Gaza’s “lost generation of children” Day 252

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Gaza’s “lost generation of children” Day 252
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)

Gazan children suffer loss of family members, education, health; 14 year old dies from starvation; US sanctions another extremist settler group, mulls dismantling Gaza pier; Israel has killed more Israeli hostages; US House votes to block funding for Gaza reconstruction; boycotting is gaining ground; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

UNRWA chief warns of ‘lost generation’ of children from Gaza war:

Israel’s war on Gaza has “robbed” Palestinian children in the territory of their childhood, says Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, who warns that an immediate ceasefire is needed “for the sake” of Palestinian and Israeli children.

Children suffer first and the most in wars and conflict, Lazzarini said in a post on social media, and far too many children in Gaza have been killed, injured, and “scarred for life”.

“Those who survived are in deep trauma. Their schools have been destroyed [and] they lost a whole school year, with no education or play,” the UNRWA chief said.

The war has “robbed the children of Gaza of their childhood”, he said.

“Without a ceasefire, they will become a lost generation, easy to fall prey to exploitation,” he added.

RECOMMENDED READING (UN News): UN reports ‘shocking’ rise in violations against children in conflict in 2023.
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. (screenshots)

Education in Gaza has taken a massive hit – OCHA:

OCHA reports: A new assessment by the Education Cluster, based on satellite imagery collected on 3 and 7 May, reveals a further increase in the scale of damage and destruction of schools in the Gaza Strip compared with the 1 April analysis:

    • Over 76 per cent of schools in Gaza are now assessed as requiring full reconstruction or major rehabilitation to be functional again, up from 73 per cent.
    • The assessment also highlights a “continuous spike in the direct targeting of schools,” with 23 facilities that had already been classified as “damaged” in the previous analysis being affected by additional direct hits in April.
    • Among school buildings used as IDP shelters, 69 per cent have been directly hit or damaged, up from 65 per cent in March.
    • Overall, some 54 per cent of school buildings (307 out of 563) have been “directly hit,” 22 per cent (123) of school buildings have been “damaged,” while 15 per cent (86) are classified as “likely or possibly damaged.”
    • Of note, more than 96 per cent (296) of all directly hit schools are in areas subject to evacuation orders issued by Israeli authorities. Furthermore, out of all damaged schools, 61 have been totally destroyed and 39 have lost at least half of their structures.
    • North Gaza and Gaza governorates have been the most impacted, with about 90 per cent and 89 per cent of their school buildings directly hit or damaged, respectively.

Palestinian teen dies from lack of medicine, starvation

A 14-year-old boy died from starvation in northern Gaza where over 200 children are at risk of death. Mostafa Iyad Hijazi’s father and mother grieve for their son:

Mother and child in Deir al-Balah, June 14, 2024. (screenshot)
Gaza child in Deir al-Balah, June 14, 2024. (screenshot)

UN experts say ‘outrageous disregard’ for Palestinian lives in Nuseirat raid:

Al Jazeera reports: UN experts have again condemned what they described what the organization described as the “umpteenth massacre by Israeli forces in Gaza”, this time referring to a raid on Nuseirat that rescued four Israeli captives, but left at least 274 Palestinians dead.

“According to survivors, the streets of Nuseirat were filled with bodies of dead and injured people, including children and women, lying in pools of blood. Walls were covered in body parts scattered by multiple explosions and bombed houses,” the experts said in a statement.

“While we are relieved by the safe return of four Israeli hostages captured by Palestinian armed groups eight months ago, Israel’s attack on the Nuseirat camp is obnoxious in its excessive violence and devastating impact,” they said.

RECOMMENDED READING (susan abulhawa, for Electronic Intifada): Israel is dragging the world into darkness.

US sanctions far-right Israeli group accused of blocking Gaza aid:

The Guardian reports: The US state department has imposed sanctions on Tsav 9, “a violent, extremist Israeli group”, for blocking convoys taking humanitarian aid to Gaza, and attacking trucks.

The US said Tsav 9 activists began blockading a key crossing, Kerem Shalom, at the start of the year, and later set trucks on fire and injured drivers and Israel Defense Forces soldiers, as hunger spread inside Gaza.

“For months, individuals from Tzav 9 have repeatedly sought to thwart the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, including by blockading roads, sometimes violently,” a spokesperson, Matthew Miller, said in a statement. “They also have damaged aid trucks and dumped life-saving humanitarian aid on to the road.”

Miller detailed an attack in mid-May when Tsav 9 members “looted and then set fire to two trucks near Hebron, in the West Bank, carrying humanitarian aid destined for men, women and children in Gaza”.

Tsav 9 said the sanctions were “shocking”, and “go against any American and liberal values”.

The group’s actions sparked outrage internationally, but inside Israel there is widespread support for their opposition to aid shipments into Gaza.

Tsav 9 is the latest Israeli group to be sanctioned by the US. The group is known to have ties to Israeli Army reservists and Jewish settlers in the West Bank. On May 13th, members of the group looted then set on fire two trucks filled with aid.
Tsav 9 is the latest Israeli group to be sanctioned by the US. The group is known to have ties to Israeli Army reservists and Jewish settlers in the West Bank. On May 13th, members of the group looted then set on fire two trucks filled with aid. (screenshot)

In northern Gaza, starved families survive on bread alone:

Reuters reports: In the north of the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been hit hardest by hunger, residents say acute shortages of vegetables, fruit and meat means they are surviving on bread alone.

“We are being starved, the world has forgotten about us,” said Um Mohammed, a mother of six in Gaza City.

She has remained there throughout more than eight months of Israeli bombardments. But she and her family have left their home for designated shelters in U.N. schools several times.

“Except for the flour, bread, we have nothing else, we don’t have anything to eat it with, so we eat bread only,” she said.

In late May, the Israeli military lifted a ban on the sale of fresh food to Gaza from Israel and the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials and international aid workers said.

But in social media posts, Gazans accused unscrupulous merchants of exploiting needs by buying goods at regular prices in Israel and the West Bank and selling them at a huge mark-up.

Food that can be found in the market is being sold at exorbitant prices, they said: a kilo of green peppers, which cost about a dollar before the war, was priced at 320 shekels or nearly $90. Traders demanded $70 for just a kilo of onions.

They said traders are taking advantage of a breakdown of policing in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Indonesian Hospital reopens:

The Indonesian Hospital, now the sole medical facility in northern Gaza, is tasked with serving over half a million residents after it has reopened.

However, its operations remain severely constrained by Israel’s blockade on medical supplies and fuel.

Watch the video to learn more:

Brigades says 2 Israeli hostages were killed by Israeli airstrike:

Andalou Agency reports: The Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, said Friday that two Israeli hostages held by the group were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza, a few days ago.

The announcement was made through a video posted on their Telegram channel. “Your army (the Israeli army) killed two hostages in the airstrike on Rafah a few days ago,” the group said.

The Al-Qassam Brigades further accused the Israeli military and government of deceiving the Israelis, saying: “Your army deceives you and continues to deceive you.”

“Your government (the Israeli government) only wants to recover the hostages in coffins,” they added.

The group did not reveal the identities of the captives or provide any images of them.

As of yet, neither the Israeli military nor the families of the captives have issued any statements regarding Al-Qassam’s announcement.

An Israeli opposition leader on Friday slammed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policy of using force in the Gaza Strip to free hostages, accusing him of prioritizing his political interests over the lives of Israeli citizens, calling it an unrealistic approach.

Palestine’s first ever Olympian dies in Gaza from lack of treatment due to Israel’s war

Middle East Eye reports: The first Palestinian athlete to participate in the Olympic games died on Wednesday at the Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza as a result of kidney failure due to power outages and medical shortages as a result of the ongoing Israeli war and siege of the enclave.

Majed Abu Maraheel, who passed away at the age of 61, became the first athlete to be the flag bearer and represent Palestinians at the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. Being a distance runner, he competed in the 10km race.

Since his breakthrough on the world stage, more than 20 Palestinian men and women have been able to compete at Olympic competitions.

“He was a Palestinian icon, and he will remain as such,” his brother told Paltoday TV after the funeral.

“We tried to evacuate him to Egypt but then the Rafah crossing was closed (by Israel), and his condition kept deteriorating.”

The Gaza Pier: A public relations stunt doomed from the start

The US is now considering temporarily dismantling and relocating its pier off the coast of Gaza for the second time over fears of poor conditions.

After it was previously damaged and repaired two times in the past month, the US-built pier meant to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians now also faces the question of whether the United Nations will even continue using it to distribute aid.

The mounting obstacles set out in front of the pier in its short lifespan are demonstrative of what former US officials, aid agencies and government watchdogs say is a US public relations stunt that serves to divert attention away from Israel’s ongoing destruction of Gaza, as well as Israel’s restriction of aid to the strip.

“This pier has been an immense and costly distraction from the work that we need to do and the problems we need to solve,” Scott Paul, who leads humanitarian policy at Oxfam, told Middle East Eye.

“This was a way of avoiding addressing the most critical obstacles to humanitarian assistance in Gaza, and so I think it’s fair to say that it has not met even the administration’s modest expectations for it.”

How much aid has been delivered?

Since Israel’s war on Gaza began last year, aid agencies and the United Nations have called on Israel to do more to allow aid to enter land crossings into Gaza.

Throughout the war, Israel has blocked these land crossings, and while it recently opened several up, it also captured the Rafah crossing with Egypt causing it to be shut down.

Much of the aid that organizations are trying to get into Gaza is stuck at these land crossings, where Israel’s cumbersome screening process doesn’t allow “dual-use” items to enter Gaza.

Despite these restrictions set in place by Israel and the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza that includes a famine, US President Joe Biden’s administration has placed minimal pressure on Israel to allow more aid in. In May, it released a report stating that it found no instances of Israel restricting aid to Gaza.

Rather than putting pressure on Israel to open more land crossings, Biden announced the floating pier that would “enable a massive increase in the amount of humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza everyday”.

“The very existence of the pier is a tacit admission of what President Biden has refused to officially recognize: that the Israeli government is systematically blocking humanitarian aid to starving Palestinians,” said Annie Shiel, US advocacy officer for the Center for Civilians in Conflict (Civic), told MEE.

(Read the full article here.)

RECOMMENDED READING (Mondoweiss): The story of the U.S. ‘floating dock’ built from the rubble of Gaza’s homes.
Roll-On Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF) floating pier near Gaza April 2024
Roll-On Roll-Off Distribution Facility (RRDF) floating pier near Gaza April 2024 (photo)

House votes to block US funding to rebuild Gaza:

The Intercept reports: The House voted on Wednesday to block the U.S. from funding the reconstruction of Gaza, whose destruction was financed by the U.S. to a large degree.

The provision was introduced by Reps. Brian Mast, R-Fla.; Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y.; and Eli Crane, R-Ariz., as an amendment to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense budget. While Democrats opposed the amendment, which passed by a simple voice vote, they did not request a recorded vote.

“They are absolutely at war with one of our major and best allies anywhere across the globe,” said Mast on the House floor before the vote about Gaza as a whole, not specifying Hamas. The Florida Republican, a former volunteer in the Israeli military who has worn an Israeli army unit in Congress and repeatedly made incendiary, bigoted comments since October 7, said it is “nonsensical” to suggest rebuilding the place that’s been razed by Israeli and American bombs for eight months.

The U.S. has sent $12.5 billion to Israel just this year, with the annual $3.8 billion supplemented by another $8.7 billion that was approved in April.

“The House advancing anti-Palestinian amendments into legislation at this stage reaffirms that many in Congress do not value the lives of their Palestinian constituents,” said Mohammed Khader, a policy manager at U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights Action. “Blocking funds to rebuild Gaza while actively providing taxpayer dollars, weapons, and intelligence to destroy Gaza and Palestinian society reaffirms that lawmakers intend for the U.S. to be an active participant in Israel’s atrocities.”

(Read the full article here.)

One in three people are boycotting brands over Israel’s war on Gaza, poll finds

Middle East Eye reports: More than one in three people say they are boycotting a brand viewed as supporting a side in Israel’s war on Gaza, with oil-rich Gulf states and large Muslim-majority countries leading the way.

The latest edition of an annual Trust Barometer report from public relations firm Edelman underscored how sharp divides over the war are causing consumers across the globe to take a stance with their wallets.

The survey polled 15,000 consumers across 15 countries, including France, Saudi Arabia, the UK and the US.

The poll didn’t say who respondents sided with in the war, but out of the top five countries listed as engaged on boycotting brands over Gaza, three are Muslim-majority nations: Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Indonesia. India also has a sizable Muslim minority. Germany was the fifth country.

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has gained traction across the world as it aims to put pressure on Israel over its violations of international law and repression of Palestinians. However, it has also faced stiff opposition in the US and other western states where sizable numbers of the population are sympathetic to Israel.

(Read the full article here.)

Starbucks Coffee Shop - Albi Sumido
Starbucks Coffee Shop – Albi Sumido (photo)

MORE NEWS:

Electronic Intifada: US blames Hamas while Israel prolongs Gaza war.
Middle East Eye: Full text of Hamas reply to Israel’s Gaza ceasefire proposal
The New Arab: Israel blocks Hajj for 2,500 Palestinian pilgrims from Gaza
United Nations News: Conflict and lawlessness hamper food aid delivery in Gaza: WFP.
IMEMC Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 14:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 14: at least 37,780* (37,266 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 14: at least 90,237 (including at least 85,102 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 14: ~1,449 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 299 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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