Nuseirat "a bloodbath, a slaughterhouse"

At least 274 Palestinians killed in Gaza's Nuseirat refugee camp, more than 698 injured, June 8, 2024. (screenshot)

As Nuseirat tries to recover from Saturday’s massacre, some pieces are beginning to fit together: possible US complicity in the attack, possible use of the Gaza pier, war crimes; horrific descriptions from the ground; reactions from key stakeholders; a look at the math of hostage rescue; US diplomat calls Gaza a holocaust; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

The death toll in Israel’s massive Saturday raid on the Nuseirat refugee camp has risen to 274, with more than 698 others injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

This fresh horror in Nuseirat comes just two days after Israel bombed a UN school in the refugee camp where thousands of displaced people were sheltering, killing at least 33.

BBC notes, latest figures from Gaza would, if confirmed, make it one of the deadliest days of the conflict so far.

Two hospitals in the area – Al Aqsa and Al Awda – received the massive influx of injured and dead.

Notably, earlier on Saturday, before the attack, the Israeli army had reportedly called Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital’s administration and threatened to bomb the hospital if it was not evacuated. Apparently the staff did not comply with the order.

USCENTCOM, which is responsible for defending and promoting U.S. interests in 20 countries across the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and the strategic waterways that surround them, tweeted Saturday that humanitarian aid deliveries resumed at about 10:30 am.

Israeli army spokesman stated that the attack on Nuseirat began at 11:00 am, and the military attacked from the air, sea, and land.

Al Jazeera’s Anas Al-Sharif tweeted a video of an Israeli tank and what appears to be a commercial truck making their way through the camp.

An eyewitness who was injured in the attack, said, “I was walking in the street. The truck stopped. It was carrying clothes and cooking pans. I thought it was a humanitarian truck from Rafah…Suddenly maybe ten armed men exited the truck – special forces.”

Electronic Intifada points out

Feigning civilian or non-combatant status, as Israeli forces appear to have done, and hardly for the first time, may constitute the war crime of perfidy under international humanitarian law.

Giving further rise to concerns of perfidy, the temporary floating pier built by the American military appears to have been used in the Nuseirat raid:

The US Department of Defense said on Friday that repairs to the pier had been completed with the assistance of the Israeli military, raising questions whether the Nuseirat operation was delayed until after the pier was rebuilt.

Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, tweeted,

Relieved that four hostages have been released. It should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck.

This is “humanitarian camouflage” at another level. Israel has used hostages to legitimize killing, injuring, maiming, starving and traumatizing Palestinians in Gaza.

And while intensifying violence against Palestinians in the rest of the occupied territory and Israel. Israel could have freed all hostages, alive and intact, 8 months ago when the first ceasefire and hostage exchange was put on the table. Yet, Israel refused in order to continue to destroy Gaza and the Palestinians as a people.

This is genocidal intent turned into action. Crystal clear.

Craig Mokhiber, an American former United Nations human rights official and a specialist in international human rights law, asked the critical question:

Was the US “humanitarian” pier used as a launching point for the Al-Nuseirat massacre (which could not happen without US collaboration)? And what role did US forces play on the ground (besides arming and providing diplomatic cover for the IOF)? #complicity https://t.co/KGKij1QoEv

— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) June 8, 2024

One Israeli special forces officer was killed in the operation.

Descriptions, images from eyewitnesses

BBC reported: People living in the densely populated area have described the terror of coming under intense bombardment and heavy gunfire.

One man, Abdel Salam Darwish told the BBC he was in a market buying vegetables when he heard fighter jets from above and the sound of gunfire.

“Afterwards, people’s bodies were in pieces, scattered in the streets, and blood stained the walls,” he said.

Electronic Intifada reports: In Nuseirat refugee camp, “Gazan paramedics and residents said the assault killed scores of people and left mangled bodies of men, women and children strewn around a marketplace and a mosque,” Reuters reported on Saturday.

One graphic video shows around a dozen dead and injured people lying on a street in Nuseirat refugee camp, and other videos show people arriving with severe injuries to overcrowded medical facilities.

Yet another graphic video shows a man holding a young boy with a severe head wound standing among shrouded corpses outside a hospital. When the child suddenly moves, the surprised man runs with the boy in his arms towards the hospital entrance.

Videos and photos show that another boy was killed with his last meal still in his mouth and a man was shot dead while cooking on a stove.

Dr. Tanya Haj-Hassan with Doctors Without Borders said the emergency department at Al-Aqsa Hospital “is a complete bloodbath … It looks like a slaughterhouse.”

“The images and videos that I’ve received show patients lying everywhere in pools of blood … their limbs have been blown off,” she told Al Jazeera, adding “That is what a massacre looks like.”

Al-Nuseirat, central #Gaza Strip NOW‼️

My sister describes it as if Doomsday has dawned!! pic.twitter.com/h1bBaM91Ik

— Nour Naim| نُور (@NourNaim88) June 8, 2024

تعرض مخيم النصيرات لقصف جنوني مع بدء العملية العسكرية الإسرائيلية ظهر اليوم. pic.twitter.com/r48gJGGBm0

— أنس الشريف Anas Al-Sharif (@AnasAlSharif0) June 8, 2024

Quadcopters get very low in the sky and shoot at civilians around people in Deir al-Balah.

Please pray for us. It's insane

— Abubaker Abed (@AbubakerAbedW) June 8, 2024

Israeli captives previously released, rescued

Electronic Intifada reports: Around 250 people were captured in Israel on 7 October and brought to Gaza. More than 100 were released by Hamas as part of a prisoner exchange deal in November.

Two Israeli-Argentinian men were rescued by Israeli forces in Rafah, southern Gaza, in February.

Some 75 Palestinians were killed during that operation as Israel pounded Rafah, where people displaced from other areas of Gaza had sought shelter, in order to create a diversion from the military raid.

A captured Israeli soldier was reportedly rescued by the military in late October.

With the rescue of the four captives on Saturday, a total of seven Israelis and foreign nationals held in Gaza since 7 October have been freed by the Israeli military. Far more regained their freedom through an agreement negotiated with Hamas.

Many families of the captives who remain in Gaza are urgently pressing the Israeli government to secure another exchange deal.

Of the 116 captives who are believed to remain in Gaza, Israeli authorities have declared around a third of them dead, without acknowledging that the most likely cause of death is Israeli bombing.

“Israel could [have agreed] to a permanent ceasefire and hostage exchange at any time” during the past eight months, Kenney-Shawa stated, “but dead Palestinians are their main objective.”

The four former captives “were taken to hospital for medical checks and were in good health,” Reuters reported, citing the Israeli military.

This is in stark contrast to Palestinians from Gaza who have been arbitrarily detained by Israel in recent months and released with newly amputated limbs removed without anesthesia and their bodies bearing marks of torture.

Prem Thakker, a reporter for The Intercept, sums up the math of hostage release:

Hostages: pic.twitter.com/lQ6uxdjeNS

— Prem Thakker (@prem_thakker) June 8, 2024

A few key reactions:

President Biden said of the attack, “We won’t stop working until all the hostages come home and a ceasefire is reached. It is essential that it happens.”

A statement from US Secretary of State Antony Blinken similarly did not mention the loss of Palestinian life in the operation.

A statement from National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan reiterated US support for “all efforts to secure the release of hostages still held by Hamas…This includes through ongoing negotiations or other means.” He too did not mention Palestinian casualties.

Hamas said in a statement,

What was revealed by American and Hebrew media about American participation in the criminal operation that was carried out today proves once again the complicit role of the American administration, its full participation in the war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip, [and] the falsity of its declared positions on the humanitarian situation and its concern for the lives of civilians.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh vowed, “Our people will not surrender, and the resistance will continue to defend our rights in the face of this criminal enemy.”

The spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades said that the attacks carried out today by the Israeli military in central Gaza represent a “complex war crime,” adding that the horrific massacres freed some of the captives, but killed others. He also warned that the rescue raid “posed a great danger” to the remaining hostages and “will have a devastating impact on their conditions and lives.”

One Israeli legislator, Ofer Cassif, condemned the Israeli government for the “price” paid to retrieve the four Israeli captives from Gaza.

The liberation is joyful, the price is disgraceful. There is certainly no heroism here. The blood of thousands – abductees, Palestinian civilians, Israelis and soldiers – could and should have been spared if the government of atrocities had come to a deal immediately after the October massacre and on the countless occasions since then.

Countries that celebrate the release of four Israeli hostages without saying a word about the hundreds of Palestinians killed and thousands held in arbitrary detention by Israel, have lost moral credibility for generations and don’t deserve to be on any UN human rights body.

— UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing (@adequatehousing) June 8, 2024

Palestinian boy, 8, named on Israeli list of Hamas fighters killed in attack on UN school: Report

Associated Press reports: One of the names listed by Israel as an alleged Palestinian fighter killed in Israel’s attack Thursday on a UN school in the Nuseirat refugee camp was an eight-year-old boy, according to the hospital records.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency identified the slain boy as Shaheen Mahmoud Ibrahim Abu Sharif.

Two boys on the morgue’s list, age 10 and 14, had names that suggested they were sons of a man Israel identified as a slain militant, although he was not listed among the hospital’s dead.

Doctors describe the scenes inside Al-Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza as a “complete bloodbath”, with one medic saying the inside of the hospital “looks like a slaughterhouse”. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) says Al-Aqsa and Nasser hospitals are “overwhelmed”. (screengrab)

West Bank: Israeli forces kill Palestinian young man

WAFA reports: A 22-year-old Palestinian, identified as Moamen Omar Abu Asal, was shot dead Saturday morning by Israeli occupation forces in the town of Anabta, east of Tulkarm, according to local sources.

He was rushed to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital, where he was announced dead of his wounds by the Ministry of Health.

Local sources reported that a number of occupation vehicles stormed the town from the Enab military checkpoint, roamed its main streets and stationed along Al-Sikka Street, firing randomly in the area, wounding the young man Abu Asal.

Israel justifies attacking humanitarian vehicles by falsely claiming they contain combatants. Then it actually hides its own soldiers in humanitarian vehicles. Once again, every Israeli accusation is a confession. https://t.co/KGKij1QoEv

— Craig Mokhiber (@CraigMokhiber) June 8, 2024

More on yesterday’s report, “UN ADDS ISRAEL TO LIST OF STATES COMMITTING VIOLATIONS AGAINST CHILDREN”

Below is a sampling of how Israel’s practices – including the war on Gaza – have affected Palestinian children:

It should have not taken 15,000 children killed, many more mutilated & 20,000 orphaned, to list Israel among the states who commit heinous violations of intl law against children.

Btw 2008-2022, 1,434+ Palestinian children were killed and 32,175+ were injured, mostly by Israeli… https://t.co/62mLxsbfh6

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) June 7, 2024

Almost 3,000 Palestinian children have lost limbs in Israel’s attacks on Gaza

Doctors in Gaza say as many as 3,000 Palestinian children have lost limbs in Israel’s war on the enclave.

The war is creating a generation of traumatized amputees. Thousands of children across the Strip have lost one or more limbs since the onslaught began. Many are undergoing amputations without anaesthetic.

Gaza’s children live with severe food poverty as Israel attacks flour mill

A World Food Programme warehouse in Deir el-Balah was damaged on Thursday when an Israeli missile hit an adjoining flour mill, forcing the UN’s food agency to temporarily suspend operations at the site.

On the same day, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) reported that nine out of 10 children in Gaza are experiencing severe food poverty, and are surviving on two or fewer food groups each day.

Just a few recent reports on the plight of Palestinian children under Israeli domination:

53,000 Palestinian children detained by Israel since 1967.
‘Not a normal war’: doctors say children have been targeted by Israeli snipers in Gaza.
Ilan Pappe on Israel’s Relentless War Against Palestinian Children.
This year, Israel denied life-saving health care to ‘two Palestinian children a day’ in Gaza.
Stripped, Beaten, and Blindfolded: ongoing violence and abuse of Palestinian children detained by Israeli military. (Save the Children).
Israeli forces raid, shut down Defense for Children & 5 other agencies in West Bank. (Defense for Children Int’l).
A Scarred Childhood: Israeli Attacks against Palestinian Children in the Occupied West Bank in 2022.
Palestinian children held in solitary confinement by Israel surges. (Military Court Watch).
Israeli soldiers illegally photograph Palestinian children in middle of night.

Former top US diplomat likens Palestinian plight to holocaust

Ambassador Chas Freeman says Israel has never advanced a peace proposal. US support is causing profound damage to the United States. (Meanwhile, members of the Israel lobby continue to promote Israel.)

MORE NEWS:

Middle East Monitor: At last, the Israeli occupation and Daesh are on the same UN blacklist.

The New Arab: Israel targets Gaza’s fishermen, effectively shutting down fishing industry amid famine.

IMEMC Reports.

Hamas’s military spokesman says Israel killed captives in its Nuseirat operation, but did not give details.

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JUNE 8:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – June 8: at least 37,618* (37,084 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 534 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 8: at least 89,534 (including at least 84,494 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 8: ~1,449 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 295 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.