Enough food is waiting across Gaza’s borders to feed entire population – Day 142

Injuries surpass 70,000; famine while food is almost within reach; babies, children die of malnutrition; West Bank government resigns, seeks a new, consensus government for the “new reality”; burning books to keep warm; update on Hind, 6; Palestinian Bedouin under attack; active-duty US airman self-immolates in front of Israeli embassy in Washington DC, more

By IAK staff, from reports

Middle East Eye reports: “We have enough food across the borders, even from Jordan and Egypt, to be able to support 2.2 million people,” said Samer Abdeljaber, the World Food Program’s (WFP) director for emergencies.

“But we need to make sure we have the right access to Gaza from different crossings so that we can actually reach the people – whether they are in the north or the south or in the central areas,” added Abdeljaber.

He noted that the WFP hoped to specifically resume operations in the north of Gaza, where it has had to suspend work due to the unsafe conditions but where there are “lots of people in need”.

“Safe routes is one of our requirements to continue assistance to the north and that can only be guaranteed if that is a speedy process,” Abdeljaber said. “Delays at the checkpoints are making it impossible for us to reach deeper into the north.”

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says the last time food was delivered to northern Gaza was January 23. Since then, together with other UN agencies, “we have warned against looming famine, appealed for regular humanitarian access, and stated that famine can be averted if more food convoys are allowed into northern Gaza on a regular basis.”

Lazzarini says that the UN’s calls to send food aid have been denied and fallen on deaf ears.

“This is a man made disaster. The world committed to never let famine happen again. Famine can still be avoided, through genuine political will to grant access and protection to meaningful assistance. The days to come will once again test our common humanity and values,” he said.

Al Jazeera reports: A two-month-old Palestinian boy has died from starvation in northern Gaza, according to media reports, days after the United Nations warned of an “explosion” in child deaths due to Israel’s war on the besieged enclave.

The Shehab news agency said Mahmoud Fattouh died at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City on Friday.

Another report from Al Jazeera adds: Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, says the facility has seen a steep rise in malnutrition cases among children, especially newborns, in some cases due to malnutrition in the mother.

The hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip, has treated babies with advanced dehydration and other complications from malnutrition, he says.’

“Unfortunately many kids have died in the past weeks. If we don’t get the proper aid urgently, we will be losing more and more to malnutrition.”

BREAKING: WEST BANK – Al Jazeera reports: Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has announced the resignation of his government, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank, due to the escalating violence in the occupied territory and the war on Gaza.

“The decision to resign came in light of the unprecedented escalation in the West Bank and Jerusalem and the war, genocide and starvation in the Gaza Strip,” said Shtayyeh, who submitted his resignation to Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday.

“I see that the next stage and its challenges require new governmental and political arrangements that take into account the new reality in Gaza and the need for a Palestinian-Palestinian consensus based on Palestinian unity and the extension of unity of authority over the land of Palestine,” he said.

Shtayyeh’s comments come as US pressure grows on Abbas to shake up the PA and begin work on a political structure that can govern a Palestinian state following the war.

Read more of Shtayyeh’s statement here.

Al Jazeera reports: Displaced children sheltering in Deir el-Balah have told Al Jazeera the conditions are so bad they have to burn books to light fires for warmth.

“As you can see, we are now sitting in the school library we were displaced to, and instead of reading books, we burned them to light a fire for ourselves,” a young girl, Rahaf Hamad, told Al Jazeera.

Another girl, Julia Hamad, added: “We have been displaced more than once, lost our basic education, our food, and our books, and now we use books to light fires.”

UPDATE ON HIND RAJAB: Recall that in one of her final messages, six-year-old Palestinian girl Hind Rajab described an Israeli tank near the car where she was stranded, according to audio recordings released by the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS). Hind told rescuers that she was surrounded by family members killed by an Israeli attack on the vehicle (read her story here). Al Jazeera reports:

“An Al Jazeera investigation has shown three Israeli tanks around the car where a six-year-old girl was killed after hours of pleading for help.

” Israel’s army denied this on Saturday, saying its troops were not in the area on January 29, the day Hind Rajab and her family were killed.”

However, “Sanad, Al Jazeera’s investigations unit, analysed phone records and satellite imagery to prove that there were Israeli troops near the car belonging to Hind’s family that day…

“Al Jazeera’s analysis of satellite images taken at midday on January 29 corroborated Hind and Layan’s accounts, and put at least three Israeli tanks just 270m (886 feet) from the family’s car, with their guns pointed at it…” read more

Israel partisans often try to deny such incidents, as ABC reported on Feb. 21, 2024:

NOTE: Israeli human rights watchdog B’Tselem says: Accountability for human rights violations is crucial to justice and the rule of law. Israel shirks this responsibility when it comes to its actions in the Occupied Territories, instead putting in place systems which do no more than offer the semblance of law enforcement, in both criminal and civil law.

Those responsible go unpunished and victims are denied compensation, apart from rare exceptions that merely serve to reinforce the illusion of a functioning law enforcement system. Not only does the lack of deterrence and oversight enable human rights abuse, it also facilitates the continuation of the occupation itself.

Read more about Israeli lies here and here.

Al Jazeera reports: Photos and testimonies have documented the Israeli army’s targeting of two Palestinian sisters while they were searching for food inside agricultural land in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip.

The attack killed Hadeel Aghlais, whose body was transported on a towed cart. Her sister, Iman Aghlais, survived.

A child described that Hadeel was shot twice, in the heart and jaw, and noted that hunger forced the sisters to go to a dangerous area in order to get food.

“Even the donkey was injured, we are not guilty of all this, we want a solution,” the child, who witnessed the shooting, said.

WEST BANK – WAFA reports: A group of colonists forcefully entered a Bedouin community in the occupied West Bank and stole nearly 30 sheep belonging to a local resident, says Hassan Malehat, supervisor of the Baidar organization defending Bedouin rights.

Bedouin communities residing in the region east of the occupied West Bank heavily rely on livestock breeding and herding.

Statistics indicate that in 2023, Israeli occupation forces and settlers seized 43 agricultural tractors, 293 vehicles, and 296 sheep in similar attacks against Bedouin communities in the region.

Israeli settlements and settlers (or colonists) on Palestinian land are a violation of international law. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

Al Jazeera’s Ayman Nobani reports from Nablus, occupied West Bank: Abdel Salam Attari, director general of literature and publishing at the PA Ministry of Culture, says Israel has been deliberately targeting all forms of culture in the besieged coastal enclave.

“The occupation is destroying cultural life and creativity in Gaza, which is part of its policy of erasing Palestinian identity,” Attari tells Al Jazeera.

“The ferocity of attacks on Palestinian culture increased since October 7. Up until February 13, we have documented the killing of 44 writers and artists, in addition to the destruction of 32 cultural institutions, centers and theaters, as well as 12 museums, nine public libraries and eight publishing houses and printing presses.”

Attari adds that “Israel has been systematically targeting – with the aim to destroy – the Palestinian narrative. Cultural and social life has come to a near paralysis in both the West Bank and Gaza Strip.”

We recommend visiting the International Middle East Media Center (IMEMC) for more regional news.

The New York Post reports: “US Air Force member Aaron Bushnell made a chilling final Facebook post just before he burned himself to death outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, DC.

“Bushnell, 25, penned a Facebook post about standing against injustice early Sunday, before his horrific self-immolation while repeatedly crying out, “Free Palestine.”

“Many of us like to ask ourselves, ‘What would I do if I was alive during slavery? Or the Jim Crow South? Or apartheid? What would I do if my country was committing genocide?’” he asked in his post.

“The answer is, you’re doing it. Right now.”

The post — his first since April 2018 — included a link to a livestream video on Twitch that showed Bushnell setting himself alight while saying he “will no longer be complicit in genocide [in Gaza].”

The New York Times reports: that in December, a protester self-immolated in front of the Israeli consulate in Atlanta in what police said was “likely an extreme act of political protest.”

Pressure works. The @nytimes is investigating @Anatschwartz after she was called out for repeatedly shared genocidal posts. But they can’t undo the damage they’ve already done. https://t.co/ZdjFP6pzca

— Tariq Kenney-Shawa (@tksshawa) February 25, 2024

Why is China’s treatment of the Uighurs an obvious case of genocide and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians nothing of the sort? A question for Blinken: pic.twitter.com/xCZxT5VYqE https://t.co/xCZxT5VYqE

— John Hudson (@John_Hudson) February 24, 2024

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – FEBRUARY 25:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – February 25: at least 30,188* (29,782 in Gaza* (over 12,660 children, 8,570 women), and at least 406 in the West Bank (100 children). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 38,066 Palestinian deaths.

About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.

About 2.2 million are facing Crisis, Emergency, or Famine levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – February 25: at least 74,643** (including at least 70,043 in Gaza and 4,600 in the West Bank).

It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – February 25: ~1,387 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~574 were civilians, 373 or 337 were security and/or military forces, ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 240 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza;, 12 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

NBC reports: “According to the latest available IDF data… nearly 1 in 5, or 17%, of all Israel’s losses have come not at the hands of Hamas but from mishaps on its own side.”

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.

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

For more news, go here and here. Broadcast news from the region is here.

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• If you love babies, this is a must-read
• A wave of new post-Oct 7th “antisemitism” bills completely miss the point
• CNN staff say network’s pro-Israel slant amounts to ‘journalistic malpractice’
• Facts For Peace: the billionaire-backed campaign attacking the Palestinian cause
• Top military expert Col. Douglas MacGregor warns against attack on Iran (video)
• October 7th myths are still out there, killing Palestinians
• NYT: Where Is Hamas Getting Its Weapons? Increasingly, From Israel.
• 12 Essential Facts for Understanding the Current Israel-Gaza Violence
• Falk: Israel used Oct 7 attack as a pretext for its plan to expel Palestinians
• Synopsis of ICJ’s decision on Israeli genocide, reactions, and take-aways
• The West’s complete contempt for the lives of Palestinians will not be forgotten
• Israel has repeatedly rejected Hamas truce offers
• Why the Guardian’s ‘Hamas mass rape’ story doesn’t pass the sniff test
• Israel’s torture and humiliation of female and male Gazan prisoners
• Coverage of Gaza War in NYTimes & other major papers heavily favored Israel, analysis shows
• Two reports debunk New York Times ‘investigative report’ of mass rape on October 7th
• Israel’s Assault on Gaza Is Unlike Any War in Recent Memory
• US poised to give Israel $18 billion in aid this year
• Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace