In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land
08:00, 10 August until 08:00, 11 August 2024
Gaza Strip
Attacks: There are no safe places for the militarily-dominated population in Gaza, who find themselves subjected to airstrikes and other missile attacks on buildings, homes and many essential facilities, as well as constant gunfire and invasions by Israeli forces. The Israeli Navycontinues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the entire Gaza shoreline.
Apology: today’s Palestinian Monitoring Group’s report is not yet available
Extracts from the Palestine Today newsletter:
[from Ali Kazak akazak@bigpond.net.au]
Israel’s Netanyahu calls occupied West Bank ‘part of our homeland’
In an interview with TIME Magazine, the Israeli leader defends Gaza war and reiterates opposition to Palestinian sovereignty. Less than a month after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful and must end “as rapidly as possible”, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his country will not relinquish control over the occupied West Bank. “It’s part of our homeland. We intend to stay there,” Netanyahu said of the occupied Palestinian land in an interview with TIME Magazine, published on Thursday.
Israel has conducted airstrikes on 13 shelter centers in Gaza, where displaced Palestinians have been seeking refuge, since the beginning of August, the Civil Defense spokesman in the besieged Palestinian enclave said on Saturday, Anadolu Agency reports. The latest attack came on early Saturday as Israeli military bombed the Al-Taba’een school in the Al-Daraj neighborhood in eastern Gaza City, killing at least 100 Palestinians.
In a news conference, Mahmoud Basal, the Civil Defense spokesman in Gaza, said the Israeli attack on the Al-Taba’een school hit two floors – A floor housing women and another floor that served as a prayer room for displaced civilians. The latest strike has resulted in numerous casualties, with many people still unaccounted for, he added. “We demand the world to intervene immediately to stop the massacres against defenseless civilians in shelters,” Basal said.
Israeli forces step up attacks, raids in occupied West Bank
UN agency says the number of Palestinians displaced has more than doubled since October 7. Israeli forces have stepped up attacks across the occupied West Bank, in which at least seven Palestinians, including two children, were wounded. Israeli forces raided the Qalqilya refugee camp near Nablus on Wednesday night, shooting two Palestinians – the first in the back and the second in the legs – according to the Wafa news agency. Separate attacks by Israeli settlers near the illegal Beit El settlement north of Ramallah left a Palestinian woman injured. The victim, identified as Tasneem Faraj, was taken to hospital after being hit in the head by stones thrown by the settlers, Wafa reported.
In the week leading up to Monday, Israeli settlers carried out 27 attacks against Palestinians on the territory, injuring 17 people, including two children, and causing damage to property, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). On Wednesday, Israeli forces raided the Balata refugee camp near the city of Nablus, destroying the local headquarters of the Fatah faction, Palestinian authorities said. The previous day at least 12 Palestinians were killed in clashes with security forces carrying out raids around the city of Jenin, in the northern West Bank.
UNRWA reports 300% surge in child malnutrition in northern Gaza
The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) announced today that cases of malnutrition among children in northern Gaza surged by over 300 per cent in July compared to May. Citing data from the Global Nutrition Cluster and the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), the agency highlighted that 96 per cent of Gaza’s population is suffering critical levels of hunger. As of 22 June, at least 34 children have died of malnutrition in Gaza, according to the Government Media Office. However rights groups have warned this number does not reflect the actual number of children who have died as a result of the “man-made famine” in the Strip, as many would have been unable to be brought into hospital as a result of the lack of infrastructure, high costs of travel and relentless bombing.
UNRWA’s warning comes a week after the UN body reported an outbreak of hepatitis across the Gaza Strip amid relentless Israeli attacks on the enclave. UNRWA said on 30 July that nearly 40,000 cases of hepatitis have been recorded in Gaza since the start of the Israeli war on 7 October last year. “Eight hundred to 1,000 new hepatitis cases are reported weekly from UNRWA health centres and shelters across Gaza,” said the UN agency. “Desperate sanitary conditions facilitate the spread of diseases including Hepatitis A.” UNRWA today appealed to the international community to boost aid to the enclave, which remains under Israeli blockade, and called for an immediate ceasefire to address the worsening humanitarian crisis.
Palestinians burned alive in Israeli attack on Khan Younis ‘safe zone’
Palestinians have been burned alive after Israeli air attacks hit a crowded camp that had reportedly been designated a ‘safe zone’.
Israel targets shelter schools in systematic forced evacuation of the displaced people of Gaza
The Israeli army is increasingly targeting schools that provide shelter for the displaced population in Gaza City, killing and wounding hundreds of them in the process. It has also issued orders for the illegal forced evacuation of Gaza from the north to the south, in a systematic effort fueled by revenge to drive residents from their homes and places of displacement and rob them of any stability. In just eight days, Israeli aircraft attacked nine schools in Gaza City that served as shelters for thousands of displaced people. They destroyed the schools above the heads of the occupants, killing 79 Palestinians and injuring 143 more—mostly women and children—in addition to several other victims who were buried beneath the rubble and could not be retrieved due to the lack of the necessary tools.
Although the Israeli army repeatedly attempts to justify the bombings by claiming that they target military or political figures, without providing evidence to support these claims, the bombing and destruction of schools above the heads of displaced people inside them has no valid justification and serves no military purposes. Initial investigations by Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor’s field team indicate that the Israeli army deliberately destroyed the remaining shelter centres to deny Palestinians the few remaining places to seek refuge after the systematic destruction of homes and shelters, including schools and public facilities, over the past ten months. By continuing to bomb the entire Gaza Strip and concentrating on shelters, such as those housed in UNRWA schools, the Israeli bombing strategy clearly indicates a policy intended to deprive Palestinians of security and stability, if only temporarily.
Nations of the Global South could play a pivotal role in halting Israel’s deadly war on Gaza and lead the charge for wider changes in an international system that has clearly failed in its purpose, according to three current and former UN Special Rapporteurs. Richard Falk and Michael Lynk, two former Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in Occupied Palestinian Territories, and Balakrishnan Rajagopal, the current Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, all agreed that Israel’s devastating war on Gaza has completely exposed the glaring faults of the current global system.
“I think the Global South needs to emerge as a much more forceful presence in the organisation of the world and of the reform of the UN,” said Falk, an American professor emeritus of international law at Princeton University. He said the post-colonial world order has been led by an “imperial West that is the successor to colonialism.” “That’s been very difficult to challenge because of this UN structure that gives the winners of World War II, which include the three NATO powers of US, France and UK, a capacity to block any kind of reform of the UN,” he said. These nations are the ones who benefit from the current structure and will do everything they can to “resist efforts at transformation”, he added. However, during the Gaza crisis, there have been some “very robust, popular movements” and actions by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC) that have come “from the initiatives taken by countries in the Global South”, Falk explained. “This has to become a much stronger movement challenging this kind of hegemonic world order that emerged out of World War II,” he asserted.
Palestinian women endure increasing violence, depression from Israeli war, survey finds
Study concludes Israel’s invasion and bombing leave most women in the Gaza Strip facing tragic living conditions. The Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has put Palestinian women in tragic conditions where they suffer increased mental health issues, gender-based violence and difficulties accessing health and menstrual services, a survey has found. The new assessment, published on Thursday by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Association for Empowerment and Local Development – Reform, found women in the war-ravaged strip struggle with interconnected crises amid the war.
Those include displacement, food insecurity, escalating violence, financial losses and lack of conflict preparedness and prevention knowledge, among other struggles.
“Women in Gaza are facing a dire situation and are among those hardest hit by the war,” Reform said. According to Palestinian health officials, around 70 percent of the nearly 40,000 killed by Israel in Gaza since 7 October are women and children. Nearly 90 percent were displaced with 78 percent reporting having lost their homes.
‘An entirely preventable disaster’: Health officials warn of catastrophic polio epidemic in Gaza
In July health officials in Gaza detected the polio virus in the water. Now, the threat of a polio outbreak has been declared an epidemic, and officials are demanding an immediate ceasefire and vaccination campaign “before it’s too late.” Sewage water is flowing in most of the streets of the Gaza Strip. Mountains of garbage are piling up next to crowded refugee camps and shelters. In some areas of the strip, children can be found rummaging through the piles of trash in search of food or scraps that their family can use.
Due to Israel’s targeting and destruction of Gaza’s water and sewage networks, millions of Palestinians in the crowded Strip have nowhere to dispose of waste other than the street. And with the total collapse of municipal and sanitation services, there is no one to collect the waste. The sanitation workers who try to reach the dumps near the border to dispose of waste are targeted by the Israeli military. The families who live in tents near the piles of garbage and waste have to worry about more than just the putrid smells of hot, rotting garbage. Many, particularly children, have become afflicted with various rashes and unexplained skin conditions.