Nowhere left to live, nowhere left to bury the dead – Day 319

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Nowhere left to live, nowhere left to bury the dead – Day 319
A Palestinian family flee to safer areas following the Israeli army’s call for the evacuation of the Hamad area in Khan Yunis city in the southern Gaza Strip on August 20, 2024 [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency] (photo)

Compilation of news reports by IAK staff 

“They were trying to exterminate us”: Palestinian children in Gaza tortured by Israeli military

Defense for Children International-Palestine reports:

“They insulted us, slapped me on my face, and kicked me in my stomach and waist. I almost died from the beating,” Karim told DCIP. “Then they made us walk in front of bulldozers and tanks in the streets so that the resistance wouldn’t target them.”

Karim S., 12.
Karim S., 12. (photo)

“They released dogs on us to scare me, beat me on the head, and stripped me of my clothes,” Abdulrahman told DCIP. “The soldiers fired shots over our heads and insulted us.

“We sat in the middle of Al-Yarmouk Stadium all night with our heads between our legs, surrounded by dogs, soldiers, and tanks. Anyone who asked for water or needed to use the bathroom was beaten with rifles.”

Since 2000, DCIP has recorded at least 31 cases in which Palestinian children were utilized by Israeli forces as human shields. Both international law and the Israeli High Court of Justice prohibit the use of civilians as human shields.

(Read the full report here.)

Outgoing Israeli envoy calls for UN building in Jerusalem to be ‘erased from earth’

Middle East Eye reports:

Israel’s outgoing ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, said that the organization’s building in Jerusalem should be “erased from the face of the earth”.

Erdan made the remarks in an interview with i24News.

“The UN building in Jerusalem needs to be closed and erased from the face of the earth. This building may look beautiful on the outside, but it is crooked and distorted from within.”

Erdan announced in May that he would be ending his four-year tenure as ambassador to the UN. Throughout his time in the role, he has been consistently critical of the UN, particularly of Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa).

Last month, he was quoted as saying: “We must take unprecedented steps against the UN, such as closing the UN compound in Jerusalem and expelling the heads of the agencies stationed in Israel to send a clear and unequivocal message that the continued bias and exploitation of the UN against Israel will come at a price.”

RECOMMENDED READING: Is the United Nations anti-Israel? – a survey of UN resolutions

No space in Gaza “safe zones” for the living

Middle East Monitor reports: 

Around 30,000 people are packed into every square kilometer (77,666 per square mile) in Gaza’s Israel-designated “safe zones” amid Israeli evacuation orders for residents of the enclave, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on Wednesday.

“Protracted military operations and repeated evacuation orders have forced families in the Gaza Strip to flee again and again,” said UNRWA. Thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians began evacuating their areas in eastern Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on Wednesday after new Israeli orders for refugees to move.

The area was previously designated as a “safe zone” for civilians, but the Israeli army ordered residents to leave it ahead of a new military operation there. Military spokesman Avichay Adraee said certain neighborhoods in Deir Al-Balah are now deemed a “dangerous combat zone,” and called on residents to move westward ahead of an imminent attack in the area.

“Many are seeking shelter in parts of Al-Mawasi, where around 30,000 people are packed into every sq. km.,” explained UNRWA, referring to an area designated by the Israeli army as a “safe zone” for Palestinian civilians. “Before the war, there were only 1,200 per sq. km.”

“The Israeli occupation army is deliberately strangling 1.7 million Palestinian civilians, cramming them into a narrow area that does not exceed one tenth of the total area of the Gaza Strip,” the Government Media Office said, adding, “the IOF [occupation] pushed the displaced Gazans to forcibly move and leave their homes and residential areas under the threat of gunfire, bombing and internationally prohibited weapons, which is a crime against humanity,” the GMO said.

New evacuation orders leave families with nowhere to go

The Cradle reports:

The Israeli army on 21 August issued new evacuation orders for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balah, once again leaving families with nowhere to go as the invading army expands its genocidal war.

“Since the early hours of this morning, we have heard loud explosions in central Gaza, especially Deir al-Balah, where hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are seeking refuge. Right now, the army is operating just a few kilometers from where we are. Explosions have been hitting houses and civil infrastructure in the eastern part of the city,” Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reported on Wednesday morning from Deir al-Balah.

Abu Azzoum also confirmed that Israeli raids are ongoing in the adjacent city of Khan Yunis and in Rafah in the south, where  an Israeli tank killed four Palestinian farmers, opening fire on them “without warning.”

Wednesday’s evacuation orders for Deir al-Balah were issued just hours after the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) charged Israel with making it “nearly impossible” to deliver aid to desperate Palestinians by constantly displacing survivors.

OCHA said on Tuesday that the evacuation order released on Saturday for parts of Deir al-Balah included sections of the Salah ad Din Road, a crucial passage for humanitarian missions.

“This has made it nearly impossible for aid workers to move along this key route,” the office said. “The Coastal Road is not a viable alternative. The beaches along this route are now crowded with makeshift shelters for displaced Palestinians.”

Highlighting how Israel has shrunk the “safe zone” in Gaza since October, the office said that in November 63 per cent of the Strip was deemed “a safe humanitarian zone”, however since then this has dropped to 9.5 per cent of the enclave. Gaza City and the northern areas of the Strip are not considered “safe zones”, despite the presence of 700,000 Palestinian civilians in these areas, it explained.

Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency] (photo)

No space left for the dead: Gaza’s cemeteries overflow as Israel’s war on enclave continues

Andalou Agency reports:

The death toll from Israel’s ongoing onslaught on the Gaza Strip has surpassed 40,000, leaving no space in cemeteries for families to bury their loved ones.

Gazans are struggling to find vacant plots at cemeteries for family members killed in the conflict, especially in the central region of the besieged enclave.

Speaking to Anadolu, Saad Hassan Barakat, a worker at a cemetery in Gaza City, said he has spent much of his life working in cemeteries but has never encountered such a dire situation.

Barakat said that before the war, he would carry out a few burials each day, but since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7 last year, he has sometimes buried 70, 80, 100 or even 300 bodies in a single day.

He described how bodies are now being buried in layers at the cemetery.

“The difficulty is that there’s no space left to dig graves, so I’ve stacked graves on top of each other,” he said. “This place isn’t just one or two but three layers of graves.”

Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency] (photo)

Fleeing Palestinians say death would be more merciful

Al Jazeera reports:

As we’ve been reporting, thousands of Palestinians are on the move again after Israeli forces issued new evacuation orders for Deir el-Balah and Khan Younis.

We heard from two of them in Khan Younis.

“Death is more merciful in this country. We were displaced 20 times. I swear to God, our houses and tents were struck. They do not want us to live, oh God, they even do not want us to enjoy our life,” a young man said in a video testimony.

“The people are dying and there are wounded. The people do not know where to go, even al-Mawasi is not safe. We do not know where to go, to the sea or where?”

Another man said, “Where are the human rights? Where are the people? Where is the world that is watching us? Are we just Arabs by name? Where are the Arabs? All the United States and the world are against us because we are Arabs. We want to die.”

Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency]
Palestinians, carrying their belongings, are on their way to safer areas following the Israeli army’s warning for the evacuation of Abu Areef and al-Mazra areas in Deir el-Balah [Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu Agency] (photo)

‘Torture by Electrocution’ – Israel Releases 25 Detainees from Gaza

Palestine Chronicle reports:

Israeli forces have released 25 more detainees from the Gaza Strip, including two women and an elderly man with signs of torture on his body.

One of the younger detainees, Yousef Al-Arir, who had blood stains on his t-shirt, described beatings, torture by electrocution and being attacked by dogs, in a video shared by the Quds News Network (QNN). He said one prisoner who was electrocuted remained unconscious for two days.

Al-Arir said they were transferred to the Ofer prison where they were also beaten and pepper sprayed. If a prisoner talked, Israeli forces would break his hands, he added.

In another video shared by QNN, Walid Ibrahim Habib from the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in northern Gaza, displayed wounds on his arms and legs as a result of torture.

Another prisoner was seen meeting his family after months of detention. His 15-year-old eldest son Sa’er was martyred along with his daughter Joumana before he was arrested.

In the past months, Israel has released detainees in batches, who have confirmed in their testimonies that they were subjected to abuse, torture and harsh interrogation.

 

Chicago police arrest dozens of anti-genocide protesters on second night of DNC

The Intercept reports:

Chicago Police Superintendent Larry Snelling  refused to recognize Tuesday’s rally in front of the Israeli consulate as a demonstration, and said participants had “the intent on fighting with the police, destroying things, burning flags.” Snelling did not provide evidence to substantiate the alleged intent of those who attended the rally but vaguely referred to verbal threats aimed at officers.

“Last night wasn’t a protest — to call last night a protest would be disrespectful to people who have actually protested for things that have moved societies forward across the county,” said Deputy Mayor of Community Safety Garien Gatewood at the press conference. “What we had is people who came down to the city to cause harm, to wreak havoc.”

According to local reports, the anti-genocide demonstration in front of the Israeli consulate Tuesday night was about 250, with roughly 50 pro-Israel counter-protesters, hundreds of journalists, and at least 1,000 police officers.

AOC praises Kamala for [fake] Gaza ceasefire push

The Intercept reports:

[Also see this]

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., once an outsider who vowed to take on the Democratic establishment, is finally being embraced by her own party. The progressive member of Congress took to the stage at the Democratic National Convention on Monday night to give a full-throated endorsement of Kamala Harris for president and was met with rapturous applause and chants of her now-famous initials.

She was the first to mention of Gaza on the DNC stage.

“[Kamala] is working tirelessly to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and bringing the hostages home,” Ocasio-Cortez told the crowd.

The Harris campaign quickly clipped and posted a video of the moment to TikTok.

“Frankly, it’s a somewhat puzzling claim, given that Vice President Harris’s responsibilities don’t include U.S. foreign policy,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Democracy for the Arab World Now. “Ultimately, the only thing we can judge by is the factual evidence. And the factual evidence is that almost a year now into the war, or 10 months into the war, there has been no ceasefire.”

Ilhan Omar said on Wednesday, “It’s been unconscionable for me the last 10 months to witness my colleagues in this administration refusing to recognize the genocidal war that is taking place in Gaza.”

The Minnesota representative, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment, directly attacked the administration, but used Ocasio-Cortez’s turn of phrase in a thinly veiled admonishment: “To not understand that ‘working tirelessly’ for a ceasefire is really not a thing, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

Barack Obama makes no mention of Gaza war in DNC speech

Middle East Eye reports:

The former president said, ‘we can’t eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world.’

US President Barack Obama gave a half-hour-long speech at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on Tuesday night, where he promoted a message of unity but made no mention of Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza.

Unlike other Democratic politicians who talked about the need to end the war, including US President Joe Biden who spoke on Monday, Obama chose to make vague comments about human rights and global peace, while making substantive remarks on several domestic policy issues such as affordable housing, reproductive rights, and immigration.

“We shouldn’t be the world’s policeman. And we can’t eradicate every cruelty and injustice in the world. But America can be and must be a force for good,” Obama said during his speech.

“Discouraging conflict, fighting disease, promoting human rights, protecting the planet from climate change, defending freedom, brokering peace. That’s what Kamala Harris believes.”

Palestinian succumbs to wounds sustained from Israeli army gunfire in Balata camp

WAFA reports:

A Palestinian Wednesday evening succumbed to wounds sustained in an Israeli drone strike on the Balata refugee camp, east of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

Jamal Ahmad As-Saudi, 21, died of his wounds sustained almost a week earlier in an Israeli army drone strike on the camp.

On Thursday, August 15, As-Saudi was injured in a drone strike that targeted a gathering of people in the camp, that resulting in the killing of two young men and injury of four others, including As-Saudi himself.

This brings the total number of Palestinians who have been killed by Israeli occupation forces and colonists gunfire in the West Bank, including occupied Jerusalem, since October 7, 2024 to 637, including 147 children. A total of 5,400 Palestinians were injured in the West Bank during the same period.

‘Israel wants regional war’, says Fatah after killing of top commander

TRT World reports:

Israel killed a senior commander of the Palestinian movement Fatah in Lebanon, accusing him of orchestrating attacks in the occupied West Bank.

In response, the Fatah party accused Israel of seeking to “ignite a regional war”.

Khalil Maqdah was killed in a missile strike on his car in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon, according to Fatah and a Lebanese security source.

The Israeli military said that an air force aircraft struck Khalil Hussein Khalil Al-Maqdah in the area of Sidon in southern Lebanon.

The military said Maqdah was the brother of Mounir Maqdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of Fatah’s armed wing, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, and accused them both of “directing terror attacks and smuggling weapons” to the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

It alleged that the pair “collaborate on behalf of” Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.

Emmys stands by Palestinian journalist Bisan Owda nomination for news award

Middle East Eye reports:

The organizers of the News and Documentary Emmy Awards have defended the nomination of a video report by Bisan Owda, a Palestinian journalist in Gaza, after a campaign group called for her to be removed from the nominees.

Creative Community for Peace, a pro-Israel lobby group which campaigns against cultural boycotts of Israel, published an open letter on Monday urging the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) to rescind the nomination of the eight-minute documentary “It’s Bisan From Gaza and I’m Still Alive”.

In the video, Owda shows life under Israeli bombardment in late October, from a tent near al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. In the clip, she interviewed an 11-year-old boy whose parents were killed by an Israeli strike on their home.

Creative Community for Peace alleged that Owda was linked with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), stating that she spoke at the political group’s events between 2014 and 2018.

The open letter said that elevating Owda “not only legitimizes a terrorist organization, it undermines the integrity of the awards”.

David Renzer, chairman of Creative Community for Peace said: “NATAS must decide – they can either condone the murder of innocent [Israeli] civilians or they can listen to the entertainment community, and stand in opposition to hatred and violence.”

The letter was signed by 150 people in the entertainment industry.

In a response to Creative Community for Peace published on Tuesday, NATAS’s chief executive Adam Sharp said he stood by the Emmy nominations.

Owda’s short documentary has already received two prestigious awards, a Peabody Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award.

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STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 21:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 21, 2024: at least 40,859* (40,265 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [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 637 in the West Bank (~147 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 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 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
      • At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
      • 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 – August 21: at least 98,401 (including at least 93,144 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 21, 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.

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. 

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. 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.

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

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