For the 11th year, Gaza’s Christian minority celebrates Christmas under Israeli siege, unable to join family in West Bank. Travel requests are mostly denied or ignored from an occupying country that claims to promote freedom of religion and worship.
Palestinians in Gaza are dealing with more fallout from the blockade – and their protest against it. Now in addition to thousands of gunshot wounds from Israeli snipers, and their accompanying disabilities and amputations, many are at risk of infection. The healthcare sector is lacking in supplies thanks to import restrictions; patients can not go abroad for treatment thanks to visa restrictions.
One Israeli human rights org reports over 180 Palestinians killed (31 of them minors) and 21,000 injured.
After Israel has demonstrated for months that borders are sacred, its military has once again crossed into Gaza. In what it characterizes as an intelligence gathering operation that “encountered a very complex reality,” 1 Israeli soldier and 7 Palestinians were killed.
3 Israelis and at least 210 Palestinians have been killed in the latest asymmetrical confrontations.
Gaza is running out of medicine. The US, which has for decades supported the United Nations agency tasked to help Palestinian refugees, has cut off all funding. We need to step in and pressure our leaders to reverse this decision.
WAFA reports that three Palestinian children were killed in an Israeli airstrike bombing that targeted an area to the northeast of Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Israeli soldiers reportedly opened fire toward the ambulances and prevented their access to the scene….
Electronic Intifada reports that every Friday 11-year-old Nasir insisted that he accompany his two older sisters to the Great March of Return. Both women are medics; Nasir would carry their first aid bags. An Israeli sniper shot him in the head. Israeli forces have killed 1,600 Gazan children since 2000… “An Israeli soldier deliberately killed Faris,” Zaqoul said. “The Israeli soldier said on a loudspeaker ‘you, with the white T-shirt, I’ll shoot you’ – pointing at Faris…”
PNN reports that Israeli forces shot dead four more Palestinian fathers, sons, and brothers during unarmed protests at the Gaza-Israel border, and killed a Palestinian father of two in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers attacked journalists with teargas and banned them from covering events…
The last two days of news reports from the International Middle East Media Center…
On Friday, Oct 12, Israeli forces killed 7 Palestinian civilians in Gaza and and wounded 224 others taking part in an unarmed protest, including 42 children, 3 women, 3 journalists, and a paramedic with live bullets and direct tear gas canisters.
As the man-made crisis in Gaza is nearing a dangerous climax, Israel’s military has awarded the Gaza Division with a “certificate of appreciation” for its role in suppressing Palestinian protests. Described in the media as “clashes,” these protests involve Israeli snipers firing into crowds of unarmed young Palestinians. The award was given as the number of unarmed protesters wounded since March 30 surpassed 22,000 and the killings reached 198.