Israel continues its genocidal war in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, while Amnesty International has just published a report concluding that Israel is committing genocide. Update on the situation in Gaza this week.
By Palestine Media Agency, December 6, 2024
KEY FIGURES
in Gaza since October 7, 2023:
44,580 deaths
105,739 injured
1.9 million displacedin Lebanon since October 7, 2023:
3,961 deaths
16,520 injured
1.2 million displaced peoplein the West Bank since October 7, 2023:
806 deaths
including 146 children
19,031 displaced
One more morning
Since this morning, the Wafa agency has counted at least 30 Palestinians murdered by Israel in several bombings, which targeted several areas of the enclave.
Two civilians were killed in the Israeli bombing of the Ra'afi school in the town of Jabalia, where displaced people were sheltering. Three Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike targeting the Khirbet al-Adas area, north of the town of Rafah. Israeli forces also struck several buildings in Gaza City as well as central areas of the Strip, including the village of al-Musaddar and the Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps.
Wafa correspondent confirms that Israeli forces bombed a residential area near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, killing more than 30 Palestinians, with many people still trapped under the rubble. Al Jazeera's correspondent on the ground describes patients and staff at the besieged hospital as “soaked in blood.”
You north…
Kamal Adwan Hospital is the last hospital in northern Gaza to function, although only partially. With only two doctors, including the hospital director, himself injured last week. Around a hundred Palestinian patients and their families continue to find refuge in the establishment, which has suffered a new series of attacks since the beginning of the week which includes Israeli bombings on surrounding buildings and targeted drone strikes. and Israeli snipers as well as ground incursions into the hospital itself.
“We cannot keep track of the number of attacks on Kamal Adwan Hospital and its surroundings because the last few hours have been very violent and bloody. » testifies Al Jazeera journalist Hani Mahmoud from Deir Al-Balah, before adding: “These attacks are not accidental. They are deliberate and target the hospital's facilities, its medical staff and the patients there. »
The north of the enclave has been under siege for more than two months now, which appears to mark a new stage in the genocide perpetrated by Israel in Gaza. There are only 70,000 Palestinians left in northern Gaza, compared to more than 350,000 before October 7 last year. Last Wednesday, new evacuation orders were issued in the town of Beit Lahiya, forcing thousands of Palestinians to flee. Many of them were already refugees having fled previous evacuation orders.
Refugees arriving in Gaza City say the army forced them to flee through a checkpoint where hundreds of men were detained for questioning, their families forced to leave them behind. “We were forced to leave, leaving our men behind, subject to interrogation by the Israeli army,” says Amna Hussein, a refugee who had to leave the Abu Tammam school, where she and her family were sheltered. She explains that drones equipped with loudspeakers ordered them to leave the premises, creating panic among the refugees, while the building was besieged by Israeli soldiers and bombings targeted the surrounding area daily.
In an Al Jazeera report, a woman is seen walking with a group of people fleeing one of the last shelters in northern Gaza. “The whole world is watching us,” says Eman Abu Amsha, carrying a child in her arms. “Keep watching us get slaughtered. What we are experiencing cannot be described in words.” According to her, the soldiers killed or arrested every man they saw. “I am 62 years old. I have been walking for hours and carrying my granddaughter. Destruction, killing, fear and famine, what else is left? And the whole world watches in silence. »
In a post on must now sleep in the streets, in the cold and in the rain. They endure disastrous humanitarian conditions, completely deprived of the basic necessities of life.”
…To the south
Israeli attacks, which are particularly deadly in the north of the enclave, nevertheless concern the entire Gaza Strip and areas designated as “safe” are also targeted by the Israeli army.
On Wednesday, December 4, several Israeli bombings targeted buildings and camps housing refugees, killing several dozen civilians. At least 10 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City. 5 others, all children, were murdered in a strike on the Nuseirat refugee camp, in the center of the enclave.
On the same day, two consecutive strikes targeted the Al-Mawasi refugee camp in the south. Several tents caught fire, and the proximity of the tents to each other made the fire very difficult to control. At least 20 Palestinians, including children, were burned to death, and dozens of people were injured. Doctors said the toll could rise as injured people flocking to hospitals suffered severe trauma from the intensity of the explosions, and severe shortages of medicines, supplies and medical personnel were hampering treatment. care.
This camp is located in one of the last “safety zones”, designated as such by the Israeli army which directs the civilians it evacuates there. However, this is not the first time that Al-Mawasi refugees have been targeted and suffered violent attacks. 98% of Gaza's population has been displaced in the past year, and more than a quarter of them have been displaced more than ten times. For Palestinians in Gaza, no area is safe.
“This is genocide. It must stop now.”
Amnesty International yesterday joined a growing number of human rights experts who say Israel is carrying out genocide in Gaza. Calling for “an immediate end to the atrocities committed by Israel,” the NGO published a report of nearly 300 pages demonstrating that Israel committed three of the five acts prohibited by the 1948 Genocide Convention “with the specific intent of destroy the Palestinians in Gaza. These acts include murder, serious physical or mental harm and living conditions deliberately inflicted on Palestinians in Gaza with the aim of bringing about their physical destruction. Month after month, Israel treats Palestinians in Gaza like subhumans unworthy of human rights and dignity, demonstrating its intention to physically destroy them,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International.
The report includes interviews with 212 people, including survivors and witnesses of Israeli airstrikes, victims of displacement and detention, and victims of Israel's paralysis of aid delivery.
This is the first time that Amnesty has reached such a conclusion in the context of an ongoing conflict, and the organization hopes that the seriousness of the situation will be heard. “Our damning findings must serve as a wake-up call to the international community: this is genocide. It must stop now.”
The report's release comes days after former Israeli chief of staff and war minister Moshe Ya'alon sparked controversy in Israel, saying in a local television interview that Israel was engaging in ethnic cleansing in Gaza.
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