Milestone in Israeli war on Gaza: 15,694 kids killed, 17,000 without parents – Day 250

The Government Media Office has released statistics to mark the 250th day of Israel’s war on Gaza. Here are some of what it reported:

• • 37,202 people in Gaza have been documented as killed, and another 10,000 people are missing.
  • 15,694 children have been killed (of which 7,797 have been definitively identified).
  • 33 people have died due to famine.
  • 498 medical staff have been killed.
  • 150 journalists have been killed.
  • 70 percent of the victims are women and children.
  • 17,000 children are living without either or with only one of their parents.
  • 5,000 people from Gaza have been detained.
  • 79,000 tonnes of explosives have been dropped by Israeli forces.
  • 206 archaeological and heritage sites have been destroyed.
  • Initial losses from the destruction are estimated at $33bn.

Gaza’s Health Ministry latest figures:

• • 71,338 Palestinians have viral hepatitis infections due to displacement.
  • 60,000 pregnant women are in danger of losing their babies because of a lack of healthcare.
  • 350,000 chronic patients are at risk due to lack of medication.

A direct consequence of the war in #Gaza: children can spend 6-8 hours a day collecting water & food, often carrying heavy weights & walking long distances.

Children are losing their childhood because of this war. This needs to stop now.#WorldDayAgainstChildLabour#CeasefireNow pic.twitter.com/nc7HoydXSk

— UNRWA (@UNRWA) June 12, 2024

Health Ministry calls for fuel to operate generators:

Confusion abounds as US continues to say Israel accepts ceasefire proposal:

Al Jazeera reports: The US government has continued to paint the Israeli government as accepting Biden’s three-phase plan.

This is not necessarily so, given the fact that a number of government members in Israel have threatened to resign should the plan be adopted and put in place.

So certainly, there’s a degree of confusion about this, whereas, initially, the plan was actually posted as that coming from the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This also apparently does not appear to be the case.

So the interests of reaching a resolution are not really served by the US continuing to insist that one of the parties to the negotiations has accepted the peace plan. This clearly is not the case, and this may well continue to confuse the issue.

Also, Hamas says in a statement it has shown “full positivity” in efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement with Israel.

The Palestinian group also urged the US, Israel’s biggest ally, to pressure Israel to accept a deal leading to a permanent ceasefire in the enclave.

Hamas said that while US officials have said Israel has accepted a ceasefire proposal outlined by President Joe Biden on May 31, “we have not heard any Israeli official confirm this acceptance”.

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Israel expanding policy of withholding Palestinian bodies to use them as bargaining chips – Adalah:

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli government has informed the Supreme Court that it will continue withholding the body of Walid Daqqa, a Palestinian citizen of Israel who died in prison, the human rights group Adalah says, slamming what it describes as Israel’s “longstanding policy of withholding Palestinian bodies in order to use them as bargaining chips”.

The government submitted an update to the court ahead of Thursday’s hearing on a petition filed on behalf of Daqqa’s family by Adalah.

Daqqa’s body has been withheld since he died of cancer on April 7.

“Military orders are [now] being used to detain the bodies of Palestinian citizens for political purposes, illustrating that citizenship does not shield Palestinians from Israeli oppression. Israel is denying Palestinians the right to bury their deceased promptly and with dignity,” Adalah said in a statement.

“This policy not only contravenes international law, but exposes yet again Israel’s system of subjugation and repression of Palestinians, both in life and death.”

Since October 7, the police have released the bodies of two Palestinian citizens of Israel after Adalah petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of the families of the deceased.

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Jewish settler shoots Four Palestinians in Jerusalem’s Old City; police protect shooter:

A Jewish settler armed with a rifle shot and seriously injured a Palestinian youth in the old city of occupied East Jerusalem, the Quds News Network (QNN) reported.

According to Israeli media reports, the shooter was an “off-duty Israeli soldier” who also injured three other Palestinians in the incident on Wednesday.

In footage shared by QNN, at least two men in white t-shirts are seen with rifles in hand, as Israeli police rush upon the scene. The shot youth is seen on the ground as bystanders attend to him.

Watch | An Israeli settler armed with a rifle shot a Palestinian man in the old city of Jerusalem. Israeli forces rushed to the scene to protect the assailant instead of aiding the injured Palestinian as he bled. pic.twitter.com/VAtRRnmAom

— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) June 12, 2024

UNOCHA weekly update on West Bank – 13 Palestinians killed, settler violence, property demolition:

During the reporting period (June 4-10), Israeli forces shot and killed 13 Palestinians, 11 of whom were killed in operations in refugee camps and villages. In addition, 75 Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces. In total, since October 7th, Israeli forces and/or settlers have killed at least 545 Palestinians in the West Bank.

During the reporting period, Israeli settlers perpetrated 13 attacks that resulted in the injury of 15 Palestinians and damage to Palestinian property, including the vandalism of trees, saplings and crops. Between 7 October 2023 and 10 June 2024, OCHA recorded 968 settler attacks against Palestinians.

During the reporting period, Israeli authorities demolished or forced Palestinian owners to demolish 50 Palestinian-owned structures due to the lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 88 people, including 43 children.

Since 7 October 2023 and until 10 June 2024, the Israeli authorities demolished, confiscated, or forced Palestinian owners to demolish 990 Palestinian-owned structures, of which 34 per cent (366 structures) were inhabited homes displacing, 2,155 people, including 1,036 children.

U.S. scrambling to prevent Israel-Hezbollah war amid Gaza ceasefire push:

Axios reports: The Biden administration has grown extremely concerned that escalating violence between Israel and Hezbollah in recent days will deteriorate into an all-out war — and is scrambling to prevent it, according to U.S. officials.

Amid the highly sensitive push to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza, a full-blown war with the Lebanese militant group would dramatically exacerbate the regional crisis and draw the U.S. deeper into the conflict.

The Biden administration has cautioned Israel in recent weeks against the notion of “a limited war” in Lebanon — warning that Iran could intervene and flood Lebanon with pro-Iranian militants from Syria, Iraq and even Yemen who would want to join the fighting.

NOTE: Netanyahu has ignored almost all Biden administration recommendations thus far.

Why Did Israel Conceal Hundreds of Gazans’ Deaths in ‘Perfect’ Hostage Rescue Operation? – Gideon Levy (excerpts):

Ha’aretz reports: Nothing interests Israel anymore other than its sacrifice, the punishment it was subjected to, its suffering and courage. Recent days have provided definitive proof of this. Subsequently, there is no more room for questions about its moral sense. It’s gone.

The euphoria that erupted in Israel after the rescue last Saturday of the four hostages was justified, human, sweeping and very moving. The blindness that accompanied it attested to the demise of the national conscience.

On the day of the rescue operation alone, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, 274 people died in the Nuseirat refugee camp and another 698 were injured. The images of convoys of ambulances, private cars and donkey carts carrying hundreds of wounded people and corpses to the completely overwhelmed hospital in Deir al-Balah were among the most difficult of the war.

Israel chose to conceal them, to erase their memory, to deny their existence, as though if they are hidden and ignored they did not happen.

Israel wrapped itself in joy; this whole week, songs of praise – for the bold operation, which was indeed bold, for the bravery of the rescuing soldiers, who were indeed courageous, for the officer who was killed and for whom the operation will be named – have been on constant repeat, and with not a word about what else happened in Nuseirat in the course of the operation.

When Daphna Liel of Channel 12 News describes the operation as “perfect,” what does she mean? That 300 deaths are perfection? And if 1,000 people had been killed, would Liel still think that the operation was perfect? Would tens of thousands of dead bodies have crossed Liel’s line of perfection? What number would have been crossing the line for Israelis? Would 1,000 bombs dropped on Nuseirat have raised questions? It is very doubtful.

When the commander of the Border Police, Maj. Gen. Itzhak Brik – the hero of the hour, whose forces rescued the hostages – says they carried out a “surgical” operation and were driven by “values,” what is he referring to? What would killing people in a manner not driven by values look like? Are 300 dead people a “surgical” operation? What would genocidal killing look like?

When no one says differently or corrects such statements, when no one expresses reservations or even adds an asterisk so as not to mar the joy of the masses on the country’s beaches, something is very sick here.

A society that ignores, so blatantly the price paid by tens of thousands of people, with their lives, bodies, souls and property, for the rescue of four of its hostages and for a moment of joy for its members, is a society that is missing something vital. It is a society that has lost its conscience.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Consider the possibility that Israel lost its conscience long before October 7th – that Zionism itself lacks a moral compass.

MORE NEWS:

Al Jazeera: Nuseirat, anatomy of Israel’s massacre in Gaza.

Electronic Intifada: Israel’s desert torture camp faces legal challenge.

Palestine Chronicle: Unprecedented in Modern History – After Gaza, what?

IMEMC Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 12:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 12: at least 37,747* (37,202 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 545 in the West Bank (~134 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 12: at least 90,132 (including at least 84,932 in Gaza and 5,200 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – June 12: ~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.

• Gaza: Civil ICC case against Ursula von der Leyen raises stakes on genocide complicity.
• Inside the Base Where Israel Has Detained Thousands of Gazans.
• Massie: Politicians have an “AIPAC guy” (who tells them what to do).
• The Genocide in Israeli Prisons.
• Palestinians massacred in “rescue” operation lauded by US.
• Israel secretly targets US lawmakers with influence campaign on Gaza war.
• Israel accused of releasing Palestinian detainee with amputated legs to evade treatment.
• Biden policies: rudderless, incompetent, and complicit.
• CYABRA: the intelligence cutout waging Israel’s online propaganda war.
• How Israeli prison doctors assist in the torture of Palestinian detainees. 
• American media keep citing Zaka – though its October 7 atrocity stories are discredited in Israel.
• “Laws of War” Biden-Blinken style.
• Spying and threats: Israel spent 9 years trying to keep the ICC of the trail of Israel’s war crimes.
• Norman Finkelstein blows whistle on “Jewish Supremacists,” Israel lobby.
• Israel, the ICC, and the disintegration of our species.
• Gaza’s stolen healers: hundreds of Palestinian doctors disappeared into Israeli detention. 
• German foreign minister says she saw nonexistent October 7th rape video.
• Hostages of Israeli revenge in the Gaza Strip: testimonies of 100 releast Palestinian detainees reveal crimes of torture, cruel treatment.
• Israel’s national murder-suicide pact: internalizing the “Hannibal Directive.”
• How Israel twists antisemitism claims to project its own crimes onto Palestinians.
• Long History of Jewish dissent over Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.
• The right of return to free Palestine.
• Unpacking the Israeli campaign to deny the Gaza genocide. 
• October 7th – the lies in brief.