch a report on the most recent one here.
Heavy casualties have been reported in central Gaza’s al-Maghazi refugee camp following an overnight strike by Israel. A Palestinian woman said that as many as 55 people in one building had been killed. “There were 69 people in the house. Only 14 of us survived and the rest were killed,” the distraught woman said.
No captives will be released without negotiations: Hamas: In a pre-recorded message, the spokesperson for Hamas’s Qassam Brigades says Israeli captives will not be released by military force. “We tell the Israelis that Netanyahu, Gallant, and others in the war cabinet cannot bring back their captives without negotiations. The latest killing of a captive they tried to take back by force proves that.”
He was referring to an Israeli man held captive, whom Israeli special forces in the Gaza Strip tried to rescue. He said the group repelled the attempt, inflicting several military casualties, and the captive also died in the assault.
EuroMed has evidence that Israel is committing “horrific crimes” against starving civilians in Gaza: The Israeli military is committing “horrific crimes” against civilians in Gaza, a human rights group said on Sunday. The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for an “urgent international investigation” into field executions, torture and threats of rape against Palestinians by Israeli ground forces in Gaza.
Palestinians arrested in their homes and later released told the Geneva-based group that they were stripped naked and attacked with “machine guns, electric cables and cold water.”
A 16-year-old boy told the Euro-Med Monitor that Israeli forces stormed his family’s home in Shujaiya, near Gaza City, after they were besieged for a week without food or water. “He stated that over the past few days, Israeli forces killed everyone in his neighborhood who tried to leave their home, including [his] brother,” the rights group said. The boy’s family were “gathered naked and handcuffed before being violently assaulted and beaten,” Euro-Med Monitor added. The teen “still does not know what happened to his mother and sisters, who were captured and kidnapped by the Israeli army.” (Read the full article here.)
West Bank & Jerusalem
Occupied West Bank comes to a standstill amid solidarity strike: >Palestinians are closing down their shops – including pharmacies, bakeries and street vendors – and all aspects of life in various areas of the occupied West Bank in solidarity with those in the besieged Gaza Strip. Palestinians are hoping that by doing this, the world will take notice and this will translate into increased pressure on Israel.
Their main demand is for a ceasefire in Gaza but they also want the world to pressure Israel to end the occupation.
For Palestinians, strikes have historically been important ways to shed light on their situation. It’s also a sign of unity that they’re all united against the Israeli occupation.
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Dozens arrested by Israeli forces in occupied West Bank: At least 28 Palestinians, including two women, have been arrested in Israeli raids, Wafa news agency is reporting. The report added that Palestinians were detained across the occupied West Bank overnight, including in Jericho, Nablus and Hebron. More than 3,700 people have been detained since the Israel-Gaza war began on October 7.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Israeli forces raid Tubas city in the occupied West Bank
No response from White House to Bethlehem churches letter: Churches in Bethlehem have not received a response from the White House to their letter requesting a ceasefire, Munther Isaac, the pastor of Christmas Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bethlehem has said. Isaac added that the US “veto vote in the UN” was the response.
“They celebrate Christmas in their land, and wage war in our land,” Isaac said in a post on X.
Isaac’s church has this year displayed a Christmas nativity scene with baby Jesus lying in a manger on a pile of rubble to reflect what is happening in Gaza.
RECOMMENDED READING: Anti-Palestinian racism is inherent to Zionism and you’re not allowed to talk about it
Israel news
Israel using ‘heavier hand’ against Palestinian children since October 7: Ayed Abu Eqtaish, a children’s rights advocate with the Defense for Children International – Palestine, says the ill-treatment and torture of Palestinian children was “widespread, systematic and institutionalized before October 7, but now the Israeli authorities are using heavier hand”.
“Around 700 Palestinian children are persecuted in front of [Israeli] military court every year and these courts lack fair trial frontiers because the whole issue depends on the confessions extracted from children by force,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abu Eqtaish said information over the conditions faced currently by incarcerated Palestinian children was limited as lawyers and human rights’ activists ability to visit prisons has been restricted after the start of the war, while court sessions have been taking place through video links.
RECOMMENDED READING: Stripped, Beaten, and Blindfolded: ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military
Israel airdrops equipment to troops in southern Gaza: The Israeli army says it has airdropped seven tons of equipment to hundreds of troops operating in the Khan Younis area of southern Gaza. A video published by the army spokesperson Daniel Hagari on X shows a C-130J transport aircraft dropping the equipment. Hagari said this was the first time that the army has airdropped equipment since the 2006 Lebanon War.
כ-7 טון תספוק לוגיסטי הוצנחו מהאוויר למאות לוחמי עוצבת הקומנדו בחאן יונס באמצעות הצנחת האפסניה המבצעית הראשונה מאז מלחמת לבנון השנייה.
לכל הפרטים: https://t.co/pAPhPAD8M8 pic.twitter.com/2wfGlJ5889
— דובר צה״ל דניאל הגרי – Daniel Hagari (@IDFSpokesperson) December 11, 2023
Netanyahu sets up secret team to discuss post-war Gaza: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has set up a secret team from the defence establishment to discuss post-war plans for Gaza, according to a report by Channel 13. The team, led by National Security Adviser Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, has already met four times and is expected to meet again this week, the Israeli television channel found.
Netanyahu has said that Israel would retain an open-ended security presence in Gaza. The administration of US President Joe Biden has been supportive of Israel’s “right to defend itself” but has expressed its opposition to the re-occupation of Gaza and any reduction in its territory.
The team includes representatives from the Israel Defense Forces, the Mossad, and the Shin Bet. Israeli Ambassador to the US Mike Herzog has also been at the meetings and the US is aware of the discussions, a senior official told Channel 13.
Notably, there is no Palestinian representative on the team.
‘Beginning of the end of Hamas,’ Netanyahu claims: Israel’s prime minister says in recent days dozens of Hamas fighters have surrendered to Israeli forces. “They are laying down their weapons and turning themselves in to our heroic soldiers. This will take time. The war is still ongoing, but it is the beginning of the end of Hamas,” he said in a statement. “I say to the Hamas terrorists: It’s over. Don’t die for [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar. Surrender – now.”
The military has not released evidence of fighters surrendering, and Hamas has rejected such claims.
Israel has imprisoned 142 female prisoners from Gaza: The Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said that 142 females, including nursing babies and elderly, are currently being held in Israeli jails after they were detained by the Israeli occupation during its ground offensive into the Gaza Strip.
Israel blames UN for not delivering enough aid: COGAT, the Israeli military body responsible for Palestinian civil affairs, says the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing between Israel and Gaza “is to be opened” for delivery of more aid. It said it expanded its “capabilities to conduct inspections for the aid delivery into Gaza” but blamed the UN for not delivering enough aid through the currently open Rafah crossing with Egypt. “The UN must do better,” COGAT said in a post.
UN agencies and NGOs have repeatedly said that Israel does not allow the necessary resources to go through, including fuel vital for hospital operations. Last week, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said negotiations were under way to open the Karem Abu Salem border to “boost” aid to Gaza.
The firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups towards Israeli population centers has continued over the past 24 hours, with no reported fatalities.
(Information on rocket attacks is here.) It appears that the last time a rocket killed an Israeli was October 7-8, as reported by Ha’aretz and the Times of Israel. 15 Israelis were killed – 10 of them Palestinian Israelis who reportedly had no access to bomb shelters. Rockets have killed a total of 35 Israelis over the 22 years they’ve been fired.
Latest from US & elsewhere
2024 UN humanitarian budget: The United Nations is appealing for $46bn in funding for 2024 to support millions of people affected by humanitarian crises around the world, including in the occupied Palestinian territory.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: War on Gaza: Global boycott movement against Israel gains traction
WHO votes for immediate, unimpeded access to Gaza: The World Health Organization’s executive board adopted a resolution on tackling the worsening health situation in the Gaza Strip, calling for immediate and unimpeded humanitarian access. After the UN Security Council failed on a ceasefire, the 34 countries on the WHO’s executive board adopted by consensus a resolution calling for the “immediate, sustained and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief” into Gaza.
It seeks the supply and replenishment of medicine and medical equipment to the civilian population and for all people deprived of their liberty to be given access to medical treatment.
It was only the seventh time in the UN body’s 75-year history that such a vote took place.
“It is an important moment for WHO – an organization focusing on international public health. For me, it is a victory [for] humanity. A victory of member states in promoting health, protecting the vulnerable, and saving lives,” said Dr Ahmed al-Mandhari, regional WHO director.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Calls to reform UN Security Council after US vetoes Gaza ceasefire
Food being used as weapon of war: UN. UNRWA’s commissioner general writes, in Gaza, “humanitarian aid has been made conditional. Humanitarian assistance is withheld or delivered according to political and military agendas to which the United Nations is not privy”.
Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency providing relief to Palestinian refugees, wrote in an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times, that “food, water and fuel are being systematically used as weapons of war in Gaza, as is disinformation”.
Lazzarini added that “humanitarian aid is a strategic dimension of foreign policy and diplomatic competition – an instrument of power and war. In Gaza, humanitarian assistance is being manipulated to serve political and military objectives, another breach among many in this war”.
‘We are witnessing a living nightmare in Gaza’: UN The UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory has made this statement as the world marks 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1 of this pledge states “all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights”.
To give life to the Universal Declaration in Palestine, we need an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and, ultimately, an end to the occupation, guarantee the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, and provide justice and equality for the peoples of both Palestine and Israel…
Those who do not die under the bombs are at risk of dying from hunger, thirst and disease.”
Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank are being subjected to a disturbing increase in arrests, ill-treatment, extreme movement restrictions, state and settler violence and displacement in what was already, prior to 7 October, the deadliest year on record.
Prominent Jewish American journalist writes “the Jewish establishment has been consigned to the role of supporting genocide, and it has accepted that role eagerly in all its expressions and activities.”
Tony Blinken, who became secretary of state by invoking his father’s surviving the Holocaust, has stood up again and again for Israeli massacres, while saying that he has asked Israel to do better…
A triumph of censorship of critics of Israel… the resignations at Penn were fostered by donor threats….. This is a naked expression of the power of the Israel lobby to enforce Zionist orthodoxy in official life…
From Ha’aretz: More Than 1 Million Americans Participated in 2,600 Protests Since Hamas-Israel War Began on Oct 7: According to a recent research, most rallies in solidarity with Israel were concentrated in the first week that followed the Hamas terror attack on October 7, whereas actions in solidarity with Gaza, which have drawn significantly larger crowds, continue to spread across the country.
“We’re fairly confident at this point that this year’s pro-Palestinian wave is the largest and broadest pro-Palestinian mobilization in U.S. history,” said Jay Ulfeder, the Nonviolent Action Lab research project manager, who shared the data at an online press briefing.
According to the data presented, elected officials were far more likely to participate in pro-Israel events than pro-Palestinian events. Nearly 25 percent of the pro-Israel events included elected officials, often state governors and U.S. senators, whereas fewer than 2 percent of the pro-Palestinian protests included elected officials, the highest-ranking being congressional representatives.
U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians in its war on Sunday, as Israeli tanks fought their way into the main city of the southern Gaza Strip.
Two days after the United States vetoed a proposed UN demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, Blinken said Israel needs to put “a premium” on protecting Gaza civilians and making sure humanitarian assistance can reach those who need it.
“The critical thing is to make sure that the military operations are designed around civilian protection,” Blinken told CNN’s State of the Union program. “I think the intent is there. But the results are not always manifesting themselves,” he said.
Higher education under fire: University of Pennsylvania President Elizabeth Magill resigned on Saturday after pro-Israel backlash against her testimony at a congressional hearing on the rising anti-Semitism on university campuses.
Julie Platt, chair of the Jewish Federations of North America, has taken the reins of Penn’s board of trustees, following the resignations of President Magill and board chair Scott Bok. Platt is part of The 10/7 Project, a “new centralized communications operation to promote continued US bipartisan support for Israel.”
Hundreds of Harvard faculty are now defending President Claudine Gay from similar pressures after she was also subjected to questioning on the anti-Semitism row during an appearance before a US House committee hearing last week.
Their petition warns that bowing to political pressure to fire Harvard President Claudine Gay would be “at odds with Harvard’s commitment to academic freedom” and calls on administrators to “defend the independence of the university”.
I was asked today by a journalist if we received a response from the white house to the letter we sent from the churches in Bethlehem asking for a ceasefire. I answered that the response was the veto vote in the UN. They celebrate Christmas in their land, and wage war in our land
— Munther Isaac منذر اسحق (@MuntherIsaac) December 10, 2023
🚨IOF has invaded the area near the UNRWA clinic in the midest of the Jabalia camp, where the PRCS EMS teams 🚑operate an advanced medical post. The team consists of 9 doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The surrounding area is currently under bombardment, posing a constant threat… pic.twitter.com/JcFpL1IRRS
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) December 10, 2023
Statistics as of Dec. 10:
Palestinian death toll: OCHA reports at least 17,799* (~17,526 in Gaza* (6,121 women and 7,870 children), and at least 273 in the West Bank). This does not include an estimated 7,780 more still buried under rubble. Euro-Med Monitor reports 20,360 Palestinian deaths.
*IAK does not yet include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation. Israel killed more Palestinians in a little over a month after Oct. 7 than in all the previous 22 years combined.
Palestinian injuries: 52,731** (including at least 51,300 in Gaza** and 3,431 in the West Bank). **NOTE: it is impossible to provide an accurate number of injuries in Gaza due to the ongoing bombardment and communication disruption.
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. in Gaza**. About 1.9 million people have been displaced (about 85% of the population).
Reported Israeli death toll ~1,147 (7 killed in West Bank, 98 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 5,431 injured, approximately 36 children).
NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
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