“Death is the only certainty” in Gaza – Day 318

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“Death is the only certainty” in Gaza – Day 318
An Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah market Tuesday killed at least nine Palestinians in Gaza (screengrab)

Compilation of news reports by IAK staff 

Death ‘the only certainty’ for Gazans, says UN official

The New Arab reports:

In war-ravaged Gaza, death appears to be the “only certainty” for 2.4 million Palestinians with no way to escape Israel’s relentless bombardment, a UN official said Tuesday, recounting the growing desperation across the territory.

“It does feel like people are waiting for death. Death seems to be the only certainty in this situation,” Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, also known as UNRWA, told AFP from Gaza.

For the past two weeks, Wateridge has been in the Gaza Strip, witnessing the humanitarian crisis, fear of death and spread of disease as the war rages on.

“Nowhere in the Gaza Strip is safe, absolutely nowhere is safe. It’s absolutely devastating,” Wateridge said from the Nuseirat area of central Gaza — a regular target of Israel’s aerial assaults.

Relatives of Palestinian children, who lost their lives following the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency]
Relatives of Palestinian children, who lost their lives following the Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp, mourn as the bodies are brought to al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on August 10, 2024. [Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency] (photo)

Some Israeli attacks on Gaza, Tuesday

Andalou Agency reports: 

At least nine Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a crowded marketplace and designated “safe zone” in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah on Tuesday, a medical source said.

The targeted area was classified by the Israeli army as a “civilian safe zone” amid Tel Aviv’s ongoing offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The attack came shortly after at least 12 people were killed in an Israeli strike on a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City on Tuesday.

At least 4 Palestinians were killed in Khan Younis when Israeli forces targeted a point for internet and charging. Many more were wounded.

At least 12 people were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli attack Tuesday on the Mustafa Hafez school that sheltered hundreds, the Civil Defense Agency said.

A Palestinian journalist was killed in the attack, bringing the overall death toll since last Oct. 7 to 170, local authorities said. Gaza’s government media office identified the new victim as Hamza Mourtaja.

Gaza Health Ministry says still waiting for polio vaccines

Al Jazeera reports:

The ministry says in a statement that it is still awaiting vaccines for a UN-backed mass-vaccination campaign after Gaza recorded its first polio case last week.

“In order to reach every child, we need safe conditions, and this requires a ceasefire during the campaign,” the statement reads, echoing comments from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“It is impossible to conduct a polio vaccination campaign with war raging all over,” Guterres told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York on August 16.

After Israel destroyed Gaza's water and sewage systems, filthy water runs or stands stagnant all over the enclave, carrying polio and other diseases.
After Israel destroyed Gaza’s water and sewage systems, filthy water runs or stands stagnant all over the enclave, carrying polio and other diseases. (collage)

Israeli media says captives killed by Israeli military attack

Andalou Agency reports:

An initial assessment of the deaths of six hostages, whose bodies were recovered from Gaza by Israeli forces on Tuesday, suggests that they died of suffocation caused by a gas leak in a tunnel during an Israeli army attack.

According to the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, the hostages, who were taken from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, appear to have died of suffocation in the tunnel where they were being held.

Their deaths are attributed to the result of an Israeli military strike, the daily said, without revealing the source of this assessment.

The newspaper claimed that the incident occurred about six months ago during an Israeli military attack in Khan Younis by the 98th Division.

Evidence collected from the scene late Monday and Tuesday supported this preliminary assessment, which is still being investigated, it said.

The report claimed that the army did not target the tunnel directly where the hostages were held but rather hit a Hamas target nearby, resulting in a fire and the subsequent release of lethal carbon dioxide gas inside the tunnel.

The bodies were returned to Israel, and 109 captives remain in captivity.

NOTE: Israel is currently holding over 9,900 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 250 of them are children, 86 are women, and about 3,400 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.

Israeli settlers want to ‘build new settlements in Jordan’

Palestinian journalist Younis Tirawi tweeted:

As Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians, their land and property continue to increase in the occupied West Bank, some settlers are eyeing land in Jordan.

“Join today to build new settlements” on the “eastern” bank of the Jordan River, reads this sticker on an Israeli bus stop near an illegal outpost in the Jordan Valley, where Palestinian structures have been increasingly attacked, including today.

‘Systematic torture’ of Palestinians at Israel’s Ofer Prison

Al Jazeera reports:

Palestinians being held in Israel’s Ofer Prison face “systematic torture and humiliation”, alleges the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society, citing inmates’ testimonies.

The abuse at this prison is on par with that documented at Israel’s Sde Teiman facility, which has been rocked by allegations its guards raped a Palestinian inmate.

Since October 7, Israel has carried out more than 10,200 arrests in the occupied West Bank and hundreds more in Gaza, often keeping prisoners in custody without charge.

Many of the detainees from Gaza are being held at Ofer Prison, according to the society. In late July, eight of those released from the facility said they experienced torture.

RECOMMENDED READING: Welcome to Hell

 

Doctors who returned from Gaza urge US to impose immediate arms embargo on Israel

Andalou Agency reports:

About a half-dozen doctors who recently returned from providing medical care in the devastated Gaza Strip urged the Biden administration Tuesday to impose an immediate arms embargo on Israel.

Speaking on the sidelines of the ongoing Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, Dr. Tammy Abughanim said the result of Israel’s over 10-month war “has been to make life literally impossible for a civilian in Gaza right now.”

“When I say we cannot afford one more day of this, and when they tell me we cannot afford one more day of this, it is quite literally true,” Abughanim said. “We cannot do our jobs, because Israel has made our jobs impossible, and Israel has made our jobs impossible with the direct support of the United States,” the Chicago-area emergency medicine specialist added.

The sentiment was repeatedly echoed by Abughanim’s fellow physicians, who described horrors whose extent they acknowledged could not be fully conveyed.

(Read the full article here.)

Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9.
Aftermath of an Israeli bombing of a tent near the al-Mazra’a School, east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, August 9. (screengrab)

Democratic Party Unites Under Banner of Silence on Gaza Genocide

The Intercept reports:

As Biden spoke Monday night, one small group of audience members silently unfurled a white banner, which read “Stop Arming Israel.” Zeteo’s Prem Thakker reported from Chicago’s United Center that chants of “We Love Joe” from surrounding spectators grew louder. “Stadium lights over this spot then dimmed and [the] banner was ripped away,” wrote Thakker on X.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez claimed, “Kamala is working tirelessly for a ceasefire” – but since Harris accepted the presidential nomination, the administration approved a $20 billion weapons sale to Israel, without any conditions.

In his speech, President Biden nodded to the protests: “Those protesters out in the street, they have a point. A lot of innocent people are being killed on both sides” – but the demonstrations are not about innocent people on “both sides” being killed. They are part of an international struggle against the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians by the U.S.-backed Israeli military.

As of now, the Democratic Party’s 92-page platform has no mention of conditioning weapons provisions to Israel, let alone the arms embargo called for by Uncommitted delegates and the 200-plus groups in the Coalition to March on the DNC.

Social media is silencing popular pro-Palestine individuals and organizations

The Cradle reports:

Syrian-British journalist and vocal critic of Israel Richard Medhurst was arrested and held for 24 hours upon his arrival at Heathrow Airport earlier this month, he announced on 20 August.

Medhurst stated via social media that six police officers were waiting for him as he exited his plane in London on 15 August, adding that he was questioned under the Terrorism Act, Section 12.

“I believe I’m the first journalist to be arrested under this provision of the Terrorism Act. I feel that this is a political persecution and hampers my ability to work as a journalist,” Medhurst explained.

On 7 August, the FBI raided the home of US journalist and former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter, who contributes to RT and is harshly critical of US policy in Ukraine and Israel.

The raid on Ritter’s home came 24 hours after he stated in an interview with Judge Andrew Napolitano that religious Jewish Israelis were citing the Talmud to justify sodomizing and torturing Palestinian detainees at the notorious Sde Teiman detention camp.

On 16 August, Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta permanently banned The Cradle from its social media platforms for allegedly violating community guidelines by “praising terrorist organizations” and engaging in “incitement to violence.”

“No one can see or find your account, and you can’t use it. All your information will be permanently deleted,” reads the message accompanying the ban on Instagram, where The Cradle had surpassed 107,000 followers and amassed millions of views.

On 20 August, Elon Musk banned popular Egyptian comedian Bassef Yousef’s account on X.

Yousef has a large following and has appeared on multiple mainstream media outlets, speaking out against Israeli atrocities in Gaza and support of Palestinians.

Demolitions intended to drive Palestinians from Jerusalem: Israeli group

Ir Amim is a Jerusalem-focused Israeli rights group.

Illegal settler violence in West Bank provoked biggest ‘forcible transfer’ since last October: Rights group

Andalou Agency reports:

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) issued a statement calling on the international community to “intervene and protect Palestinian communities” from Israeli settler violence, highlighting the “largest forcible transfer” of Palestinians in the West Bank since October 2023.

Three communities of 119 Palestinians were forced out of their homes in recent days due to settler attacks, and two other communities were totally emptied, the NRC said.

Israeli authorities, “as the occupying power,” are directly responsible “for the actions of violent settlers” that are also committed under Israeli military protection, according to Allegra Pacheco, chief of party of the NRC-led West Bank Protection Consortium.

“Palestinians are being forced to leave their land in what clearly constitutes a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” the NRC statement said.

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.
Some settler groups, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.
In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on August 17, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency]
A group of Jewish settlers under the protection of Israeli soldiers raids the Old City area of Hebron, West Bank on August 17, 2024. [Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency] (Wisam Hashlamoun – Anadolu Agency)

Blinken Wants To Sell Us a Bridge

Eunomia reports:

Blinken is selling a bridge to nowhere:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that Israel has accepted a proposal to bridge gaps in ceasefire negotiations and the next step is for Hamas to accept ahead of further negotiations expected to take place later this week.

US Secy of State Antony Blinken
US Secy of State Antony Blinken (photo)

The so-called bridging proposal is not a serious effort to secure a ceasefire. The only gap that it closes is between the Biden administration and the Netanyahu government, and it does this by including even more conditions from the Israeli side that Hamas won’t accept.

Netanyahu agreed to the new proposal only because he knew that Hamas wouldn’t.

The theater of Blinken’s bridge is meant to give Netanyahu political cover and to delay Iranian retaliation for the attack in Tehran. The administration keeps running the same play so that it can claim to be working to end the war while doing nothing to pressure the Israeli government to end it.

Meanwhile, U.S. arms transfers continue without interruption while Washington pretends that Netanyahu isn’t the chief obstacle to peace.

As many critics of U.S. policy have said, the administration has made ceasefire negotiations into a new hollow “peace process.” In such a process, the negotiations go on indefinitely while the Israeli government keeps establishing new facts on the ground. Because the U.S. will not put any meaningful pressure on Netanyahu, he has no reason to change course. He sees that the administration is still eager to go out of its way to accommodate him despite all the times he has humiliated and defied them.

The Biden administration would probably like to claim that it has achieved something here during the week of the Democratic convention so they have something to boast about, but all they have done is reward Netanyahu for his intransigence and recklessness. A permanent ceasefire in Gaza is desperately needed for the sake of the millions of people being deliberately starved, but Blinken’s proposal doesn’t get us any closer to it.

(Read the full article here.)

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.
Common Dreams: ‘Complicity in War Crimes’: Report Names Countries, Companies Supplying Fuel to Israel

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 20:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 20, 2024: at least 40,859* (40,223 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [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 – and at least 636 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “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 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

      • At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
      • At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
      • About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
      • Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 20: at least 98,401 (including at least 92,981 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 20, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

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. 

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 53 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.

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

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