tag

Seven Palestinians were martyred and others wounded today in ongoing Israeli airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, marking the 704th day of the genocidal war waged by the Israeli entity. Field sources reported that five aid seekers were martyred by Israeli occupation forces' fire southwest of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. A Palestinian was also martyred as a result of Israeli artillery shelling targeting firewood collectors north of the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, while a girl was wounded as a result of the occupation forces firing several shells indiscriminately at the Bureij refugee camp. In Gaza City, Civil Defense reported that more than 25 people were missing under the rubble after Israeli aircraft targeted a family home in the Shati refugee camp, west of the city. Field teams succeeded in rescuing a man and a woman from under the rubble of the targeted house, and recovered the body of only one martyr, while the others remained missing under the rubble. The crews are trying to extract and retrieve them in the absence of the necessary tools and equipment. Israeli drones fired explosive bombs in the vicinity of the Ghazali intersection in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, northwest of the city, and also fired smoke bombs in the skies over the Tuffah neighborhood. The death toll from the ongoing Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, has risen to 64,522 martyrs and 163,096 wounded. The Israeli occupation resumed its aggression against the Gaza Strip after violating the nearly two-month-long ceasefire agreement on March 18. The attacks targeted various areas of the Strip, which is already facing an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy after 22 months of war.

Two Palestinians were killed and others were injured by Israeli occupation forces' fire on Monday in Jenin camp, north of the occupied West Bank. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said that two boys (14 and 17 years old) were killed and a number of people were injured by Israeli occupation forces' bullets while trying to enter the Jenin camp to inspect their homes. The ministry said that its crews dealt with a young man (22 years old) who was injured by live bullets in the abdomen, inside Jenin camp, and transferred him to the hospital. They also transferred a girl (12 years old) who was injured in her hand after being chased by occupation soldiers. Local sources said that occupation soldiers arrested a number of people and took them to a military barracks inside the camp. They also set fire to a house, amid heavy live ammunition fire. The sources added that the number of martyrs in Jenin has risen to 47 since the start of the Israeli occupation's aggression on the city and its camp on Jan. 21, which also affected several towns and villages in the governorate. During its aggression, the Israeli occupation completely destroyed more than 600 homes in Jenin camp, and partially demolished approximately 1,000 housing units, displacing approximately 22,000 residents of the camp to the city and the towns and villages of the governorate.

Hospitals in the Gaza Strip recorded the death of six Palestinians, including two children, due to famine and malnutrition over the past 24 hours.This brings the total number of deaths due to famine and malnutrition to 393, including 140 children.Some 900,000 children in Gaza are suffering from hunger, 70,000 of whom have entered the malnutrition stage.UNRWA had warned that malnutrition among children under the age of five had doubled between March and June, as a result of the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip.

At least nine Palestinians were martyred and others injured on Saturday in continued Israeli occupation airstrikes on Gaza City and Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip. Local sources reported that eight people were martyred when Israeli strikes targeted a house in Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in northern Gaza City, while a child was martyred and others injured in an attack on a vehicle in Al-Mawasi area of Khan Younis in the south.Medical sources indicated that the total death toll from Israeli strikes since early today has risen to 21, including 13 in Gaza City. Israeli occupation forces continued their assault on Gaza by land, sea, and air since October 7, 2023, resulting in the deaths of 64,300 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and 162,005 others injured.The toll remains incomplete, as thousands of victims remain trapped under rubble or on the streets, with rescue crews unable to reach them amid an unprecedented humanitarian disaster.

Egypt says eviction of Gazans is a red lineForeign minister says a genocide is 'in motion' in GazaIsrael has denied genocide, says its actions are self defenceCairo keep up tougher tone as war nears two yearsEgypt said Friday it would not tolerate mass displacement of Palestinians and what it described as genocide, continuing to ratchet up its criticism of Israel's Gaza offensive as thousands of residents of Gaza City defied Israeli orders to leave."Displacement is not an option and it is a red line for Egypt and we will not allow it to happen," Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty told reporters in Nicosia."Displacement means liquidation and the end of the Palestinian cause and there is no legal or moral or ethical ground to evict people from their homeland," he said.His comments are in line with a hardening of Egyptian language this year about Israel's conduct in the enclave, which borders Egypt, even as it has worked with Qatar and the US to try to mediate a ceasefire in the almost two-year-old war.Repeating accusations of genocide levelled by the Egyptian leadership against Israel in recent months, he added: "What is happening on the ground is far beyond the imagination. There is a genocide in motion there, mass killing of civilians, artificial starvation created by the Israelis," Abdelatty said.Israeli authorities did not immediately reply to a request for comment.Israel has in the past strongly denied that its actions in Gaza amount to genocide and says they are justified as self defence. It is fighting a case at the International Court of Justice in the Hague that accuses it of genocide and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has condemned as "outrageous".Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip in October 2023, after fighters from Hamas, the Palestinian group in control of the territory, stormed southern Israel.More than 64,000 Palestinians have since been killed, Gaza health authorities say, with much of the densely populated enclave laid to ruin and its residents facing a humanitarian crisis.Israel began an offensive in Gaza City on August 10, in what Netanyahu says is a plan to defeat Hamas fighters in the part of Gaza where Israeli troops fought most heavily in the war's initial phase. It now controls about 40% of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said on Thursday.Much of Gaza City was laid to waste in the war's initial weeks in October-November 2023. About a million people lived there before the war, and hundreds of thousands are believed to have returned to live among the ruins, especially since Israel ordered people out of other areas and launched offensives elsewhere.

The State of Qatar condemned the statements made by the Israeli occupation's prime minister regarding his desire to displace Palestinians, describing them as a continuation of the occupation's policy of violating the rights of the Palestinian people, showing contempt for international laws and agreements, and reflecting its malicious attempts to undermine prospects for peace, particularly the two-state solution.The Ministry of Foreign Affairs affirmed in a statement Friday that the policy of collective punishment practiced by the occupation against Palestinians, including the ongoing brutal genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, its crimes in the West Bank, its violations of religious sanctities, its settlement expansion and Judaization plans for Jerusalem, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid to civilians, will not succeed in forcing the Palestinian people to leave their land or in stripping them of their legitimate rights.The Ministry stressed the urgent need for the international community to stand firmly against the occupation's extremist and provocative policies, in order to prevent the cycle of violence in the region from continuing and spreading globally.The Ministry also reiterated that the only guarantee for achieving lasting peace in the Middle East is reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue, in line with the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution. This would ensure the establishment of an independent and viable State of Palestine along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the enjoyment by the Palestinian people of their inalienable rights.

Fourteen Palestinians were martyred and dozens injured as Israeli occupation forces intensified airstrikes on residential apartments and displacement tents across Gaza City, medical sources reported.Three Palestinians were martyred, and seven others injured when Israeli warplanes bombed a residential apartment in the Daraj neighborhood.In the Rammal neighborhood, Israeli forces shelled a tent sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing three and wounding several others, while another air raid on a residential apartment left one person martyred and others injured.Five more Palestinians were martyred and several injured in Israeli airstrikes on homes in Tal Al Hawa and Sabra neighborhoods, south of Gaza City. In a separate attack, an Israeli drone targeted a displacement tent west of the city, killing two Palestinians and injuring several others.The intensified bombardment comes as part of the second phase of an operation announced by the Israeli occupation army to occupy Gaza City.

Israel controls 40% of Gaza City, a military spokesperson said Thursday, as its bombardment forced more Palestinians from their homes there, while thousands of residents defied Israeli orders to leave, remaining behind in the ruins in the path of Israel's latest advance.Gaza health authorities said Israeli fire across the enclave had killed at least 53 people Thursday, mostly in Gaza City, where Israeli forces have advanced through the outer suburbs and are now a few kilometres (miles) from the city centre."We continue to damage Hamas' infrastructure. Today we hold 40% of the territory of Gaza City," Israeli military spokesperson Brigadier General Effie Defrin told a news conference, naming the Zeitoun and Sheikh Radwan neighbourhoods. "The operation will continue to expand and intensify in the coming days.""We will continue everywhere," he said, adding that the mission will only end when Israel's remaining hostages are returned and Hamas' rule ends.Defrin confirmed that army Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir told cabinet ministers that without a day-after plan, they would have to impose military rule in Gaza. Far-right members of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government have been pushing for Israel to impose military rule in Gaza and establish settlements there, which Netanyahu has so far ruled out.Israel launched the offensive in Gaza City on August 10. The campaign has prompted international criticism because of the humanitarian crisis in the area and has provoked unusual levels of concern within Israel, including accounts of tension over strategy between some military commanders and political leaders."This time, I am not leaving my house. I want to die here. It doesn't matter if we move out or stay. Tens of thousands of those who left their homes were killed by Israel too, so why bother?" Um Nader, a mother of five from Gaza City, told Reuters via text message.Residents said Israel bombarded Gaza City's Zeitoun, Sabra, Tuffah, and Shejaia districts from ground and air. Tanks pushed into the eastern part of the Sheikh Radwan district northwest of the city centre, destroying houses and causing fires in tent encampments.In a heavy bombardment in the Tuffah neighbourhood, medics said five houses were damaged by Israeli strikes that killed eight people and wounded dozens more."The Israeli occupation targeted a gathering of civilians and several homes in the Mashahra area of the Tuffah neighbourhood a fire belt that completely destroyed four buildings," said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson of the territory's civil emergency service."Even if the Israeli occupation issues warnings, there are no places that can accommodate the civilians; there are no alternate places for the people to go to."Displacement could further endanger the most vulnerable, including many children suffering from malnutrition, said Amjad al-Shawa, head of the Palestinian NGOs Network, an umbrella group of Palestinian NGOs that coordinates with the UN and international humanitarian agencies."This is going to be the most dangerous displacement since the war started," said Shawa. "People's refusal to leave despite the bombardment and the killing is a sign that they have lost faith."Palestinian and UN officials say nowhere is safe in Gaza, including areas Israel designates humanitarian zones.Health officials in Gaza say 370 people, including 131 children, have died of malnutrition and starvation caused by acute food shortages, mostly in recent weeks. Israel says it is taking measures to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza, including increasing aid into the enclave.Prospects for a ceasefire and a deal to release the remaining 48 hostages, 20 of whom are thought to still be alive, appear dim.Two Democratic US senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley told reporters after a week-long trip to assess the situation in Gaza and the West Bank: "Based on our conversations and our observations, we came away with the inexplicable conclusion that the Netanyahu government is engaged in a campaign of ethnic cleansing in Gaza and slow-motion ethnic cleansing in the West Bank."

A senior Israeli military official said Wednesday that authorities estimated that an imminent offensive in the Gaza Strip would displace one million Palestinians, planning a new "humanitarian area" for them.The vast majority of Gaza's more than 2mn people have been displaced at least once during nearly two years of war.The Israeli military has been gearing up to seize Gaza City, the Palestinian territory's largest urban centre, with the United Nations estimating that nearly a million people live in and around the northern city.A senior official from COGAT, the Israeli defence ministry body that oversees civil affairs in the Palestinian territories, said that in recent days, "we saw a movement of people from the north to the south.""Until now, approximately 70,000" Gazans left the north, the official said, briefing journalists on condition of anonymity.Without giving a specific timeframe, the official said Israeli authorities expected "a million people" to flee south.The Israeli official said that "we want to identify a humanitarian area" which would be formally announced in the coming days.The area would extend from a cluster of refugee camps in central Gaza to the southern area of Al-Mawasi and eastwards.Israel had designated the coastal area of Al-Mawasi a humanitarian zone in the early days of the war, but has repeatedly struck it since.In mid-August, UN human rights office spokesman Thameen al-Kheetan said Palestinians in Al-Mawasi had "little or no access to essential services and supplies, including food, water, electricity and tents".A statement from COGAT last week announced a raft of preparations for "moving the population southward for their protection", including a new water line from Egypt to Al-Mawasi, repair works on Israeli water lines, and the connection of a power line to a southern desalination plant.COGAT also said work had begun to reopen the European Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, which has been closed for several weeks.

The Israeli occupation army has ramped up its military operations in the Al Mawasi area of southern Gaza, converting what was euphemistically known as a "humanitarian zone" into a lethal trap to lure the Palestinians and destabilize any place where they are present, transforming any shelter into a target within an extermination campaign that aims to efface Gazans, Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med Monitor) has reported.In a statement, Euro-Med Monitor confirmed that the occupation army directly launched firepower at the tents of the displaced people in Al Mawasi, resulting in unnecessary casualties in a daily repeated crime.It stressed that this Israeli firepower is unnecessary for military or security reasons. The displaced tents are coming under precision attack from snipers in this area, as well as air raids and oftentimes artillery shelling. "This area is euphemistically alleged to be a humanitarian zone, and over a million people are ordered to head to this area, the statement continued.The statement further explained that Euro-Med Monitor's legal team has documented repeated incidents of displaced tents being targeted directly throughout the past few days, which resulted in killing dozens of civilians and wounding others with varying degrees of injuries, in addition to destroying their tents and their remaining personal belongings in this last-resort area.The legal team has been monitoring multiple footage showing Israeli forces firing on Palestinians in displacement tents for amusement or competitive targeting. The footage indicates that the firepower was not zeroed in on a specific military target nor justified by any security or operational necessity, but rather exposes a deliberate pattern aimed at maximizing civilian casualties, destroying property, and eroding any sense of safety, the statement stressed. The team asserted that alongside the recorded gunfire, there have been dozens of incidents in which the displaced persons' tents were subjected to aerial and artillery strikes from Israeli gunboats or tanks, targeting civilians within so-called "humanitarian zones," which is literally a deliberate policy aimed at obliterating the very concept of protection, turning places that are supposed to serve as safe havens into hunting and bombardment grounds, where the displaced face the risk of direct killing or slow death from starvation, disease, and the collapse of the health system.Euro-Med Monitor warned against using displacement as a double weapon, stressing that thousands of families in Al Mawasi are experiencing extremely tough humanitarian conditions that lack the simplest life elements, amid a severe shortage of food, fresh water, and medicines, thereby exacerbating health risks and exposing the residents to epidemics and contagious diseases.Many of those displaced people are forced to live either in dilapidated tents or in the open without protection from heat, cold, or rain, amid an aggravated tribulation of children, the elderly, and women due to the lack of essential medical care and services, as these tents continue to punch way above their weight in the midst of no sanitation networks, making them incredibly unlivable and threatening the lives of thousands with slow death, Euro-Med Monitor warned. Euro-Med Monitor further explained that the continuation of this policy lays bare the fact that the Israeli occupation army is bent upon subjecting Gazans to only one of these options: either to die quickly through bombing and direct targeting, or die slowly through deliberate starvation and deprivation of key life essentials.It stressed that these acts are tantamount to a crime of genocide based on international law and expose a methodical orientation to imposing living conditions that aim to decapitate the Palestinians entirely or partially.

Palestinians say water shortages are due to settler attacks UN reports increase in settler vandalism of water infrastructure Israeli military acknowledges reports but no suspects identified Israeli agency COGAT blames Palestinian water theft Shortages force reliance on costly deliveriesPalestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank are facing severe water shortages that they say are being driven by increasing attacks on scarce water sources by extremist Jewish settlers.Across the West Bank in Palestinian communities, residents are reporting shortages that have left taps in homes dry and farms without irrigation.In Ramallah, one of the largest Palestinian cities in the West Bank and the administrative capital of the Palestinian Authority, residents facing water shortages are now relying on public taps."We only get water at home twice a week, so people are forced to come here," said Umm Ziad, as she filled empty plastic bottles with water alongside other Ramallah residents.The UN recorded 62 incidents of Jewish settlers vandalising water wells, pipelines, irrigation networks and other water-related infrastructure in the West Bank in the first six months of the year.The Israeli military acknowledged it has received multiple reports of Israeli civilians intentionally causing damage to water infrastructure but that no suspects had been identified.Among the targets have been a freshwater spring and a water distribution station in Ein Samiya, around 16km northeast of Ramallah, serving around 20 nearby Palestinian villages and some city neighbourhoods.Settlers have taken over the spring that many Palestinians have used for generations to cool off in the hot summer months.Palestinian public utility Jerusalem Water Undertaking said the Ein Samiya water distribution station had become a frequent target of settler vandalism."Settler violence has escalated dramatically," Abdullah Bairait, 60, a resident of nearby Kfar Malik, standing on a hilltop overlooking the spring."They enter the spring stations, break them, remove cameras, and cut off the water for hours," he said.The Ein Samiya spring and Kfar Malik village have been increasingly surrounded by Jewish Israeli settlements. The UN and most foreign governments consider settlements in the West Bank to be illegal under international law and an obstacle to the establishment of a future Palestinian state.According to the United Nations' humanitarian office, settlers carried out multiple attacks targeting water springs and vital water infrastructure in the Ramallah, Salfit and Nablus areas between June 1 and July 14. The Ein Samiya water spring had been repeatedly attacked, it said in a July report.Israeli security forces view any damage to infrastructure as a serious matter and were carrying out covert and overt actions to prevent further harm, the Israeli military said in response to Reuters questions for this story. It said the Palestinian Water Authority had been given access to carry out repairs.Kareem Jubran, director of field research at Israeli rights group B'Tselem, told Reuters that settlers had taken control over most natural springs in the West Bank in recent years and prevented Palestinians from accessing them.SETTLER VIOLENCEPalestinians have long faced a campaign of intimidation, harassment and physical violence by extremist settlers, who represent a minority of Jewish settlers living in the West Bank. Most live in settlements for financial or ideological reasons and do not advocate for violence against Palestinians.Palestinians say the frequency of settler violence in the West Bank has increased since the October 2023 Hamas storming of Israel.They say they fear the rise in settler violence is part of a campaign to drive them from the land. The UN has registered 925 such incidents in the first seven months of this year, a 16% year-on-year increase.Since the Hamas fighter attacks which sparked the war in Gaza, several Israeli politicians have advocated for Israel to annex the West Bank, which it has occupied since 1967.Reuters reported on Sunday that Israeli officials said the government is now considering annexing the territory after France and other Western nations said they would recognise a Palestinian state this month. The Palestinian Authority wants a future Palestinian state to encompass West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.Palestinians in the West Bank have long struggled to access water. The Western-backed Palestinian Authority exercises limited civic rule in parts of the territory and relies on Israeli approvals to develop and expand water infrastructure. Palestinian officials and rights groups say that's rarely given.B'Tselem said in an April 2023 report that Palestinians were facing a chronic water crisis, while settlers have an abundance of water."The water shortage in the West Bank is the intentional outcome of Israel's deliberately discriminatory policy, which views water as another means for controlling the Palestinians," B'Tselem wrote in the report.COSTLY DELIVERIESAcross the West Bank, water tanks are common in Palestinian homes, storing rainwater or water delivered by trucks due to an already unreliable piped water network that has been exacerbated by the settler attacks.Cogat, the Israeli military agency that oversees policy in the West Bank and Gaza, said in response to Reuters questions the Palestinian Authority was responsible for supplying water to Palestinians in the West Bank. Israel transferred 90mn cubic metres of water to the Palestinian Authority each year, it said, blaming any shortages on water theft by Palestinians.Along with travelling long distances to collect water, Palestinians have become reliant on costly water deliveries to manage the chronic water crisis that they fear will only grow."If the settlers continue their attacks, we will have conflict on water," said Wafeeq Saleem, who was collecting water from a public tap outside Ramallah."Water is the most important thing for us."

The ongoing Israeli onslaught on all areas across the Gaza Strip has killed 41 Palestinians since dawn Monday. Medical sources in Gaza reported that 15 martyrs were brought to Al Shifa Hospital, 1 to Sheikh Radwan Clinic, 6 to Al Maghazi Hospital, 4 to Al Awda Hospital, 4 to Al Aqsa Hospital, and 11 to Nasser Hospital. Among those martyrs, 9 were waiting for aid, of whom 6 were in the southern enclave and 3 in the central, the sources added. Based on the latest figures, the death toll from the Israeli unremitting aggression against the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, has soared to 63,557, with 160,660 reported wounded.The Israeli occupation forces resumed their offensive on the Gaza Strip after breaching the ceasefire deal on March 18, following a two-month let-up, and pounded various parts of the enclave, which is already facing an unprecedented humanitarian calamity after 22 months of war.