Compilation of news reports – IAK staff 

Israel killed at least 28 people in the Gaza Strip Sunday.

• At least four Palestinians were killed and several others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Umm al-Fahm School in the town of Beit Lahia, which serves to shelter displaced civilians in the northern Gaza Strip.

• An entire family of 17 members was wiped out by an Israeli airstrike on Sunday in the town of Zboud, in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, Lebanese media said.

In Yemen, at least four people were killed and 49 others injured in Israeli airstrikes on the western city of Al Hudaydah on Sunday, the Houthi group said.

Around 17,000 children killed in Israeli war on Gaza, Palestinian authorities say

Anadolu Agency reports:

Around 17,000 Palestinian children have been killed in Israel’s ongoing war on the Gaza Strip since last October, according to local authorities on Sunday.

“Around 25,973 Palestinian children now live in Gaza without one or both parents due to the Israeli aggression,” Ismail al-Thawabta, who heads Gaza’s government media office, told Anadolu.

He said at least 16,859 children, including 171 infants, have been killed in Israeli attacks since Oct. 7, 2023.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has repeatedly warned that “Gaza’s children have endured unimaginable horrors” under relentless Israeli attacks.

Gaza: Israel’s destruction of agricultural land is expression of its insistence on committing genocide

Euro Med Monitor reports:

Israel has once again destroyed hundreds of dunams of agricultural land, depriving Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip of agricultural land and resources vital to survival, all in support of its illegal blockade of the Strip and tight restrictions on the entry of food supplies for almost a full year. This is an expression of Israel’s insistence on committing genocide against Palestinians in the enclave.

Israel has forced over 75% of agricultural land in the Gaza Strip from the Palestinian people’s hands, either by isolating it in preparation for illegally annexing it to its military “buffer zone” or by bulldozing or otherwise damaging it, thereby destroying the Strip’s supply of fruits, vegetables, and meat.

This destruction is part of a larger Israeli plan that dates back to last October. Under this plan, Israeli forces have worked to eliminate almost 80% of the agricultural land in the Gaza Strip from use by Palestinians. Israel has done this either by isolating it in preparation for its forcible annexation to the so-called “buffer zone” or by bulldozing or destroying it by other means, such as bombardment—all of which are in violation of international law.

According to the Euro-Med Monitor field team, Israeli forces stormed the area of Al-Shimaa in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, early on Tuesday morning (25 September 2024). Accompanied by military bulldozers, the forces began their bulldozing operations, destroying more than 500 dunums of newly replanted agricultural land, which was supposed to sustain the needs of the people living in northern Gaza, who are subject to an arbitrary siege and systematic starvation by Israel.

The Israeli destruction of these agricultural lands, the majority of which were filled with eggplants, reflects Israel’s insistence on preventing the Palestinian people from depending on the region’s agricultural food basket during a period when sufficient supplies of vegetables and other foods are being kept out of the northern Gaza Strip. This has led to a severe famine, to the point where a significant portion of the people in the north have been forced to eat tree leaves and bake ground-up animal feed instead of flour.

(Read the full report here.)

Palestinian security in Gaza says spying devices found in displacement camps

Middle East Monitor reports:

The Palestinian security services in Gaza have in recent days seized Israeli spying equipment planted in a shelter for displaced families in the southern Gaza Strip, a Palestinian resistance media platform reported on its Telegram channel yesterday.

The platform quoted a security officer as saying that “the [Israeli] occupation intelligence had disguised the seized spying devices with different shapes, so they appear as part of the surrounding and natural environment including in the form of a rock.”

The officer suggested the Israeli intelligence planted the spying devices via Quadcopter drones, calling on everyone “not to tamper with any suspicious devices and to contact the security officers immediately.”

From Gaza to Lebanon: Israel’s Bombing Campaign Backed by Media Propaganda

MintPress News reports:

Western corporate media outlets, including the BBC, CNN, and The New York Times, have been working overtime to justify Israel’s recent assault on Lebanon, which claimed the lives of approximately 600 people in a single day. These reports have repeatedly claimed that the Israeli strikes were targeting “Hezbollah positions,” an assertion that has been widely echoed without substantial scrutiny.

Israel’s large-scale onslaught against civilian areas throughout Lebanon, which began on Monday, was covered by Western corporate media as “strikes on Hezbollah.”

CNN’s story on the first day of the assault, after around 500 people had been killed across Lebanon, was titled, “Israeli Strikes Targeting Hezbollah Kill Hundreds Across Lebanon.” The New York Times set up a live events feed labeled “Israel Strikes Hezbollah Targets in Lebanon.” Even Reuters and the Associated Press, two of the most reputable Western news providers, framed the events as an escalation from “both sides,” covering Israel’s attack on Hezbollah.

And so it begins. Deleted Israeli propaganda posts about Lebanon after deleting dozens of exposed lies about Gaza. Never believe Israel https://t.co/KFK7d8bGJr

— Hadi (@HadiNasrallah) September 23, 2024

A Reuters article published Tuesday opens with a telling lede: “An Israeli airstrike on Beirut killed a senior Hezbollah commander on Tuesday as cross-border rocket attacks by both sides increased fears of a full-fledged war in the Middle East, and Lebanon said only Washington could help end the fighting.”

Israel has made no secret of the fact that it is targeting civilians, as demonstrated by its release of a CGI video showing mockups of Lebanese villages, where missiles are allegedly stored in homes. Despite this, much of the Western media has yet to acknowledge these admissions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dispelled any remaining doubt when he delivered a message in English to the people of Lebanon in which he claimed, “Hezbollah has been using you as human shields.” He further stated, “They’ve placed rockets in your living rooms” and “missiles in your garage.”

(Read the full analysis here.)

Community notes is doing more journalism than BBC. pic.twitter.com/QumkTNVrgc

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) September 30, 2024

Garbage situation in Gaza is catastrophic

Various agencies report:

UNRWA, the United Nations group serving Palestinian refugees, says: Mountains of garbage are piling up in Gaza middle areas as sewage leaks onto streets. Families have no choice but to live beside the accumulated waste, exposed to the reek and the threat of a looming health disaster. Sanitary and living conditions across Gaza are inhumane.

According to ReliefWeb, the waste management system in Gaza, already limited before the war, has now completely collapsed as collection vehicles have been destroyed and access to official landfills is refused by the Israeli military.

Waste attracts rodents and insects resulting in the spread of infectious diseases such as cholera or skin diseases, while waste burning, a disposal method that locals use to manage the current emergency, worsens air pollution which in turn can result in further respiratory problems. People, many of whom are children, scavenging waste for food and sustenance, face additional risks from hazardous materials, which include medical waste and industrial chemicals.

There are also growing indications that conflict pollution is risked with the spread of antimicrobial resistance, a development that can deepen the medical health crisis.

Large waste dumps are also a threat to the soil and groundwater, as leachate, a toxic mix that spills from the waste, seeps into the land and affects groundwater, while in the long-term, increased methane release from landfills contributes to an increase of greenhouse gas emissions.

Lebanon says around 1 million people displaced due to Israeli attacks

Anadolu Agency reports:

Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said Sunday that around one million people have been displaced due to Israeli attacks, marking the largest wave of displacement in the country’s history.

“Lebanon is experiencing the largest wave of displacement in its history,” he told a press conference following a meeting of the government’s emergency committee in Beirut.

“Our priority is to stop the ongoing Israeli aggression through continued diplomatic efforts. We have no other choice,” he noted.

Mikati also reaffirmed Lebanon’s commitment to United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

Israel’s state comptroller accuses army of obstructing investigations into Oct. 7 failures

Anadolu Agency reports:

Israeli State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman accused the military on Sunday of hindering investigations into the failures that led to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

“No external body has shown objectivity in examining the failures,” Englman said during a conference by Israeli media outlets The Jerusalem Post, Maariv and Walla.

He said his office is conducting a series of investigations related to the failures that led to the Oct. 7 attack.

“We are nearing completion of this report, but to finalize it, we need to meet with three individuals in the military,” Englman added.

He emphasized that Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi believes that the State Comptroller’s office should not intervene in military issues, declaring him “wrong.”

The State Comptroller’s office is Israel’s central institution for overseeing various state agencies to ensure public financial accountability.

US senator confirms Israel used US one ton bombs in Nasrallah strike

Reuters reports:

The bomb that Israel used to kill Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last week was an American-made guided weapon, a U.S. senator said on Sunday.

Mark Kelly, chair of the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee, said Israel used a 2,000-lb (900-kg) Mark 84 series bomb, during an interview with NBC. His statement marks the first U.S. indication of what weapon had been used.

“We see more use of guided munitions, JDAMs, and we continue to provide those weapons,” Kelly said, using an abbreviation that stands for Joint Direct Attack Munitions. “That 2,000-pound bomb that was used, that’s a Mark 84 series bomb, to take out Nasrallah,” he said.

The Israeli military said on Saturday it had eliminated Nasrallah in a strike on the group’s central command headquarters in Beirut’s southern suburbs.

The Israeli military has declined to comment on what weapons were used in the attack. The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.

JDAMs convert a standard unguided bomb using fins and a GPS guidance system into a guided weapon.

AL JAZEERA ADDS: Israel media says about 85 so-called “bunker-buster” bombs were used in the attack on Hasan Nasrallah.

Also known as “ground penetration munition”, these missiles burrow deep into the ground before they detonate.

They have the power to destroy underground facilities and reinforced concrete buildings.

Nader: Furtively booby-trapping a consumer product like a pager or two-way radio opens a new phase of warfare

Ralph Nader writes in Common Dreams:

.Israel’s Biden-backed war machine is once again bearing down on defenseless Lebanese people. Hostilities on the Israel-Lebanon border have been occurring since the establishment of Israel and the dispossession of Palestinians and their land in 1948. But last week’s war-crime-laden escalation by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stunned the world.

It started with bombings followed by the simultaneous booby-trapped “red button” explosion of thousands of pagers and two-way radios inside Lebanon on September 17, 2024, and September 18, 2024, held by or near Lebanese militants, and civilian men, women, children, health workers, storekeepers, etc. Thirty-seven people were killed and 3,700 others were injured—losing hands, eyes, and fingers. Many also suffered internal organ damage.

Such an attack at this scale is unprecedented in human history. While the ambulances and overwhelmed hospitals were taking in the casualties, Israeli F-16s (provided by the U.S.) struck throughout Lebanon, killing over 700 people and injuring thousands, many of them women and children—a staggering total of 1,600 targets in two days.

Computers, motor vehicles, smartphones, and many other electronic products could become weapons of war.

International law experts condemned the mega-raid. They pointed to the war crime of booby-trapping a product, and the vast disproportionate harm to innocent civilians compared to Israel’s military objective to destroy Hezbollah’s militia that has been exchanging unequal missiles with Israel since October 8, 2023.

As has been the case for decades, Lebanese casualties were vastly greater than Israeli casualties. Israel has a modern air defense system that shuts down most of the incoming missiles. Hezbollah’s military might has been long exaggerated by its Israeli adversary to justify regularly bombing Syria, attacking Iran, and getting more weapons from the U.S.

In reality, Hezbollah—a political party and social service organization—has a militia greatly outnumbered and overpowered by the Israeli military in soldiers, destructive weaponry, and money from the U.S.

Furtively booby-trapping a consumer product like a pager or two-way radio opens a new phase of warfare. This savagery prompted Leon Panetta, former director of the CIA and former secretary of defense, in an interview on the CBS “Sunday Morning” news show to charge Israel with “terrorism.” No prominent national security figure has ever assailed Israel this way. Herewith his words:

The ability to be able to place an explosive in technology that is very prevalent these days. And turn it into a war of terror. Really, a war of terror. This is something new.

I don’t think there’s any question that it’s a form of terrorism…This is going right into the supply chain, right into the supply chain. And when you have terror going into the supply chain, it makes people ask the question, what the hell is next?

Panetta would never have uttered these words without the concurrence of the CIA and the Department of Defense. Still no consequences for Netanyahu by the U.S. government.

Netanyahu has made the push button a trigger for mayhem and murder—acts of large-scale terrorism. He and his predecessors have always characterized offensive acts violating the laws of war as “acceptable” defensive tactics.

The supine Congress and White House regularly rubber-stamp their violations of several U.S. laws on behalf of the Israeli government. (See the letter sent to John Kirby on September 12, 2024).

Consider the aftermath. No denunciation by U.S. President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Alarmingly, there were no editorials in the following week criticizing Netanyahu in The Washington Post and The New York Times.

Imagine if Hezbollah did this to Israeli society. The devaluation of Palestinian and Lebanese lives can only be called racist.

U.S. blowback analysts are apprehensive about the spread of Israeli-style “red button” explosives and the ingenious, and ever-cheaper armed drones. They see such technologies as potential threats within the U.S.

Such is the peril of nations whose leaders wage constant profitable, preventable wars and decline to wage muscular peace with comparable determination.

On Sunday, the pope was asked about Israel’s targeted killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Friday’s strike on Beirut, which led to many casualties and reduced several buildings to rubble.

“Every day I call the parish of Gaza. More than 600 people are there, inside the parish and the college, and they tell me about the things that are happening, including the cruelties that are occurring there,” he told journalists.

“[D]efense must always be proportionate to the attack,” he added.

“When there is something disproportionate, a domineering tendency that goes beyond morality is evident,” the pope said.

“A country that, with its forces, does these things—I’m talking about any country—that does these things in such a “superlative” way, these are immoral actions,” he added.

“Even in war, there is morality to be safe-guarded. War is immoral, but the rules of war indicate some morality. But when this is not respected, you can see—as we say in Argentina—the “bad blood” of these things.”

Jared Kushner says Israel must ‘finish the job’ in Lebanon

Al Jazeera reports:

Jared Kushner, who served as a senior adviser during former US President Donald Trump’s tenure in the White House, has said calling for a ceasefire in Lebanon is “wrong”.

In a post on X, Kushner said Israel “cannot afford now to not finish the job” and dismantle Hezbollah completely.“They will never get another chance. After the brilliant, rapid-fire tactical successes of the pagers, radios, and targeting of leadership, Hezbollah’s massive weapon cache is unguarded and unmanned,” said Kushner, who is also the Republican candidate’s son-in-law.He added that the “right move” for the US is to allow Israel to “finish the job. It’s long overdue”.

In March, Kushner sparked controversy when he publicly praised the “very valuable potential” of “waterfront property” in Gaza, in comments that gave a window into what Trump’s policy on Palestine could be during his second term.

During Trump’s presidency, Kushner played a major role in negotiating the “Abraham Accords”: normalization deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco. Palestinians slammed the agreements as “a stab in the back of the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian people”.

At one point, Trump’s son-in-law described Gaza as having no historical context – “It was the result of a war – you had tribes that went different places and then Gaza became a thing.”

Before leading in the creation of Trump’s so-called Deal of the Century, Kushner claimed his expertise on the subject came from reading 25 books about Palestine.

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Russian foreign minister urges Israel to abandon ‘essentially terrorist methods of settling political scores’

Anadolu Agency reports:

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged Israel on Saturday to abandon “essentially terrorist methods of settling political scores” as he commented on the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

Lavrov said at a news conference in New York that he had the impression that Israel is trying to provoke Iran and the Lebanese resistance group, Hezbollah, to push the US into direct involvement in the conflict in the Middle East.

The Russian diplomat noted that Nasrallah’s murder was not the first provocative step by Israel. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in July in the Iranian capital of Tehran where he went to take part in the funeral of President Ebrahim Raisi. Before that, Israel attacked the Iranian diplomatic mission in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

“Apparently, Israel wants to create a reason for the US to get involved in this war. And in order to create this reason, it has been provoking both Iran and Hezbollah. In this situation, Iranian leadership is behaving extremely responsibly,” he said. “I don’t think this is the right course, I am convinced that the bloodshed must be stopped.”

Asked about Israel’s willingness to implement UN Security Council resolutions, Lavrov said: “I do not see Israel’s desire to carry out any peace plans.”