In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land
08:00, 04 September until 08:00, 05 September 2024
[Source of statistics: Palestinian Monitoring Group]
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 essentialfacilities, as well as constant gunfire and invasions by Israeli forces. The Israeli Navy continues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the entire Gaza shoreline.
Victims: 17 more people killed in Gaza now bring the total number of deaths, since 7 October, to at least 40,878. With another 56 wounded, that figure has now risen to over 94,454. The daily average number of men, women and children killed in Gaza is at least 122 and, of those injured, more than 283.
Palestine today
Don’t say you didn’t know
Ali Kazak akazak@bigpond.net.au
‘We need to apply the law’: ICC prosecutor defends Netanyahu arrest warrant
The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has said that his arrest warrant request for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is necessary to demonstrate the court is “not just an instrument of power”. In May, Karim Khan said he had filed an application for the arrest of Israeli and Hamas leaders for their roles in alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during Israel’s war on Gaza and the 7 October Hamas-led attack on southern Israel. The request for the warrants is yet to receive approval by the ICC judges. Khan told the BBC’s Nick Robinson that he had been warned by multiple states and authorities that the move would prove to be an “atomic bomb”, but that it was necessary to show that all nations will be held to the same standard in relation to alleged war crimes.
“You can’t have one approach for countries where there’s support, whether it’s Nato support, European support [and] powerful countries behind you, and a different approach where you have clear jurisdiction,”” Khan told Robinson. When asked by Robinson if the move was a political decision rather than a legal one, Khan responded: “What we’re doing is the antithesis of politics, it’s about the equal application of the law irrespective of whether one receives a round of applause from some quarters or a deafening din of condemnation from the other.” Khan pointed out that the same political leaders who had applauded the court’s decision to issue an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin had condemned the same being done for the Israeli leadership.
Israeli podcasters fantasise over ‘erasing every living being in Gaza’
A clip from an Israeli podcast has gone viral on social media, in which the hosts discuss eliminating the entire Palestinian population of Gaza and the West Bank. The excerpt, taken from an August episode of the English-language ‘Two Nice Jewish Boys’ podcast, shows hosts Naor Meningher and Eytan Weinstein discussing Israel’s latest war on Gaza. “If you gave me a button to just erase Gaza, every single living being in Gaza would no longer be living tomorrow. I would press it in a second,” Weinstein says. “Most Israelis would probably agree,” he adds. He goes on to say that he would “press it right now”, while gesturing to press a button, to which Meningher replies: “The same with the territories”, in reference to the West Bank. “Forgive us if we don’t give a sh*t if everybody there dies. It’s just the way we feel. It’s just the way Israelis feel.” “The baby that’s born in Gaza is technically innocent, I could give zero f**ks, I don’t care if he gets polio,” Weinstein said. According to Meningher’s website, he has worked on five political campaigns for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and two campaigns for former Haifa mayor Einat Kalisch-Rotem.
Israel has continued its military attacks on the Gaza Strip during its polio vaccination campaign, ignoring all calls to implement a humanitarian truce or a temporary halt to attacks during the vaccination hours. Israeli aircraft and tanks continue to bomb the central Gaza Strip, the area where the polio vaccination campaign has begun. The campaign is a joint effort between the Palestinian Ministry of Health and the United Nations, including UNICEF, and non-governmental organisations, aiming to vaccinate about 640,000 Palestinian children under the age of 10. The campaign was launched in response to the confirmation of the first case of polio in Gaza in 25 years, contracted by a 10-month-old infant in Deir al-Balah, in the central part of the Strip. The virus was found in water samples taken in Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah in late June. Despite the World Health Organisation’s announcement last Thursday that Israel had consented to a series of “humanitarian truces” lasting three days each in the central, southern, and northern sections of the Strip in order to carry out a polio vaccination campaign that would benefit 640,000 children, Israel has continued its attacks.
When Six Israelis Are Mourned More Than 40,000 Palestinians
Israel mourns the six hostages who were killed. The world also mourns them. Their names, their pictures, their life stories and their families led news broadcasts in Israel and around the world.But our six hostages are only the tip of the story, a tiny fraction of the war’s victims. Their becoming a global story is understandable. Less understandable is the unbelievable contrast between the wide coverage of their lives and deaths and the total disregard for the similar fate of people their own age – as blameless and ingenuous and beautiful as them, and just as much innocent victims – on the Palestinian side. While the world is shocked by the fate of Gaza, it has never paid similar respect to the Palestinian victims. The president of the United States does not call the relatives of fallen Palestinians, not even if they, like the Goldberg-Polins, had American citizenship. The United States has never called for the release of thousands of Palestinian abductees that Israel has detained without trial.
The 17,000 children killed in the Strip since the war began also had hopes and dreams and families that were destroyed by their deaths. They hold no interest for a majority of Israelis; a minority even rejoices in their deaths. In the world beyond Israel they are seen as terrible victims, but even there they usually have neither names nor faces. There are tens of thousands of such children within an hour’s drive from Tel Aviv, and we are entirely indifferent to them. It’s not difficult to imagine how Gazans feel in the face of the world, which was rocked by six dead Israeli hostages while losing interest with alarming speed in 40,000 dead Palestinians. Also, when they talk about abductees, they only talk about the Israeli hostages. What about the hundreds and thousands of Palestinian abductees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank; the so-called administrative detainees, held without trial; the “unlawful combatants” and the innocent labourers who were captured, and whose number no one even reports? Some of them, at minimum, are held in hellish conditions. They too have worried families who have no idea what has happened to them for 10 months; they too are denied visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross.
‘I recognised her by her roller skate’: Israeli strike on Gaza kills children playing in the street
A young, apparently lifeless girl lies on a hospital bed at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City, her pink roller skate still strapped to her foot. Footage circulating on social media showed Tala Abu Ajwa, 10, covered in blood as doctors desperately tried to save her on Tuesday. Moments before, she had been playing with her neighbours outside their residential building in central Gaza City.
“She insisted on going down to play with her friends. She kept nagging, saying that she would not be late. When her mother refused out of fear for her safety, given the situation, she had her friend’s mother call to convince her to let her join them,” Tala’s father, Hussam, told Middle East Eye.
An Israeli air strike had hit a building directly in front of the space where Tala and her friends regularly played. When Hussam arrived at the scene, smoke and dust were filling the area, making it difficult for him to find his daughter. “I couldn’t see anything,” Hussam recalled, “smoke was pouring out from the area. I was searching everywhere and moving from place to place when I finally spotted her pink roller skate. It was barely visible, but I recognised her by her roller skate. I approached it and found her lying on the ground, taking her last breaths. “I immediately carried her and rushed to the Baptist Hospital. She was still alive as I carried her, but her injuries were severe. I feared I would lose her, but did everything I could to keep her alive. A shrapnel had penetrated her neck, cutting the main vein and causing heavy bleeding. Her clothes were soaked in blood.” When they arrived at the hospital, several doctors fought desperately to save Tala’s life, but despite their best efforts she succumbed to her wounds just minutes later.
In the occupied West Bank, at least five Palestinians were killed today in an Israeli airstrike on a car in the city of Tubas. A sixth Palestinian, 16-year-old Majed Fida Abu Zeina, was shot dead by Israeli forces in the Faraa refugee camp near Tubas. The Wafa news agency reports Israeli forces barred ambulances from reaching the boy and dragged his body out of the camp using a military bulldozer. On Wednesday, mourners held a funeral procession near Jenin for a Palestinian girl killed by an Israeli sniper. This is the girl Lujain’s father, Osama Musleh: “The soldiers are surrounding the town. I tried to save her. I tried to do something, but I couldn’t. The army is surrounding our area. I called for ambulance. They arrived late because a snipper shot toward them. … She is 16 years old. The only thing she did is she looked from the window, and the soldier saw her and shot her, one bullet that targeted her forehead.” At least 19 people have been killed in Jenin since last week.
Israel’s seizure of Sebastia symbolises its theft of Palestine’s cultural sites
Taking over Palestinian historical sites and turning them into Israeli tourist attractions is just another way the occupation grabs land. Unesco must step in to save Tel Sebastia. Israel seizes cultural site in West Bank.” So read a recent headline in the Financial Times, going on to describe how the Israeli military had seized a plot of Palestinian land at the summit of Tel Sebastia, a site rich with archaeological significance and tourism potential. In 2012, Palestine submitted an application for Sebastia to gain Unesco World Heritage status on the basis of its ancient remains from the Iron Age, Persian, Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic periods.
Israel’s heritage ministry, on the other hand, confirmed plans to erect a “gigantic” Israeli flagpole there, for unspecified “military needs”, according to a document seen by the Financial Times.
“The seizure this month,” the FT writes, “was one of several moves by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government to expand control over cultural heritage sites in the West Bank, alongside numerous moves to expand Jewish settlements and entrench Israel’s presence in the occupied territory.” Cultural heritage can be a powerful tool. But in the case of Israel, the land is not owned by them, but illegally occupied, according to the 19 July 2024 opinion of the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The land grab took place just days before, on 10 July.
Israel Is Waging War on Palestinian Prisoners
Reports of systemic torture and rape in Israeli prisons have exploded in the year since October 7, but the state’s carceral violence has a longer history. Since October 7, 2023, conditions in Israeli prisons have paralleled the besieging and retaliatory war on the people of Gaza. But the heightened aggression against Palestinian prisoners started almost one year earlier. In December 2022, Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the ultra-nationalist, anti-Arab Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power), became Minister of National Security, giving him control of the police and the Israel Prison Service (IPS). “[O]ne of the highest goals I have set for myself,” Ben-Gvir declared, “is to worsen the conditions of the terrorists in the prisons, and to reduce their rights to the minimum required by law.” He immediately began instituting numerous cruel measures to shrink Palestinian prisoners’ already scant resources and elevate their suffering. In February 2023, he set a four-minute limit on shower time and bragged in a TikTok post about closing the prisoner-run bakeries in Ketziot and Nafha while he waved a fistful of pita at the camera. In August, over 1,000 prisoners—one-fifth of Palestinians incarcerated at the time—declared a hunger strike to protest their dire situation. Ben-Gvir retaliated by reducing family visits to one every two months.
Like the siege Israel imposed on Gaza, the IPS drastically reduced access to water and electricity. Food allocations were cut to a “minimal menu,” which, coupled with the shuttering of prison canteens, amounted to a starvation policy.[2] Soldiers and guards rampaged through compounds assaulting prisoners and firing rubber bullets and tear gas. Cell blocks were raided and most items were seized, including letters, books, medicine and radios. Many prisoners were moved to isolation and others were crammed into cells designed for five or six that were now made to hold 12 or more. The IPS imposed a complete ban on visits by monitors from the International Committee of the Red Cross and family members. Phone calls to relatives became impossible and lawyers’ access to clients was halted for months and now remains severely restricted. As a result, Palestinian prisoners were isolated from most contact with the outside world.
You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying?
Western governments will never isolate and sanction Israel. The war machine will roll on until either we stop it or its lethal games blow up in all our faces. There are many reasons Gaza has been mostly off the radar of the western establishment media for months now, even as the enclave turns into an ever-bigger killing zone. One is that, nearly a year into what the World Court has termed a “plausible genocide”, where Israel has kept out western journalists and killed off most Palestinian journalists, as well as driving out international aid organisations and the United Nations, there is almost no one left to tell us what is happening.
We have only snapshots of individual suffering, but not the big picture. How many Palestinians are dead? We know there are at least 40,000 killed by Israel – the deaths recorded by Palestinian officials before the health system collapsed. But how many more? Double that figure? Quadruple it? Times it by 10? The truth is, no one knows. What about the famine in Gaza that has been raging for many, many months as Israel has systematically blocked aid into the enclave, in line with its promise last October to deny the Palestinians there food, water and power? The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, because the pair’s starvation of Gaza is a crime against humanity. The news from Gaza is being actively buried for another reason. Israel’s genocide continues to be tangible, shocking proof that western capitals are not the bastions of democracy and bulwarks against barbarianism they claim to be. Western politicians have been utterly complicit in the genocide – a fact impossible to hide from their public. The killing could have been stopped at any point, had the Biden administration so willed it.
Amnesty International urges war crimes probe over Israel razing homes in east Gaza
Amnesty International on Thursday urged a war crimes probe into Israel razing homes and farms in eastern Gaza to expand a so-called buffer zone between it and the Palestinian territory.
“Using bulldozers and manually laid explosives, the Israeli military has unlawfully destroyed agricultural land and civilian buildings, razing entire neighbourhoods, including homes, schools and mosques,” it said. The London-based rights group said the levelling since the start of the war on October 7 “should be investigated as war crimes of wanton destruction and of collective punishment”. An Amnesty investigation, which examined satellite imagery and videos posted by Israeli soldiers between October and May, showed “newly cleared land along Gaza’s eastern boundary, ranging from approximately 1 to 1.8km (0.6 to 1.1 miles) wide”, the group said.
The expanded buffer zone covers around 58 square kilometres (22 square miles), or about 16 percent of the Gaza Strip, it said. More than 90 percent of buildings within that zone appeared to have been destroyed or severely damaged, it said. More than half of the agricultural land in the area showed “a decline in health and intensity of crops due to the ongoing conflict”, it added. “Our analysis reveals a pattern along the eastern perimeter of Gaza that is consistent with the systematic destruction of the entire area,” said Amnesty’s Erika Guevara-Rosas.
Israeli military jeep deliberately hit a Palestinian in the West Bank, and then a soldier started hitting him while motionlessly laying on the ground with his rifle and stood on him; moor soldiers joined, attacked, and prevented medical team members from attending to the injured victim.
Have You Watched Our New Documentary Yet?
‘Israel’s Reel Extremism’ has won rave reviews and is exclusively available in full to our paid subscribers.
West Bank
Israeli Army attack – 1 wounded: Ramallah – 00:35, Israeli troops, positioned on the Annexation Wall near Rumana village, shot and wounded a resident: Ayman Abdul Latif Saleh Rabaya.
Israeli Army attack – on refugee camp: Ramallah – 05:35, Israeli Occupation forces, firing live ammunition, stormed the al-Jalazoun refugee camp and interrogated residents.
Israeli Army attack – homes searched in refugee camp: Jenin – Since midnight on 27 August, Occupation forces have been continuing their storming and damaging of the city and its refugee camp, searching homes and terrorising the communities.
Israeli Army attack – youngster killed in refugee camp: Tubas – 23:45, Israeli forces continue to storm the al-Far’a refugee camp, killing a 16-year-old youth, Majed Fidaa Abdul Qader Abu Zeina, while bulldozing streets, destroying infrastructure and damaging homes.
Israeli Army airstrike – 5 killed: Tubas – 23:45, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a vehicle in the city, killing five people: Ahmad Fawaz Abu Dawas, Muhammad Zakaria Zubeidi, Muhammad Awad Salem Abu Jumaa, Qusay Majdi Abdullah Abdul Razek and Muhammad Nazmi Abu Zagha. Two others, Saif Mithqal Abu Dawas and Ayman Ahmed Hikmat Al-Masry, were wounded.
Israeli Army attack – refugee camp – hospitals under siege: Tulkarem – Since 08:00 on 03 September, the Israeli Army has continued to attack the city and both its refugee camp as well as the Nur Shams refugee camp. One refugee, in the Tulkarem refugee camp, was taken prisoner. Widespread destruction, including burning down a house and the siege of hospitals also continued until a withdrawal finally took place at dawn on 5 September.
Israeli Army attack – youngster wounded: Nablus – 23:35, Israeli Occupation forces stormed Qaryut village, wounding a 17-year-old youth: Rayan Rashid Rashad Shaheent.
Israeli Army attack – refugee camp: Nablus – 03:20, Israeli forces, firing live ammunition, raided the city as well as the Ein Beit al-Maa refugee camp.
Home invasion and destruction: Tulkarem – Israeli Occupation forces demolished a house in the Tulkarem refugee camp.
Home invasions in refugee camp: Nablus – 03:20–06:30, Israeli forces raided and searched homes the city as well as the Ein Beit al-Maa refugee camp.
Home invasions in refugee camp: Jericho – 03:05–06:30, the Israeli Army raided the Aqbat Jabir refugee camp and invaded homes.
Home invasions: Bethlehem – 05:20, Israeli troops raided Za’tara and searched a number of houses.
Home invasion: Hebron – 19:40, the Israeli military raided the city and searched a home.
Israeli Occupation population–control: Jerusalem – Israeli Occupation forces renewed, for the sixth time, a severe travel restriction upon the Governor of Jerusalem, Adnan Ghaith, preventing him from entering anywhere else in the West Bank.
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 Occupation population–control: Qalqiliya – 12:15, the Israeli military took prisoner Amr Muhammad Jaidi when he reported, as ordered, for interrogation at Israeli Military Intelligence.
Israeli Occupation population–control: Salfit – 16:55, Israeli forces closed, for a time, the entrance to Kifl Haris.
Israeli Occupation pastoral sabotage: Jericho – 08:50, the Israeli Army demolished a livestock shelter, near the al-Jiftlik village road junction.
Israeli Army – stun grenades fired: Bethlehem – 21:55, Israeli troops fired stun grenades at people, near the entrance to Husan.
Israeli Occupation population–control: Hebron – 14:35, the Israeli military took prisoner Anas Salhab when he reported, as ordered, for interrogation at Israeli Military Intelligence.
Israeli Army – stun grenades fired: Hebron – 19:30, Israeli soldiers fired stun grenades at people, near the entrance to the al-Fawar refugee camp.
Israeli Occupation population–control: Hebron – 23:50, Israeli Occupation forces set the opening times for roads surrounding the city.
Occupation settler arson – agricultural sabotage: Jerusalem – 18:10, Israeli Occupation settlers invaded the eastern outskirts of Hizma and set fire to olive trees.
Occupation settler violence: Tubas – 10:05-12:45, a gang of Israeli settlers assaulted and injured one person, Walid Kaabneh, in the al-Faw area of the North Jordan Valley, and pepper–sprayedmembers of his family.
Occupation settler arson – agricultural sabotage: Tulkarem – 19:25, Israelis, from the Avnei Hefetz Occupation settlement, set fire to crops on Shufa village farmland.
Occupation settler arson – agricultural sabotage: Tulkarem – 19:25, Israelis, from the Sal’it settlement, set fire to crops on farmland in Kafr Sur and Kafr Jamal villages.
Occupation settler arson – agricultural sabotage: Nablus – 12:40, Israeli Occupation settlers raided the outskirts of Burqa village, and set fire to crops.
Occupation settler – land-grab: Nablus – 14:30, Occupation settlers invaded farmland in the Wadi Ma’bad area, north of Qusra, and established an agricultural facility.
Occupation settler population–control: Salfit – 16:55, Israelis, from the Kfar Tapuach settlement, again blocked the road junction at the eastern entrance to Yasuf village.
Occupation settler– land-grab: Bethlehem – 11:50, Israeli Occupation settlers established an agricultural facility in the Umm Rukba area of al-Khadr.
Occupation settler stoning: Hebron – 19:45–22:10, Israeli settlers stoned Palestinian homes, in the Old City Jabal Jales area.
Raid – rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades fired: Jerusalem – 18:10–03:30, Israeli Occupation forces, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades, raided the town of Hizma.
Raid: Ramallah – 09:50-13:15, Israeli forces raided and patrolled Burqa village.
Raid – damage: Ramallah – 01:50, the Israeli Army raided Silwad and raided two shops, after removing their doors.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 02:20, Israeli troops raided Beitunya town, taking prisoner a man and a woman.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 04:25, the Israeli military raided Burham village, taking prisoner a journalist.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 05:25, Israeli soldiers raided Qibya village, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Ramallah – 01:40–06:20, Israeli Occupation forces raided the village of Kafr Dan, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – 3 taken prisoner: Tulkarem – 08:20-10:05, Israeli forces raided the village of Kafr Jamal, taking prisoner three people.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Tulkarem – 11:50, Israeli troops raided the town of Bal’a, taking prisoner one person.
Raid: Tulkarem – 22:15–00:50, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the town of Anabta.
Raid – rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades fired: Nablus – 10:15, Israeli troops, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades, raided and patrolled the town of Qusra.
Raid – stun grenades fired: Nablus – 19:05-20:00, the Israeli military, firing stun grenades, raided the village of Yatma.
Raid: Nablus – 23:35, Israeli soldiers raided the village of Qusin.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Nablus – 01:30–04:50, Israeli Occupation forces raided Urif village, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Nablus – 03:15–05:30, Israeli forces raided the village of Yasid, taking prisoner one person.
Raid: Salfit – 02:30, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled the town of Bidya.
Raid: Salfit – 02:35, Israeli troops raided and patrolled Qarawat Bani Hassan.
Raid: Jericho – 03:05–06:30, the Israeli military raided the city.
Raid – rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades fired: Bethlehem – 20:30–03:55, Israeli soldiers, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades, raided al-Khadr.
Raid – stun grenades fired: Bethlehem – 05:20, Israeli Occupation forces, firing stun grenades, raid the town of Za’tara.
Raid: Hebron – 14:30, Israeli forces raided and patrolled the town of al-Samou.
Raid: Hebron – 16:45, the Israeli Army raided and patrolled Khursa village.
Raid: Hebron – 16:50, Israeli troops raided and patrolled the village of al-Shuweika.
Raid – population–control: Hebron – 21:10, the Israeli military raided the town of Beit Awa and forced the shops to close.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Hebron – 01:45, Israeli soldiers raided al-Dhahiriya, taking prisoner two people.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Hebron – 03:00, Israeli Occupation forces raided Surif, taking prisoner two people.
YAWN!!!!!
No mention of the 6 executed hostages, of course. Jewish lives don’t matter.