Rights and Accountability 5 December 2024
Palestinians walk next to damaged buildings and tents belonging to displaced people, Deir al-Balah, 30 November.
APA imagesThe following is from the news roundup during the 4 December livestream. Watch the entire episode here.
Airstrikes and massacres continued across all areas of the Gaza Strip this week.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza reported that since the beginning of the genocide in October 2023, more than 1,400 families have been completely wiped out and erased from the civil registry, while more than 3,400 families have only one remaining survivor.
The United Nations says that after 14 months of strikes and shelling, Gaza now has the highest number of child amputees per capita anywhere in the world. Many of these children have lost limbs and undergone surgery without anesthesia and have no access to rehabilitation services to cope with the life-altering injuries caused by this war.
In north Gaza, Israel’s campaign of systematic slaughter, destruction and starvation is now in its ninth week.This video, recently recorded by Jabaliya resident Mohamad AbdelRahman, shows the complete destruction of a major thoroughfare.
Journalist Anas al-Sharif noted, “This is one of the most important streets in Jabaliya camp, Al-Houja Street, which was destroyed by Ariel Sharon in the mid-seventies and rebuilt by the camp residents. Today, Israel is returning to take revenge, not only on the residents of Jabaliya camp whom it killed and displaced, but also on the trees and stones.”On Monday, the Gaza government media office stated that over the last 60 days of the ethnic cleansing operation in north Gaza, more than 3,700 Palestinians have been killed or are still missing, 10,000 have been wounded, the Israeli army has abducted more than 1,700, and vital sectors have been destroyed.
Eyewitness testimonies have revealed that up to 650 bodies of Palestinians have been lying in the streets for two consecutive months due to the prevention by the Israeli military of allowing rescue, emergency and paramedic crews from accessing the bodies, the Gaza government media office stated. Stray dogs have been devouring the bodies scattered in the streets and the corpses have still not been identified.
“The Israeli occupation deliberately continues its aggression in a barbaric, brutal and planned manner against civilians, civilian residential neighborhoods, displacement and shelter centers, and to take revenge on them, displacing tens of thousands,” the media office said.
“This crime is considered a crime against humanity as classified by international law. … What our Palestinian people are being subjected to in the northern Gaza Strip governorate is unbelievable by reason and logic.”
Bombings in northern Gaza over the past week were reported in Beit Lahiya and Jabaliya. At least 10 people were killed in Beit Lahiya on Sunday when Israel targeted a home.
On Saturday, Gaza’s civil defense reported that at least 40 Palestinians were killed and buried in the rubble after Israel bombed a house in Tal al-Zaatar.
A child was killed by Israeli artillery fire on a school turned into a shelter for displaced people in Jabaliya on Monday.
In Gaza City also on Monday, an Israeli airstrike targeted a market and bombed the Sabra neighborhood in a separate attack.
While Americans were gathering for Thanksgiving meals on Thursday, 28 November, more than 75 Palestinians including children were killed in two separate strikes on residential buildings in Beit Lahiya.
The Palestinian civil defense, which cannot reach the areas due to Israel’s access prevention, stated that homes near the buildings are inhabited and their residents may have also been killed or injured but “their destiny remains unknown.”
Also on Thursday, Israel targeted and burned the Awni al-Harthani shelter in north Gaza. Journalist Hossam Shabat reported that Israel used quadcopter drones to drop the bombs.
Another shelter at the al-Tabaeen school in Gaza City was bombed last week, killing at least nine Palestinians and injuring at least 20 others.In central Gaza, Israeli snipers, drones, helicopters and naval ships have attacked areas in Deir al-Balah and Nuseirat, according to our contributor Abubaker Abed.
Last week, Israel bombed the al-Nasra tower in Nuseirat. Nine Palestinians were killed and several others wounded on 28 November in heavy Israeli airstrikes targeting Nuseirat refugee camp.The assault included intense bombardments north of the camp, preceded by numerous airstrikes in the same area, according to the TV channel Al-Mayadeen.
ICU director at Kamal Adwan Hospital killed
Meanwhile, at Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, north Gaza, the United Nations reported that a team of six physicians from the Medical Emergency Rescue Committee in Indonesia was able to reach the hospital as part of a medical mission, delivering a fuel tank and medical supplies.
The UN stated that the hospital, which now hosts 63 patients including nine in the intensive care unit, has been functioning with extremely limited resources. It has been relentlessly attacked over the last two months.
Dr. Ahmed al-Kahlout, the director of the intensive care unit at Kamal Adwan, was killed in an Israeli attack on Friday as he reportedly entered the gate of the hospital.
His colleague and the director of the hospital, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, led burial prayers for al-Kahlout alongside his staff.Abu Safiya himself was injured in a recent Israeli drone attack, as we reported last week, while he walked from the operating room to his office inside the hospital.
In October, his son Ibrahim was killed in an Israeli bombing on the hospital grounds. Abu Safiya held burial prayers for Ibrahim and buried him in the hospital courtyard.
On Tuesday, Abu Safiya reported that the hospital had been targeted, “for the fifth time, by Israeli drones dropping bombed filled with shrapnel that injure anyone who dares to move.”
“This situation is extremely urgent. Kamal Adwan Hospital has been ruthlessly attacked by drones, and once again, the occupation is focusing its aggression on medical teams,” the doctor said.
“Just a short while ago, three of our medical personnel were injured, one of whom is now in serious condition and undergoing a complex surgical procedure in the operating room. We are exhausted by the ongoing violence. Why are we subjected to such brutality? Each day, the hospital is systematically targeted.”
Along with the repeated direct targeting of medical personnel and hospital wards, Israel is also blocking medications and basic supplies as well as deliberately damaging medical equipment.
Doctors Without Borders’ emergency coordinator in Gaza reported, “Shortages of critical supplies have reached such levels that we are now forced to turn away patients in some facilities.”
“Restrictions and obstacles to the entry of aid by the Israeli authorities continue to severely hamper our ability to provide care. Meanwhile, the looting of aid trucks within the enclave is making it difficult for that small amount of aid allowed by Israeli authorities to reach those in need. Ultimately, it’s the patients who suffer the consequences,” the coordinator added.
The medical aid organization said that at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, basic supplies like gauze and bandages are running out, forcing care providers to extend dressing change intervals and heightening infection risks.
Also at Nasser, Doctors Without Borders says the organization has not been able to set up a clinical bacteriology laboratory because the cold chain to operate it has been constantly “opened and damaged by Israeli officers at the crossing point.”
In Deir al-Balah, the organization’s field hospital is struggling due to a lack of painkillers and antibiotics, hindering pain management and the treatment of low respiratory infections among children.
As starvation soars, food aid workers killed
Food insecurity and starvation continue to envelop the Gaza Strip due to Israel’s tightened blockade, collective punishment measures and direct attacks on food providers.
Chef Mahmoud al-Madhoun, who fed thousands of people every day in north Gaza, including patients at Kamal Adwan Hospital, was targeted and killed in an Israeli drone strike on 30 November as he reportedly stepped outside his home on the way to make food for people at the hospital.
Al-Madhoun worked with the Gaza Soup Kitchen, which coordinated food aid efforts in the north. The group issued a statement mourning him and his work.“We believe he was killed because of his unwavering dedication to solving problems for Kamal Adwan Hospital and ensuring they had whatever they needed. Mahmoud was a lifeline, standing in the way of the ethnic cleansing they are determined to carry out – and they would not allow that to continue,” Gaza Soup Kitchen stated.
Mahmoud al-Madhoun had seven children, the youngest only two weeks old, and the oldest still in the hospital, recovering from critical injuries caused by an Israeli quadcopter, the group added.
The day before, on 29 November, two young girls and one woman suffocated to death while in line in large crowds waiting to obtain bread at a bakery in Deir al-Balah, according to the World Food Programme, amid severe flour shortages and reduced food distributions due to access constraints and insecurity.
The World Food Programme said that “the lack of food aid and the absence of the commercial sector are driving people into hunger,” urging authorities to provide the secure conditions necessary to ensure that humanitarian aid can reach people in need.
As of 3 December, only five out of 19 World Food Programme-supported bakeries are operational across the Gaza Strip, including four in Gaza City and one in Khan Younis, the agency said.
On Sunday, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees announced that it was pausing aid delivery through the Kerem Shalom crossing, citing safety concerns, repeated attacks and looting by armed gangs and the “ongoing siege, hurdles from Israeli authorities, political decisions to restrict the amounts of aid, lack of safety on aid routes and [the] targeting of local police.”
In response, the Gaza government media office called on UNRWA to reverse its decision and instead increase the amount of aid and number of aid trucks, and to bring them through other crossings.The media office urged the UN agency “not to resort to taking negative measures that threaten the lives of more than two million civilians and displaced persons, especially children and women in the Gaza Strip.”
Israel once again targeted and killed staff of the World Central Kitchen this week. Three employees of the international group and two bystanders were killed when Israel bombed the car they were traveling in on Saturday.
In April, Israel killed seven of the group’s staff members who were in a clearly-marked convoy.World Central Kitchen announced it was pausing all operations in Gaza as a result of this latest attack, but seemed to give Israel’s claims – that one of the employees was involved in the 7 October operation – the benefit of the doubt.
Journalists killed
Israel has killed at least two more journalists, bringing the number to 192, according to the Gaza government media office.
On Saturday, Mamdouh Ibrahim Qunaita was killed by an Israeli drone in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Hospital.
Qunaita worked as a journalist and editor at the Al-Aqsa TV channel.On Sunday, Maysara Salah was shot and killed by Israeli forces, according to his colleagues at Quds News Network.
Highlighting resilience
Finally, as we always do, we wanted to share images of people expressing defiance and resilience in the face of Israel’s campaign of destruction.
Photographer Mahmoud Abu Hamda took this image of a girl on a swing.
Abu Hamda states, “I saw this swing on a sand hill as I was on my way back from documenting the conditions of displaced people due to the weather storm. I climbed the hill, and before I began documenting the scene, I took a moment to enjoy the happiness of the children and their laughter that filled the place.”
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