Israel vows to improve safety for aid workers, then kills 4 aid workers; uses horrific shrapnel-producing weapons against children – Day 278

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Israel vows to improve safety for aid workers, then kills 4 aid workers; uses horrific shrapnel-producing weapons against children – Day 278
A few of the many children wounded by shrapnel – some also severely burned – in the course of Israel's now nine-month-long attack on Gaza. The weapons create small pieces of shrapnel that leave barely discernible entry wounds but create extensive destruction inside the body. (collage)

Israeli-made shrapnel weapons “designed to maximize casualties”; how NOT to improve safety for aid workers; Israeli snipers target Palestinians as they flee; unbelievable destruction in Gaza City, signs of illegal buffer zone; Khan Younis reduced to “sand and rubble”; Israel proceeds with West Bank illegal annexation; Gaza pier to be dismantled after 20 operational days; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Israeli shrapnel weapons causing severe injuries to Gaza children, say doctors

The Guardian reports: Israeli-made weapons designed to spray high levels of shrapnel are causing horrific injuries to civilians in Gaza and disproportionately harming children, foreign surgeons who worked in the territory in recent months have told the Guardian.

The doctors say many of the deaths, amputations and life changing wounds to children they have treated came from the firing of missiles and shells – in areas crowded with civilians – packed with additional metal designed to fragment into tiny pieces of shrapnel.

Volunteer doctors at two Gaza hospitals said that a majority of their operations were on children hit by small pieces of shrapnel that leave barely discernible entry wounds but create extensive destruction inside the body. Amnesty International has said that the weapons appear designed to maximize casualties.

The Guardian spoke to six foreign doctors who have worked at two hospitals in Gaza, the European and al-Aqsa, in the last three months. All of them described encountering extensive wounds caused by “fragmentation” weapons, which they said have contributed to alarming rates of amputations since the war began.

“X-rays showed demolished bones with a pinhole wound on one side, a pinhole on the other, and a bone that looks like a tractor trailer drove over it,” said one doctor.

(Read the full article here.)

HEAD OF USAID SAYS ISRAEL VOWS TO IMPROVE SAFETY FOR HUMANITARIAN WORKERS

Al Jazeera reports: Samantha Power, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) administrator, said she has received Israeli pledges to allow aid workers to move more quickly and safely throughout the Gaza Strip.

“My whole career has been working in and around conflict areas,” said Power. “I have never seen a more difficult conflict environment for humanitarians to work in.”

UPDATE: Middle East Eye reports that on Friday morning, an Israeli strike killed four aid workers in Khan Younis.

NOTE: Promises from Israel are not taken seriously by those familiar with Israel’s patterns of behavior. Since the beginning of the attack on Gaza, Israel has made a point of actively thwarting attempts to bring aid to the hungry.
Thousands of aid trucks are reportedly waiting just outside 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 (once killing over 100); Israel has also attacked food aid convoys. Additionally, Israeli citizens have blocked a border crossing for weeks, and attacked and looted trucks they believed were heading to Gaza – all with no meaningful attempt by Israel to stop them.
In mid-March, Israel promised to “flood” Gaza with aid, but has failed to do so.
The US has for months expressed its desire to see appropriate amounts of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza on one hand, while undermining Gaza’s largest aid organization on the other.

Israeli snipers reportedly target fleeing Palestinians in Gaza City

Several Palestinians have said that people have been shot dead while trying to flee Gaza City and comply with the Israeli military’s order to leave the area in the north of the Strip.

A spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that more than 60 bodies have been recovered in Gaza City’s Shujayea neighbourhood, with dozens more under the rubble.

More than 85 percent of buildings in Shujayea are now also uninhabitable, leaving more than 120,000 residents homeless.

‘Destruction of agricultural land for possible establishment of a buffer zone’

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli military has pulled out of the Shujayea neighborhood of Gaza City, where it had been operating for the past month, destroying the vast majority of its residential buildings and bulldozing large areas of its agricultural land in what looks like the establishment of a buffer zone, leaving the rest of the Shujayea neighborhood in complete ruins.

Social services have been eliminated. All remaining residential buildings and public facilities, including schools as well as privately owned facilities like UNRWA facilities in the Shujayea neighborhood, were completely destroyed.

As people made their way back to check on their homes and residential blocks, they were shocked by the level of devastation as well as bodies in the streets.

THE NEW ARAB ADDS: Gaza’s Civil Defense spokesman Mahmoud Bassal said 85 percent of buildings are now uninhabitable, and Shujaiya has been left a “disaster zone”.

The discovery came after Israeli troops ended a two-week operation which Gaza’s Civil Defense and residents said had left the area in ruins.

Civil defense teams reported on Thursday, around 60 bodies were found under the rubble of Gaza City’s eastern Shujaiya neighborhood.

Khan Younis reduced to ‘sand and rubble’

Al Jazeera reports: Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip has largely been reduced to sand and rubble, says Muhannad Hadi, the UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory.

Hadi was in Khan Younis for a rare visit from an outside official to the besieged enclave on Tuesday, and says every building he saw there was damaged in some way.

Hadi said many of the women he spoke to said they had cut off their hair, as “extreme overcrowding” in temporary shelters and tent camps was leading to the spread of lice.

Last week, Israel ordered the forced displacement of 250,000 Palestinians from eastern Khan Younis,  according to UN estimates.

Palestinians develop makeshift prosthetics to help amputees

As Israel continues its intense bombardment of the Gaza Strip, the number of wounded Palestinians is increasing rapidly.

Two Palestinian therapists are now making prosthetic limbs out of scrap wood to help amputees in the besieged enclave.

Watch the video below:

Hamas official: ‘Israel’s continued massacres push us to adhere to our demands’

Middle East Monitor reports: A senior Hamas official conveyed on Wednesday that the “intensification” of the Israeli occupation’s military operations would lead to the Palestinian movement adhering to its position in mediation efforts to reach a truce.

The occupation forces recently intensified their raids on northern Gaza, with renewed fighting in the city of Rafah, in the far south of the devastated Strip.

In other areas of the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli strikes targeted four schools used as shelters, killing many, sparking condemnation from France and Germany, which considered the attacks “unacceptable.”

Hossam Badran, a member of the Hamas political bureau, shared that the Israeli occupation forces are increasing military operations and: “Are trying to put pressure on the negotiations by intensifying bombing and displacement operations and committing massacres.”

With diplomatic efforts hastening to reach an agreement to release the hostages and reach a truce in Gaza after more than nine months of devastating war, Badran considered that the occupation government was trying to push Hamas to concede.

Badran believed that the occupation government: “Hopes that the resistance will concede its legitimate demands during the negotiations,” including a complete ceasefire and the complete withdrawal of the Israeli occupation forces from Gaza.

However, he stressed that: “The continuation of the massacres forces us to adhere to our demands.”

A lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, combined with the heat of summer, is fuellng the spread of infectious diseases.
A lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, combined with the heat of summer, is fuellng the spread of infectious diseases. (screengrab)

Biden says Israel has been ‘less than cooperative’ with efforts to get more aid into Gaza

Al Jazeera reports: Speaking at the NATO summit Thursday, and asked if he would do anything differently in his handling of Israel’s war in Gaza, President Biden said that Israel’s current right-wing government has not always cooperated with efforts to allow more aid into Gaza.

“We pushed it [efforts to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza] really hard, and Israel occasionally was less than cooperative,” he said.

Biden made little reference to the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, where more than 38,000 people, mostly women and children, have been killed. Israeli forces also have faced allegations of widespread rights abuses.

Instead, the president noted his longstanding links with Israel, referring to his experience meeting with former Israeli leader Golda Meir when he was a US senator.

The Biden administration has continued to send billions of dollars of weapons to Israel, despite growing international pressure to bring the war to an end.

Ali Hassan Ali Rabay’a
Ali Hassan Ali Rabay’a (photo)

Palestinian teen killed by Israeli army gunfire south of Jenin

WAFA reports: A 17-year-old Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli occupation forces during confrontations this evening in the town of Meithalun, south of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian security sources. [NOTE: some sources report his age as 15.]

Witnesses reported the Israeli forces stormed Meithalun, prompting confrontations that resulted in the murder of Ali Hassan Ali Rabai’a, 17, and left two other children injured from live ammunition in the nearby village of Siris.

The Palestinian Red Crescent reported that its teams transferred the body of the slain child from a main road in Meithalun to the Turkish Hospital in the nearby town of Tubas.

With the murder of Rabai’a, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank since October 7th last year has risen to 573, including 138 children, with approximately 5,350 injured.

Smotrich Has Completed Israel’s Illegal Annexation of the West Bank

Ha’aretz reports: A few days ago, the constitutional revolution was completed, but no, not in Israel. Few were aware of it, but the Ben-Gvir-Smotrich-Netanyahu government has conspired to carry out a coup in the West Bank.

The move seeks to annex the West Bank and perpetuate Jewish supremacy as a guiding principle there.

The regime revolution in the West Bank is being conducted in accordance with the commitments Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave to Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich as part of the coalition agreement. Its essence is the transfer of all the governing powers in the West Bank, except those directly relating to security, from the army to an apparatus headed by Smotrich himself.

Land management, planning and construction, enforcement against unpermitted construction, supervision and management of local authorities, professional licensing, trade and economy, management of nature reserves and archaeological sites – all are now in the hands of Smotrich.

The transfer of administrative powers to public servants of the occupying government and to its elected officials creates a direct rule by the occupiers’ citizens over the occupied territory, thereby expanding the occupiers’ sovereignty into the occupied territory. In other words: annexation. This is what Smotrich has succeeded in doing.

New settlements will be erected; new neighborhoods will be built at a rate we haven’t seen yet; large swathes of land will be allocated to violent Israelis in order to set up farms on them; Palestinian structures built without permits will be demolished at a dizzying pace, while illegal construction by settlers will be legalized. Fearless and shameless apartheid. Apartheid as a work plan.

The great shame lies in the fact that no one has stood up to object, not in Israel nor around the world. The same world that imposed heavy sanctions on Russia when it annexed in criminal fashion the Crimean Peninsula, and later territory it had conquered after invading Ukraine, has gone silent, not sounding a peep when it comes to Israel. Indeed, the world uses a different yardstick when it comes to Israel.

US sanctions another handful of Israel’s 700,000 settlers and ‘outposts’ in occupied West Bank

The Guardian reports: The US has stepped up efforts to target violent Israeli settlers, adding new individuals and organizations to a growing sanctions list and warning banks to check transactions linked to all Israeli “outposts” in the occupied West Bank.

The new sanctions cover the far-right group Lehava, already listed by the UK, and two founding members of Tsav9, a campaign group that blocked aid from reaching Gaza. The new measures also target outposts, suggesting the Biden administration is prepared to take at least some steps to confront Israel’s creeping land grab on the West Bank.

One of the outposts targeted was set up by a regional council, implying that branches of the Israeli state are potentially no longer off limits, when it comes to sanctions.

“It appears that they’ve not just targeted extremist settlers but have introduced a linkage to territoriality by citing illegal outposts,” Aaron David Miller, a former state department Middle East negotiator now a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“It doesn’t take much imagination to conclude that the next target would be [Israeli] government financing for illegal outposts. And that would be a new departure to be sure.”

Matthew Miller, the state department spokesperson, said that the four West Bank outposts specifically targeted by Thursday’s sanctions, “are owned or controlled by US-designated individuals who have weaponized them as bases for violent actions to displace Palestinians”.

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. All Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law, and considered by many Palestinians to be the main barrier to any lasting peace agreement.. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

Israeli court rules to evict 66 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem

Al Jazeera reports: The Jerusalem District Court has rejected appeals filed by 11 Palestinian families consisting of 66 people fighting eviction from their homes in the Silwan district by the Ateret Cohanim settler group, the Israeli nonprofit Ir Amim says. Some of the families were told to pay legal expenses in addition to evacuating their homes.

“These families are among some 85 Palestinian families, consisting of over 700 individuals, who face large-scale displacement and settler takeovers of their homes in Batan al-Hawa,” it said.

“These cases are part and parcel of a coordinated and systematic political campaign aimed at uprooting Palestinians and expanding Jewish settlement in the heart of Palestinian neighborhoods. While the eviction claims themselves are initiated by settlers, they are aided and abetted on all levels of the state, which carry far-reaching implications on the future of Jerusalem and the conflict as a whole.”

Media organizations urge Israel to allow access into Gaza

Press release from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ): More than 60 media and civil society organizations have signed an open letter urging Israel to give journalists independent access to the besieged coastal enclave.

The organizations, which include The Associated Press, AFP, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post – reiterated that no independent media access to Gaza has been permitted since October 7.

“More than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation. The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder and harder to obtain and that the reporting which does get through is subject to repeated questions over its veracity,” the organizations said in the letter, which was coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media watchdog.

“Netanyahu describes Israel as a democracy. His actions with regard to the media tell a different story. International, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from outside Gaza should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war –  rather than being spoon-fed with a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military,” said CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg.

In addition to news outlets, the signatories – who span more than 26 countries – include professional groups and organizations dedicated to defending press freedom.

Press House - Palestine supply of occupational safety equipment for journalists reporting from Gaza – not enough to protect them from Israeli airstrikes.
Press House – Palestine supply of occupational safety equipment for journalists reporting from Gaza – not enough to protect them from Israeli bullets and airstrikes. (photo)

US Gaza aid pier to be permanently dismantled after operating for just 20 days

The Guardian reports: A US military pier, built two months ago as a way to bring sea-borne humanitarian aid into Gaza, is to be permanently dismantled within a few days, US officials have told reporters.

The officials said the pier, which has had to be moved repeatedly to avoid bad weather, would be reconnected to the Gaza coastline on Wednesday but would operate for just the next few days before being disassembled by the US army and navy.

The pier would be put back in place only long enough to move humanitarian supplies which have accumulated in Cyprus and on a floating dock offshore since the pier went out of action on 28 June as a result of weather conditions, according to the Pentagon’s current plan.

Aid workers familiar with the project had been predicting for weeks that the pier would not survive beyond July.

The Biden administration has praised the Gaza pier project, but critics have called it “humanitarian theater,” and a "failure."
The Biden administration has praised the Gaza pier project, but critics have called it “humanitarian theater,” and a “failure.” (screengrab)

Palestinians say Microsoft unfairly closing their accounts

BBC reports: Palestinians living abroad have accused Microsoft of closing their email accounts without warning – cutting them off from crucial online services.

They say it has left them unable to access bank accounts and job offers – and stopped them using Skype, which Microsoft owns, to contact relatives in war-torn Gaza.

Microsoft says they violated its terms of service – a claim they dispute.

“They killed my life online,” said Eiad Hametto, who lives in Saudi Arabia. “They’ve suspended my email account that I’ve had for nearly 20 years – It was connected to all my work.”

He also said being cut off from Skype was a huge blow for his family.

With a paid Skype subscription, it is possible to call mobiles in Gaza cheaply – and while the internet is down – so it has become a lifeline to many Palestinians.

Some of the people the BBC spoke to said they suspected they were wrongly thought to have ties to Hamas, but Mr Hametto denied he had any such links.

“We are civilians with no political background who just wanted to check on our families,” he said.

Microsoft did not respond directly when asked if suspected ties to Hamas were the reason for the accounts being shut, but a spokesperson said it did not block calls or ban users based on calling region or destination.

“Blocking in Skype can occur in response to suspected fraudulent activity,” they said, without elaborating.

CAIR Welcomes Delta Apology for Anti-Palestinian Twitter Post

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed an apology from Delta Air Lines for a now deleted anti-Palestinian tweet agreeing with the false claim that a Palestinian flag pin worn by a flight attendant was a “Hamas badge.”

CAIR yesterday called on the airline to apologize.

In a statement, Delta said: “Delta removed a mistakenly posted comment on X Tuesday because it was not in line with our values and our mission to connect the world…The team member responsible for the post has been counseled and no longer supports Delta’s social channels…We apologize for this error.”

“We welcome this apology and hope it sends a message to those who continue to dehumanize the Palestinian people as they face genocide, ethnic cleansing and forced starvation imposed by the far-right Israeli government, and enabled by the Biden administration,” said CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.
The Intercept: Supporting Palestine Helped the Left Win in France and Britain. Will Democrats Learn From It?
Middle East Monitor: Smotrich: Israel could strike and send Lebanon back 30 years

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 11:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 11: 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 573 in the West Bank (~138 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 11: 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 11: ~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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