At least 55 Palestinians were killed, and 166 were injured, in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Thursday.
- At least 28 Palestinians were killed Thursday in an Israeli airstrike on a school/shelter in Deir el-Balah; at least 54 others were wounded.
The Lebanese Health Ministry said Thursday 28 people were killed and 113 injured in the last 24 hours.
- Israel bombed a church and a civil defense center in the town of Dardaghya near Tyre, south Lebanon, killing at least 5 paramedics.
FLASHBACK: Gaza Genocide
DAY 5 (OCT 11, 2023) If Americans Knew wrote:
- Palestinian deaths have risen to 1,126 (1,100 in Gaza and 26 in West Bank), injuries 5,766 (5,339 in Gaza, 427 in West Bank). ONE YEAR LATER, PALESTINE’S DEATH TOLL STANDS AT 42,877 (at least 42,126 in Gaza and at least 751 in the West Bank
- At least 8,890 residential units have been damaged or destroyed. ONE YEAR LATER, 411,000 HOUSING UNITS ARE DAMAGED OR DESTROYED.
- For the fifth consecutive day, there has been no access to education for more than 600,000 children in Gaza. ONE YEAR LATER, GAZA’S CHILDREN HAVE ENTERED THEIR SECOND YEAR WITH NO EDUCATION.
Devastating Israeli airstrike on central Gaza school/shelter
Al Jazeera reports:
According to medical officials, 28 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a school in Deir el-Balah; at least 54 others were wounded. No warning was given before the attack.
Hospital officials say the vast majority of victims in the latest Israeli strike in central Deir el-Balah are women, children, and young men.
Without providing any evidence, the Israeli military claims that the school for displaced Palestinians that it attacked in Deir el-Balah was being used by Hamas fighters operating in the compound.
“Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions, aerial surveillance, and additional intelligence,” it said.
The Israeli military has hit dozens of schools sheltering civilians since the start of its war on Gaza, predominantly killing children and women in the attacks. Many of the schools run by the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have also been damaged or destroyed.
Israeli military enforces total blockade on northern Gaza, says civil defense official
Anadolu Agency reports:
The Israeli army has reportedly instituted a “complete siege” on the northern Gaza Strip, effectively cutting it off from Gaza City and neighboring areas. Armed drones and ground vehicles from the Israeli military are targeting anything that moves within these zones.
The Israeli army has reportedly damaged or destroyed most of the roads leading south from northern Gaza, rendering them “almost impossible” for passage. Since launching its ground offensive on Oct. 6, northern Gaza has endured over 100 aggressive strikes, with 50 occurring on the first day of the operation, killing more than 120 Palestinians.
The death toll is expected to rise, as many bodies remain uncollected on the roads due to ongoing hostilities.
Gaza home to largest number of amputee children in modern history: UN
Report to the United Nations Security Council:
Gaza is home to the largest number of amputee children in modern history, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Wednesday.
Director of the Financing and Partnerships Division of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Lisa Doughten, said women and children are hard-hit by the trauma of the war and each day ten children are losing one or both of their legs.
“Gaza is home to the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history,” she said, also noting that women there are three times more likely to miscarry or die from childbirth. “We cannot claim ignorance to what is happening — nor can we afford to look away,” she emphasized, repeating calls for the Council and Member States to act, adding: “These atrocities must end.”
Israel’s Blockade Bars World Food Program From Distributing Food “in Any Form” in North Gaza
Truthout reports:
The World Food Programme (WFP) has reported that it has been forced to suspend distribution of food parcels across all of Gaza, and food distribution “in any form” in north Gaza, as Palestinians across the region starve due to Israel’s humanitarian aid blockade.
The group said on Wednesday that aid entry into Gaza has hit its lowest point in months and that food distribution has been halted this month. “If the flow of assistance does not resume, one million vulnerable people will be deprived of this lifeline,” the group said in a statement. Commercial goods are also in short supply.
Worse, in northern Gaza — where Israeli forces have been carrying out a horrific raid with the seeming goal of eliminating every Palestinian in the region — the group said that it cannot distribute any type of food, with kitchens forced to shut down.
“With the main aid crossings into northern Gaza closed and WFP-partner kitchens forced to shut down, WFP is no longer able to distribute food in any form to families that desperately need it,” the group said.
In central and southern Gaza, the food crisis is also dire and “at a breaking point,” according to WFP. Some kitchens are still able to provide meals, the group said, but bakeries in southern Gaza are at risk of being forced to shut down within a week if supplies don’t enter soon.
Since Israeli forces took over the Rafah border crossing this spring, they have steadily been worsening their aid blockade on Gaza. In September, the number of aid trucks entering the region hit the lowest monthly average of the genocide, with only 53 trucks granted entry by Israeli forces each day on average — down from 500 truckloads each day before the genocide, which was already insufficient to maintain the health of the population.
UN inquiry accuses Israel of ‘extermination’ in Gaza
Al Jazeera reports:
United Nations investigators have accused Israel of deliberately targeting Gaza’s health facilities and killing medical personnel during its war on the besieged enclave.
A statement by ex-UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay released on Thursday in advance of a full report accused Israel of “committing war crimes and the crime against humanity of extermination with relentless and deliberate attacks on medical personnel and facilities” in its assault on Gaza.
The UN inquiry’s statement also accused Israeli forces of deliberately killing and torturing medical personnel, targeting medical vehicles and restricting patients from leaving Gaza.
The Commission of Inquiry has a broad mandate to collect evidence and identify suspected perpetrators of international crimes committed in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory. It bases its findings on a range of sources including interviews with victims and witnesses, submissions and satellite imagery.
UN peacekeepers in Lebanon says Israeli military repeatedly shelled its headquarters – a possible war crime
Various agencies report:
The Israeli military opened fire on UN peacekeepers and their facilities this week as part of its ground invasion of southern Lebanon, the latest example of Israel targeting UN workers amid its genocide.
The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has some 10,000 peacekeepers in south Lebanon, and are distinguishable by their blue helmets and white vehicles.
UNIFIL reported that Israeli forces fired at peacekeepers in three attacks on Wednesday and Thursday, as Israel’s recent escalation causes “widespread destruction” of southern Lebanon.
One of the attacks, in which an Israeli tank fired at an observation tower at UNIFIL’s headquarters, caused two peacekeepers to fall and sustain injuries.
Israeli forces also fired on the entrance to a bunker sheltering peacekeepers in Naqoura. Prior to the attack, Israeli forces had deliberately destroyed cameras in the area.
The Israeli army requested UNIFIL to evacuate its posts along the Israel-Lebanon border. an official told Israel’s Walla news site.
UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tanti said the countries contributing troops to the force have decided not to leave their positions.
The White House said Thursday it is “deeply concerned’ by Israel’s repeated attacks on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon after two members of the international force were injured by Israeli tank fire.
Italy’s defense minister Guido Crosetto added, “The hostile acts carried out and repeated by the Israeli forces could constitute war crimes.”
“These are extremely serious violations of the norms of international law, not justified by any military reason,” Crosetto noted, reported by Italian news agency, ANSA.
Crosetto said he told the Israeli ambassador that Italy “cannot take orders from the Israeli government.”
RECOMMENDED READING: Former White House advisor urges Israel to ‘carpet bomb’ Irish peacekeepers in Lebanon
West Bank: Israeli Army Assassinates Two Palestinians In Tulkarem
IMEMC reports:
On Thursday evening, the Israeli army assassinated two Palestinians after firing a missile at their vehicle from a drone, east of Tulkarem in the occupied West Bank’s northwestern part.
Medical sources said the two young men, Mohammad Ayad Mohammad Abdullah, 20, from Nur Shams refugee camp, and Awad Jamil Saqr Omar, 31, from Bal’a town, were killed in the drone strike on their car in the Jabal Al-Saleheen area between the Thannaba suburb and Nur Shams refugee camp.
Shortly after assassinating the two young men, several Israeli military vehicles invaded the area and took the corpses of the slain Palestinians before withdrawing.
Israel has now killed 751 Palestinians, including 164 children, in the occupied West Bank, since October 7, 2023.
UN reports Israeli-imposed water crisis in West Bank
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports:
Recurrent operations by Israeli forces since 7 October 2023, particularly in refugee camps in the northern West Bank, have caused massive infrastructural damage.
According to the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) cluster, operations by Israeli forces have entailed frequent bulldozing that caused damage to water connections, manholes, water tanks and hygiene facilities, led to sewage flooding in public spaces, and interrupted solid waste collection.
Overall, these operations have resulted in the destruction of more than 20,000 meters of water pipelines, sewer networks and stormwater drainage systems, straining the response capacity of UNRWA, local service providers and WASH cluster partners.
As a result, the access of nearly 92,000 people to clean drinking water, wastewater management and solid waste disposal has been compromised, including thousands who have been left with no reliable access to water and sanitation services.
Emergency interventions by WASH cluster partners, such as water trucking and distributions of hygiene kits, storage tanks and temporary water points, have addressed immediate needs, but significant gaps remain particularly vis-à-vis repairing the extensive damage to water and wastewater systems.
With winter approaching, the WASH Cluster and UNRWA are calling for immediate support to protect infrastructure and restore civilians’ access to essential services.
The WASH cluster has prepared water, sanitation, solid waste and flood response emergency plans that require an estimated US$1.8 million, warning that limited response capacity could heighten the risk of flooding and stormwater contamination and pose severe public health risks, including increased exposure to waterborne diseases.
![Israeli forces bulldoze Jenin in the occupied West Bank [Issam Rimawi/Anadolu Agency]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9-6-w-300x200.jpg)
Israeli forces demolish house of Palestinian journalist in occupied West Bank
Al Jazeera reports:
Israeli forces have demolished the home of a Palestinian journalist in the town of Shuyukh al-Arroub, north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank.
The house of journalist Khaled Khanna was reportedly destroyed with bulldozers after the family of five who had just moved in were forced to evacuate.
Israeli forces had also demolished a house owned by Khanna and his brother Nabil in 2019.
‘Jewish state will extend from Jerusalem to Damascus’: Israeli finance minister
The Cradle reports:
In a new documentary, Israeli minister Bezalel Smotrich detailed his desire to conquer not only all Palestinian territory to the Jordan River but also the Syrian capital of Damascus and territories extending as far as Iraq and Saudi Arabia.
Smotrich, the Finance Minister in the Israeli cabinet and head of the Religious Zionism party, made the comments in a recently released documentary entitled Israel: Extremists in Power. The documentary was produced by Arte Reportage, a Franco-German broadcast news magazine.
When asked about his goal, Smotrich tells the interviewer, “I want a Jewish state … It is a country run according to the values of the Jewish people.”
In a documentary produced by Arte, Israeli finance minister Bezalel Smotrich says he wants a “Jewish state,” adding that, “It is written that the future of Jerusalem is to expand to Damascus.” pic.twitter.com/E2SBu1LJvD
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) October 10, 2024
Israel forces attack farmers, destroy olive harvest in West Bank
Middle East Monitor reports:
Israeli occupation forces yesterday attacked farmers in the town of Kafr Qaddum, east of Qalqilya, seizing their olive harvest, tore open the bags containing the newly picked olives and scattered the produce onto the streets, Ma’an reported.
These assaults by the occupation forces come just hours after Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cancel the olive harvest season in the West Bank.
Since the start of the olive harvest, the Israeli army has been preventing farmers from accessing their lands, particularly in the eastern areas of the Qalqilya Governorate, claiming they require prior coordination from the Civil Administration to enter land classified in ‘Area C’.
Far-right Israeli members of government have long called for the annexation of ‘Area C’ and the expulsion of Palestinians living in the area. ‘Area C’ makes up some 60 per cent of the occupied West Bank and, under the terms of the Oslo Accords, is governed both administratively and militarily by Israel.
NOTE: According to Bethlehem Bible College, the olive tree in Palestine has essential economic, cultural, social, and national significance, and symbolizes the Palestinian attachment to their land – olive trees resist the tough conditions of drought and poor soil conditions and remain attached to their place.
Many Palestinian families inherited olive trees over many generations. Families gather every year in October to harvest the olive trees. They feel proud, bearing in mind their ancestors who were taking care of these trees before.
Olive fruit compromises the income of 80,000 Palestinian families. Almost half of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (48%) is planted with olive trees. 70% of food production in Palestine is accounted for by olive trees, and economically olive trees contribute to 14% of the Palestinian economy. Most olive harvesting (90%) is used for oil production, while the rest (10%) is used for olive soap and pickling.
Israel to confiscate UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem for settlement units
Anadolu Agency reports:
Israel has decided to confiscate the headquarters of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank to build illegal settlement units on its site, according to media reports.
“The entire UNRWA area in Ma’alot Dafna, Jerusalem, is slated to become a housing project with 1,440 units,” the Israel Hayom newspaper reported.
On May 30, Israeli authorities ordered UNRWA to vacate its headquarters in East Jerusalem within 30 days under the pretext of the UN agency’s “failure to obtain approval” from the Israel Lands Authority to construct the facility on that land.
But UNRWA spokesman Jonathan Fowler told Anadolu at that time: “We learned about the decision through the media and did not receive any information directly from the Israeli authorities.”
“We are unequivocal about our stance. UNRWA has maintained a presence in this headquarters and another facility in East Jerusalem since the early 1950s,” said Fowler.
Simultaneously with the decision to confiscate the headquarters, the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, is preparing to vote on a bill in that designates UNRWA as a “terrorist” organization and prevents it from operating in East Jerusalem.
Israel has been lobbying to have UNRWA closed, as it is the only UN agency to have a specific mandate to look after the basic needs of Palestinian refugees.
(Read more about UNRWA here.)
Congress Out of the Loop on Possible U.S. War with Iran
The American Conservative reports:
When asked what the U.S. response might be to the Iranian airstrikes on Israel last week, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suggested it was Washington’s war, too: “We have made clear that there will be consequences, severe consequences, for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case.”
To which Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) fumed on X: “Work with Israel? Excuse me, the Constitution requires you to work with Congress!”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) weighed in: “Any offensive action by the U.S. against Iran would be unconstitutional without a Congressional Declaration of War,” he wrote.
Nevertheless, as talk turns to the kind of retaliation Israel might deliver against Iran for its 200 ballistic missile attacks (which Israel and U.S. both claim were “ineffective”) [and which was a retaliation itself, and Iran wants to be the end of the cycle], it is becoming clear that the U.S. might play a direct role.
CENTCOM commander Gen. Erik Kurilla met with Gallant in Israel and had this to say:
We discussed ongoing Iranian-backed threats to the region and efforts to stabilize the region, ensure Israel’s security, and deter Iran’s malign and reckless activities,
Before departing, I reiterated the strength of our ironclad military-to-military commitment between CENTCOM and the Israeli Defense Forces.
In back-to-back radio interviews with Brian Thomas on October 2, Massie and Andrew Napolitano expressed their concern that we may wake up tomorrow and find that the Biden administration had made the executive decision to take the nation to war.
“You won’t see a declaration of war because Congress doesn’t want to embarrass itself. It’ll just look the other way while the president does whatever the hell he or she wants. And that’s, to me, just frightening,” charged Napolitano.
MORE NEWS:
The Intercept: U.S. Foreign Policy Has Created a Genocidal Israel
Middle East Eye: Mandela’s grandson says he was prevented from entering UK for Palestine events
The ICU of Kamal Adwan is full of desperately sick patients, including small children. The Israeli army’s order to forcibly evacuate the hospital puts every patient’s life at risk. This is yet another example of Israel’s sickening failure to protect patients and healthcare staff. pic.twitter.com/Vqf3nIvPeo
— GazaMedicVoices (@GazaMedicVoices) October 9, 2024
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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 10, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 10, 2024: at least 42,877* ( 42,126 in Gaza* – 69% are women and children, according to Gaza’s Media Office). [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 751 in the West Bank (~164 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 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 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
- At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- 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 – October 10, 2024: at least 104,317 (including at least 98,117 in Gaza and 6,200 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 10, 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.
The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is at least 2,169 and 10,212 injuries. An estimated 1.2 million have been displaced.
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.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 56 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.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- How Israel killed hundreds of its own people on October 7
- The most precarious place in the world to be a child: Israel’s year of war on children
- Every accusation a confession: Israel and the double lie of ‘human shields’
- Most Americans want to stop arming Israel. Politicians don’t care.
- Happy 100th birthday, Jimmy Carter – loved by many, smeared by some
- You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?
- How Does Israel Justify Mass Killings? It Starts in the Schools.
- From the Americas to Gaza: Spreading disease has long been used by colonizers to commit genocide
- Contrived charges of antisemitism are the new ‘Red Scare’
- How Israel’s quadcopters traumatize, maim and kill Palestinians in Gaza
- Israeli society’s dehumanization of Palestinians is now absolute
- The unpublished genocide diaries of Refaat Alareer
- An arms embargo on Israel is not a radical idea — it’s the law
- Israel is redrawing the West Bank, cutting into a prospective Palestinian state
- Gaza breakdown: 20 times Israel used US arms in likely war crimes
- U.S. universities spent the summer strategizing to suppress student activism. Here is their plan.
- ‘Words like Slaughter:’ A comparative study of The New York Times reporting in Ukraine and Gaza
- Cracks in the Dome: Israel’s security mirage
- Israel Suddenly Has A Problem With Attacks On Population Centers
- Americans are always the last to know…about Israel’s crimes
