In Occupied Palestine

Zionism in practice

Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land

08:00, on 18 January until 08:00, 19 January 2024

[Source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group]

Gaza Strip

Armed Palestinian Resistance: Palestinian Resistance continued launching dozens of missiles towards the Green Line.

Air strikes: Heavy aerial bombardment on buildings, homes and many facilities.

Attacks: All over Gaza there are air strikes, heavy gunfire, tank and artillery shelling, as well as missiles fired from Israeli forces and military occupation, especially in Khan Yunis. The Israeli Navycontinues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the shoreline of the whole of Gaza.

Victims: 142 people killed in Gaza brings the total number of deaths since 7 October to at least 24,762. With another 278 wounded, that has risen to 62,108. Fully accurate statistics are not available due to insecurity menacing hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli obstruction of UN humanitarian aid to Gaza

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OCHA Flash Update #97

Intense Israeli bombardments from air, land and sea continued across much of the Gaza Strip on 19 January, resulting in further civilian casualties and displacement, as well as destruction. The indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups from Gaza continued. Ground operations and fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups were also reported across much of Gaza. On 17 January, the UN Secretary-General repeated his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza.

Between the afternoons of 18 and 19 January, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza, 142 Palestinians were killed, and another 278 people were injured. Between 7 October 2023 and 12:00 on 19 January 2024, at least 24,762 Palestinians were killed in Gaza and 62,108 Palestinians were injured, according to the MoH.

Between 17 January and 18 January, no Israeli soldiers were reportedly killed in Gaza. Since the start of the ground operation and as of 18 January, 191 soldiers have been killed, and 1,178 soldiers have been injured in Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

As of 19 January, telecommunication services in Gaza have remained shut down since 12 January. In light of this, new information is limited in this Flash Update. This is the sevnth time that communications have stopped working since 7 October, and is the longest blackout recorded to date. The blackout of telecommunications prevents people in Gaza from accessing lifesaving information or calling for first responders and impedes other forms of humanitarian response.

The availability of water for drinking and domestic use in Gaza is shrinking each day. At present, only one of the three Israeli lines is functional, yielding less than half (22,000 cubic metres a day) of what would have been available if all lines were working. (For more information see the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) section below).

Reporting that cases of Hepatitis A have been confirmed in Gaza through test kits supplied by his organization, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus warned that “inhumane living conditions – barely any clean water, clean toilets and possibility to keep the surroundings clean – will enable Hepatitis A to spread further … The capacity to diagnose diseases remains extremely limited. There is no functioning laboratory. The capacity to respond remains limited too. We will continue to call for unimpeded and safe access of medical aid and for health to be protected.”

Hostilities and casualties (Gaza Strip)

The communications shutdown has limited the full reporting of incidents. However, the following are among the deadliest incidents reported on 19 January:

On 19 January, at about 00:15, eight Palestinians, including one child, were reportedly killed when a house was struck west of Khan Yunis.

On 19 January, at about 7:00, 12 Palestinians were reportedly killed, and several others injured, when a house in the vicinity of Shifa Hospital, Gaza city, was struck.

On 17 January, Israeli forces detonated explosives and destroyed the Israa University in Madinat Az Zahraa, south Gaza city. Reportedly, for the previous 70 days, the building had been used by the Israeli military as a military base and an ad hoc detention facility for interrogating Palestinian detainees before their transfer to an unknown location.

Displacement (Gaza Strip)

Rafah governorate is the main refuge for those displaced, with over one million people squeezed into an extremely overcrowded space, following the intensification of hostilities in Khan Younis and Deir al Balah and the Israeli military’s evacuation orders. Obtaining an accurate figure of the total number of IDPs remains challenging.

According to a new report by UN WOMEN, “displacement exacerbates people’s vulnerability, erodes their coping mechanisms, and impacts them differently based on gender. Since the ground operation started in Gaza, it has been reported that men faced arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance. According to media reports, while on the displacement journey, women also faced risks of arbitrary detention and harassment. For families with elderly relatives or family members with disabilities who simply cannot move, it is women who disproportionately stay behind as caregivers.”

Health care, including attacks (Gaza Strip)

According to WHO, health care in Gaza remains extremely fragile. Only 16 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are functional, albeit partially: partial functionality indicates that a hospital is accessible to people in need of health care, can take in new patients and can undertake some level of surgery. These 16 hospitals include nine in the south and seven in the north. This is an increase of one more hospital in the north – Kamal Adwan – which has been functioning again to some degree since mid-January. In Deir al Balah and Khan Younis, three hospitals – Al Aqsa, Nasser, and Gaza European – are at risk of closure due to the issuance of evacuation orders in adjacent areas and the ongoing conduct of hostilities nearby. Hospitals in the north have been offering limited maternity, trauma, and emergency care services. However, they face challenges such as a shortage of medical staff, including specialized surgeons, neurosurgeons, and intensive care staff, as well as a lack of medical supplies, and have an urgent need for fuel, food, and drinking water. The nine partially functional hospitals in the south are operating at three times their capacity, while facing critical shortages of basic supplies and fuel. According to the MoH in Gaza, occupancy rates are reaching 206 per cent in inpatient departments and 250 per cent in intensive care units.

Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

The availability of water in Gaza is shrinking. According to WASH humanitarian partners, water availability through the municipal wells is presently at a tenth (21,200 cubic metres a day) of its production capacity prior to the escalation of hostilities (255,000 cubic metres a day). Water from these wells is known to be substandard given it is brackish (salty), whereas water from the Israeli-operated lines yielded the most optimal safe drinking water prior to the hostilities. At present, only one of the three Israeli lines – the Bani Said point – is functional, yielding less than half (22,000 cubic metres a day) of what would have been available if all lines were working.

Furthermore, water availability through the short-term desalination plants presently stands at seven per cent (1,600 cubic metres per day) of the pre-crisis capacity (22,000 cubic metres per day). Due to import restrictions on critical items, water testing kits and chlorine to treat the water across Gaza are presently unavailable. Furthermore, the amalgamation of solid waste and fecal waste, exacerbated by rains and floods, is giving rise to severe health and environmental threats. With WHO already reporting 152,000 cases of diarrhoea, the inability to do water chlorination to kill bacteria is aggravating the already concerning situation. At present, Health and WASH partners have developed an Acute Watery Diarrhoea preparedness and response plan. Barriers to the import of critical items must be resolved to enable adequate response.

Violence and casualties (West Bank)

On 19 January, a 17-year-old Palestinian youngster was shot and killed near Mazra’a ash Shariqiyah village in Ramallah. At the time of the incident, Israeli forces and settlers shot live ammunition towards a group of Palestinians who were reportedly throwing stones at Israeli vehicles driving on Road 60 near the village. It is not yet clear whether the boy was shot by Israeli forces or settlers.

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024, 358 Palestinians have been killed, including 91 children, across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Additionally, two Palestinians from the West Bank were killed while carrying out an attack in Israel on 30 November. Of the 358 fatalities in the West Bank, 348 were killed by Israeli forces, eight by Israeli settlers and two by either Israeli forces or settlers. So far in 2024 (as of 19 January), 49 Palestinians, including at least ten children, have been killed. The number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in 2023 (507) marks the highest number of Palestinians killed in the West Bank since OCHA started recording casualties in 2005.

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024, five Israelis, including four members of Israeli forces, have been killed in Palestinian attacks in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In addition, four Israelis were killed in an attack carried out by Palestinians from the West Bank in West Jerusalem (one of the four was killed by Israeli forces who misidentified him) on 30 November 2023. Another Israeli woman was killed in another attack perpetrated by Palestinians in Israel on 15 January 2024. The number of Israelis killed in the West Bank and Israel in 2023 in attacks perpetrated by Palestinians from the West Bank (36) was the highest since OCHA started recording casualties in 2005.

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024, 4,310 Palestinians, including 647 children, have been injured in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Of them, 4,178 have been injured by Israeli forces, 111 by settlers and 21 by either Israeli forces or settlers. Of the total injuries, 54 per cent were reported in the context of search-and-arrest and other operations, 35 per cent in demonstrations and 8 per cent during settler attacks against Palestinians. Some 33 per cent of those injuries have been caused by live ammunition, compared with 9 per cent in the first nine months of 2023.

Settler Violence

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 18 January 2024, OCHA recorded 439 Israeli settler attacks against Palestinians, resulting in Palestinian casualties (43 incidents), damage to Palestinian-owned property (341 incidents), or both casualties and damage to property (55 incidents). This reflects a daily average of four incidents since 7 October 2023 until 19 January 2024.

One-third of the settler attacks against Palestinians after 7 October 2023 have involved firearms, including shootings and threats of shootings. In nearly half of all recorded incidents after 7 October, Israeli forces were either accompanying or reported to be supporting the attackers.

In 2023, 1,229 incidents involving Israeli settlers in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem (with or without Israeli forces), resulted in Palestinian casualties, property damage or both. Some 913 of these incidents resulted in damage, 163 resulted in casualties and 153 resulted in both. This is the highest number of settler attacks against Palestinians in any given year since OCHA started recording incidents involving settlers in 2006.

Displacement (West Bank)

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024, at least 198 Palestinian households comprising 1,208 people, including 586 children, have been displaced amid settler violence and access restrictions. The displaced households are from at least 15 herding/Bedouin communities. More than half of the displacements occurred on 12, 15, and 28 October, affecting seven communities. The displacement toll since 7 October 2023, represents 78 per cent of all displacement reported due to settler violence and access restrictions since 1 January 2023 (1,539 people, including 756 children).

On 18 January, the Israeli authorities demolished 11 structures, five of which were homes, in Duma village in Nablus, due to lack of Israeli-issued permits. Eighteen people, including 12 children, were displaced. In addition, the access of some 500 families in the village to their agricultural land was affected, due to the bulldozing of two agricultural roads. Since 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024, 479 Palestinians, including 239 children, have been displaced, following the demolition of their homes, due to lack of Israeli-issued building permits in Area C and East Jerusalem, which are almost impossible to obtain.

A total of 19 homes have been demolished and 95 Palestinians, including 42 children, displaced due to punitive demolitions from 7 October 2023 and as of 19 January 2024. The numbers exceed those reported in the first nine months of the same year, during which 16 homes were punitively demolished and 78 people displaced.

Since 7 October 2023 and as of 17 January 2024, 602 Palestinians, including 263 children, have been displaced, following the destruction of 94 homes during other operations carried out by Israeli forces across the West Bank. About 94 per cent of the displacement was reported in the refugee camps of Jenin, and in Nur Shams and Tulkarm, both in Tulkarm. This represents 65 per cent of all displacement reported due to the destruction of homes during Israeli military operations since January 2023 (908 people).

West Bank

[Palestinian Monitoring Group]

Israeli Army attack – home invasions – 2 taken prisoner: Tubas – 03:20, Israeli Occupation forces, firing live ammunition, stormed Tammun and raided a number of homes, taking prisoner two people.

Israeli Army attack: Tubas – 03:20, Israeli forces, firing live ammunition, stormed Far’a village.

Israeli Army attack – home invasions – widespread destruction: Tulkarem – since 04:50-01:30 on 17 January, Israeli Occupation forces have been raiding the city as well as the Nour Shams and Tulkarem refugee camps, invading homes, besieging the Thabet Thabet and Al-Israa Hospitals, as well as searching ambulances and preventing them from moving. A drone-launched air strike killed four people in addition to two other slain residents. Seven people, including three paramedics have been wounded. Israeli forces have taken prisoner 27 people, including five paramedics. The six killed are: 17-year-old Ahmed Musa Mutlaq Badawi, 17-year-old Walid Ibrahim Muhammad Ghanem, 18-year-old Ahmed Tariq Noman Faraj, Ahmed Moin Dhib Mahdawi, Muhammad Mutee’ Mahmoud Salit and Ashraf Ahmed Yassin Yassin. Two further people have been killed, Abd al-Rahman Essam Ibrahim Othman and Muhammad Faisal Dawas Abu Awad, and three wounded: Ayman Ahmed Marei, Laith Jasser Sharfa and Thaer Abdel Qader Tubasi. Israeli Occupation forces used explosives to destroy two more houses and the Israeli Army invaded five homes before withdrawing at 01:30.

Israeli Army attack – 2 wounded: Salfit – 23:40, the Israeli Army, firing live ammunition, stormed Salfit, wounding two residents: Majd Walid Zuhd and Hamed Omar Aslim Al-Masry.

Home invasions: Ramallah – 19:10, Israeli Occupation forces raided the village of Medea and searched a number of homes.

Home invasions – 2 houses demolished: Nablus – 09:40, Israeli forces demolished two houses, in the village of Duma.

Home invasion – 1 taken prisoner: Jericho – the Israeli Army raided al-Jiftlik village, invading a house and taking prisoner one resident.

Israeli police and settlers’ mosque violation: Jerusalem – 08:00, settler militants, escorted by Israeli police, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.

Israeli Army assault with rubber-coated bullets: Ramallah – 18:00, Israeli Occupation forces fired rubber-coated bullets at people, near the entrance to the village of Nabi Saleh.

Israeli Army assault – agricultural sabotage: Nablus – 09:40, Israeli forces, in Duma village, destroyed a sheep-rearing pen and a home under construction, as well as three other farm buildings.

Israeli Army beating up – 1 injured and hospitalised: Nablus – 13:55, at the Awarta checkpoint, Israeli troops beat up and hospitalised a woman: Jacqueline Musa Abu Mustafa.

Israeli Army beating – 1 injured and hospitalised: Nablus – 01:25, at the Shavei Shomron checkpoint, Israeli soldiers beat up and hospitalised a man: Mahdi Maraqa.

Occupation settler land-grab: Tubas – 10:30, Israelis, from the Shadmut Mikhola settlement in the North Jordan Valley, seized an area of nearby land and built on it a settlement road.

Occupation settler land-grab: Salfit – 11:50, armed Israeli settlers grazed their cows on Deir Ballut farmland crops, and assaulted a landowner.

Raid: Jerusalem – 20:30-21:10, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled Hizma.

Raid: Jerusalem – 03:55–06:10, Israeli forces raided and patrolled al-Eizariya.

Raids: Ramallah – 09:15, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the villages of Qibya and Budrus.

Raid: Ramallah – 14:55-16:00, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the village of Rantis.

Raid: Ramallah – 15:50, Israeli troops raided al-Bireh.

Raid: Ramallah – 20:30– 22:35, Israeli troops raided and patrolled al-Bireh.

Raid: Ramallah – 01:10–04:15, the Israeli military raided and patrolled the village of Budrus.

Raid: Ramallah – 01:55, Israeli soldiers raided the village of Qibya, taking prisoner one person.

Raid: Ramallah – 04:10, Israeli Occupation forces raided Yabrud village.

Raid: Ramallah – 04:10, Israeli forces raided Deir Abu Mashal, taking prisoner one person.

Raid: Ramallah – 05:35, the Israeli Army raided the village of Kafr Ein, taking prisoner one person.

Raid: Jenin – 19:40, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the village of al-Jalama.

Raid: Jenin – 20:10, the Israeli military raided and patrolled the village of Jalboun.

Raid: Jenin – 20:35, Israeli soldiers raided and patrolled the village of Faqua.

Raid: Qalqiliya – 16:30, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled Azzun.

Raid: Qalqiliya – 17:45, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of Kafr Laqif.

Raid: Qalqiliya – 00:30, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled Azzun.

Raid: Nablus – 13:05, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the village of Bizzaria.

Raid: Nablus – 15:35, the Israeli military raided and patrolled the village of Qusin.

Raid: Nablus – 17:30, Israeli soldiers raided and patrolled the village of Madama.

Raid: Nablus – 19:15, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled Jama’in.

Raid: Nablus – 20:35–21:55, Israeli forces raided and patrolled Qabalan.

Raid: Nablus – 22:50, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the village of Bizzaria.

Raid: Nablus – 23:10–01:30, Israeli troops, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades, raided and patrolled Beit Furik.

Raid: Nablus – 01:20–03:05, the Israeli military raided and patrolled Huwara.

Raid: Nablus – 01:25–03:30, Israeli soldiers raided the village of Kafr Qallil, taking prisoner two people.

Raid: Nablus – 01:25–03:05, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled Beita.

Raid: Salfit – 13:05-17:15, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of Iskaka.

Raids: Salfit – 20:20–23:40, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled Burqin and Kafr al-Dik.

Raid: Salfit – 21:00–23:40, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the village of Haris.

Raid: Salfit – 03:05–07:55, the Israeli military raided and patrolled Kifl Haris.

Raid: Bethlehem – 19:55–00:25, Israeli soldiers raided and patrolled al-Khadr.

Raid: Bethlehem – 21:50, Israeli Occupation forces raided and patrolled Harmala village.

Raid: Bethlehem – 23:10–02:45, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the village of Artas.

Raid: Hebron – 08:00, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled al-Dhahiriya.

Raid: Hebron – 08:10-15:05, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the city.

Raid: Hebron – 09:50, Israeli soldiers raided and patrolled Bani Naim.

Raid: Hebron – 21:35–02:00, Israeli Occupation forces again raided and patrolled Bani Naim.

Raid: Hebron – 02:15–06:05, Israeli forces raided and patrolled al-Dhahiriya.

Raid: Hebron – dawn, the Israeli Army raided Beit Ummar, taking prisoner one person.