Thousands going deaf due to bombing in Gaza – Not a Ceasefire Day 44

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Thousands going deaf due to bombing in Gaza – Not a Ceasefire Day 44
A Palestinian sits in a cemetery, looking at the rubble of buildings bombed by the Israeli military in Gaza (Screengrab/Al Jazeera)

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

(While a “ceasefire” is ostensibly in place, Israel has continued its assault on Gaza without interruption. If Americans Knew considers the war to be ongoing, and in its 777th day.)

At least 24 Palestinians, including children, were killed on Saturday, as the Israeli military carried out strikes in Gaza City and in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat refugee camp. 87 or more were wounded.

Since the “ceasefire” began on October 11, Israel has killed at least 342 Palestinians. Among them are at least 67 children. Death toll figures are tentative.

Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 497 times.

Civil defense teams continue search and rescue efforts with limited resources, in Gaza City, Gaza on November 20, 2025.
Civil defense teams continue search and rescue efforts with limited resources, in Gaza City, Gaza on November 20, 2025. (Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea – Anadolu Agency)

GAZA NEWS:

(For some basic info on the Palestine-Israel conflict, go here. For more critical context, skim this, this, and this. To read about a remarkable but underreported, 20-month-long peaceful protest in Gaza against Israel, go here.) 

Gaza: Israeli blasts deafen thousands as treatment is blocked

Two Palestinian boys lie next to each other at al-Wafa medical rehabilitation hospital in Gaza. Their mother, Aya Abu Auda, speaks to them softly, but neither child reacts.

The brothers, Elias Abu al-Jibeen, 5, and Ismail Abu al-Jibeen, 8, were wounded during Israeli bombardment on their displacement camp in Gaza City’s Tel al-Hawa neighborhood on 31 August, leaving Elias completely deaf and Ismail with severe hearing loss.

Just a year earlier, Abu Auda had fled her home in northern Gaza after Israeli missiles flattened it and killed her husband (continue reading here).

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Israel admits abducting Gaza doctor and using his daughter as leverage

Israel has admitted abducting Dr Marwan al Hams, the director of Abu Youssef al Najjar Hospital and the official overseeing Gaza’s field hospitals, in a covert raid carried out five months ago.

Israeli forces also detained his daughter to pressure him during interrogations, according to Israeli media reports.

The army claimed al Hams, who also served as spokesperson for Gaza’s health ministry, was seized as a supposed “Hamas operative”, accusing him of helping identify Israeli soldier Hadar Goldin​’s body and knowing the location of his burial.

The operation was described by the army as one of many secret missions it has run in recent months in its long running effort to recover Goldin’s remains (continue reading here).

NOTE: Israel has killed over 1,400 medical personnel, in what is widely believed to be a targeted attack on healthcare workers. Israel has also systematically destroyed most of Gaza’s hospitals and clinics. Many more are being held captive in Israeli prisons.

RELATED: The Gazan doctors still languishing in Israeli prisons

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‘Who Is the Gunman?’ Hamas Challenges Israeli Claim behind Latest Gaza Airstrikes

The Palestinian Resistance Movement Hamas is demanding that Israel disclose the identity of a gunman it claims Hamas sent to attack its forces — an allegation that Israel used as justification for Saturday’s airstrikes, which killed more than 20 Palestinians.

Hamas official Izzat al-Rishq urged mediators and the United States to pressure Israel to clarify the claim, stating: “Israel is fabricating excuses in order to evade the agreement and resume its war of extermination.” 

He added that it is Israel—not Hamas—that has been violating the truce “daily and systematically.”

NOTE: Israel has so far violated the 11 October ceasefire deal in Gaza at least 497 times.

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GAZA HEADLINES:

Sewage-contaminated floodwater affects 740,000 displaced in Gaza

OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM NEWS & HEADLINES:

(Every day, Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem endure dozens of incidents like the ones below, at the hands of Israeli soldiers and/or settlers. For background on the West Bank, read this and this. For information on the significance of Israeli settlers in the West Bank, read this and this.)

Jewish settlers* poison Palestinian-owned sheep 

During a raid of the Al-Khalail area, Jewish settlers poisoned a flock of sheep belonging to Palestinian farmer Rizq Abu Naim, killing three of them.

In a similar incident late last month, Israeli settlers killed and maimed 10 sheep, beating them with sticks, throwing heavy cinder blocks at them, and gouging their eyes out.

The attacks are reminiscent of operations carried out by Jewish troops against Palestinians in 1948. Pre-state Zionist militias poisoned drinking-water wells in Palestinian villages as part of a biological warfare operation known as “Cast Thy Bread,” Haaretz reported in 2022.

*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. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces (a phenomenon that has grown significantly worse since October 7th, 2023).

In a landmark advisory opinion on July 19, 2024, the International Court of Justice declared Israel’s decades-long occupation of Palestinian land “illegal” and demanded the evacuation of all settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

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WEST BANK HEADLINES:

Israeli Forces Storm Beit Ummar, Detain Dozens

Army Abducts 9, Including Legislator, His Sons, In Nablus

Israeli Forces Invade Za’atara, Assault Siblings, Woman

Israeli Soldiers Impose Curfew In Hebron

Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmland in the West Bank
Illegal Israeli settlers set fire to Palestinian farmland in the West Bank (IMEMC)

HEADLINES ABOUT ISRAEL:

(Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey, with a population smaller than the US state of Georgia – about 10 million (of which about 20 percent are Palestinians), yet it is in the news constantly. As has been demonstrated again and again, however, mainstream media rarely covers Israel accurately. IAK passes along only factual reporting.)

Tense calm in Israel’s far north as Israel prepares to ‘finish the job’ against Hezbollah

Israel issued more than 220,000 gun licenses since Oct. 7

Israel faces ‘mental health tsunami’ after two years of war, report finds

2 killed as Israeli army intensifies attacks in southern Lebanon despite ceasefire

Sixty Israeli incursions hit south Syria in just three weeks: Report

NEWS & HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

(Get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions that receives $63 million a day from American taxpayers. Israeli media sometimes tells the truth about itself, but often publishes myths and lies as facts.)

Israel’s Foreign Ministry to Fund $100k Study by Right-wing Group on ‘Radical Islam Networks in West’*

A right-wing group of former Israeli army officers and security officials is set to receive a substantial payment from the Foreign Ministry for a joint project described as an in-depth study of “radical Islamic influence networks in the West.”

According to the ministry, the project will include conducting the research, promoting its findings in the media and on social networks, and organizing an overseas conference to present the results.

*NOTE: Analysts point out that since Israel has lost favor with many in the West, it is looking to bolster its image by characterizing “radical” Islam as the cause of the instability in the Middle East, when in fact Zionism drives much of the conflict.

The Israeli government has been spending massive sums trying to regain control of the narrative – and silence pro-Palestine voices.

RELATED: Israeli ministry funding multi-million-dollar disinformation campaign spreading Islamophobia

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The Far-right Jewish Settlers Using Chat Groups to Boast of Their Acts of Terror Against Palestinians

Far-right settlers are using increasingly inflammatory language in their chat groups, boasting openly about acts of violence they have committed, circulating videos and photos of themselves attacking Palestinians in West Bank villages, and urging violence against Israel’s Border Police and IDF troops stationed in the West Bank. 

In one incident last month, one of the groups circulated a detailed list of the Palestinian villages in the West Bank that had been attacked by settlers, including the number of attacks in each place.

Such online incitement continues to be spread even though the Shin Bet Security Service and the police have access to these groups (continue reading here).

Illegal settlers, covering their faces with masks, attack Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists with sticks and stones in the town of Beita, West Bank on November 08, 2025.
Illegal settlers, covering their faces with masks, attack Palestinian farmers, journalists, and foreign activists with sticks and stones in the town of Beita, West Bank on November 08, 2025. (Nedal Eshtayah – Anadolu Agency)
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Israel to Expropriate Hundreds of Acres of Palestinian Land for West Bank Archaeological Site

The Israeli Civil Administration plans to expropriate 1,800 dunams (nearly 450 acres) of privately owned Palestinian land in the northern West Bank for the development of the archaeological site of Sebastia. The expropriation order encompasses the archaeological site and a large swath of olive groves with thousands of Palestinian-owned trees.

The planned expropriation primarily affects privately owned land belonging to residents of nearby villages of Sebastia and Burqa. Palestinian landowners have been given 14 days to file objections.

Until now, the largest expropriation for archeological purposes was in 1985 at the Susya archeological site in the South Hebron Hills – one-sixth of the planned Sebastia expropriation. Palestinian residents were expelled and barred from accessing the site.

International law prohibits occupying powers from conducting archaeological excavations in territories under their control.

RELATED: Digging for annexation: How Israel uses archaeology to erase Palestine

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HEADLINES FROM ISRAELI MEDIA:

U.S. to Scale Back Command Center in Israel, Aims to Relocate Gazans to Israeli-held Areas

The Israeli ‘Treatment’ for a Seriously Ill Teen: Threats of Deportation to Gaza

OTHER NEWS & HEADLINES:

How Universities* Used Counterterror Intelligence-Sharing Hubs to Surveil Pro-Palestine Students

From a statewide counterterrorism surveillance and intelligence-sharing hub in Ohio, a warning went out to administrators at the Ohio State University: “Currently, we are aware of a demonstration that is planned to take place at Ohio State University this evening (4/25/2024) at 1700 hours. Please see the attached flyers. It is possible that similar events will occur on campuses across Ohio in the coming days.”

“The pro-Palestine movement really does face a crisis of repression,” said Tariq Kenney-Shawa, Al-Shabaka’s U.S. policy fellow. “We are up against repressive forces that have always been there, but have never been this advanced. So it’s really important that we don’t underestimate them — the repressive forces that are arrayed against us” (continue reading here).

*NOTE: Pro-Palestine/anti-genocide demonstrations on college campuses have overall been peaceful and non-confrontational, and have notably included a significant number of Jewish students. When there has been violence, it has come from pro-Israel counter-protesters and police.

Pro-Israel organizations consistently work to silence Palestine advocacy on campus – a free speech violation. One strategy they use is to pressure universities to officially adopt the IHRA “definition” of antisemitism, which defines legitimate criticism of Israel as antisemitic. Other strategies include blocking prestigious appointments of and events with supporters of Palestinian rights, threatening to withhold major donations, and more. 

NYPD officers arrest a pro-Palestinian activist during a protest to mark 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the 'catastrophe' in Arabic, when Israel forcefully displaced Palestinians from their indigenous lands when the state of Israel was created, in the Queens borough of New York, on 15 May 2024
NYPD officers arrest a pro-Palestinian activist during a protest to mark 76th anniversary of the Nakba, the ‘catastrophe’ in Arabic, when Israel forcefully displaced Palestinians from their indigenous lands when the state of Israel was created, in the Queens borough of New York, on 15 May 2024 ((Leonardo Munoz/AFP))

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MORE HEADLINES:

US revokes visa of former South African minister who initiated genocide case against Israel

International People’s Tribunal on Palestine begins in Spain

ICYMI (IN CASE YOU MISSED IT) – A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:

No surprise here: Israel has allowed just 20% of aid promised in ceasefire agreement

Israeli forces kill 3 Palestinians, including 2 teens

IDF Soldiers Seize Cattle From Palestinian Family, Give Them to Israeli Settlers

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