In northern Gaza, “We are just waiting for death to come. Or a miracle.”

Compilation of news reports – IAK staff

Thursday was the twentieth consecutive day of the Israeli occupation forces’ aerial, ground, and naval bombardment of northern Gaza. The siege has included blocking supplies of food, water, medicine, and fuel, destroying homes, demolishing entire residential blocks, attacking hospitals, and assassinating individuals trying to escape.

Over 820 Palestinians have been killed since Israel began its siege of Jabaliya and northern Gaza.

At least 55 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, with 132 injuries, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

At least 14 people were killed in fresh Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon on Thursday, state media said. At least 3 were children.

FLASHBACK: Gaza Genocide

DAY 19 (OCT 25, 2023) If Americans Knew wrote:

ONE YEAR AGO: Oxfam says starvation is being used as a weapon of war against civilians in Gaza, adding just two percent of usual food has been delivered to the enclave since Israel’s “total siege”. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) strictly prohibits the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
ONE YEAR LATER: In spite of the Biden administration’s regular claims to be pressuring Israel to “surge” humanitarian aid into Gaza, the enclave is on the edge of famine (see below).
The Israeli UN Ambassador demanded that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres resign on Tuesday, after Guterres framed the Gaza situation in its historical context: “It is important to also recognize the attacks by Hamas did not happen in a vacuum…The Palestinian people have been subjected to 56 years of suffocating occupation. They have seen their land steadily devoured by settlements and plagued by violence; their economy stifled; their people displaced and their homes demolished. Their hopes for a political solution to their plight have been vanishing.”

At least 17 killed in Nuseirat school, 196th to be hit by Israeli military since start of war

The Government Media Office in Gaza has announced that the direct Israeli air strikes on the Shuhadaa al-Nuseirat school in the central part of the enclave brings the number of displacement centers hit since the start of the war to 196.

At least nine children – among them an 11-month-old baby – are among the 17 people confirmed killed so far; 52 wounded Palestinians have arrived at hospitals in the area.

Also among the dead was Professor Ashraf Al-Jadi, the Dean of the Nursing Faculty at the Islamic University.

As usual, the Israeli military is claiming that it was targeting Palestinian fighters in the Shuhadaa school attack in Nuseirat that killed 17 people, including an 11-month-old baby. Israel has provided no evidence for its claim.

The Israeli military also claimed that it took “many steps” to ensure a limited chance of harm to civilians.

The footage is from Jabalia, Beit Lahia, Beit Hanoun, and Saftawi, where Israel has been besieging families for 12 days and carrying out successive civilian massacres. pic.twitter.com/scpACR2OiM

— Palestine Info Center (@palinfoen) October 17, 2024

Israeli soldiers threw children into a pit and circled around them with tanks, Palestinian journalist reports

Israeli soldiers threw Palestinian children into a pit and circled around them with a tank, spewing dust and sand into the hole, a Palestinian journalist reported on X on Thursday.

“They took all the children from their mothers and put them inside what resembled a pit or a hole. The tank came to circle around them repeatedly until their bones cracked under the pressure of dust and sand, amidst the screams of children and the wailing of mothers,” the Palestinian journalist said, quoting one of the mothers who witnessed the incident.

According to the report, the soldiers followed up by throwing children towards a group of mothers, who were forced to carry the children with no guarantee that the child they received was their own.

A woman holding a girl reacts after Israeli airstrikes hit Ridwan neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza, on Oct. 23. — A woman holding a girl reacts after Israeli airstrikes hit Ridwan neighborhood of Gaza City, Gaza, on Oct. 23, 2023.

Situation at northern Gaza hospitals is catastrophic

Dr. Mohammed Salha, director of Al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia, said that around 180 people — medical staff, patients, and displaced families — are trapped inside the hospital, with the Israeli army bombarding the surrounding area.

“We are just waiting for death to come,” he said. “Or a miracle.”

Hussam Abu Safia, director of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, says most of the surgeons have been arrested by Israeli forces and urgent surgeries for the many wounded cannot be performed.

“There are more than 15 cases that need surgeries that we cannot perform in the hospital,” he told Al Jazeera, adding the Israeli army refuses to evacuate patients in need or bring in any aid.

Abu Safia earlier said tank shelling on the hospital caused severe damage to its intensive care unit.

Lebanon says 13 of its hospitals and more than 100 other health facilities have been put out of service by Israel’s strikes. The World Health Organization says more than 100 medics and rescue workers have been killed in the last year in Lebanon.

Israel says it killed UNRWA worker and alleges he’s part of Hamas

Israel’s military on Thursday evening said it killed “a Hamas commander”, alleging he was also an employee of the United Nations refugee for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA).

Israel accused the man of being a part of the 7 October 2023 attacks on southern Israel.

UNRWA confirmed the man, Muhammad Abu Atiwi, was a staff member and that his name was included on an Israeli list of UNRWA workers who were allegedly members of Palestinian armed groups.

The refugee agency said no evidence had been “authenticated and corroborated” to prove any UNRWA staff members were involved in the 7 October attacks.

NOTE: Israel has long tried to dismantle UNWRA’s humanitarian support of Palestinian refugees. The 6-page dossier Israel issued, allegedly proving the guilt of twelve UNRWA employees out of a staff of 13,000, reportedly offers no compelling evidence.

For more on the UNRWA allegations, read this.

Increased risk of famine across Gaza

The most recent IPC (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification) update on Gaza, published 17 October 2024, said that around 350,000 Palestinians are due to enter ‘phase 5’ of the food insecurity scale, ‘catastrophic hunger’, which is where people face ‘an extreme lack of food and a high risk of death and malnutrition’

Open Letter from Israelis calls for global pressure to “save us from ourselves”

More than 2,000 Israelis have signed this letter, published in 11 languages, asking the international community to use ‘every possible sanction’ to get Israel to a ceasefire:

We, Israeli citizens residing in Israel and abroad, call on the international community – the UN and its institutions, the United States, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and all states around the world – to intervene immediately and implement every possible sanction towards achieving an immediate ceasefire between Israel and its neighbors, for the future of both peoples in Israel and Palestine and the peoples of the region and for their rights to security and life.

The state of Israel is on a suicidal path and sows destruction and devastation that increase day by day.

(Read the open letter in its entirety here.)

CNN: The Israeli military has used Palestinians as human shields in Gaza, soldier and former detainees say

Israel has used Palestinians as human shields in the besieged Gaza Strip, forcing detainees into potentially booby-trapped buildings and tunnels to avoid casualties among its ranks, according to a report published Thursday.

The CNN report is based on testimonies from an Israeli soldier and five former detainees. The soldier said the practice was widespread among Israeli units operating in Gaza, and acknowledged his unit detained two Palestinians for the explicit purpose of using them as human shields.

“We told them to enter the building before us,” he said. “If there are any booby traps, they will explode and not us.”

The practice is so commonplace that Israeli forces pejoratively call it the “mosquito protocol.”

The soldier told CNN that in the spring an Israeli intelligence officer came to his unit with two Palestinians — a 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old — and instructed the soldiers to use them as human shields, claiming they were somehow connected to Hamas. When the soldier questioned the directive, the officer replied, “It’s better that the Palestinian will explode and not our soldiers.”

“It’s quite shocking, but after a few months in Gaza you [tend not to] think clearly,” the soldier said. “You’re just tired. Obviously, I prefer that my soldiers live. But, you know, that’s not how the world works.”

The soldier said he and other members of his unit complained to a senior officer who first instructed them not to “think about international law,” before he eventually acquiesced and freed the two Palestinians.

Germany approves more than $100m in arms exports to Israel

Germany has authorized more than $100m in military exports to Israel in the last three months, Foreign Office data showed, coinciding with the latest legal challenge by human rights groups concerned about the potential use of these weapons in the Gaza war.

Israeli settlers, with help from military, disrupt Palestine’s olive harvest

According to Bethlehem Bible College, the olive tree in Palestine has essential economic, cultural, social, and national significance, and symbolizes the Palestinian attachment to their land – olive trees resist the tough conditions of drought and poor soil conditions and remain attached to their place.

Many Palestinian families inherited olive trees over many generations. Families gather every year in October to harvest the olive trees. They feel proud, bearing in mind their ancestors who were taking care of these trees before.

Olive fruit compromises the income of 80,000 Palestinian families. Almost half of the West Bank and Gaza Strip (48%) is planted with olive trees. 70% of food production in Palestine is accounted for by olive trees, and economically olive trees contribute to 14% of the Palestinian economy. Most olive harvesting (90%) is used for oil production, while the rest (10%) is used for olive soap and pickling.

MORE NEWS:

IMEMC Daily Reports.

The Guardian: University of Michigan recruits state attorney general to crack down on Gaza protesters

Middle East Eye: Dozens of attorneys general urge Columbia University to resist pro-Palestinian protests

The New Arab: To Sky News and CNN, only Israelis are ‘real’ humans. Palestinians are humanoids

We are outraged by @IDF threats against six Palestinian journalists, labelling them as terrorists for reporting on Israel’s war crimes. We condemn the ongoing threats, impunity over their killings, and severe restrictions on FoE in #Gaza since Oct 2023. Read our #PENCongress…

— PEN International (@pen_int) October 24, 2024

The conflict in #Lebanon has forced the closure of over 100 health facilities, about 1/3 of the country’s total. Hospitals and health workers are overwhelmed, and also being attacked. @WHO calls for:
1. safe, unhindered, and sustained humanitarian access; 2. financing the @UN…

— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) October 24, 2024

A mother from #Jabalia says:

“They took all the children from their mothers and put them inside what resembled a pit or a hole. The tank came to circle around them repeatedly until their bones cracked under the pressure of dust and sand, amidst the screams of children and the…

— Motasem A Dalloul (@AbujomaaGaza) October 23, 2024

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7, 2023 – OCTOBER 24, 2024:

Palestinian death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 24, 2024: at least 43,607* ( 42,847 in Gaza* – 69% are women and children, according to Gaza’s Media Office). [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 760 in the West Bank (~166 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more in Gaza still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 49,032 Palestinian deaths.

Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death 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 300,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.

At least 45 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 25 from West Bank).
At least 41 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition (at least 37 of them children)**.
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 – October 24, 2024: at least 106,794 (including at least 100,544 in Gaza and 6,250 in the West Bank, including 830 children). [It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7, 2023 – October 24, 2024: ~1,561 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 386*** military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza (most recent: Oct 22); 39 military and civilians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Israel) and~10,000 injured.

The death toll in Lebanon since October 8, 2023 is at least 2,593 and 11,862 injuries. An estimated 1.34 million have been displaced.

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries of Israelis 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.

***The figure does not include the reportedly 56 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