November 2: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel

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November 2: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel
Gaza, Thursday morning, November 2, 2023 (photo)

Gaza death toll rises; humanitarian and healthcare crises; white phosphorus; Biden calls for “pause”; West Bank killings

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here.*

Latest statistics:

Palestinian death toll 8,722* (8,590 in Gaza* (including at least 3,760 children and 2,326 women, and at least 132 in the West Bank); 34,274 injured (32,000 in Gaza and over 2,274 in the West Bank). It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.4 million people have been displaced; at least 2,030 are missing and presumed to be under rubble – including 1,020 children.

*NOTE: The official UN death toll includes 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast. IAK does not yet include those deaths since the source of the projectile is being disputed; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation.

Israeli death toll continues to be reported as 1,400** (1 killed in West Bank, 18 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and ~5,400 injured.

**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.

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

Humanitarian crisis: According to healthcare professionals providing support to the internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the schools, epidemics are spreading fast due to the lack of clean water, medicine, and hygiene products.

Of the over 8,000 people taking refuge in the Deir al-Balah School in the central Gaza Strip, epidemics have spread among at least 90 percent, according to doctors working there. The most common and fast spreading diseases that are turning into epidemics in accommodation centers are gastroenteritis, scabies and chicken pox. “Almost everyone here has gastroenteritis, accompanied by diarrhea, vomiting, fever and a sore throat. This is an expected result of the disastrous conditions in the IDP accommodation centers,” said Abeer Salem, a volunteer nurse at the Deir al-Balah School.

Doctors in Gaza’s largest Al Shifa Hospital are seeing children with the majority of their body and faces burned, missing limbs and other “catastrophic injuries,” said Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care and humanitarian doctor with the aid group Médecins Sans Frontières. She added, “the doctors are left to treat them with limited pain control, running out of anesthetic drugs. We do not have enough antibiotics to treat wound infections, we don’t have enough dressings.”

Healthcare crisis worsens: The only hospital offering cancer treatment in the Gaza Strip, the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital, has gone out of service after it ran out of fuel amid Israel’s continuing blockade of the territory.

16 of the Gaza Strip’s 35 hospitals are now out of service, as are more than 50 of Gaza’s 72 primary healthcare clinics. 135 medical staff have now been killed, and 25 ambulances destroyed.

White phosphorus war crime: Israeli aircraft targeted an UNRWA school in the Beach Camp with internationally banned white phosphorus. On a related note, Amnesty International recently announced that Israel used the same deadly chemical against Lebanon on October 10 and 16.

Use of white phosphorus in civilian areas is considered a war crime due to its extremely dangerous effects on the human body. White phosphorus ignites instantly when in contact with oxygen. It can burn through the human body, including through bone, causing severe, excruciating damage. It can also cause extreme harm when inhaled, with risks of suffocation, cardiovascular failure, coma, death, and other lifelong effects. The substance burns at temperatures of up to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit.

Israel news: Palestinian armed groups continue to fire rockets towards Israeli population, with no fatalities or injuries reported in the past 24 hours. (More information on rockets is here.)

Factoid: Israel has killed more Palestinians in 24 days than: Pearl Harbor in Hawaii (2,403) plus the 30 year war in north of Ireland (3,600) plus 9/11 in the USA (2,977).

A first: Biden calls for a pause: President Joe Biden has voiced support for a humanitarian “pause” to Israel’s war in Gaza. When asked what a pause meant, Biden said it was “time to get the prisoners out” – a reference to the captives held by Hamas, the White House later clarified. (Hamas is hoping for a prisoner exchange for over 5,000 prisoners held by Israel.)

Congress struggles to pass Israel aid bill: CNN analyst Stephen Collinson writes:

For years, a vote on aid to Israel might have been one of the least controversial measures to come up in the House all year. But delays in moving the measure, the fragile balance of power in Washington and feuds between and inside both parties over the new Middle East war show that there’s no longer any easy vote.

Aid to Israel, for years a bipartisan given, is being questioned regularly. The Israel lobby is deeply invested in keeping US money to Israel flowing ($13 million a day), but prior to the current escalation, American support for Israel had begun to drop among Democrats – including Jewish Democrats. While Congress members have been slow to get the message, Israel’s popularity among Americans has been dropping among Democrats – including Jewish voters.

West Bank news: A Palestinian youth and a teenager were killed Thursday morning in separate incidents; another youth died of injuries sustained earlier in the week. Two of the dead were 14 years old, one was 19.

On Wednesday dawn, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian man with special needs, 65 years of age, in Tulkarem in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank, shooting him in the head. The soldiers had invaded the town and fired dozens of live rounds randomly. Majdi Awwad was hit while on his way to the mosque near his home to perform dawn prayers.

An Israeli settler, illegally living in the West Bank, was killed on Thursday in a shooting attack near the Palestinian village of Beit Lid, on a road running between two Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

MORE RECENT NEWS ON GAZA:

*Some people may be skeptical of using Al Jazeera as a source of information. However, the network is generally professional and accurate in its reporting; it’s important for viewers to evaluate it for themselves. it’s also important to remember that all news sources may potentially have bias. For example, CNN uses anchors who used to work for the Israel Lobby, who have lifelong attachment to Israel, and who often exhibit pro-Israel spin and omission in their broadcasts. Similarly, Fox News is strongly influenced by an individual with strong attachment to Israel (and who may have fired the network’s most popular host in part due to the host’s opposition to war and his pattern of failing to exhibit sufficient devotion to Israel).

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