Israel orders complete evacuation of Gaza’s largest city; streets are strewn with bodies – Day 277

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Israel orders complete evacuation of Gaza’s largest city; streets are strewn with bodies – Day 277
At least 20 Palestinians have been killed, many of them children, many bodies blown apart. (screengrabs)

Devastation and death in Gaza City; Israeli soldiers reportedly allowed to do whatever they want; calls for investigation of Israeli soldiers’ behavior; from bodybuilder to feeble and frightened – one prisoner’s story; Israel bulldozes cemetery; Netanyahu trip to US planned to avoid stops where he could be arrested; US: 500-lb bombs ok; 2000-lb bombs not yet; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Israel orders Palestinians to leave all of Gaza City

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli military has ordered all Palestinians to leave Gaza City and head south, as it presses ahead with a fresh offensive across the north, south and central area of the Gaza Strip that has killed dozens of people over the past 48 hours.

Leaflets dropped from the air on Wednesday urged “everyone in Gaza City” to leave and to take “safe routes” south towards Deir el-Balah and az-Zawayda.

Gaza’s Interior Ministry has called on residents in Gaza City to refrain from following Israeli evacuation orders, saying the instructions are a part of the Israeli army’s psychological warfare against Palestinians.

The United Nations said the latest evacuations “will only fuel mass suffering for Palestinian families, many of whom have been displaced many times”.

“The civilians must be protected,” said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric.

Reporting from Deir-el Balah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said that Palestinians in Gaza City – where Israeli attacks have intensified – felt trapped and did not know where to go.

MIDDLE EAST EYE ADDS: More than 30 bodies of Palestinians are strewn on streets in western Gaza City’s Rimal, Sinaa and Katiba areas, according to the Palestinian civil defense.

NOTE: Prior to the war, Gaza City was the most populous city in the State of Palestine, with 590,481 inhabitants in 2017.

Three-month-old girl sole survivor in Israeli killing of family in western Gaza City

Al Jazeera reports: A three-month-old girl, Asmaa Ajour, lies in Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza after Israeli forces killed all her immediate family members in Gaza City.

According to her grandmother, the family moved to the Sina’a neighborhood in western Gaza City, but the Israeli military operation expanded suddenly overnight and the area was attacked, and Asmaa’s parents, siblings, cousins, and uncles were all killed.

She added that Asmaa remained in her dead mother’s lap for 12 hours until her grandfather managed to save her as Israeli forces fired bullets for hours.

“I don’t know how this orphaned child will live at this age without a father and mother. I don’t know how her life will be. I don’t know how she will be alone in this world,” the grandmother said.

‘Everything is permitted’: Israeli soldiers attack Palestinians indiscriminately

Oren Ziv, a journalist at +972 Magazine, interviewed six Israeli soldiers who described being authorized to open fire on Palestinians indiscriminately.

Soldiers from six different units who were in Gaza at different times, said they executed Palestinians who strayed into “no-go zones”, and that there were “no limits” to what and whom they can shoot.

“What we learned is the open-fire regulation was not very strict, they didn’t even get proper orders from their commanders,” Ziv told Al Jazeera.

“They could fire almost at everything”, including schools, hospitals, as well as public institutions. Some required pre-approvals which were always granted, Ziv said.

Some testified they were shooting “out of being bored, or just for fun”, he said.

“The general feeling the soldier described is, that there was a big sense after the October 7 attack of revenge … they told us everything is permitted.”

Hamas calls on ICC to investigate ‘monstrous behavior’ of Israeli soldiers

Al Jazeera reports: Hamas has called on the International Criminal Court (ICC) to “urgently investigate the monstrous behaviour” of Israeli soldiers that it says has been encouraged by Israeli army leaders.

It referred to “documented” images and videos that showcase Israeli soldiers committing the “most brutal crimes against Palestinians, including shooting civilians and burning down homes”.

Their actions, Hamas said, are carried out for their “own entertainment” and target women, children, and the elderly.

These actions are a “disgrace on the face of humanity and the international community”, and should be looked into by the ICC’s chief prosecutor, the group added.

Israeli rights group highlights Israel’s inability to probe alleged war crimes by military

An investigation by Israeli human rights group Yesh Din has found that of 573 cases of alleged wrongdoing by the Israeli military in Gaza over the past decade, only one case led to a prosecution.

The rights group, which operates in the occupied West Bank, said it examined the results of Israeli military law enforcement related to three military operations in Gaza over the past 10 years. The lack of prosecutions points to a system of military law enforcement that is “evading properly investigating suspect war crimes”.

“Although Israel prides itself on its law enforcement system and presents it as functioning, there is considerable doubt whether the system has the ability or willingness to conduct thorough and effective investigations regarding serious suspicions of violations of the laws of war during the war in Gaza,” the group added.

(Read the full report here.)

WATCH: Freed former Palestinian bodybuilder alleges abuse by Israeli jailers

A former Palestinian bodybuilder who came out of an Israeli prison frail and in poor health after months without charge says he was tortured and abused and has compared Israeli prisons to the US’s notorious Guantanamo Bay prison.

Aid has not entered Gaza for 65 days: Government Media Office

Al Jazeera reports: Preventing the entrance of humanitarian aid into the besieged coastal enclave is threatening the lives of thousands of civilians, including children and the sick, the office has said.

“Hundreds of thousands of tonnes of aid and medical equipment are piling up on the other side of border crossings into Gaza – a crime of historic proportions that reflects the moral decadence of various countries supporting the Israeli onslaught,” it said in a statement.

The office condemned what it called an Israeli decision – backed by the US administration – to starve Palestinians in Gaza by stopping aid from entering the Strip. It also said it goes against international law and norms that forbid the use of “starvation policies” as a weapon of war.

Recently released Palestinian prisoners exchange horror stories of torture, starvation, and neglect.
Recently released Palestinian prisoners exchange horror stories of torture, starvation, and neglect. (screengrab)

Israeli army bulldozes cemetery in Gaza City

Exclusive video obtained by Al Jazeera shows bodies strewn around the streets in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, as fighting there continues.

Residents of the area, where Israeli forces have been conducting an intense ground operation for the last several days, reported that upon their return to their partially destroyed homes, they found graves exhumed and the cemetery completely bulldozed.

This is not the first time the Israeli army has been accused of desecrating graveyards. In January, video captured a destroyed cemetery in southern Gaza’s Khan Younis, with the telltale marks of bulldozer treads in the dirt on top of what were previously graves.

Netanyahu to avoid Europe on way to US in fear of ICC arrest warrant

The Cradle reports: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will avoid stopping in Europe over fears about an impending arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for his role in the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, according to reports in Israeli media.

The premier’s office recently “reviewed” whether or not to stop in Europe when he heads to the US capital to deliver a speech before the US Congress on 24 July.

Israel’s Kan broadcaster revealed that, after considering several options, Netanyahu decided to take a direct flight to Washington.

Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza, including the starvation of civilians as a weapon of war, willfully causing great suffering, willful killing, intentional attacks on a civilian population, and extermination, among other charges.

Many of Israel’s closest allies – including Germany – have confirmed they would enforce an ICC arrest warrant against the prime minister if he visits the country and the warrant is issued.

RECOMMENDED READING: Spying & threats: Israel spent 9 years trying to keep the ICC off the trail of Israel’s war crimes.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023.
Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv on October 16, 2023. (photo)

US to resume sending 500 lb bombs to Israel while withholding 2,000 lb bombs, official says

The Guardian reports: The Biden administration will resume shipping 500 lb bombs to Israel but will continue to hold back on supplying 2,000 lb bombs over concerns about their use in densely populated Gaza, according to a a US official.

The US in May paused a shipment of 2,000 lb and 500 lb bombs due to concern over the impact they could have in Gaza.

“We’ve been clear that our concern has been on the end-use of the 2,000 lb bombs, particularly for Israel’s Rafah campaign, which they have announced they are concluding,” a US official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

One 2,000 lb bomb can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius.

The US official said the 500 lb bombs were put together in the same shipment with the larger ones that were paused and therefore got held up.

“Our main concern had been and remains the potential use of 2,000 lb bombs in Rafah and elsewhere in Gaza … Because our concern was not about the 500 lb bombs, those are moving forward as part of the usual process,” the official added.

The US has notified Israel that it is releasing the 500 lb bombs but keeping the hold on the larger ones, a person familiar with the matter said.

NOTE: Israel’s massive attack on a tent encampment in Rafah in late May incinerated 45 mostly women and children in a location Israel had deemed safe – using only 250-lb bombs. 
On detonation, a 500-pound bomb can severely harm or kill everything or anyone within a 20-meter (65-foot) radius, according to the Project on Defense Alternatives (PDA), which conducts defense policy research and analysis.
A 2,000-pound bomb has a destruction radius of 35 meters (115 feet).
Here is what a 500-lb bomb explosion looks like:

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.
The Dissenter: Tracking Dissent: US Officials Who Have Resigned Over The War on Gaza
+972 Magazine: Israel ordered thousands to ‘safe’ areas in Gaza City — then bombed them
Middle East Eye: Harvard University lifts suspensions of pro-Palestine students after faculty criticism

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 10:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 10: at least 38,917* (38,345 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 15,747 children as of June 17. [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 572 in the West Bank (~137 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 45,223 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “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 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

  • At least 46 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 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.
  • 2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – July 10: at least 93,715 (including at least 88,295 in Gaza and 5,420 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 – July 10: ~1,478 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 324 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. 

† 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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