Gaza’s orphans; famine in the offing; the school and housing crises; NYT’s “investigation” into rape allegations falls short; free speech takes a hit in Berlin; Biden claims 2023 “accomplishments” include supporting Israel, longtime investigative journalist James Bamford exposes secretive operation
A piece in The Times entitled “Children eat rotten food, adults hunt cats: famine is coming for Gaza” describes the desperate situation facing the Gaza Strip, where evacuation and airstrikes are now being joined by severe food shortages:
In the wasteland of al-Mawasi encampment in Gaza, hunger is everywhere. It is in the handfuls of dirty flour that mothers try to knead to make bread for their children. It is in the fires, stoked with plastic bottles, which produce nothing but choking black smoke. It is in the children who no longer play but lie around, exhausted. It is in food that is rotten and makes you sick but is eaten just the same. It is in Camellia Subeh’s breast, which no longer produces milk for her baby son.
“My other sons keep saying, ‘Mum, I’m dizzy, I have a headache,” said the mother of five, sitting outside a shelter she built on the mud from scraps of plastic and wood.
Subeh and her children left their home in northern Gaza weeks ago on the instructions of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), which dropped leaflets telling people in their area to come here, to three square miles of rubbish-strewn dunes and pockmarked fields with no tents, food, water supply or any infrastructure to support the displaced.
The IDF says this is a safe area. Perhaps it is safe from the bombs that have destroyed Gaza’s cities and towns. But not from hunger, diseases or thirst that will kill just the same as a bullet will. “This place is like a desert, all sand,” Subeh said. “We are so tired.”
The Palestinian death toll in the Gaza Strip after nearly three months of war stands at 21,672, with more than 55,000 wounded, the territory’s health ministry said on Saturday. Now Gaza also faces famine. That is the bald assessment of the integrated food security phase classification (IPC) initiative, a UN-backed body that sets the international standard that determines the severity of food crises.
The IPC estimated…that quarter [of Gazans] face “catastrophic conditions”, the highest level of food insecurity, where there is an “extreme lack of food, starvation and exhaustion of coping capacities”.
This, the IPC believes, is likely to lead to famine in several areas in the north and center of Gaza by February.
The feminist organization Speak Up published a piece slamming the New York Times’ “disgraceful ‘investigation‘” into rape allegations against Hamas members on October 7th, declaring that the so-called investigation “weaponiz[es] sexual violence against women for occupation propaganda:
This report, allegedly detailing the events and claiming to “verify” incidents of rape, spans over 3500 words. However, it fails to present any concrete evidence or include accounts from the alleged victims.
The article goes on to detail 12 reasons why the report is unreliable, including the absence of direct victim testimonies or involvement in the investigation and failure to provide evidence. “[A]s of now,” the article states, “there are no direct allegations from any woman claiming she experienced sexual violence on October 7th, and there is no evidence to support the occupation’s allegations.”
The conclusion: “The Times’ discreditable report and its exploitation of women’s bodies and struggles [is being used] as a means to fabricate assault incidents and push propaganda for an unlawful occupation, thereby abetting the genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: Corpses violated in Gaza: Dead bodies protected by Geneva Convention
Gaza’s hospitals are filling with lone orphans, and the numbers are mounting fast. More than 8,200 children have been killed by Israeli air strikes and invading forces since the war began on October 7. Many more have been injured and most are deeply traumatized. Some have lost both parents – in some cases, all of their relatives have been killed. The medical professionals left to care for them in the aftermath have no idea what to do with them – there is simply nowhere for them to go.
A growing proportion of those being brought to hospitals following air strikes and assaults are children, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to care for them.
Administering high doses of painkillers has become the only option to keep frightened, lonely children in a great deal of pain quiet, but it is far from ideal. In a lot of cases, there is no suitable medication available for children, so they are given adult doses rather than nothing at all. Doctors worry about the future health implications of this.
Read about 9-year-old Rezan, baby Hassan who was rescued at only 5 days old, and 7-year-old Motaz here.
A New York Times investigation entitled, “Where Was the Israeli Military?” reveals that on October 7th, Israel’s military was undermanned, out of position, and so poorly organized that soldiers communicated in impromptu WhatsApp groups and relied on social media posts for targeting information. Commandos rushed into battle armed only for brief combat. Helicopter pilots were ordered to look to news reports and Telegram channels to choose targets. “The soldiers that day made it up as they went along,” the Times found.
And perhaps most damning: The Israel Defense Forces did not even have a plan to respond to a large-scale Hamas attack on Israeli soil, according to current and former soldiers and officers. (Read the full article, without paywall, here.)
Electronic Intifada reports: Israeli violence denies Gaza’s children the basic right to education. Nedaa Zaki, an English-language teacher, mourns not only the loss of classrooms but the irreparable damage to dreams. “Before, their greatest wish was to get a perfect score in their tests. Now, they think about how to survive death and displacement.”
The disruption of education will have consequences for decades. Even if the war were to end tomorrow, trauma and the gaping holes in the education infrastructure would cast a long, daunting shadow over Gaza’s children. The urgency of the situation cannot be overstated. The level of violence has rendered any form of education impossible, plunging an entire generation into the depths of uncertainty and despair. (Read the full article here.)
RECOMMENDED READING: Pro-Palestine campaigners call for Gaza ceasefire on New Year’s Eve
More than 200 educational staff have been killed. Hundreds more have been injured. (photo)
Mondoweiss reports: Ethnic cleansing or “transfer” is an intrinsic part of Zionism’s early history, and has remained an essential feature of Israeli political life. More recently, “transfer” has been mainstreamed by billing it as encouraging “voluntary emigration.” Senior Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, are again publicly advocating the ethnic cleansing of the Gaza Strip.
Their proposals are being presented as voluntary emigration schemes, in which Israel is merely playing the role of Good Samaritan, selflessly mediating with foreign governments to find new homes for destitute and desperate Palestinians. But it is ethnic cleansing all the same. (Read the full article here.)
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken approves sale of high explosive artillery shells to Israel
Israeli air strike kills a Gaza university president and his family: Said Alzebda, president of the University College of Applied Sciences in Gaza, was killed along with his wife and children, the Health Ministry says.
Former Palestinian clergyman killed in Israeli air strike: Sheikh Yousef Salameh served as minister of religious affairs in 2005-2006 and was a former Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher.
The Wall Street Journal reports that About 300,000 out of 439,000 homes in Gaza have been destroyed in Israeli attacks, Analyzing satellite imagery, the report added that the 29,000 bombs dropped on the strip have targeted residential areas, Byzantine churches, hospitals and shopping malls, and all civilian infrastructure has been damaged to an extent that they cannot be repaired.
“The word ‘Gaza’ is going to go down in history along with Dresden [Germany] and other famous cities that have been bombed,” Robert Pape, a political scientist at the University of Chicago who has written about the history of aerial bombing, told WSJ.
“Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” said Pape. “It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.”
RECOMMENDED READING: Israeli bombardment destroyed over 70% of Gaza homes
The Guardian: “An escalation [in the Lebanon-Israel-Houthi violence] could spark a conflagration that would bring Israel into open confrontation with Iran, and suck in the US too”
“If a US warship is struck, Joe Biden would be under intense pressure to deliver a decisive response, as he enters an election year with his tenure hanging in the balance…Former Israeli prime minister, Naftali Bennett: “The US and Israel must set the clear goal of bringing down Iran.” [Israel could end the violence by stopping its assault on Gaza and agreeing to a ceasefire, something most of the world has been calling for.]
In a post on X, the White House has laid out a series of actions it says it has accomplished in 2023, including strengthening “democracy at home and abroad,” including standing up for “our allies and partners in Israel.”
However, Americans have made it clear to the president and Congress that they disapprove of his Israel policy.
Israeli Forces shoot two Palestinians in Jericho, Including a 10-year-old; Israeli Forces Kill a Palestinian Near Hebron
Berlin police on Saturday banned a planned pro-Palestine “no celebration during genocide” march on New Year’s eve in the German capital, citing the “imminent danger” that there could be antisemitic slogans and glorification of violence.
This is one more of many episodes of restrictions on free speech that censors criticism of Israel in the name of so-called antisemitism, and mischaracterizes pro-Palestine slogans as calls for the genocide of Jews.
RECOMMENDED READING: International campaign is criminalizing criticism of Israel as ‘antisemitism’
Longtime investigative journalist James Bamford exposes a shadowy pro-Israel group
Canary Mission publishes the photos and personal details of students who take part in Palestinian advocacy on U.S. colleges, branding them antisemites and often damaging their career prospects. The operation has direct links to the Israeli government – wealthy Americans who fund the effort could be breaking the law by acting as agents of a foreign power. “The purpose is to blacklist and dox students, professors, and largely anybody who disagrees with Israel or is pro-Palestinian,” Bamford tells Democracy Now!
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – DECEMBER 30:
Palestinian death toll since October 7: at least 21,350* (~21,351 in Gaza* (at least 8,800 children), and at least 319 in the West Bank, about 77 of them children). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 30,034 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.
Palestinian injuries since October 7: at least 58,665** (including at least 56,451 in Gaza** and 3,805 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 85-90% of the population).
Reported Israeli death toll since October 7: ~1,139 (7 killed in West Bank, 170 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 8,730 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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