News roundup for Sunday, August 9, 2026, Day 1,038 since Israel began its 2023 genocide on the Palestinian people.
Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM GAZA:
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.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The number of Palestinians being killed in Gaza is lower since the October 2025 “ceasefire” began, just over 300 days ago – about 4 per day, vs. over 100 per day during the 733 days of the “war.” But Israel is actively working (with Trump’s “Board of Peace“) to ethnically cleanse Gaza of its Palestinian population, even as the low-level killing continues. Genocide experts, along with organizations like the United Nations and Amnesty International, maintain that the genocide is ongoing.
Seven Palestinians, including a woman and a child, were injured by Israeli fire across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, according to medical sources.
Gaza’s children still struggling with hunger as another famine threatens: Infants in Gaza are still feeling the effects of the 2025 famine, with another food emergency emerging.
The number of amputees in the Gaza Strip has risen to around 8,000, including 25% children and 12.5% women, according to Hamad Naim, Director General for Rehabilitation and Prosthetics at Hamad Hospital. No raw materials for manufacturing prosthetic limbs have entered the Strip since the war began. The hospital has only been able to provide 135 prosthetic limbs using pre-war stock.
The needs of thousands of injured people exceed the capacity of the existing centers in Gaza. Meeting their needs could take many years even if the crossings are opened, unless specialized centers are supported and the necessary materials and medical staff are provided.
Israel’s ‘Green Rafah’ plan aims to fragment Gaza, experts say: Israel has quietly given the green light for infrastructure work to begin in a designated area of southern Gaza. Dubbed “Green Rafah”, the project will reportedly squeeze Palestinians into smaller areas. Palestinian political researcher Ahmed al-Atawneh warned that projects such as “Green Rafah” are designed to create isolated cantons under total Israeli administrative and security control.
Israel considers partial Gaza withdrawal, multinational force deployment: Report: Security officials discussing plan to replace Israeli troops in some parts of Gaza with ‘International Stabilization Force,’ Channel 12 reports.
Israel rejects Trump’s 15-point plan for Gaza, stoking tensions with US: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel will not withdraw forces from Gaza until Hamas fully disarms*.
US ‘untroubled’ by Israel’s rejection of Trump’s Gaza plan: Report: US officials view Netanyahu’s rejection as ‘case of election politics,’ according to Israel’s Channel 12.
Hamas reaffirms commitment to completing 2nd phase of Trump’s Gaza plan*:
*NOTE: According to the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, signed by Hamas and Israel on October 9, 2025, the IDF was required to withdraw troops to specified lines and not return; all military operations were to be suspended; and Israel was to begin allowing entry of at least 600 truckloads of humanitarian aid per day.
Today, Israel has not only not withdrawn, it is holding more of Gaza than before – from 53% to approaching 70% (with possible plans for 100%); military operations have continued, with almost daily attacks and over 1,250 Palestinians killed; and an average of about 87 truckloads of aid have entered Gaza per day (as of Aug. 7, 2025).
Where laughter returns: In Gaza, animal-assisted therapy offers children a rare space to heal amid Israel’s genocide: A Palestinian therapist is using rescued animals to help Gaza’s displaced children heal from war trauma and find moments of joy amid ongoing destruction.
DEATH TOLL – GAZA GENOCIDE (tentative):
- At least 1,258 since “ceasefire” began Oct. 11, 2025 (270 children). Children, women, and the elderly account for 35.3% of those killed and 49.1% of those wounded.
- 5 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the ceasefire began – one by friendly fire, and four others in incidents during the first three weeks of the ceasefire.
- 73,386 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls) since October 2023
- More statistics below
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM THE OCCUPIED WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM:
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.)
Israeli occupiers (i.e. settlers) begin moving into new illegal settlement* in occupied West Bank: Occupiers move into Emek Dotan, built on Palestinian land near Jenin, part of expansion plan for 19 new illegal settlements in West Bank.
*NOTE: More than 700,000 settlers live illegally on Palestinian land in over 500 Jewish-only settlements and settlement outposts in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. Some settler groups have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces. Learn more about Israeli settler violence here and here. It is noteworthy that settlers are only rarely prosecuted for their crimes.
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.
ISRAELI MEDIA: Israeli Settler Held Son’s Circumcision Ceremony at House of Expelled Palestinian Family, Petition Says
Israeli army evicts Palestinian family, turns West Bank home into military post
Sunday: West Bank Military Invasions and Violations
Colonizer (i.e. Settler) Violations Intensify Across West Bank Districts
DEATH TOLL – WEST BANK/EAST JERUSALEM (tentative):
NEWS & HEADLINES FROM 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 news accurately. IAK gets the facts – sometimes from Israeli media sites, where we can get a glimpse inside this country that is rife with turmoil and contradictions, and that receives $63 million a day from America.
Israeli general says Gaza should remain ‘destroyed for generations’: Retired Major General Giora Eiland told Israel’s 103FM radio station on Sunday: “Israel has no interest in Gaza being rebuilt, it is better for us that it be destroyed for generations to come. The greater the despair in Gaza and the greater the destruction, and the greater the monument to what they did on October 7*, years to come, that is good” he added.
*NOTE: “It’s not our fault – we were attacked/we were defending ourselves” is a typical pro-Israel response to the October 7th attack: Israel supporters ignore the background, and imply that history began on October 7th, as though the Hamas fighters attacked Israel for no reason, or simply because its people are Jewish. In fact, Israel has been oppressing Palestinians since its creation in 1948, and even before that.
Hamas fighters attacked Israel after years of oppression and many nonviolent attempts to call attention to the issue. The UN has passed hundreds of resolutions demanding justice – to no avail.
The people of Palestine have many legitimate grievances for which resistance is an appropriate response. Israel is, according to the International Court of Justice, plausibly committing genocide, illegal occupation, apartheid, extermination, and a targeted campaign of starvation – to name a few.
International law supports the efforts of resistance groups against an occupying power, even to the point of armed resistance.
ISRAELI MEDIA: Who should get to vote? Plans for 70,000 Israelis abroad to fly home for election sparks debate
IRAN, LEBANON, & SYRIA – NEWS & HEADLINES:
It can not be overemphasized that Israel is the impetus behind US policies and actions vis-a-vis Iran. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has been pushing the US to attack Iran for decades, using lies and deception. Under President Trump, he got his wish.
Israel has invaded Lebanon seven times in the last half century. Between 1978 and 2000, Israel maintained an 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon — Hezbollah was formed to fight that occupation.
Although Israel is not at war with Syria, the Israeli army has reportedly carried out over 1,600 violations inside Syrian territory since August 2025, and demanded the demilitarization of southern Syria – but also vowed to permanently occupy some areas.
LEBANON
Israeli artillery shelling hit four villages in Lebanon’s southern Nabatieh governorate early Sunday, days after Beirut and Tel Aviv concluded a seventh round of US-sponsored talks in Rome aimed at ending Israel’s attacks and securing withdrawal from Lebanese territory.
DEATH TOLL – WARS ON IRAN & LEBANON (tentative):
- United States: 18 since Feb. 28, 2026
- Iran: at least 3,636 (1,701 civilians) since Feb. 28, 2026 (another source puts the number at 3,499)
- Lebanon: at least 4,335 people since March 2, 2026
- Arab states: at least 154 (including Palestine, excluding Lebanon)
- Israel: at least 60 people (Iran killed 20 civilians; Hezbollah killed 36 soldiers, 4 civilians)
MORE NEWS & HEADLINES:
Wikipedia co-founder says encyclopedia ‘compromised’ by CIA, “one-sided” against Israel: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger accused the CIA and corporate actors of editing the online encyclopedia to serve state and institutional interests during an interview with the German daily Berliner Zeitung published on 7 August.
As one example, on Gaza, Sanger said Wikipedia’s coverage is “clearly very one-sided,” in favor of Palestinians, and backed founder Jimmy Wales’s intervention on the “Gaza genocide” article, where Wales argued the introduction should contain more of the Israeli perspective. “That would be neutral,” Sanger said.
Despite his claim that the platform tilts toward Palestinians, information about Israel’s genocide in Gaza is itself the target of a well-funded propaganda and erasure effort.
*NOTE: Larry Sanger’s indictment of Wikipedia as favoring Palestinians is unjust: pro-Israel groups have been caught editing the encyclopedia to make it pro-Israel. The Anti-Defamation League has been banned from contributing to Wikipedia, and is considered a source of propaganda or misinformation. As one editor wrote, “ADL no longer appears to adhere to a serious, mainstream and intellectually cogent definition of antisemitism, but has instead given into the shameless politicization of the very subject that it was originally esteemed for being reliable on.” For more, read ADL faces Wikipedia ban over reliability concerns on Israel, antisemitism.
RELATED article on IAK’s founder, Alison Weir: Wikipedia’s entry on Alison Weir is rife with falsehoods and bias
Did California DA prosecute students to court pro-Israel donors? Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen was adjudged to have a conflict of interest “so grave as to render it unlikely that the defendants will receive a fair treatment”
ICYMI, A SELECTION OF YESTERDAY’S HEADLINES:
‘Used as human bait’: Leaked image shows elderly Palestinian men before execution by Israeli forces
Israeli occupiers (i.e. settlers) attacked a mosque in the occupied West Bank
Pro-Palestinian Groups Target American Medical Association Over ‘Silence’ on Jailed Gaza Doctor
(Read yesterday’s daily update here.)
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – August 9, 2026*:
- At least 74,571 Palestinians killed, 187,244 injured – including:
- Gaza: at least 73,386 killed (~22,000 children, 33,000 women and girls), 174,250 injured. Children, women, and the elderly account for 35.3% of those killed and 49.1% of those wounded during the “ceasefire”
- West Bank/East Jerusalem: at least 1,185 killed (~251 children) since Oct. 7, 2023, 13,000 injured
*NOTE: Thousands of remains in Gaza have yet to be identified, and as many as 15,000 more are still buried under rubble; others are reportedly missing.
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – August 9, 2026: ~1,663 – including ~1,139** on October 7, 2023 (~36 children), 472 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza, about 52 military and civilians (by one count, there have been 59 victims) in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel (these numbers do not include deaths from the conflicts with Lebanon or Iran).
**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.
- Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)
- Tucker Carlson unveils 10-point manifesto amid third-party speculation
- Unicef: At least 300 children reportedly killed in Gaza in past 300 days
- The Briton who helped 6,000 Jews move to Israel
- Sewage, trash, rodent catastrophe in Gaza
- Trump Undercuts His Own Peace Plan while Israel Ramps Up Killing in Gaza
- Israel’s Lobby: America in the Grip of a Foreign Power
- Lebanon: Israel’s Killing of Journalist an Apparent War Crime
- New party emerging on opposition to U.S. wars, AIPAC, and corporate money
- How complicit media tried to sell a genocide
- Israel Has Imprisoned a 16-Year-Old Palestinian-American Boy for Two Weeks
- ‘Silent extermination’: Israel bombs medicine stores in Gaza, worsening the Strip’s dire healthcare crisis
- El-Sayed overcomes $30 million AIPAC spend, wins Michigan primary
- “For Your Eyes Only”: Israel’s Mole Inside the United Nations
- UK tribunal upholds protection for anti-Zionist beliefs: ‘It’s coherent to describe Zionism as racist’
