Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
In Gaza, the Health Ministry says at least 52 people have been killed and 118 wounded in the latest 24-hour reporting period.
The Lebanese health ministry has said that 33 people have been killed and 195 wounded in Israeli strikes on Lebanon on Saturday.
- In southern Lebanon, at least 11 medical personnel were killed on Saturday, and 10 more were wounded, in a series of Israeli airstrikes targeting health facilities in southern Lebanon, according to the Lebanese National News Agency.
Israel kills Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in air strike on Beirut
Al Jazeera reports:
On Saturday, Israel announced its killing of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah; Hezbollah confirmed Nasrallah’s death later on Saturday and pledged to keep up the fight against Israel “in support of Gaza and Palestine, and in defense of Lebanon and its steadfast and honorable people”.
The statement confirmed Nasrallah was killed with other group members “following the treacherous Zionist strike on the southern suburbs” of Beirut.
THE GUARDIAN ADDS: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday that the killing of Nasrallah was a historical turning point that could change the balance of power in the Middle East though he warned of “challenging days” ahead.
“Nasrallah was not a terrorist, he was the terrorist,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Nasrallah’s killing was a necessary step toward achieving the goals we have set, returning residents of the north safely to their homes and changing the balance of power in the region for years to come.”
US president Joe Biden called Nasrallah’s assassination “a measure of justice for his many victims, including thousands of Americans, Israelis and Lebanese civilians” – a statement that a number of analysts took issue with.
For example, Middle East expert Assal Rad said: “Biden calls massive bombs in a densely-populated area that leveled six apartment buildings in Lebanon ‘a measure of justice.’ The torching of international law and the precedent that is being set should terrify us all.”
Biden added, “In Gaza, we have been pursuing a deal backed by the UN security council for a ceasefire and the release of hostages. In Lebanon, we have been negotiating a deal that would return people safely to their homes in Israel and southern Lebanon. It is time for these deals to close, for the threats to Israel to be removed, and for the broader Middle East region to gain greater stability.”
AL JAZEERA ADDS: Commenting on the Israeli claims of killing Nasrallah, military and security analyst Elijah Magnier has told Al Jazeera that the focus should be “on the several buildings that all disappeared under the ground, with all their inhabitants,” as a result of the Israeli air attack on Friday.
“It’s absolutely considered a war crime and a crime against humanity – and it’s not in any way considered a collateral damage,” he told Al Jazeera.
“The percentage of the people who are killed in such a populated and dense area – it’s not justifiable,” Magnier said.
NOTE: The US has been providing massive funding for Israel’s war, which directly conflicts with not only its call for “ceasefire” and “stability,” but also the wishes of most Americans.
RECOMMENDED READING: Israel kills Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut: What does this mean for Hezbollah?
![Lebanese Red Cross teams conducted search and rescue operations in the rubble of collapsed buildings following an Israeli army attack in Nabatieh province of southern Lebanon, on September 27, 2024.[Ramiz Dallah – Anadolu Agency]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9-29-a-300x200.jpg)
Children’s suffering in Gaza is ‘horrendous’: UNICEF
Al Jazeera reports:
Conditions in Gaza are progressively deteriorating as the conflict approaches one year, James Elder, global spokesperson for UNICEF, has told Al Jazeera:
Every time I come back it gets worse because it’s a cumulative crisis. There are continuous denial and restrictions on aid and 85 percent of the Gaza Strip is under some form of evacuation order, which is why these indiscriminate attacks make so many victims.
I’ve seen children with fourth degree burns and I didn’t even know that was possible. I’ve seen a young boy with burns so severe he didn’t even have skin left for skin graft surgery and the doctors have no anesthetic for him.
Humanitarians declare Israel’s conduct “makes a mockery” of int’l humanitarian law
Statement from Principals of the Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC):
IASC, made up of heads of 19 humanitarian organizations, called for an end to the atrocities in Gaza. Their statement included:
We cannot do our jobs in the face of overwhelming need and ongoing violence…More than 2 million Palestinians are without protection, food, water, sanitation, shelter, health care, education, electricity and fuel – the basic necessities to survive.
Families have been forcibly displaced, time and time again, from one unsafe place to the next, with no way out.
Women and girls’ dignity, safety, health and rights have been severely compromised.
The risk of famine persists with all 2.1 million residents still in urgent need of food and livelihood assistance as humanitarian access remains restricted.
The parties’ conduct over the last year makes a mockery of their claim to adhere to international humanitarian law and the minimum standards of humanity that it demands.
Civilians must be protected and their essential needs must be met. There must be accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law.
Israel kills Hezbollah leader without consulting US, then asks US to deter Iran from retaliating
Axios reports:
Israel asked the U.S. to take steps to deter Iran from attacking Israel in response to the Israeli airstrike in Beirut that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a top Iranian general, two Israeli and U.S. officials tell Axios.
The Israel-Hezbollah conflict was already spiraling into an all-out war that could pull in Iran, and that was before Israel killed Iran’s most powerful ally in the region, Nasrallah, and an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps general.
Iran has been careful to avoid any attack on Israel that could pull it into such a war, but officials in Washington and Jerusalem are worried Friday’s strike could push Tehran over the edge.
NOTE: Some analysts suggest that Israel wants a war with Iran – to be fought by the US.
The enormous quantity of (banned) explosives used to kill Nasrallah
Alex Gatopoulos, Al Jazeera’s defense editor, adds: All the munitions dropped these days are precision-guided, but let me give you an idea about what happens when you drop them on highly built areas. Israel dropped 85 one-tonne bombs – 187,000 pounds of explosives – on an area the size of a city block, all within a few seconds of each other.
Each bomb has a kill radius of 33 meters (108 feet) – that means anything within that 33-meter radius is going to die – and you’ve just dropped 85 of them on a highly urban environment.
Nasrallah refused to separate Lebanon from Gaza, so he had to go, Israeli officials say
NBC News reports:
Israel took the decision to assassinate Nasrallah after concluding he would not accept any diplomatic solution to end the fighting on the Israel-Lebanon border that was not tied to an end to the war in Gaza, an Israeli official said.
Israel had tried repeatedly to reach a separate diplomatic solution with Hezbollah since October 8th but Nasrallah was adamant he would continue firing until Israel made a deal with Hamas, the official told NBC News.
“What we found after over 11 months is that Nasrallah is persistent in tying himself — and the hijacked Lebanese state that he took over — to whatever’s going on in Gaza,” the official said. “He declined every diplomatic effort. He declined messages to stop connecting himself to Gaza. And he continued to fire at Israel, and in the past few weeks or months, even expanded the range and velocity of attacks against Israel.”
“This led us to understand that he cannot be part of the game anymore. And what we did is to conduct a very precise, intelligence-based strike against the headquarters of Hezbollah in Beirut, to make sure that Nasrallah cannot be a decision maker anymore in the region.”
ANADOLU AGENCY ADDS: A senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was killed in Friday’s Israeli air attack on Beirut, state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.
Brigadier Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan was killed alongside Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, the agency said, and is said to have served as the deputy commander of the IRGC for operational affairs.
Hasan Nasrallah died on the road to liberate Palestine
Electronic Intifada reports:
Nasrallah’s killing comes after a series of tactical successes in the early stages of Israel’s unfolding full-scale attack on Lebanon, an open-ended assault that may well equal in barbarity Tel Aviv’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.
Nasrallah’s stature as a tactical and strategic thinker, as the most prominent and trusted leader of the Axis of Resistance, and as a personality capable of inspiring and reassuring supporters even in the worst of times, cannot be overstated.
The euphoria in Israel, Washington and some Arab capitals, will be exceeded only by the grief of Nasrallah’s supporters, who are far more numerous.
And there is no doubt that the loss is real and great from the perspective of a resistance that faces not only Israel’s formidable arsenal, but all the resources of the United States and the collective West.
The attacks will go some way to restoring the prestige Tel Aviv has lost among its Western and Arab backers after a year of military failure in Gaza, and its failure to prevent the Hamas military offensive that wiped out the Gaza division of Israel’s army on 7 October 2023.
It is worth remembering this: In almost any asymmetrical war, when the strongest side – the invader or colonizer – goes on the offensive, it often appears to achieve quick and stunning success.
Indeed “shock and awe” is the name of a Western, specifically American, military doctrine, developed in the 1990s and explicitly touted when the US invaded Iraq in 2003.
Also called “rapid dominance,” its aim is to demoralize and paralyze the adversary with the use of overwhelming and spectacular displays of violence…
(Read the full analysis here.)
![Rescuers worked through the night searching for survivors in Friday's strikes [Getty]](https://israelpalestinenews.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/9-28-f-300x169.jpg)
Israel intercepts Houthi missile aimed at Netanyahu
Reuters reports:
Yemen’s Houthis have said they have fired a ballistic missile at Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv.
They said it was aimed to coincide with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s return to Israel from the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The Israeli military said the missile has been intercepted.
This marks the second time in less than two days that the Houthis have launched an attack at Israel, following the interception of another missile early on Friday.
Israeli army hacks into Beirut Airport control tower, threatens Iranian civilian plane
Anadolu Agency reports:
The Israeli army on Saturday hacked into the control tower of Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport, issuing threats against an Iranian civilian aircraft attempting to land, according to official sources.
The Lebanese Ministry of Transport instructed airport authorities to prevent the Iranian plane from entering Lebanese airspace following Israeli threats to target the aircraft if it landed at the airport.
Sources within the ministry confirmed to Anadolu that the directive was issued after the Israeli army’s aggressive posturing.
There was no comment from the Israeli side on the reports yet.
However, hours earlier, Israeli army spokesman Daniel Hagari warned that the army “will not allow any weapons to be transferred to Hezbollah,” including “through Beirut International Airport.”
“We will not allow the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah in any form. We are aware of Iranian weapons transfers to Hezbollah, and we will work to thwart them,” he said in a statement.
Iran to approve troop deployment to Lebanon in coming days: Report
NBC News reports:
An Iranian official has announced that Iran will begin registration in the coming days for those interested in being deployed to Lebanon.
“With public registration, officials will certainly grant permission for the deployment of forces to Lebanon and the Golan heights,” Ayatollah Mohammad Hassan Akhtari, head of the Committee for Supporting the People of Palestine, told Iranian news site Didban.
Any plan to send troops to Lebanon would require official approval.
“We can send forces to Lebanon to fight against Israel, just as we did in the year 1981.”
West Bank: Wounded Palestinian Detainee Dies in Israeli Prison
IMEMC reports:
A wounded Palestinian detainee succumbed to his wounds, just two days after Israeli soldiers shot and abducted him from his home in the Al-Ein refugee camp, west of Nablus in the northern West Bank.
In a statement, the Commission for Detainees’ and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs and the Palestinian Prisoners’ Society (PPS) announced the death of the injured detainee, Walid Ahmad Mohammad Khalifa, 30, while he was in Israeli custody.
On Saturday, the prisoner associations confirmed Khalifa’s death, two days after Israeli forces stormed his home in the Al-Ein refugee camp, west of Nablus, before shooting him with live ammunition, withholding medical treatment, and proceeding to abduct him.
Media sources said that the condition of the injured young man was not disclosed at the time of his abduction, and he was transferred to an unknown location, before his family was notified of his death by the Palestinian liaison.
According to family members, after shooting Khalifa, soldiers took him out of the house on a stretcher, while he screamed for his family.
It is important to mention that Khalifa is a married father of four children, including a newborn, and the brother of the slain, Amir Khalifa, who was assassinated by Israeli forces in August of 2023.
With the death of Khalifa, the number of prisoners and detainees who have died in Israeli prisons since October 7, 2023, has risen to 25, while the 262 prisoners and detainees have died in Israeli prisons, since 1967.
NOTE: Israel is currently holding about 9,900 Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – 240 of them are children, 87 are women, and over 3,300 are administrative detainees – being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.
Common Dreams reports:
Cornell University has come under fire for the administration’s treatment of Ph.D. student Momodou Taal, a U.K. citizen who could be deported as a result of his pro-Palestinian activism on the Ithaca, New York campus.
Taal’s attorney, Eric Lee, said, “the administration has made the decision to persecute Mr. Taal for free speech activity knowing full well that doing so will subject him to serious immigration consequences,” which sets “a dangerous national precedent.”
Because Taal has attended the Ivy League school with an F-1 visa, the suspension means he could soon be deported.
Taal, 30-year-old a Ph.D. candidate in Africana studies who was teaching a writing seminar at Cornell, is part of the Coalition for Mutual Liberation.
He was among over 100 students who marched into the on-campus career fair last week due to participation from Boeing and L3Harris, defense contractors that students targeted for “supporting the ongoing war in Gaza.”
“Once again, there has been no investigation, nor have I had a chance to even respond to the allegations against me,” he said.
“I maintain that all my actions have been peaceful and in accordance with my First Amendment rights. This is a deliberate targeting of a Black Muslim student at an institution where those two identities are increasingly unwelcome. When it comes to Palestine the university will abandon all commitments to academic freedom and free speech to protect its corporate interests.”
NOTE: Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a violation of students’ and professors’ right to free speech. One strategy Israel supporters use is to pressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more. But supporters of Palestine on campus are fighting back.
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
Palestine Chronicle: Not October 7 or Any Other Date – This is all about 1948 Now
Middle East Monitor: Israel approved over 80 illegal settlement plans in occupied West Bank, Jerusalem since 2022: Palestinian authorities
The desperate calls in my office are heart-wrenching. The mission of the @StateDept is to protect Americans, and they are failing AGAIN.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 28, 2024
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 28:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – September 28, 2024: at least 42,305* (41,586 in Gaza* – 11,308 women (30%), 16,715 children as of September 5. [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 719 in the West Bank (~148 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 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 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
- 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.
- Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – September 28: at least 101,910 (including at least 96,210 in Gaza and 5,700 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 – September 28, 2024: ~1,457 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 293*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 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 1,640 (104 children, 194 women) and 8,408 injuries. More recently, since September 16, 1,030 have been killed, 6,352 have been injured., with 6,352 injuries, the Lebanese Health Ministry said on Saturday, September 28.
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 53 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.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
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