“Most moral army in the world” added to UN Hall of Shame for child endangerment – Day 245

, , , , , , , , ,
“Most moral army in the world” added to UN Hall of Shame for child endangerment – Day 245
UN report details violations against children. (screengrab)

Israeli bombing of Gaza surpasses that of WW2; Israel’s military added to a global list of entities that commit violations against children; the war’s dire toll on Gaza’s kids; clear surge in Israeli attacks on “safe zones”;

Israel partisans call Briahna Joy Gray “N word”, she describes Hill censorship; West Bank Israeli thuggery; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Amount of Israeli bombs dropped on Gaza surpasses that of World War II:

Andalou Agency reports: Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of bombs on the Gaza Strip since last October, far surpassing the of Dresden, Hamburg, and London combined during World War II.

In late April, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor estimated that approximately 70,000 tons of bombs were dropped on Gaza, covering the six-month period between Oct. 7 and April 24.

“It is estimated that Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip in addition to its bulldozing operations, resulting in the destruction of all buildings at a distance of up to one kilometer in the east and north of the Strip in order to create a so-called buffer zone,” according to the Geneva-based human rights monitor organization.

The Germans bombed London, dropping around 18,300 tons of bombs between 1940 and 1941, according to various estimates, including archives from the New York Times.

The Allies dropped 8,500 tons of bombs on Hamburg in the summer of 1943, said Hendrik Althoff, a research fellow at the Department of History at the University of Hamburg.

The Allies also used 3,900 tons of bombs on Dresden in February 1945, according to historical records.

Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza following the Oct. 7 Hamas incursion, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire.

UN adds Israel to list of states committing violations against children

The Guardian reports:

Inclusion comes after eight months of the country’s bombing of Gaza which has killed 13,000 children.

News of Israel’s inclusion on the list follows eight months of war on Gaza, in which more than 13,000 children are estimated to be among the 36,500 killed, and comes a day after the Israeli bombing of a UN school in central Gaza, which killed more than 40 Palestinians, some of them children.

According to human rights officials, Hamas is also named in the report for its killing and kidnapping of children in its 7 October attack on Israel. [According to Israel’s National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed on Oct. 7, and 42 were taken hostage.]

There have been claims by UN staff that Israel had been left off the list of offenders in previous years after political pressure from Israeli officials.

“There have been already a few years in which there have been verified violations by Israel government forces and by Palestinian armed groups, but they have never been listed,” Ezequiel Heffes, the director of the human rights group, Watchlist on Children and Armed Conflict.

WAFA reports: Palestine’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Riyad Mansour, said that Israel has evaded accountability for its crimes against Palestinian children for decades now which led it to persist and intensify its crimes against them in a violation of all norms and of the principles of legality, morality and humanity.

“The lives of our children are not less worthy than the lives of children around the world and it is no longer possible for the international community to maintain Israeli exceptionalism as its crimes against our people have only become more brutal in a manner that shocks the conscience of the world,” said Mansour.

More information is here.

Israel’s war on Gaza taking dire toll on Palestinian children:

Rights groups have condemned the dire toll Israel’s bombardment and siege of Gaza has had on Palestinian children across the enclave:

  • More than 15,500 children have been killed, according to the Gaza government media office.
  • UNICEF says nine in 10 Palestinian children in Gaza are living in “severe child food poverty, surviving on diets comprising two or fewer food groups per day – one of the highest percentages ever recorded”.
  • The World Health Organization says more than four in five Palestinian children in Gaza “did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days” in advance of a recent food insecurity survey.
  • Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCIP) says thousands of Palestinian children have been critically injured and face “a lifetime of recovery to heal from the physical and psychological trauma” of the war.

Clear surge in Israeli attacks on areas classified as safe zones:

Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports from Deir al-Balah: The Israeli military has been increasing attacks across many areas in Gaza. The main focus in the past couple of days, even early this morning, are the central areas, including the Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps and Deir el-Balah.

These areas have been classified by the Israeli military as safe zones, yet what we’ve noticed a clear surge in military on Maghazi.

In last night’s attacks, at least six Palestinians were killed after a house was targeted. Two others were killed here in Deir el-Balah and there is ongoing constant bombardment in the Bureij refugee camp.

What we do know and hear from citizens is that the vast majority of attacks were carried out without any prior warning. They have been targeting densely populated areas without any kind of precaution to avoid any casualties among the civilians and that reflects the Israeli intention to grow the military operation.

Catastrophic hunger and malnutrition among Gaza’s children:

Action Against Hunger, one of the few humanitarian organizations working on nutrition projects in Gaza, reports: More than half a million children and mothers are in need of nutritional assistance and half of the Gaza Strip’s population — more than one million people — are on the brink of famine.

“We have been working on development programs in Gaza since 2005, but before October, we did not have nutrition and health programs in Gaza, because it was not necessary,” said the nutrition and health coordinator of Action Against Hunger’s emergency team, who just returned from Gaza. “But given the current circumstances, we are doing everything we can as quickly as possible.”

Prior to the current conflict, less than 1% of Gaza’s children under five were acutely malnourished, but the blockade of the Gaza Strip since then has led to catastrophic food insecurity.

Many malnourished children, especially those two years old, are in need of urgent care. “We are seeing how the lack of food affects their development: their growth rate is not where it should be for their age. Vital organs such as the heart, kidneys and lungs are weakened. They are immunosuppressed and suffer more strongly from infections,” said the health coordinator, who is not being named for security reasons.

“In addition, there are children who have not received any vaccinations in the last seven months and who live in very precarious conditions. They have no access to decent sanitary infrastructures. In our hunger treatment centers, we receive them sick, especially with coughs and possible pneumonia, and when we treat them in the clinics, we see they are suffering from malnutrition.”

OCHA reports: On 6 June, a World Food Programme (WFP) warehouse in Deir al Balah sustained damage after an Israeli projectile missile hit the adjoining flour mill building – one of only two flour mills in Deir al Balah, where the warehouse is used as a main storage and transit hub for commodities in the Gaza Strip. While all WFP and partner staff working in the warehouse have been accounted for, WFP was forced to temporarily suspend its operations at the warehouse.

Zionists call BRIAHNA JOY GRAY the N word:

Gray says: “I have never seen the N word as much in my life as I have in the messages from Zionists in the last 24 hours.”


Briahna Joy Gray was fired  as co-host of The Hill’s Rising show on Thursday in what she alleged was the result of “a clear pattern of suppressing speech” at the company.
Gray said her co-host Robby Soave did not know and has objected. In a follow-up tweet, Gray said her firing was “clearly part of a coordinated effort.”

Gray previously worked as the national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign and has been a  vocal critic of the Israeli government. Earlier this week, Gray was accused of rolling her eyes at the sister of a Hamas hostage who appeared on the show. [The woman had referred to widely refuted claims about October 7th.]

Rising has been through a long list of hosts since its debut in 2018. Gray is the ninth co-host to either leave or be fired from the show.

In September 2022, Katie Halper was fired as a co-host after she defended Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) for describing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s administration as an “apartheid government.” That same year, former co-host Kim Iversen claimed she quit the show after the Hill refused to let her interview Dr. Anthony Fauci.

Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald interviewed Gray  about her firing on his news program System Update:



 

West Bank: Israel seizes close to 100 acres of Palestinian land

WAFA reports: The Israeli occupation has seized a total of 385 dunums (close to 100 acres) of Palestinian land in Hebron, under the pretext of the so-called “appropriation orders”.

Head of the Colonization and Wall Resistance Commission, Minister Muayad Shaaban, affirmed that the appropriation orders are aimed at expanding Route 60 in Hebron to facilitate the movement of illegal colonists.

Shaaban stressed that Israel exploits the pretexts of infrastructure rehabilitation and road development as an occupational tool to fragment Palestinian geography, stifle Palestinian presence and disconnect villages and towns in all Palestinian areas.

He slammed such measures that have established all forms of apartheid for the benefit of serving colonists as serious violations of international humanitarian law.

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. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

 

Issa Amro, badly beaten in Hebron Monday
Issa Amro, badly beaten in Hebron Monday (photo)

West Bank: Well-known peace activist Issa Amro attacked by settlers

Issa Amro, United Nations “human rights defender of the year in Palestine” (2010) and founder of Youth Against Settlements (YAS), was severely beaten Monday in his hometown of Hebron.
Amro was in a public area Monday evening when he was approached by 3 illegal Israeli settlers, who he says hit him with iron pipes on his head and body.
He believes they would have killed him if not for witnesses.
As of Friday, the Palestinian Authority police had not gotten involved, in spite of the fact that there were witnesses and CCTV footage of the attack.
Issa Amro has worked to amplify the situation in Hebron, where a small number of extremist settlers – and Israeli soldiers – make life for Palestinians impossible. In his words, he works “to make the occupation costly. Raising up Palestinian voices by showing the reality of the occupation.” He believes the Israeli occupation is not just about the land, but who controls the narrative, and Amro is doing everything he can to counter the false narratives.

MORE NEWS:

Al Jazeera: Gaza unemployment since start of Israel’s war soars to nearly 80%.
Al Jazeera: Are Hezbollah and Israel about to go to war?
Electronic Intifada: Israel unleashes “unprecedented bloodshed” in West Bank.
IMEMC Reports.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 7:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 7: at least 37,263* (36,731 in Gaza* – 4,959 women (20%), 7,797 children (32%). This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 533 in the West Bank (~131 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 43,640 Palestinian deaths. (Ralph Nader has estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.)
At least 42 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank).
At least 37 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
About 1.1 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – June 7: at least 88,349 (including at least 83,530 in Gaza and 5,040 in the West Bank).
It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – June 7: ~1,448 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 294 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. 
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.


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

 
 

Enter your email address below to receive our latest articles right in your inbox.

You might also like: