Israel blocks food aid, rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza – Day 399

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Israel blocks food aid, rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza – Day 399
Human Rights Watch met F., age 9, who was experiencing malnutrition; he received treatment after being evacuated from the northern Gaza Strip to the IMC field hospital in Rafah, Gaza, March 24, 2024. (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff 

Israeli air raids killed at least 44 people in Gaza Saturday, and injured 81.

One Palestinian was killed in the West Bank.

Lebanon Health Ministry says a series of Israeli strikes on eastern and southern Lebanon has killed at least 31 people.

‘We will die here in our homes’

Tens of thousands of Palestinians under Israeli siege are rationing their last lentils and flour to survive with virtually no food allowed into the northernmost part of Gaza for the past month.

As bombardment pounds down around them, some risk their lives by venturing out in search of cans of food in the rubble of destroyed homes.

Thousands have staggered out of the area, hungry and thin, into Gaza City where they find the situation little better. One hospital reports seeing thousands of children suffering from malnutrition.

“We are being starved to force us to leave our homes,” said Mohammed Arqouq, whose family of eight is determined to stay in the north, weathering Israel’s siege. “We will die here in our homes.”

A man pushes a bicycle as he walks amid building rubble near Gaza's Al-Shifa hospital on April 3, 2024.
A man pushes a bicycle as he walks amid building rubble near Gaza’s Al-Shifa hospital on April 3, 2024. (AFP via Getty Images)

‘Strong likelihood’ of imminent famine in north Gaza: Food security experts

There is a “strong likelihood that famine is imminent in areas” of northern Gaza, according to a committee of global food security experts, as Israeli forces press on with a major offensive in the area.

“Immediate action, within days not weeks, is required from all actors who are directly taking part in the conflict, or have influence on its conduct, to avert and alleviate this catastrophic situation,” the independent Famine Review Committee (FRC) said in a rare alert on Friday.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimates that there are between 75,000 and 95,000 people still in northern Gaza.

The FRC said it could be “assumed that starvation, malnutrition, and excess mortality due to malnutrition and disease, are rapidly increasing” in north Gaza.

Hungry Palestinian children wait in line to receive meals distributed by charities in Gaza City, Gaza, on November 03, 2024
Hungry Palestinian children wait in line to receive meals distributed by charities in Gaza City, Gaza, on November 03, 2024 (Moiz Salhi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Israel rejects ‘biased’ warning of famine in Gaza

Israel rejected food security experts’ warning of famine in parts of northern Gaza where it’s waging war against Palestinians.

“Unfortunately, the researchers continue to rely on partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests,” the military said in a statement.

NOTE: The assessment of imminent famine was made by the Famine Review Committee (FRC), part of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, which uses experts and rigorous methodology. Their conclusions were echoed by the UN World Health Organization, Oxfam, the World Food Program, and Refugees International; the UN Human Rights Council has found that Israel was using starvation as a method of war.
USAID and the US State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration also determined that Israel was blocking food aid from entering Gaza – a claim backed by the European Union, United Nations, Oxfam, and the United Kingdom.
The Israeli government has denied it is using starvation as a weapon of war. COGAT, the Israeli agency responsible for allowing aid into Gaza, has claimed that it is not impeding aid, and accused Gaza’s government of “aid theft”; however, US officials said they do not have evidence to support Israel’s claims. 
Residents and people displaced by conflict in Khan Younis, Gaza, looking for food gather at a bakery on October 16. Most bakeries in Gaza are unable to produce any bread due to the lack of flour and electricity.
Residents and people displaced by conflict in Khan Younis, Gaza, looking for food gather at a bakery on October 16. Most bakeries in Gaza are unable to produce any bread due to the lack of flour and electricity. (Wassem Mushtaha/Oxfam)

Children, journalists killed in Israeli bombing in southern Gaza “humanitarian zone”

On Saturday, an Israeli airstrike hit several children as they were about to play football. The incdent took place in al-Mawasi, an area Israel calls a “humanitarian zone” for war-displaced Palestinians, where Israel has instructed hundreds of thousands to seek shelter.

“The rocket struck them. There were no wanted or targeted people there and there was nobody else in the street. Just the children who were killed,” said Mohammed Zanoun, a relative of the dead children.

At least nine people were killed and many others wounded in the attack, medical sources said. Israel’s military did not immediately comment.

Among the dead were two journalist siblings – Ahmad Abu Sakhil and Zahra Abu Sakhil – together with their father, Muhammad. The number of journalists killed since October 2023 stands at 188.

NOTE: The UN Human Rights Office recently stated that it has found close to 70 per cent of the dead in Gaza to be children and women, indicating a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality.

Israeli forces execute three Gaza detainees shortly after release

Israeli occupation forces executed three Palestinians from the Gaza Strip this afternoon, shortly after releasing them from detention. The men had been detained during Israel’s military offensive on northern Gaza in early October.

According to local sources and eyewitnesses, the detainees were freed from Israeli custody at the Zikim military base near the northern Gaza border. After their release, the Israeli navy targeted the three men with gunfire from warships as they were near Al-Khalidi Mosque, along the coastal road northwest of Gaza City.

The victims, identified as two elderly men, Ali and Nadi Ma’arouf, and young man Hamza Al-Hato, were transferred to the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza City, where their bodies were received.

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Screen image from an Israeli Channel 12 report on the sexual assault and rape of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison.
Screen image from an Israeli Channel 12 report on the sexual assault and rape of a Palestinian prisoner at Sde Teiman prison. (screen image)

Ethnic cleansing taking place during news void in north Gaza: Media group

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says Israel has stepped up systematic attacks on journalists and media infrastructure since the start of its northern Gaza campaign.

Israeli strikes killed at least five journalists in October and Israeli forces began a smear campaign against six Al Jazeera journalists reporting on the north, it said.

“There are now almost no professional journalists left in the north to document what several international institutions have described as an ethnic cleansing campaign. Israel has not allowed international media independent access to Gaza in the 13 months since the war began,” CPJ said in a statement.

“It seems clear that the systematic attacks on the media and campaign to discredit those few journalists who remain is a deliberate tactic to prevent the world from seeing what Israel is doing there,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martinez de la Serna.

“Reporters are crucial in bearing witness during a war, without them the world won’t be able to write history.”

A press jacket hangs near the site of Saturday’s helicopter attack against tents housing war-displaced Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza
A press jacket hangs near the site of Saturday’s helicopter attack against tents housing war-displaced Palestinians at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza (Abedelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera)

Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian In Tubas

On Saturday, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and injured two others in ‘Aqqaba town, north of Tubas, in the occupied West Bank’s northeastern part.

Adham Zayed Ezzat Al-Masri
Adham Zayed Ezzat Al-Masri (IMEMC)

Media sources reported that the invasion was initially conducted by undercover soldiers who surrounded a home while military helicopters and drones flew overhead and over several areas of Tubas.

The sources added that the soldiers attacked the surrounded home with live fire, causing extensive damage, killing Adham Zayed Ezzat Al-Masri, 25, before taking his body away.

The soldiers also fired barrages of live rounds during the invasion, wounding a 50-year-old Palestinian with a live round to the chest. Medics rushed him to a hospital where his wounds were described as serious.

Additionally, the soldiers assaulted another 49-year-old Palestinian, causing lacerations and bruises to several parts of his body.

Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 781 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 167 children, and injured 6,300.

Israeli army besiege a house belonging to a Palestinian family with military armored vehicles in Tubas, West Bank on November 09, 2024.
Israeli army besiege a house belonging to a Palestinian family with military armored vehicles in Tubas, West Bank on November 09, 2024. (Nedal Eshtayah - Anadolu Agency)

NYT: Israeli officials briefed Jared Kushner on Gaza war for several months

For several months, Israeli officials have given briefings about the war in Gaza to Jared Kushner, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, who worked on Middle East issues during his first term, and David Friedman, who served as Mr. Trump’s ambassador to Israel, said two Israeli officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive meetings.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – NOVEMBER 9, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – November 9, 2024: at least 44,384* ( 43,603 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. This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children).

In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 781 Palestinians (~167 of them children).

In July 2024, the Lancet said: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death 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 60 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons.
  • 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.
  • About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – November 9, 2024: at least 109,229 (including at least 102,929 in Gaza and 6,300 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 – November 9, 2024: ~1,574 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 396*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Nov 2); 39 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 3,136, with 13,979 injuries. An estimated 1.34 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.

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

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