Violence against West Bank Palestinians intensifies, as Gaza's "safe" space shrinks

A school in Gaza City being used as a shelter was destroyed in an Israeli strike this month. Credit...Omar Al-Qattaa/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images (photo)

Gaza’s shrinking “humanitarian” zone; doctor says 80 percent of amputations he performed in Gaza were on children; Israeli forces shoot dead injured Palestinians at point-blank range, including a youth; Israeli drones, snipers, settlers wreak death, havoc across West Bank; Israel-imposed drought in East Jerusalem; Israeli gov’t preparing to “legalize” 35% of West Bank illegal outposts; US officials say Israel can do no more militarily in Gaza; Israeli economy on the brink; “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice; poll shows US arms embargo on Israel would attract voters; journalists call on Blinken to back arms embargo; UN rapporteur says 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable; more.

By IAK staff, from reports.

Doctor says 80 percent of amputations he performed in Gaza were on children

Al Jazeera reports: A US-based vascular surgeon who recently visited Gaza says he has never had to do so many pediatric operations in his life.

“I am trained to save arms and legs. In the two weeks I spent in Gaza, I’ve done everything except save legs and arms. I was amputating legs and arms to save lives. And that by itself is really bad,” Bara Zuhaili told Al Jazeera.

“Even worse … 80 percent of the amputations I did were on kids. And when I say kids, I don’t mean kids under 18. I mean kids who are under the age of eight.”

According to the Gaza Health Ministry, more than more than 16,400 children have been killed since the war on Gaza began in October.

Asked if he would go back to the war-torn enclave, Zuhaili said he “absolutely” would.

“I said it before, and I would say it again; I’ve never felt more human. I’ve never felt more empowered in my life than my time in Gaza,” he said.

Israeli army issues new evacuation order, reduces humanitarian zone

The New Arab reports: The Israeli army ordered a fresh evacuation of areas in southern and central Gaza previously designated as a so-called humanitarian safe zone on Friday, claiming the areas had been used by Hamas as a base for firing mortars and rockets towards Israel.

It said warning flyers and text messages had been sent out in the area north of the southern city of Khan Younis and in the eastern part of Deir Al-Balah, where tens of thousands of people have sought shelter.

“The advance warning to civilians is being issued in order to mitigate harm to the civilian population and to enable civilians to move away from the combat zone,” the military said in a statement.

Earlier the military claimed it had hit an area in Khan Younis from where rockets were fired towards the community of Kissufim on Thursday, finding weapons including shoulder-fired missiles and explosives.

The latest evacuation orders came as negotiators in Doha were due to meet for a second day of talks aimed at reaching a deal to halt the Gaza war and bring Israeli and foreign captives home.

A Palestinian woman, Miada Abu Anza takes shelter with her five children in a UN school in Khan Younis on August 6, 2024 [Doaa Albaz/Anadolu] (photo)

West Bank: Israeli forces shoot dead injured Palestinians at point-blank range, including a youth

Defense for Children Int’l-Palestine reports: Thursday morning, an Israeli drone-fired missile targeted 17-year-old Mohammad Bashar Hasan Bani Odeh and several young Palestinian men in the Palestinian village of Tammun in the northern occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine.

They were seriously injured and fell to the ground, after which an Israeli military vehicle approached. As Israeli soldiers exited the vehicle, they ordered a nearby ambulance driver to leave at gunpoint.

Israeli forces realized that Mohammad and two young men were still alive and proceeded to fatally shoot each of them at point-blank range. After an hour, Israeli forces placed them in a military vehicle and transported them to an unknown location.

ALSO FROM DCIP: Shadi Wissam Mohammad Shiha, 16, was shot by an Israeli sniper around 10 p.m. on August 13 in Anata, northeast of Jerusalem in the occupied West Bank, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. Shadi went to close up his family-owned car wash, and his cousin joined him to help.

While there, they noticed a fire on the other side of the Israeli separation wall, and walked close to the wall to look. Israeli forces then shot Shadi in the thigh from a distance of 30 to 60 meters (98 to 197 feet) away. He was bleeding heavily. His cousin transported him to the hospital, but he was pronounced dead a short time later.

LAST WEEK: Khatab Majdi Asad Abu Badawiya, 15, was struck by shrapnel from an Israeli drone-fired missile around 9:40 a.m. on August 6 during an Israeli military incursion into Jenin, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine.

The strike, which injured Khatab, killed three armed Palestinian men. Israeli soldiers in the military vehicle fired live ammunition toward paramedics who tried to reach him.

While Khatab was still alive, the military vehicle drove one of its wheels onto his abdomen. Khatab was pronounced dead.

(left to right) Mohammad Bashar Hasan Bani Odeh, Shadi Wissam Mohammad Shiha, Khatab Majdi Asad Abu Badawiya (photo)

Israeli Drone Strike Kills Two Palestinians, Injures Seven Others, in Nablus

IMEMC reports: An Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinian young men, on Thursday, and injured at least seven others, including one critically, in the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus, while two others were shot during the army’s storming of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Media sources said that an Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinian citizens and injured seven others, before dawn Thursday, in the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus in the northern West Bank.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) confirmed the death of two young men, and the injury of seven others, including a child and a woman, as a result of a drone strike which targeted a group of citizens in the Balata camp.

Media sources said that the missile strike killed the two young men, Ahmad Firas Sheikh Khalil, 20, and Wael Bilal Shaker Mish’a, 18, from Balata camp, and injured seven others, including one critically.

Colonizers Kill a Palestinian, Critically Injure Another, Near Qalqilia

IMEMC reports: On Thursday, illegal Israeli colonizers killed a Palestinian young man, critically injured another, and burned Palestinian-owned homes and vehicles in the village of Jit, east of Qalqilia in the northwestern part of the occupied West Bank.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry the critically injured young man, Rashid Mahmoud Abdel Qader Seddah, 23, was pronounced dead at the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus after an illegal colonizer shot him in the chest with live ammunition.

Media sources said that a group of armed Israeli colonizers invaded the village and opened fire with live rounds towards Palestinian citizens, shooting two citizens, killing Seddah and critically injuring another.

According to Morad Eshteiwi, the director of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission in Qalqilia, Israeli forces invaded the village and provided protection for the attacking colonizers.

Eshteiwi added that the colonizers set fire to four Palestinian-owned homes and six vehicles, while the soldiers opened fire with live rounds, tear gas canisters, and concussion grenades.

Arab 48 quoted an Israeli security source who reported that 100 settlers stormed the village of Jit and burned four homes and six vehicles belonging to local citizens.

Media sources said that after closing the entrances to the village, they prevented civil defense crews from reaching the fires, allowing the fires to burn.

Arab 48 also reported that the settlers hurled Molotov cocktails and rocks at Palestinian citizens, and added that several Palestinian citizens suffered the toxic effects of tear gas inhalation.

Close to 100 Palestinians leave their community in the West Bank’s north following repeated settler harassment

Ha’aretz reports: Close to a hundred Palestinians have left their homes in the West Bank’s north, following repeated threats and harassment by Israeli settlers.

Those who have left their homes are member of the Um Jamal community, located in the West Bank’s northern Jordan Rift Valley region, near the Israeli settlement of Maskiyot.

Residents describe cases in which settlers broke into their homes, threw stones at them and drove away their flock, and expressed frustration with the conduct of the police and the army.

According Um Jamal residents, the community’s lack of trust that IDF and police will protect them is one of the reasons for their departure.

“The children are crying and scared, and so are the women. It is better to leave than to have our house destroyed,” said a resident of the community.”Sometimes they throw stones at the houses. It’s not one, it’s dozens.”

Dozens of community members are now moving to the Tayasir village area, near the city of Tubas, also in the West Bank’s north, under the control of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli government planning to legalize 35 percent of West Bank outposts

Al Jazeera reports: The Israeli government has been working to advance a plan to legalize 35 percent of the Israeli outposts in Area C in the occupied West Bank, a new report published by Israeli human rights organization Bimkom has found.

Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has been spearheading the plan since February, which entails the regularization of 70 of the 200 illegal outposts in fully-Israeli controlled Area C, the organization said in a statement.

“As part of this process, Israel is working to connect these outposts immediately to water and electricity infrastructure, to establish public buildings in them, and to halt enforcement proceedings against them,” it said.

“The initiative exacerbates still further the planning discrimination against the Palestinian population.”

The taps have run dry in Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood

+972 Magazine reports: In the searing heat of summer, Jerusalem’s largest Palestinian neighborhood is facing a major water crisis. Since June, residents of Kufr ‘Aqab have been receiving just 2 to 12 hours of water per week. Their complaints have been redirected from one official to the next, yet no one has provided them with a solution — nor taken responsibility for the problem.

Located within Jerusalem’s northeastern municipal boundary but severed from the rest of the city by the separation wall, Kufr ‘Aqab’s residents have grown accustomed to the systematic neglect they face from the Israeli authorities. But the current crisis is the worst it’s ever been. During the few hours that the water does flow, residents try to do everything they can with it: take showers, do laundry, and clean the house. The rest of the time, they are forced to buy water from private suppliers and store it in containers on the roofs of their apartment blocks.

“We have hospitals, nurseries, and schools in the area,” Iyad Sanduka, a member of the neighborhood’s residents’ committee, told +972 Magazine and Local Call. “Everyone suffers from the water shortage.”

Despite the fact that the majority of the neighborhood is officially part of Jerusalem, Kufr ‘Aqab doesn’t receive water from the municipal water supplier, Hagihon. Instead, like Palestinian communities across the occupied West Bank, water is provided by the Palestinian Water Authority (PWA) — an arm of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) — which purchases it from the Israeli national water company, Mekorot.

This is symptomatic of Israel’s system of water apartheid in the occupied territories: Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are denied control of the aquifers under their feet, and must instead buy the water back in limited quantities from Israel. While Israelis have access to an average of 300 liters of water per day, Palestinians in the West Bank enjoy only 80 liters — 20 liters less than the World Health Organization’s recommended daily quantity. For Palestinians in Gaza, it is currently as low as 3 liters.

(Read the full article here.)

In Gaza, Israel’s Military Has Reached the End of the Line, U.S. Officials Say

New York Times reports: Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials, who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished.

With the Biden administration racing to get cease-fire negotiations back on track, a growing number of national security officials across the government said that the Israeli military had severely set back Hamas but would never be able to completely eliminate the group.

Israel has made bold claims about the number Hamas deaths, without proof.

But one of Israel’s biggest remaining goals — the return of the roughly 115 living and dead hostages still held in Gaza after being seized in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks — cannot be achieved militarily, according to current and former American and Israeli officials.

Israel’s most recent military operations have been something of a Whac-a-Mole strategy in the eyes of American analysts. U.S. officials are skeptical that approach will yield decisive results.

While Israel has tried to damage the tunnels, it has failed to destroy them, American officials said. The network has proved much larger than Israel anticipated, and it remains an effective way for Hamas to hide its leaders and move around fighters.

And even as the Israel Defense Forces have seized territory and killed Hamas fighters from north to south of the territory, they have repeatedly had to go back in as Hamas fighters regrouped. For example, Israel weakened Hamas’s grip in the Jabaliya camp, in northern Gaza, but had to return to the area in May after the group reconstituted in the power vacuum.

Biden administration officials say diplomacy is the only way that Israel can achieve possibly its biggest goal — getting its hostages back.

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Israeli economy on the brink as it awaits retaliation from Resistance Axis

The Cradle reports: The Israeli economy is on the ropes as the country awaits retaliation for its attacks against Iran, Lebanon, and Yemen over the past month, according to reports in Hebrew media.

“These two weeks have exhausted the market, as some economic activities have been canceled, and another part has been reduced due to public fear,” the economic affairs commentator for Israel’s Channel 13 News said on 15 August.

Israel’s tourism industry, in particular, has recorded massive losses due to the broad cancellation of flights by international airlines.

Israel’s education sector will also be severely affected if the wait continues into September, as institutions will have to “maneuver within combat scenarios,” according to the Israeli broadcaster.

The Israeli economy has already taken several hits 10 months into the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, with the most recent one being the decision by US financial services firm Fitch to downgrade the nation’s credit rating.

UN rapporteur says ‘shocking’ 40,000 deaths in Gaza were preventable

Al Jazeera reports: UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says the “shocking” death toll in Gaza, which has reached a landmark 40,000 people, was predictable and avoidable as United Nations experts have long issued warnings and called for international action to stop the violence.

In spite of this, the UN Security Council and other international bodies have failed to stop the conflict.

“The moral abyss in which [Israel has] fallen is hard to comprehend,” Albanese told Al Jazeera, adding that the war in Gaza points to “an epic failure of the system of international law that was built after World War II to prevent and punish crimes such as this”.

The conflict also shed light on the “hypocrisy” in the legal system, where “a few countries have the power to determine to whom international law can be applied and to whom it cannot”.

Palestinians examine the destruction left behind after the Israeli army’s withdrawal in Tal al-Hawa, Gaza City [File: Mahmoud İssa/Anadolu Images] (photo)

“Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks commitment from Harris for Palestine justice

The “Blue Vote Red Line” movement seeks to collect 1 million voters to pledge a vote for the Democratic ticket if, and only if, it commits to 1) enforce an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) end all military aid to Israel.

Their goal is to “force the Democratic Party to listen to its voters and not just its donors. We demand concrete results from the current Biden-Harris Administration to end the Gaza Genocide and a credible commitment from a Harris-Walz ticket which will pressure Israel to achieve a just and lasting solution to the illegal occupation of Palestine.”

“We hereby pledge to vote Democratic on November 5th only if the current administration: 1) enforces an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, as ordered by the World Court and UN Security Council Resolution 2735 or 2) ends all military aid to Israel.”

The pledge can be viewed and signed here.

Pledging arms embargo on Israel would help Harris gain more voter support: Poll

Middle East Eye reports: According to a new poll, roughly one-third of Democratic Party voters in the US states of Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania have said they are more likely to vote for Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election if she were to agree to stop sending arms to Israel.

In Pennsylvania, 34 percent of voters were more likely to vote for Harris if she agreed to the arms embargo, while 44 percent were more likely to vote for her if Biden achieved a ceasefire.

In Georgia, an arms embargo would make 39 percent of voters more likely to vote for Harris, and a ceasefire would similarly make 44 percent of voters more likely to choose the vice president.

Arizona showed similar numbers, with 35 percent of voters more inclined to choose Harris if she agreed to an arms embargo on Israel, while 41 percent of voters would do so if Biden achieved a ceasefire in Gaza.

Columbia students protest in support of Palestine on campus on Oct. 12. More demonstrations have occurred since, including one on Nov. 9 that appears to have led to the suspension of two groups. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images) (photo)

Journalists Demand Blinken Back Israel Arms Embargo

From Consortium News: In an open letter to Antony Blinken, 113 journalists, 7 press freedom groups and 20 news outlets accused the U.S. secretary of state of being “complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today” in Gaza. Here are excerpts from the letter, which was delivered to the State Department on Thursday morning with a request to meet with the Secretary of State.

Dear Secretary Blinken,

Since October 7, 2023, Israel has killed more than 160 Palestinian journalists. This is the largest recorded number of journalists killed in any war. While Israel’s indiscriminate bombing of the densely populated Gaza means no civilians are safe, Israel has also been repeatedly documented deliberately targeting journalists.

Israel’s military actions are not possible without U.S. weapons, U.S. military aid, and U.S. diplomatic support. By providing the weapons being used to deliberately kill journalists, you are complicit in one of the gravest affronts to press freedom today.

On World Press Freedom Day this year, you called on “every nation to do more to protect journalists,” and reiterated your “unwavering support for free and independent media around the world.”

As journalists, publications and press freedom groups in solidarity with the courageous Palestinian journalists of Gaza, we call on you to do more to protect journalists and show unwavering support for free and independent media by supporting an arms embargo against Israel…

Under international law, the intentional targeting of journalists is a war crime.5 While all governments are bound by international law protecting reporters, U.S. domestic law also prohibits the State Department from providing assistance to units of foreign security forces credibly accused of gross violations of human rights.6 Israel’s well-documented pattern of extrajudicial executions of journalists is a gross violation of human rights.

Additionally, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution protects the American people’s right to receive information and ideas.7 Israel’s deliberate targeting of journalists follows a longstanding pattern by the Israeli government to suppress truthful reporting on its treatment of Palestinians and its war in Gaza. By providing Israel with the weapons used to kill journalists, the State Department is abetting Israel’s violent suppression of journalism.

The U.S. is providing the weapons Israel continually uses to target Palestinian journalists in Gaza. This is a violation of International law and U.S. domestic law. We urge you to immediately cease the transfer of all weapons to Israel.

An Israeli soldier carries a 155mm artillery shell near a self-propelled howitzer deployed at a position near the border with Lebanon in the upper Galilee region of northern Israel on October 18, 2023. (Photo: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images) (photo)

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The New Arab: Polio: Israel’s dirty bioweapon is bringing Gaza to its knees

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Omar Al-Jaabari (11) – Our field team documented his story after he sustained fourth-degree burns in the Israeli airstrike on the "Tabayeen" School on August 10th. His severe injuries, Gaza's collapsed healthcare system, and the denial of medical evacuation tragically added him… pic.twitter.com/zCBEg5S9HZ

— Euro-Med Monitor (@EuroMedHR) August 14, 2024

🚑For 314 days, Palestine Red Crescent EMS teams have been working tirelessly, day and night, to transport the wounded and victims in the #Gaza Strip amidst the continuous targeting and bombing of civilians by the Israeli occupation.
⭕️The intentional targeting of civilians is a… pic.twitter.com/bHQ2sEfJkR

— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) August 15, 2024

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – AUGUST 15:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – August 15: at least 40,634* (40,005 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 16,251 children as of July 22. [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 – and at least 632 in the West Bank (~145 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 46,848 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 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 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
About 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are currently displaced.
Almost 500,000 Gazans are currently experiencing catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – August 15: at least 97,821 (including at least 92,401 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how man Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – August 15: ~1,454 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 290*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 25 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

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.

***Approximately ten of the deaths listed above were Israeli soldiers killed by Hezbollah in fighting at the Israel-Lebanon border. The figure does not include the reportedly 41 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.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org