Gazans struggle to celebrate on Eid, as war rages on – Day 253

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Gazans struggle to celebrate on Eid, as war rages on – Day 253
Muslims around the world celebrated Eid al-Adha Sunday. But in Gaza, festivities are muted, with many facing the brink of famine and families having been torn apart. Worshippers gathered in the ruins of destroyed mosques to hold prayers. (screenshot)

No water, no food on Islam’s high holiday; Israel claims more aid is coming; Israel’s air war in West Bank is killing children; extremist Israeli settlers set their sights on south Lebanon; Candace Owens & Briahna Joy Gray say criticism of Israel is “red line”; more

By IAK staff, from reports.

2,500 Gazans unable to perform Hajj due to Israeli occupation of Rafah crossing:

Andalou Agency reports: The war in Gaza and Israeli occupation of the Rafah crossing which connects Gaza to Egypt have prevented 2,500 Palestinians from performing the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage this year, according to the Ministry of Endowments in the Gaza Strip.

This is a “clear violation of religious freedom,” said ministry spokesperson Ikrami Al-Mudallal, who spoke to Anadolu.

The war has prevented the ministry from completing the usual Hajj preparations, including signing transportation contracts within Egypt and Saudi Arabia and booking accommodations in Mecca and Medina, he added.

Al-Mudallal noted that “the closure of the Rafah crossing and the ongoing conflict have stopped 2,500 Gaza pilgrims, including accompanying missions, from traveling to perform Hajj.”

“This group represents 38% of the total 6,600 Palestinian pilgrims,” he said.

He assured that the pilgrims affected this year “would not lose their right to perform Hajj next year, with priority given to them,” especially since many have waited years for their turn and 70% are elderly or ill.

Eid al Adha: at a time when worshipers are supposed to share grand meals, parts of Gaza are on the brink of famine.
Eid al Adha: at a time when worshipers are supposed to share grand meals, parts of Gaza are on the brink of famine. (screenshot)

Israel makes another promise to boost aid – but will it really happen?

Associated Press reports: Israel’s military announced on Sunday that it would pause fighting throughout daytime hours along a route in southern Gaza.

The “tactical pause” announced by the military, which applies to about 12 kilometers (7.4 miles) of road in the Rafah area, falls far short of a complete cease-fire in the beleaguered territory that has been sought by the international community, including Israel’s top ally, the United States. If it holds, the limited halt in fighting could help address some of the overwhelming needs of Palestinians that have surged even more in recent weeks with Israel’s incursion into Rafah.

The army said the pause would begin at 8 a.m. (0500 GMT) and remain in effect until 7 p.m. (1600 GMT). It said the pauses would take place every day until further notice.

NOTE: Thousands of aid trucks are reportedly waiting at the southern border of Gaza, where Israel has made it extremely difficult to pass, employing complicated and arbitrary procedures. Israel has on multiple occasions fired at individuals waiting for food aid (recently killing over 100 at one time), at least once allegedly sending fake text messages to Gazans, telling them to assemble and then shooting at them when they did; Israel has also attacked food aid convoys and those who accompanied them several times.
Additionally, Israeli citizens have blocked a border crossing for weeks with no meaningful attempt by Israel to reopen it; they have also attacked trucks they believed were heading to Gaza, destroying their contents and in some cases starting them on fire.
In mid-March, Israel promised to “flood” Gaza with aid, but has failed to do so.
With this history of violence and broken promises around humanitarian aid – in the midst of an imposed famine in Gaza – it is reasonable to expect Israel to not follow through in any meaningful way.
Another relevant incident is Israel’s attack on a convoy of Gazan civilians as they followed Israel’s instructions to evacuate “for your own safety and the safety of your families,” which killed seventy mostly women and children.
RECOMMENDED READING (B’Tselem): Manufacturing Famine: Israel is Committing the War Crime of Starvation in the Gaza Strip.

Israel’s new air war in the West Bank – nearly half of the dead are children:

The Intercept reports: Around 9:30 pm one night in late February, a white Mazda pulled up near a game cafe in the Jenin refugee camp on the northern edge of the West Bank, where a crowd of boys and young men often gathered to socialize.

As the car stopped, a few people walked by on the narrow street. Two motorbikes weaved past in different directions. “Everything was fine at the time,” according to an eyewitness sitting nearby in the camp’s main square.

Then the car erupted in a ball of flame. Two missiles fired from an Israeli drone had hit the Mazda in quick succession, as shown in a video the Israeli Air Force posted that night.

According to the IAF, the strike killed Yasser Hanoun, described as “a wanted terrorist.”

But Hanoun was not the only fatality: 16-year old Said Raed Said Jaradat, who was near the vehicle when it was hit, sustained shrapnel wounds all over his body, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International-Palestine. He died from his injuries at 1 a.m. the next morning.

Jaradat is one of 24 children killed in Israel’s airstrikes on the West Bank since last summer, when the Israeli forces began deploying drones, planes, and helicopters to carry out attacks in the occupied territory for the first time in decades.

(Read the full article here.)

West Bank: 16-year-old killed by Israeli army gunfire east of Nablus:

WAFA reports: A 16-year-old, Abdul Rahman Sultan Khatatba, was shot dead and two other people were injured by live ammunition this evening, including one seriously, during an incursion by Israeli occupation forces into the town of Beit Furik, located east of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.

Local sources reported that the Israeli forces stormed the town, firing live bullets at local residents.

The Red Crescent added that the Israeli occupation forces attacked the Beit Furik Municipality’s ambulance driver and smashed the vehicle’s windows while it was trying to reach the injured in the town.

An Israeli military official reportedly said that troops were operating in the Nablus area when “dozens of suspects hurled rocks at Israeli security forces, who responded with riot dispersal means and live fire”.

“Hits were identified,” the official said, without elaborating.

Eight Israeli soldiers killed in southern Gaza, military says:

The Guardian reports: Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in a blast that engulfed their armored vehicle in southern Gaza, in the biggest loss of life for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a single incident since January.

The deaths came amid continuing fighting around Rafah in which at least 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes.

The armed wing of Hamas said fighters had ambushed an armored personnel carrier, killing and wounding a number of Israeli soldiers, in the area in the west of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been advancing for weeks.

Several other Israeli soldiers were also killed Saturday.

The war on Gaza has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian children. In the the city of Deir el-Balah, displaced families say they're dealing with constant grief. Many of the children living there, are now orphans.
The war on Gaza has devastated the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian children. In the the city of Deir el-Balah, displaced families say they’re dealing with constant grief. Many of the children living there are now orphans. (screenshot)

Extremist Israeli settlers to hold meeting on ‘occupying south Lebanon’:

The New Arab reports: Israeli extremist settler group the South Lebanon Settlement Movement announced that it is set to host a meeting next week to further talks on creating Jewish settlements in Lebanon.

The Israeli movement was first established on 10 April, amid ongoing hostilities between Israel and Lebanese group Hezbollah.

The Israeli military has exchanged regular fire with Hezbollah forces across the border in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza in October.

The South Lebanon Settlement Movement, said to be small in numbers, follows the return of fervency amongst the settler movement seeking to reoccupy the Gaza Strip, which is backed by hardline settlers such as Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich.

Itay Epshtain, special advisor for the Norwegian Refugee Council, condemned the group ahead of its upcoming meeting, highlighting the group’s plans.

“Leaders of the settlement movement to share “success stories and best practice” from Israeli settlements of the West Bank, in the hope of committing additional grave breaches of international law and fueling a regional war,” he said in a post on X.

“It is abhorrent as much as a demonstration of lunacy.”

In an April report by Israeli newspaper Haaretz, settlers who joined the movement to occupy South Lebanon first rallied on 11 April in the Israeli city of Haifa.

“Look at how many civilians are now evacuated from their homes because they can’t live in the north. As I see it, our call to our enemies – for Gaza as well as in southern Lebanon for Hezbollah – is: Whoever messes with Israel will lose the territory they attack us from,” a Jewish settler told Haaretz.

“We will conquer that territory, we will settle that territory and we will protect our civilians. If they dare attack us, we’ll take more. We’ll stop conquering when you stop attacking us.”

Diplomatic efforts have so far proved fruitless.

NOTE: Settlements and settlers are a violation of international law.
Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al Balah admits a neverending stream of injured victims as well as corpses, while also hosting hundreds of sheltering families.
Al Aqsa Hospital admits a neverending stream of injured victims as well as corpses, while also hosting hundreds of sheltering families. (screenshot)

Ben-Gvir’s attempts to remove police protection for Gaza aid ‘unlawful interference,’ says Israeli state prosecutor:

The New Arab reports: Israel’s Minister for National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir has been accused of breaching the law over his attempts to pressure the Israeli police to prevent aid convoys reaching Gaza.

In a letter to Israel’s High Court of Justice, the State Prosecutor’s Office said that Ben-Gvir’s interventions and pressuring of the deputy police commissioner are “a gross violation of the law and prohibited intervention by the minister in the police’s operational activity”, as quoted by Israeli news site Haaretz.

It added that “said actions by the minister were prohibited before the amendment to the Police Ordinance, and they are prohibited afterward and contravene court decisions”.

The far-right minister had demanded that Israeli police in the south of the country stop providing protection to aid trucks entering Gaza, arguing that it was the Israeli army’s responsibility.

Gaza’s aid convoys have been attacked by Israeli organizations and extremist groups attempting to stop aid entering Gaza.

As well as attempting to stop the police from protecting Gaza aid convoys, Ben-Gvir has also intervened in other cases prior to the outbreak of war on Gaza.

This includes supporting settler Elisha Yered who killed 19-year-old Palestinian Qusai Mu’tan in the Israeli occupied West Bank, visiting him in prison and praising him for his actions.

Candace Owens and Briahna Joy Gray say criticism of Israel is the only true red line on a bipartisan basis nobody is allowed to cross.

Candace, a conservative, hosted progressive former Rising co-host Briahna Joy Gray to discuss her firing by the Hill because of her statements about Israel. (Owens had earlier been fired by the Daily Wire for the same reason.) Below is a clip from the revealing discussion:

MORE NEWS:

Mondoweiss: Blinken’s lies about Hamas rejecting a ceasefire reveal the Biden administration’s true intentions.
Al Jazeera: Wikipedia war: Fierce row erupts over Israel’s deadly Nuseirat assault.
IMEMC Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 15:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 15: at least 37,780* (37,296 in Gaza* – 4,959 women (20%), 7,797 children (32%). This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 548 in the West Bank (~134 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 43,640 Palestinian deaths. (Ralph Nader has estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.)
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank).
At least 40 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – June 15: at least 90,237 (including at least 85,197 in Gaza and 5,200 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – June 15: ~1,449 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 311 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
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.
**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. 
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

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

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