The administration of US President Joe Biden announced on Saturday an arms sale to Israel valued at $8 billion, just ahead of President-elect Donald Trump‘s return to the White House.
Biden has repeatedly rejected calls to suspend military backing for Israel because of the number of civilians killed during the war in Gaza. Israel has killed more than 45,000 people in Gaza, primarily women and children.
The Palestinian health ministry reported that 59 people were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza in the past 24 hours, raising the total death toll to 45,717 killed since 7 October 2023.
4 January 2025 20:29 GMT
At least 66 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip on Saturday, Al Jazeera reported, citing medical sources.
According to testimonies gathered by Euro-Med Monitor, the Israeli army subsequently transferred Dr. Abu Safiya to a field interrogation site in the Al-Fakhura area of Jabalia Refugee Camp. There, he was forced to strip off his clothes and was subjected to severe beatings, including being whipped with a thick wire commonly used for street electrical wiring. Soldiers deliberately humiliated him in front of other detainees, including fellow medical staff. He was later taken to an undisclosed location before being transferred to the Sde Teyman military camp under Israeli army control.
Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has also received information from recently released detainees at the Sde Teyman military camp, confirming that Dr. Abu Safiya was subjected to severe torture, leading to a significant deterioration in his health. This occurred despite him already being injured by Israeli air strikes on the hospital, where he worked tirelessly until the facility was stormed and set ablaze by Israeli forces.
In response to an official request submitted by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) Israel on behalf of his family to arrange a lawyer’s visit for him, “Mashlat” – the body responsible for coordinating with the army regarding the location of detainees and prisoners from the occupied Gaza Strip – stated that they have no indication of his arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya. Despite clear documentation of his arrest, the Israeli army officially stated on Thursday, January 3, that “it has no indication of the arrest or detention of the Kamal Adwan Hospital Director.”
(January 3, 2024)
Summary
The situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question – Security Council, 9830th meeting
Description
– Briefer: Mr. Volker Türk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, Representative for the West Bank and Gaza, World Health Organization (via video-teleconference)
– Briefer: Dr. Tanya Haj Hassan, medical practitioner, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) Charity (via video-teleconference)
– Statements: All Council members
– Statement: Observer State of Palestine
– Statements: Israel, Egypt
In the first United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the Middle East for 2025, Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour asked the international body to show „courage“ in demanding the release of Dr Hussam Abu Safiyeh, the medical director of Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza was detained by Israeli forces last week.
In a Security Council meeting on Friday, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn, World Health Organization (WHO) representative for the West Bank and Gaza, painted a grim picture of the situation, emphasising that over 25 per cent of the 105,000 injured civilians now face life-changing injuries.
“At the current rate, it would take five to 10 years to evacuate all these critically ill patients,” Dr. Peeperkorn warned, noting that over 12,000 people remain on waiting lists for urgent treatment abroad.
Only 16 of the region’s 36 hospitals remain partially operational, their collective capacity merely above 1,800 beds – entirely insufficient for the overwhelming medical needs.
“The health sector is being systematically dismantled,” Dr. Peeperkorn noted, citing shortages of medical supplies, equipment, and personnel.
„The President has made clear Israel has a right to defend its citizens, consistent with international law and international humanitarian law, and to deter aggression from Iran and its proxy organizations. We will continue to provide the capabilities necessary for Israel‘s defense,“ a U.S. official said.
Meanwhile, the US is preparing an $8bn arms package for Israel, including heavy bombs
The Palestinian death toll from ongoing Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip has risen to 45,658, with 108,583 others injured, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Friday.
In the past 24 hours alone, at least 77 people were killed and 145 others were injured in Gaza, according to the statement.
(December 2, 2024, 2:44:12 PM)
Doha, Qatar: Palestinian health Ministry said today, January 2, that at least 45,581 people have been killed by Israeli Occupation forces in nearly 15 months of war on Gaza.
Over the past 24 hours, Israeli air strikes have left more than 70 Palestinians dead, with dozens more wounded, according to Gaza’s health authorities. The staggering death toll highlights the devastating impact of Israel’s military assault on the densely populated region, where civilians are bearing the brunt of the onslaught.
On Thursday alone, Gaza’s government media office reported 34 air strikes carried out by the Israeli army, many of which struck civilian areas already ravaged by war.
The Indonesian Hospital, one the biggest health facilities in northern Gaza, has been out of service for weeks due to ongoing Israeli attacks and a debilitating siege put in place since early October.
Earlier this week, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the WHO, called on Israel to cease its attacks on Gaza‘s beleaguered hospitals and medical centres and offer a brief reprieve to exhausted Palestinians.
INTRODUCTION
1. This report presents grave concerns regarding attacks on hospitals, as well as operations within them and in their vicinity, in Gaza covering the period 7 October 2023 to 30 June 2024. In the context of the ongoing escalation of hostilities in Gaza, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has since early October 2023 documented repeated attacks on hospitals and operations within and in the vicinity of hospitals, leading to sustained combat in and around many hospitals. This pattern has led to the destruction of most hospitals in Gaza, pushing the healthcare system to the point of almost complete collapse. Attacks on hospitals were reported in each of the areas in which the Israeli military conducted ground operations, starting in November 2023 with an attack on Al Shifa Medical Complex and other hospitals in Gaza City. At the end of June 2024, 22 out of 38 hospitals across Gaza had been rendered non-functional, according to the Ministry of Health of the State of Palestine (Palestinian MOH).
2. In gathering, assessing, and verifying the information contained in this report, and drawing conclusions based on international human rights law and international humanitarian law, OHCHR applied its standard methodology. The monitoring and verification of violations remained extremely challenging, including owing to access constraints, a high level of insecurity, and threats and direct attacks also on United Nations personnel, monitors and humanitarian actors. Nevertheless, verification work continued, and information was gathered from multiple independent sources, including victims and witnesses; military and weapons experts; open sources, including satellite imagery, videos and photos; credible organizations and individuals; official and other documentation. The analysis of the information involved legal and weapons expertise, including from independent experts. Findings are included in the report where the “reasonable grounds” standard of proof has been met, namely: based on a body of verified information, an objective and ordinarily prudent observer would have reasonable grounds to believe that the facts took place as described and, where legal conclusions are drawn, that these facts meet all the elements of a violation. On 16 December 2024, the report was shared with the Permanent Missions of Israel and the State of Palestine for factual comments. The State of Palestine and Israel responded with comments on 19 and 20 December, respectively. OHCHR welcomes receiving these comments, which can be read here.
UN Human Rights Office report on Tuesday, December 31, condemned deadly Israeli attacks on hospitals in Gaza, saying they had devastated the Palestinian occupied territory health system and raised serious concerns about Israel’s compliance with international law.
The appalling destruction wrought by the Israeli military’s attacks on the Kamal Adwan hospital last Friday – leaving the population of North Gaza with almost no access to adequate health care – reflects the pattern of attacks documented in the report. Staff and patients were forced to flee or were taken into custody, with many reports of torture and ill-treatment. The director of the hospital was taken into custody and his fate and whereabouts are unknown.
At least 45,553 Palestinians have been killed and 108,379 wounded in Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Palestinian health ministry said on Wednesday.
UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called on the medical community to act on Monday, as reports emerged that Israeli forces are holding the head of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hussam Abu Safiya, at a torture camp for Palestinian detainees that’s notorious for its brutality.
“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese said.
According to Hadash-Ta’al MK Ofer Cassif, “We must not allow the Israeli government to kill this noble man [Abu Safiya]. His life and liberty, like those of all Palestinians, must be protected.” “In human history, every genocide has had its own martyrs and symbols. Those who faced barbaric power and humanitarian calamity with resilient, stoic virtue. Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya and his unlawful abduction is the symbol of the Gaza genocide. We must not allow him to perish in captivity. I filed an official query for the Minister of Defense, like habeas corpus, demanding to know of his whereabouts. But this isn’t enough. I urge all to demand his immediate release from Israeli captivity.”
MK Ahmed Tibi (Hadash-Ta’al) called in the Knesset plenum on Monday, December 30, for the release of the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital. Tibi stated that “Dr. Abu Safiya has become an international icon in the last 24 hours. With a systematic destruction of hospitals in Gaza, and all health infrastructure, to render life impossible after the conflict – Israel is the country that has destroyed the most hospitals globally.” “This brave doctor, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, whose 15-year-old child was killed, and later had his hospital shot at and was wounded, remained with his team and patients – it’s a brave decision.” He added: “Ultimately, he came out to the tank and was arrested. Today, he’s in the detention facility at Sde Teiman and there is an international demand to release him. Why? Because doctors are killed in Sde Teiman. Dr. Albatsh, an orthopedist, was detained, tortured, and died. I called on the Defense Minister to release him today.”
According to Hadash-Ta’al MK Aida Touma-Sliman, “Dozens of Palestinians who were held at some point by the Israeli Army are nowhere to be found. The fact is extremely concerning given that according to Bt’selem, more than 60 Palestinians have died while imprisoned by Israel since the beginning of the war – some with clear indications of violence and torture. Like the darkest regimes, Israel is creating, under the cover of war, a parallel world of torture and violence where people are being disappeared.”
(December 30, 2024)
Former detainees of Sde Teiman, a shadowy military base in Israel’s Negev desert near the Gaza border, say the doctor and other medics from the Kamal Adwan raid are being held there.
Two Palestinian prisoners released this weekend from the facility said they saw Abu Safiya at the prison, and another former detainee said he heard Abu Safiya’s name being read out. CNN cannot independently verify their accounts. The Israeli military has not confirmed to CNN whether Abu Safiya is being held at the facility.
Hundreds of medical professionals are using the hashtag #FreeDrHussamAbuSafiyeh to decry Israel‘s capture and detention of him as well as calling for Israel to be held accountable for attacks on hospital facilities and medics.
(December 30, 2024)
Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHR) petitioned last week Israel’s Supreme Court, demanding an end to ongoing attacks on the hospital, the establishment of humanitarian corridors, and the delivery of essential supplies, and issuing an interim order to cease the attacks immediately. However, the court refused to take immediate action, leaving Kamal Adwan, its staff and patients under the deadly attacks.
The head of the World Health Organization called for the immediate release of Hussam Abu Safiya, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, who was detained as Israeli forces raided the facility last week. Other human rights organizations, along with Abu Safiya’s family, have made the same demand.
(December 24, 2024)
If you have read this far, then you will know why I am here in Gaza. You will understand why my life has been on hold, to do what I can to spend time with my friends, and report on the continued horrors that have engulfed their lives. Report on the families who scream at us in despair, desperate for information on loved ones who have been detained for months. Report on the bodies we see of people around checkpoints, left to be eaten by packs of dogs. Report on toddlers in hospitals with missing limbs after strikes in “humanitarian zones”. Mona’s brother, killed. Hussein’s daughter, killed. Rajaa’s cousin, killed. Are you keeping up with the death? Because we’re not. Here, you’re considered lucky if you actually know if your family are alive.
The journalists on the ground – risking life and limb every day to show the world the horrors consuming their friends, their families, their neighbours. Is the world still looking?
Israel’s war on the enclave continued into 2024, killing 23,842 people and wounding 51,925 during this year alone, driving the grisly official death toll to 46,376, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on 7 October 2023, 258 staff members from the UN agency for Palestinian refugees have lost their lives, and at least 650 attacks on Unrwa facilities have been recorded. Additionally, 20 Unrwa workers have been abducted by Israel.
Lazzarini condemned the ongoing violence, stating, “This cannot become the new standard, and impunity cannot become the new norm.” His remarks highlight the growing frustration over the global community’s lack of action in halting Israel’s aggression which has been widely described by human rights organisation as genocidal.
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), the war has left 45,541 Palestinians dead, some 11,000 are missing and believed to be under the rubble and at least 100,000 have been forced to flee Gaza as Israel’s campaign of destruction continues to devastate the enclave.
In the West Bank, Israeli attacks killed 835 Palestinians and injured 6,450 others.
(December 2, 2024)
We are working beyond our areas of specialization because we no longer have a qualified surgical team. We have called upon the world for protection for over 50 days but unfortunately there has been no response. I’m confounded by this world that claims to believe in humanity and democracy but does not respond. Not even the World Health Organization has any protection here.
The human mind cannot imagine all the death and body parts and blood that surround us around the clock…
Amnesty also highlighted the broader issue of Israeli detention practices, noting that since the onset of its military onslought in Gaza, Israel has detained hundreds of Palestinian healthcare workers without charge or trial. These workers, the organisation stated, have been subjected to torture, ill-treatment, and incommunicado detention.
„The international community, especially Israel’s allies, must act to end Israel’s genocide against Palestinians in Gaza,“ Amnesty concluded, demanding the immediate release of all Palestinians arbitrarily detained, including healthcare workers. Hospitals and health workers, the organisation reiterated, are not legitimate targets.
Kamal Adwan was the last functioning hospital in North Gaza, as Israel continues to wall the region off from the rest of the Palestinian territory and from any kind of outside humanitarian assistance. Still, despite the resulting lack of resources and the increasing casualties, Abu Safiya managed to keep the hospital in Beit Lahia at least partially running ― expanding its bed capacity from 120 to 200, and regularly posting updates online to show the world what Kamal Adwan, its patients and its staff were enduring at the hands of the Israeli military.
Meanwhile in the West Bank, OCHA reported that as of Thursday Israeli military operations have killed 20 Palestinians over a 10-day period, including 12 deaths from airstrikes.
In Tulkarm refugee camp, a military operation caused significant infrastructure damage, with OCHA raising concerns over the repeated use of lethal, war-like tactics exceeding law enforcement standards.
OCHA also reported that 2024 marked the highest displacement of Palestinians in the West Bank since records began nearly two decades ago.
As of Tuesday, 4,706 Palestinians, including 1,949 children, have been displaced,
Here are some of the key figures:
– 1,413 Palestinian families wiped out, with 5,455 family members killed
– 17,818 children killed in Israeli attacks
– 12,287 women killed in Israeli strikes
– 238 newborns and 853 infants killed
– 35,060 children now living without one or both parents
– 44 people dead due to malnutrition and starvation
– Six deaths from extreme cold in displacement tents, including five babies
– 1,068 medical staff and 94 Civil Defence personnel killed
– 520 bodies retrieved from seven mass graves inside hospitals
– 216 shelter and displacement centres targeted
Timeline: The Israeli army’s offensive on Gaza, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, has stretched over 450 days since its latest escalation on Oct.7, 2023.
Rising casualties: The 30 fatalities recorded in the last 24 hours push the overall death toll to 45,514, while injuries have surpassed 108,000.
Das Kamal-Adwan-Krankenhaus sei die letzte größere Gesundheitseinrichtung im Norden des Küstenstreifens gewesen und sei nun außer Betrieb, teilte die WHO auf X mit. Erste Berichte deuteten darauf hin, dass einige wichtige Abteilungen bei der Razzia stark verbrannt und zerstört worden seien.
Patienten in mittelschwerem bis schwerem Zustand seien ins zerstörte und nicht funktionstüchtige Indonesische Krankenhaus verlegt worden. Die Weltgesundheitsorganisation mache sich „große Sorgen um ihre Sicherheit“, hieß es.
Israeli forces on Friday arrested Ahmed al-Kahlout, who serves as the director of Gaza‘s civil defence in the northern part of the enclave, according to Al Jazeera.
Gaza’s Health Ministry said Saturday that Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, was arrested by Israeli forces. The announcement comes a day after Israeli troops stormed the hospital, forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, according to the ministry.
Israel’s army didn’t respond to questions about Dr. Abu Safiya.
Al Jazeera is reporting, citing medical sources, that several medical staff members were burned to death in the fires set by Israel‘s military in the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Friday.
Dec 28, 2024 #Gaza #GazaUnderAttack #FreeGaza
The Israeli military has stormed the last operating hospital in Northern Gaza – setting it on fire. Operating rooms in the Hospital and its emergency department were destroyed. 350 people – including all the patients and staff – have been forced to evacuate. Their location is unknown and contact with the facility has been lost.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum reports.
Israeli soldiers stormed and burned a hospital in isolated northern Gaza after forcibly removing staff and patients on Friday, Health Ministry officials said. The Israeli military said the hospital was being used by Hamas fighters as a base, although it did not provide evidence.
Gaza‘s Health Ministry said Israeli troops set fires in several parts of Kamal Adwan Hospital, including the lab and surgery department.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — Israeli troops stormed one of the last hospitals operating in northern Gaza on Friday, igniting fires and forcing many staff and patients outside to strip in winter weather, the territory’s health ministry said.
At least 37 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,436, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Friday.
“The fate of everyone at the hospital is unknown to us,” said Yousef Abu al-Rish, the deputy health minister in the territory, who is based in southern Gaza. “We’ve tried to call them in every way possible and we haven’t been able to reach them.”
Mr. Abu al-Rish said that he last had phone contact with the hospital on Thursday night, when he was told that Israeli forces were bombarding the area and tanks were approaching the hospital.
The assault on Kamal Adwan comes a day after 50 Palestinians were killed in an air strike on a building in the hospital‘s grounds. At least five medical staff were killed in Thursday‘s attack, along with their wives, parents and children.
Kamal Adwan has been under a suffocating Israeli siege for more than two months, receiving little to no aid, medicine, food or fuel since Israel intensified it blockade on northern parts of the enclave.
Dec 27, 2024 – 12:06 am GMT+3
At least 50 Palestinians, including five staff, were killed in an Israeli airstrike on one of the last functioning hospitals in northern Gaza late Thursday.
Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia, said: „an Israeli strike resulted in five martyrs among the hospital staff.“
(December 19, 2024)
„What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza,” Lockyear said. (…)
MSF calls on states, particularly Israel’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support for Israel and fulfill their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza. Nearly a year ago, on January 26, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to take “immediate and effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian assistance to address the adverse conditions of life faced by Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.” Israel has taken no meaningful action to comply with the court order. Instead, Israeli authorities continue to actively block MSF and other humanitarian organizations from providing lifesaving assistance to people trapped under siege and bombardment.
(December 19, 2024)
To All States
– Take all measures within their power to prevent genocide by Israeli authorities in Gaza by pressuring Israel to lift the blockade and comply with the orders of the International Court of Justice, including by discontinuing any military assistance and arms sales or transfers, imposing targeted sanctions, and reviewing bilateral deals and diplomatic relations.
– Publicly condemn war crimes, crimes against humanity, and other violations of human rights and international humanitarian law and the genocide convention committed by the Israeli authorities, and urge them to immediately halt those violations and crimes and cooperate with international judicial bodies, investigative mechanisms, and UN special procedures.
– Increase public and private pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international humanitarian law in the conduct of hostilities, and ensure the entry and safe distribution at scale throughout Gaza of adequate aid and provision of basic services.
– Demand that Israel implement UN Security Council and General Assembly resolutions on Israel and Palestine, including all provisions relating to humanitarian aid delivery to the residents of Gaza and compliance with international humanitarian law.
– Review and possibly suspend bilateral agreements with Israel, such as the EU-Israel Association Agreement, whose review has been proposed by the Spanish and Irish governments.
– End all forms of support for and complicity in the atrocities being carried out by Israel, including suspending military assistance and arms transfers to the Israeli government so long as its forces commit serious rights abuses and war crimes against Palestinian civilians with impunity.
– Publicly support the ICJ’s work and its decisions as an independent judicial institution and press Israel to comply with the ICJ’s binding orders.
– Publicly support the work of the International Criminal Court across all situations under its jurisdiction, including the ongoing Palestine investigation, and render any assistance necessary to give effect to orders of the Court. Uphold the court’s independence and publicly condemn efforts to intimidate or interfere with its work, officials, and those cooperating with the institution.
– Support foreign domestic investigations and prosecutions under the principle of universal jurisdiction, as relevant and appropriate, of those credibly implicated in serious crimes in Gaza.
– The United States should immediately reverse its decisions to suspend funding to UNRWA and state clearly the intention to continue to fund the agency, and all states should urge Israeli authorities to reverse Israel‘s decisions to bar UNRWA from operating within Israel.
– Fund repairs of damaged and destroyed water and sanitation infrastructure, and press Israel to urgently allow the infrastructure to be repaired.
– Support the creation of an international mechanism to address reparation for Palestinians and an international register of damages.
– Call on Israeli authorities to allow water filtration systems, water tanks, and other materials needed to repair water infrastructure and to improve the water supply into Gaza.
– Support the United Nations to establish a plan that would ensure Palestinians have access to water at least equal to what Israel grants Israeli citizens, and pressure Israel to facilitate and contribute to the plan.
– Address long-standing impunity by Israeli authorities and Palestinian armed groups for serious crimes under international law.
To the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights to Water and Sanitation
– Request access to Gaza in order to monitor and report publicly on the human rights situation regarding access to water and sanitation, including damage and destruction of water and sanitation infrastructure; obstruction of repairs and targeting of repair workers; restrictions on the entry of fuel; and the human rights impacts stemming from these actions.
To the International Criminal Court Prosecutor
– Investigate Israeli authorities’ actions and policies that have deprived the civilian population of Gaza of water, including as war crimes, as the crime against humanity of extermination, and as genocide.
(December 5, 2024)
To make a determination on genocide, Amnesty International first examined whether Palestinians in Gaza constitute part of a protected group under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (Genocide Convention), that is a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. It then focused on three out of the five prohibited acts under the Genocide Convention: “killing members of the group”; “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group”; and “deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part”. It finally examined whether Israel committed these acts with the specific “intent to destroy, in whole or in part, [the] group, as such”.
To this end, Amnesty International interviewed 212 people as part of its research. They included Palestinian victims, survivors and witnesses of air strikes, displacement, detention, the destruction of farms, homes and agricultural land, as well as individuals who faced the impact of Israel’s restrictions on humanitarian aid. Amnesty International also spoke with members of local authorities in Gaza, Palestinian healthcare workers and representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and UN agencies involved in the humanitarian response in Gaza.
Amnesty International complemented these interviews with its analysis of an extensive range of visual and digital evidence, including satellite imagery, video footage and photographs posted on social media or obtained directly by its researchers. It authenticated and, where possible, geolocated video footage and photographs. It reviewed an extensive collection of media reports, statements, reports and data sets published by UN agencies and humanitarian organizations operating in Gaza, as well as Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. It reviewed statements by senior Israeli government and military officials and official Israeli bodies, including spokespersons of the Israeli military and the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a unit within Israel’s Ministry of Defense tasked with administering civilian matters in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) . Amnesty International also examined submissions made to and decisions taken by the Israeli Supreme Court as well as publicly available material relating to South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Despite its repeated attempts to engage with the Israeli authorities through information and meeting requests, the organization received no substantive answer to any of its letters sent between 30 October 2023 and 16 October 2024.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) agree that Israel is striving for extermination. It has not hidden its intent, and that intent is confirmed by its actions on the ground.
At least 23 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, pushing up the overall death toll since last year to 45,361, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Wednesday.
(December 23, 2024)
From the beginning it was clear that the only feasible post-Hamas arrangement would be a return of the Palestinian Authority, which now runs the West Bank autonomy zones, back to Gaza, from which Hamas expelled it in 2007 by force. Israel itself once yearned for this, back when rational people governed the country. The proposals pushed by President Joe Biden for more than a year now envision versions of this, with the PA rejuvenated and assisted by Arab and perhaps other forces.
An Israel that wanted this would have ensured that Hamas is out of the way, publicly and persistently offering its remaining troops exile. Arab pressure on the group would have been overpowering. Israel would possibly get peace with Saudi Arabia as part of the bargain.
Instead, Netanyahu’s goons flooded the airwaves arguing that Israel cannot pull out of Gaza and end the war because Hamas would regain power.
Graphic video emerged late on Sunday showing the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat camp in Gaza, where cats gathered to feast on the bodies of those killed just hours earlier.
(December 22, 2024)
Health authorities in Gaza confirmed that the Palestinian death toll from the ongoing Israeli onslaught since October 7, 2023, has now exceeded 45,259, with an additional 107,627 individuals reported injured. The majority of the victims are women and children, the authorities said.
At least 21 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip, bringing the overall death toll since last year to 45,227, the Health Ministry in the enclave said on Saturday.
A ministry statement added that some 107,573 others were injured in the ongoing assault.