Compilation of news reports – IAK staff
Israeli attacks killed at least 78 Palestinians and injured at least 214 in the Gaza Strip, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Thursday. More are buried beneath the rubble.
Israeli soldiers also killed a young Palestinian man in the West Bank Tulkarem refugee camp.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry says Israeli attacks in the past 24 hours have killed at least 53 people and injured 161.
UN report says 70% killed in Gaza women and children
The UN Human Rights Office has been verifying the personal details of those killed in Gaza by strikes, shelling and other conduct of hostilities. Of those fatalities, it has so far found close to 70 per cent to be children and women, indicating a systematic violation of the fundamental principles of international humanitarian law, including distinction and proportionality.
The continuation of these attacks, killing evenly across the population, “demonstrates an apparent indifference to the death of civilians and the impact of the means and methods of warfare selected”, the report states.
Of the verified fatalities, about 80 per cent were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, out of which 44 per cent were children and 26 per cent were women.
Monitoring by the UN Human Rights Office indicates that the high number of fatalities per attack was principally due to the Israeli Defense Forces’ use of weapons with wide area effects in densely populated areas, although some of the fatalities may have been the result of errant projectiles from Palestinian armed groups dropping short.
The High Commissioner calls on Member States, consistent with their obligations under international law, to assess arms sales or transfers and provision of military, logistical or financial support to a party to the conflict, with a view to ending such support if this risks serious violations of international law.
The report also raises concerns with respect to forcible transfer, attacks on hospitals, in apparent systematic fashion, and journalists. It also points to the reported use of white phosphorus munitions.
Ha’aretz reporters in northern Gaza saw ethnic cleansing before their eyes
Haaretz reporters who traveled to Beit Lahia and al-Atatra in northern Gaza described the destruction they saw, as well as their impressions of what is happening there.
“In [al-Atatra] and Beit Lahia, there isn’t a single house that people can return to and live in. The area looks like it was hit by a natural disaster. There are no civilians to be seen among the ruins.”
Israeli media has reported that the Israeli military is carrying out a version of the “general’s plan,” an outline for ethnic cleansing drawn up by retired IDF generals. The plan calls for the complete evacuation of all Palestinian civilians from northern Gaza. Under the plan, if civilians don’t leave, they are to be treated as combatants and killed either by military action or starvation.
While the Israeli military claims its cleansing campaign is about removing Hamas, the IDF commander in charge of Beit Lahia, Col. Yaniv Barot, acknowledged they found no significant militant infrastructure in the area: “he says that in the course of the most recent operation, no underground infrastructure, heavy war materiel or weapons production sites were found.”
Palestinian civilians have been evacuated by force from the north “to protect the population from harm,” claimed an army spokesperson – but, according to the Ha’aretz reporters, “Those who want to return can’t do so, because the army prevents it. The bottom line is….The army has begun the stage of [ethnically] cleansing the northern Strip while it prepares to hold onto the area for a long time to come.”
The Haaretz report said the activity on the ground proves that the Israeli military is bisecting northern Gaza, potentially to pave the way for the construction of Jewish settlements, an idea strongly supported by many Israeli ministers and members of the Knesset.
There’s a growing impression, says the article, that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is deliberately playing into the hands of his far-right partners – whose only interest is settlement in Gaza – even though he declared several months ago that he doesn’t support the rebuilding of settlements in Gaza.
The Biden administration has claimed it opposes any implementation of the “general’s plan” and the advancement of settlements but has continued to provide military aid for the ethnic cleansing campaign.
West Bank: Israeli Soldiers Kill A Palestinian In Tulkarem
On Thursday, Israeli soldiers killed a young Palestinian man in Tulkarem refugee camp, in the occupied West Bank’s northwestern part.
The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) confirmed that its medics transferred the body of the slain Palestinian, Hareth Mohammad ‘Awfi, 22, to Thabet Thabet Governmental Hospital in Tulkarem city.
The PRCS added that the young man was shot in the heart by an Israeli army sharpshooter stationed in a home the soldiers had stormed and occupied.
The PRCS also stated that its volunteer medics had to carry the slain Palestinian outside the refugee camp after the army refused to allow the ambulance through.
Since the beginning of the Israeli military onslaught against the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023, Israeli forces have killed 779 Palestinians in the West Bank, including 167 children, and injured 6,300.
Yoav Gallant reportedly says Israeli army has nothing left to do in Gaza
Israel’s ousted defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has reportedly said the army has achieved all its objectives in Gaza and that Benjamin Netanyahu rejected a hostages-for-peace deal against the advice of his own security establishment.
Gallant was speaking to hostages’ families on Thursday, two days after being sacked by Netanyahu, and reports of his remarks quickly surfaced in Israeli media.
“There’s nothing left in Gaza to do. The major achievements have been achieved,” Channel 12 news quoted him as saying. “I fear we are staying there just because there is a desire to be there.”
He reportedly told the families that the idea that Israel must remain in Gaza to create stability was “an inappropriate idea to risk soldiers’ lives over”.
According to media outlet Days of Palestine, Gallant told families of Israeli captives in Gaza, “I don’t know if it is possible to influence him [Netanyahu] into a ceasefire.”
“I tried and failed. I was isolated in the cabinet, and both the head of the Shin Bet, the chief of staff, and the head of the Mossad agreed with me on the necessity of reaching a deal.”
RELATED: Israel summons hundreds of school teachers to fight in Gaza, Lebanon
The Israeli legislature passed 2 new discriminatory laws this week: to deport families of Palestinians involved in attacks against Israelis, and to allow imprisonment of Palestinian children under 14.
The Israeli Government Neglected to Build Shelters in Arab Towns. ‘They don’t see us as equal or as important as Jews.’
Of the 34 civilians killed by rocket attacks in the north since the start of the war, 19 were from the Arab community [Palestinians living inside Israel]. Without protected spaces in their homes or access to public shelters, many live in constant fear and are angry over the state’s indifference.
At a time when sirens are heard over and over again in the north of Israel and rockets from Lebanon fly across the skies over cities and villages, Israel’s Arab minority remains exposed to attacks. The war brought out the inequality Israeli Arabs suffer as opposed to the Jewish population — the lack of civil defense infrastructure and government neglect.
The biggest disaster occurred last July in Majdal Shams, when 12 children and teenagers were killed by a rocket that struck a soccer field. The trauma haunts the quiet village to this day. People do not feel safe.
“There isn’t any civil defense infrastructure in the town, and when I see the way the state’s treating us, it makes me feel that our children’s lives are worth less. No one cares about us. We’re still afraid to let our children play outdoors. The trauma remains very real,” says the father of one of the children killed in the incident.
Last Friday, rockets hit the commercial center of the Galilee town of Majd al-Krum for the second time that week. A 35-year-old woman and a 21-year-old man were killed, and many were injured.
On Tuesday, October 29, a 22-year-old man was killed in Ma’alot-Tarshiha. When the sirens sounded, Muhammad Yasser Naim urged his three younger siblings to go down to the protected room on the bottom floor of their house. He didn’t manage to enter the room before a rocket hit the door of the house, killing him on the spot.
NOTE: Lack of bomb shelters is not the only discriminatory practice in Israel. Adalah, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, lists at least 65 laws in Israel that discriminate against the Palestinian population. Perhaps the most insidious is the so-called Nation State Law, which enshrines Jewish supremacy in Israel.
Additionally, multiple human rights organizations have documented and reported on Israeli apartheid, including: Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem, and Yesh Din , the International Court of Justice, the UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), and Harvard Law School’s International Human Rights Clinic.
As Israel Braces for Iran Attack, U.S. Sends B-52 Bombers, Dozens of Fighter Jets
The United States is continuing to deploy its forces in the Middle East, in an attempt to deter Iran from attacking Israel and to help defend Israel if such an attack does happen.
After the Biden administration deployed a THAAD missile defense system in Israel last month to complement the Arrow system, six B-52 bombers, capable of carrying large amounts of munitions, were sent to Qatar this week, according to open aviation data and satellite images. The number of aircraft sent to the region may increase.
This is another signal as to the offensive capabilities of the United States, after the U.S. Air Force sent B-2 stealth bombers a few weeks ago to attack underground targets in Yemen.
In addition, at least 12 F-15E strike fighters are on their way to Jordan to reinforce the warplanes sent to the region after the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The F-15Es deployed earlier this year to Jordan helped – along with the air force of Israel and other nations – to intercept the first Iranian attack on Israel on April 13, which included dozens of cruise missiles and drones, along with ballistic missiles launched at Israel.
Trump will give Israel ‘blank check’ which may mean all-out war with Iran, says ex-CIA chief
Donald Trump will as president give Benjamin Netanyahu a “blank check” in the Middle East, possibly opening the way for all-out war between Israel and Iran, the former CIA director and US defense secretary Leon Panetta predicted.
“With regards to the Middle East, I think he’s basically going to give Netanyahu a blank check,” Panetta said of Trump, who won the presidential election this week and will take office again in January.
“‘Whatever you do, whatever you want to do, whoever you want to go after, you have my blessing.’ I mean, he basically said that [before the election].”
The Israeli prime minister has overseen attacks on Iran and its assets as part of a growing conflagration since Hamas attacked Israel on 7 October last year. He and the US president-elect were reported to have spoken during the US election campaign. Netanyahu congratulated Trump on Wednesday, after Trump’s victory over Kamala Harris was confirmed.
Panetta continued: “And so the real question there is whether Netanyahu decides to continue to try to expand that war, go after Iran, or do things that basically create an even greater concern about whether or not the Middle East is ever going to resolve itself or be in constant conflict.”
(Read more here.)
Ireland to join South Africa’s ICJ ‘genocide’ case against Israel
The Republic of Ireland intends to join South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) before the end of the year, its foreign minister said.
Micheal Martin’s comments came as the Irish parliament passed a non-binding motion agreeing that “genocide is being perpetrated before our eyes by Israel in Gaza”.
In December, South Africa brought a case before the ICJ, arguing that the war in Gaza breached the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention, an accusation Israel has strongly denied.
Several nations have added their weight to the proceedings, including Spain, Bolivia, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, Chile and Libya.
MORE NEWS:
IMEMC Daily Reports.
Middle East Monitor: Israel’s US-backed long war against the United Nations
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – NOVEMBER 7, 2024:
Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – November 7, 2024: at least 44,287* ( 43,508 in Gaza* – 69% are women and children, according to Gaza’s Media Office). [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. This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children).
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 779 Palestinians (~167 of them children).
In July 2024, the Lancet said: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death 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 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
- At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
- About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
- About 345,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – November 7, 2024: at least 108,647 (including at least 102,684 in Gaza and 6,300 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – November 7, 2024: ~1,574 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 396*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Nov 2); 39 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.
The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is at least 3,050, with 13,658 injuries. An estimated 1.34 million have been displaced.
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.
***The figure does not include the reportedly 56 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.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
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