Israeli Lawmakers Call to Cut Off Gaza’s Food, Water, Power – Day 453

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Israeli Lawmakers Call to Cut Off Gaza’s Food, Water, Power – Day 453
Palestinians continue to live in makeshift tents, struggling with bad weather conditions in Gaza on December 31, 2024. (Ali Jadallah – Anadolu Agency)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Israeli strikes have killed at least 71 Palestinians across Gaza, including at least 12 in the so-called “humanitarian zone” of al-Mawasi in southern Gaza, as well as the head and deputy head of Gaza’s police force.

Ha’aretz: Israeli Lawmakers Call for Destruction of Food, Water and Power Sources in Gaza

Eight members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee called on the defense minister to order the destruction of all sources of water, food and energy in northern Gaza to ensure Hamas’ defeat, amid international criticism of Israel’s continued offense in the Gaza Strip.

The lawmakers maintained in a letter to Defense Minister Israel Katz that the actions of the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza “do not enable achieving the war objectives as defined by the government, which is the dismantling of Hamas’ governing and military capabilities.”

The MKs who signed the letter are Amit Halevi, Nissim Vaturi and Osher Shkalim (Likud), Tzvi Succot and Ohad Tal (Religious Zionism), Limor Son Har-Melech (Otzma Yehudit) and Avraham Bezalel (Shas).

They said that “after encircling the area and the humanitarian evacuation, the IDF is not treating those who remain as the enemy, as is customary in international law and in all Western armies, thus endangering our soldiers’ lives by entering into the densely built area.”

The MKs urged Katz to reconsider the war plans, and after surrounding the northern Strip, to order the forces there to destroy the sources of water, food and energy in the region, to kill anyone moving in the area who “doesn’t come out with a white flag” and then “to enter gradually for a complete cleansing of the enemy’s nests.”

They said that the IDF must take this course of action not only in the northern Strip but in any other given sector.

NOTE: The Famine Review Committee (FRC), which concluded that there is a risk of famine in Gaza. This opinion was 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.
ALSO NOTE: Starvation and forced transfer of a people group are crimes against humanity.
Palestinians gather to get food from a soup kitchen in central Gaza as famine takes hold in the Strip on 19 December 2024
Palestinians gather to get food from a soup kitchen in central Gaza as famine takes hold in the Strip on 19 December 2024 (Mohammed Asad/MEMO)

Photographer Hassan al-Qishaoui killed in Gaza airstrike

Al-Qishaoui’s killing has been verified by Al Jazeera. He’s the latest journalist to be killed in Gaza, including a number of Al Jazeera’s team. At least 217 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since October 7, 2023.

Hassan al-Qishaoui
Hassan al-Qishaoui (social media)

Israel Carried Out 1,400 Strikes in Gaza Last Month

The Israeli military has announced that it carried out over 1,400 air strikes on Gaza in December alone, amounting to 45 strikes a day on average on Palestinians also suffering under famine conditions due to Israel’s enduring aid blockade.

This is a staggering amount of strikes in such a small period of time, coming after Israel has already destroyed roughly 70 percent of infrastructure in Gaza.

Even as the military carried out these strikes, Israeli officials were taking part in ceasefire negotiations that appeared to be gaining steam, according to media reports. Like others before, these talks fizzled out as Israeli officials insisted on staying in Gaza even after a deal was struck and as reports have found that Israel intends to openly violate the terms of its ceasefire agreement in Lebanon.

Human rights groups and experts have documented dozens of instances of Israel using U.S. bombs to commit war crimes in Gaza. According to reporting by The Washington Post from October, the State Department has reportedly swept aside over 500 reports of Israel using U.S. weapons to kill civilians in Gaza and causing “unnecessary harm.”

Thick smoke billows from a residential building in Bureij refugee camp after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Deir al-Balah, Palestinian Territories, on June 3, 2024.
Thick smoke billows from a residential building in Bureij refugee camp after it was hit by an Israeli airstrike, in Deir al-Balah, Palestinian Territories, on June 3, 2024. (Omar Naaman / picture alliance via Getty Images)

New Report, ‘How to Hide a Genocide: The Role of Evacuation Orders and Safe Zones in Israel’s Genocidal Campaign in Gaza’ (excerpt)

Palestinian human rights NGO Al Haq examines the central role played by unlawful “evacuation orders” to alleged “safe zones”, which constitutes the war crime and crime against humanity of forcible transfer, in Israel’s genocidal acts.

Palestinians in every corner of the Gaza Strip are quickly losing all means of survival. This is especially so in the North, which has been placed under a complete siege for eleven weeks…all hospitals in the North are now damaged and unable to provide crucial health services to trapped, injured, and sick Palestinian civilians who remain subject to constant shelling and bombardment.

These mass atrocities are all taking place amidst regular evacuation orders instructing the entire population of the North to move south immediately so it can resettle the area.

Since the very first week of its genocide, Israel has methodically cleared vast stretches of the Gaza Strip of its inhabitants through its unlawful issuance of evacuation orders. 

These are presented to the public as proof of its efforts to minimize civilian casualties and to support its alleged compliance with fundamental principles of international humanitarian law (IHL). However, they achieve the direct opposite (read the full report here).

Palestinian residents, carrying their belongings, are on their way to migrate for safer areas following the Israeli army’s orders evacuation of the Bani Suheila town in Khan Younis, Gaza on October 07, 2024 [
Palestinian residents, carrying their belongings, are on their way to migrate for safer areas following the Israeli army’s orders evacuation of the Bani Suheila town in Khan Younis, Gaza on October 07, 2024 [ (Ashraf Amra – Anadolu Agency)

Number of aid personnel killed in Gaza rises to 736

The Government Media Office in Gaza says the number of humanitarian relief workers killed in Israeli attacks since October 7, 2023, has risen to 736.

“This escalation is part of a deliberate plan by the Israeli occupation to create an administrative and governmental vacuum and to spread chaos and insecurity in Gaza Strip, aiming to undermine the resilience and stability of our people,” the media office said in a statement.

“The shocking rise in the number of aid security personnel martyred, now totaling 736, highlights the extent of the crimes perpetrated by the occupation, targeting those who strive to provide assistance and relief to our afflicted people.”

A destroyed ambulance seen at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Feb. 28, 2024
A destroyed ambulance seen at Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis, on Feb. 28, 2024 (Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua via Getty Images)

Gaza’s hunger crisis

Aid agencies say Israeli authorities are continuing to severely restrict the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, more than a month after global food security experts called for immediate action to avert famine in the war-torn enclave.

Here are some quick facts about the food crisis in Gaza:

  • The Famine Review Committee, in an alert on November 8, said some 91 percent of Gaza’s 1.95 million people face “high levels of acute food insecurity”. These include an estimated 345,000 people facing famine.
  • The UN’s food agency says some 68 percent of Gaza’s cropland, 52 percent of its agricultural wells and 44 percent of its greenhouse areas have been damaged.
  • Some 70 percent of Gaza’s fishing fleet has been destroyed.
  • Some 95 percent of Gaza’s cattle have died.
Palestinians, including children, wait to receive food distributed by an aid organisation in, Gaza on November 18, 2024
Palestinians, including children, wait to receive food distributed by an aid organisation in, Gaza on November 18, 2024 (Hassan Jedi/Anadolu Agency)

West Bank: Israel banned the prayer call at Ibrahimi Mosque 48 times in December

Israeli occupation forces prevented the call to prayer from being raised in the Ibrahimi Mosque 48 times in December, the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs revealed yesterday.

Occupation forces also raided Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque 22 times in that period, it added.

Releasing its monthly report, the ministry said that occupation forces and settlers escalated their attacks on Al-Aqsa Mosque, noting that the extremist Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, stormed the mosque on the first day of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah while heavily guarded by occupation forces. This was the seventh time he has raided the Muslim holy site since he assumed office in December 2022.

Regarding the Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron in the southern occupied West Bank, the ministry documented that “the occupation forces prevented the call to prayer 48 times, stormed it, climbed onto its roof and took some measurements, which constitutes a blatant violation of the sanctity of Islamic holy sites and an encroachment on Waqf property.”

It also documented that the occupation authorities carried out excavations and extended a sewage line in the courtyards of the mosque, and assaulted the mosque’s director, Sheikh Moataz Abu Sneineh, at the military gates and prevented him from receiving medical treatment. Occupation forces also attempted to disrupt a Quran recitation event.

Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron, located in the West Bank.
Ibrahimi Mosque in the city of Hebron, located in the West Bank. (Mamoun Wazwaz/Anadolu Agency)
UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese
UN Special Rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese (photo)

UN expert calls on medical professionals worldwide to suspend ties to Israel

The UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, Francesca Albanese, has called on “medical professionals worldwide” to suspend ties with Israel in an act of solidarity with the more than “1,000 colleagues of yours” killed in Gaza over the past 14 months.

Countless more Palestinian medical workers “were arrested, tortured, disappeared”, Albanese said in a post on social media.

“Out of dismay [and] solidarity you should revolt, and urge suspension of ties with Israel until it stops the genocide [and] accounts for it. What are you waiting for,” she said.

UN urges Palestinian Authority to reverse Al Jazeera suspension

The United Nations has urged the Palestinian Authority to “reverse course”, after it suspended broadcasts by Al Jazeera and levelled allegations of incitement.

“We are deeply concerned by the Palestinian Authority’s suspension of Al Jazeera operations and reporters in the West Bank amid troubling a trend of suppressing freedom of opinion and expression” in the Palestinian territories, the UN human rights office said on X.

The statement added, “We urge PA to reverse course and respect its international law obligations.”

NOTE: The Palestinian Authority is widely seen as a collaborator with, or subcontractor for the Israeli occupation.

Israel has not permitted foreign journalists access to Gaza throughout this conflict, and banned Al Jazeera from reporting inside Israel in May 2024.

Israeli soldiers close Al Jazeera television’s office in Ramallah, West Bank on September 22, 2024. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency]
Israeli soldiers close Al Jazeera television’s office in Ramallah, West Bank on September 22, 2024. [Issam Rimawi – Anadolu Agency] (Issam Rimawi/Anadolu via Getty Images)

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – JANUARY 2, 2025:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – January 2, 2025: at least 46,417* – 45,581 in Gaza; in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 836 Palestinians (~172 of them children).

Thousands of those killed in Gaza have yet to be identified, and an estimated 11,000 more are still buried under rubble.

According to a report in the Lancet, by multiplying the reported deaths by five, it is possible to reach a conservative estimate of total deaths (including indirect causes like starvation and lack of medicine). Using the latest figure from AFP (45,581), it is reasonable to estimate at least 227,905 total deaths in Gaza since October 7th, 2023.

According to a recent report by the UN Human Rights Office of identified fatalities in Gaza, about 44% were children. It is reasonable to estimate that 20,056 of known direct deaths and 100,278 of the total deaths are children.

Since Israel launched an extermination campaign in northern Gaza in early October, over 4,000 Palestinians have been killed or are missing and another 12,000 wounded.

Palestinian injuries from October 7, 2023 – January 2, 2025: at least 114,938 (including at least 108,438 in Gaza and 6,500 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 – January 2, 2025: ~1,595 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 417*** (or 391) military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (updated: Dec. 17); 43 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

ADDITIONAL STATISTICS: Since October 7th, 2023:

  • At least 50 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (at least 30 of them from Gaza).
  • At least 43 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.

*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.

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 59 Israeli soldiers – nearly 17% 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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