Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli strikes killed 41 Palestinians on Thursday, according to medics.
Israeli strikes hit two Gaza shelters, killing mostly women and children
At least 15 Palestinians have been killed and 30 wounded in Israeli air attacks Thursday on two schools sheltering displaced people in Gaza City.
Medics in Gaza told Anadolu news agency that most of the victims were women and children in the attack that hit the Dar al-Arqam and Shaaban al-Rayes schools in the Tuffah neighborhood.
Witnesses added that the Israeli attack caused huge destruction to the schools and nearby residential buildings.
The Israeli army claims, without providing evidence, that the deadly attacks carried out on the two school shelters were a “precise strike”.
In a statement on Telegram, the army said the attack targeted “terrorists who were operating in command and control centers” in the buildings.
“Gaza: Life in a Death Trap”: MSF report exposes Israel’s campaign of total destruction
A new report from MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders) highlights how repeated Israeli military attacks on civilians in Gaza, and the systematic denial of humanitarian assistance are destroying the conditions of life.
Our teams in the north of Gaza are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed.
The health care system lies in ruins and medical staff – including MSF’s – have been detained or killed.
We call for an immediate ceasefire and for states to leverage their influence to alleviate the suffering of people and enable a massive scale-up of aid in Gaza.
“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” says Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, who visited Gaza earlier this year.
“The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed,” says Lockyear.
“What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza” (continue reading the press release here; find the full report here).
RECOMMENDED READING: How Israel turned Gaza’s ‘safe zones’ into graveyards
After temporarily vanishing from the news cycle, humanitarian assistance to Gaza is back in the spotlight.
The Biden administration drew attention to the subject in mid-October when it issued demands for Israel to improve humanitarian access, and again in mid-November when it chose not to hold Israel accountable after it failed to meet any of those demands.
Late last month, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former military chief Yoav Gallant for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, among other charges.
Their conduct, according to the ICC, “led to the disruption of the ability of humanitarian organisations to provide food and other essential goods to the population in need in Gaza.”
This month, Amnesty International concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, citing Israel’s obstruction of humanitarian aid as evidence that it is “deliberately inflicting on Palestinians in Gaza conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction,” one of three genocidal acts Amnesty documented Israel committing in its report.
In addition to slandering the international justice and human rights organizations, Israeli authorities denied the accusations that Israel is obstructing humanitarian assistance to Gaza. As evidence, they boast impressive-sounding figures from Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) — the Israeli military (IDF) unit overseeing all humanitarian operations in the besieged enclave — and flaunt state-sponsored media depicting a seeming abundance of aid in Gaza, waiting to be delivered.
Ironically, these boasts from Israeli officials are in fact admissions of war crimes. Israel’s intent with these social media posts is to be exonerated in the court of public opinion — and perhaps international courts as well — but it’s effectively acting like its own star witness.
Israel’s own data says it’s blocking aid (continue reading here).
Netanyahu to skip Auschwitz liberation event in Poland over arrest fears, report says
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly planning to skip next month’s events in Poland marking the 80th anniversary of Auschwitz’s liberation, fearing potential arrest, Polish news outlet Rzeczpospolita reported.
Polish news outlet Rzeczpospolita reports that Israeli officials have not reached out to their Polish counterparts regarding Netanyahu’s attendance. Warsaw believes the absence is tied to its commitment to the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu “for crimes against humanity and war crimes” committed since 7 October.
The report says Israeli President Isaac Herzog also does not plan to attend the event.
West Bank: In drone strike and gunfire, Israel kills 6 Palestinians
Israeli forces assassinated four Palestinian young men, on Thursday, and seriously injured three others, after a drone strike targeted a vehicle in the Tulkarem refugee camp, in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank.
Media sources identified the slain men as Mohammad Nafeez Ahmad Rahaymeh, 31, Tariq Mahmoud Mohammad Al-Dash, 30, and the brothers, Dosm Sufyan Ahmad Al-Awfi, 19, and Mohammad Rahim Ahmad Al-Awfi, 26.
Israeli forces killed two Palestinians, including an elderly woman, and shot four others, on Thursday, after invading the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus in the northern occupied West Bank.
The Palestinian Health Ministry announced that the elderly woman, Halima Saleh Hassan Abu Al-Layl, 80, succumbed to critical gunshot wounds after occupation forces shot her in the chest, leg, and hand, and Qusay Hamed Issa Sarouji, 25, after Israeli forces shot him in the head with live rounds, causing critical injuries.
Media sources said that occupation forces prevented ambulances from entering the camp to reach those injured inside, and opened fire in the vicinity of the ambulances.
Media sources said that undercover Israeli agents “Musta’ribeen” infiltrated the Balata refugee camp, on Thursday morning, followed by large military reinforcements that stormed several neighborhoods and besieged a house in the camp.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 823 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 169 children, and injured 6,500.
Hamas: West Bank will resist Israel annexation, displacement plans
RELATED: Mahmoud Abbas is in his final act as betrayer of the Palestinian cause
Israel’s army faces “manpower crisis” as hundreds of officers bail
Hundreds of Israeli officers have withdrawn from military service this year – citing the “burden of war” and unsatisfactory conditions for reservists, Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported on 19 December.
“About 500 majors have already retired this year,” Israel Hayom said. The Israeli army is “surprised by the scope of the phenomenon, and admits that they estimated that the wave of departures would expand when the fighting subsides, and not in the midst of the war,” the daily added.
The report confirms that Israel started its war on Gaza last year with a “particularly acute manpower crisis.”
In 2022, a record number of over 600 Israeli majors retired from service. Since the start of the war, the “trend is now worsening” once again, and the “outlook for 2025 is not encouraging.”
One of the reasons is “the unbearable burden placed on [soldiers] by the war.” Many are tired of leaving their houses and families and putting themselves at risk for a “not so rewarding” salary.
Not only majors and captains are hesitant to continue service, but unit commanders are, as well, as well as forces. A few weeks before the war and ground operations in south Lebanon ended, Yedioth Ahronoth reported that Israel was facing a “huge” shortage of soldiers due to a serious enlistment crisis.
EPA Staffers Demand Biden Release Climate Funds Withheld Over Gaza
Environmental Protection Agency staffers are demanding that the agency end their partnerships with Israel amid the ongoing siege of Gaza
Staffers with the EPA and Department of Energy published an open letter Thursday demanding that the EPA end collaboration with Israel on energy and environmental partnerships.
The agency exchanges information with Israel and cooperates with Israel on workshops, research projects, and sharing research personnel. Projects include cleaning up and redeveloping contaminated military sites and sharing water reuse practices with U.S. officials.
“The ongoing genocide in Gaza has compelled us to speak truthfully on the hypocrisy of protecting human health and the environment within US borders while our government continues to facilitate and fund the destruction of entire communities and ecosystems overseas,” says the letter, which was shared with The Intercept in advance of its public release. “We cannot uphold our oath to serve the public interest while remaining quiet about the devastating humanitarian crisis that continues to unfold before us.”
Time is also running out for the Biden administration to honor its $50 million grant to the Climate Justice Alliance, a nonprofit coalition that had its funding put on pause after it expressed support for Palestine.
The letter demands that the EPA release the group’s federal funds.
The EPA staffers’ letter comes several weeks after The Intercept reported that the agency had delayed paying out money, earmarked under an Inflation Reduction Act program, after right-wing politicians attacked the Climate Justice Alliance for its stance in favor of a ceasefire in Gaza. (The EPA did not respond to a request for comment) (continue reading here).
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
Al Jazeera: An open letter from mathematicians against the genocide in Gaza
Electronic Intifada: Three stories of Israeli detention
+972 Magazine: The Democrats’ stubborn refusal to learn from the campus protests for Palestine
How do you say genocide in the EU’s 24 languages?
As EU leaders meet in Brussels to discuss Israel’s actions in #Gaza, we sent them a message they can’t ignore #EndGazaGenocide 👇 pic.twitter.com/OCF6ffMgwJ
Netanyahu’s far-right minister makes clear yet again that his answer to the Palestinian problem is mass forced deportation, from both Gaza and the West Bank. With Trump coming into office, it is not clear what will stop this war-crime plan. https://t.co/WCR3npIU0J
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) December 19, 2024
— Amnesty EU (@AmnestyEU) December 18, 2024
“It was, you know, just something that I had not seen before.”
Karin Huster is a nurse who worked in Gaza, Palestine, over 5 months. She tells us about the ‘red zone’ in Al-Aqsa hospital after the arrival of casualties ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/OLzfI6F9Iv
The UK refused entry for medical treatment to Ahmed – a 4 year old from Gaza who lost both his legs and most of his family in an Israeli air strike.
He’s now receiving vital treatment in Italy; why won’t the UK offer the same?
Over 50 MPs have written to the Prime Minister 👇 pic.twitter.com/vC9jC41o5K
— Kim Johnson (@KimJohnsonMP) December 17, 2024
— MSF International (@MSF) December 19, 2024
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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – DECEMBER 19, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – December 19, 2024: at least 46,029* – 45,206 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 823 Palestinians (~169 of them children).
Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.
According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,206), it is reasonable to estimate at least 226,030 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.
According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 19,891 of known direct deaths and 99,453 of the total deaths are children.
Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.
[*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.]Since October 7th, 2023:
- At least 49 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 from Gaza).
- At least 43 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.
- About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – December 19, 2024: at least 114,012 (including at least 107,512 in Gaza and 6,500 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 – December 19, 2024: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec 11); 39 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.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% 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.
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