Gaza War Day 100: most significant stories from the onslaught so far

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Written by alib

Category: MENA

Published: 14 January 2024

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LONDON - Israel’s war on Gaza has hit another grim milestone - Day 100. The New Arab takes a look at some of the most significant events in Gaza in the past three months.

Sunday marks 100 days since Israel launched its unprecedentedly brutal war on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Almost 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza in that time — that's more than one percent of its entire population.

More than 60,000 people have been injured, and close to the entirety of Gaza's population of 2.3 million have been displaced from their homes. Oxfam said earlier this week that more people are being killed in Gaza per day than we have seen in any "conflict" in the 21st century.

The New Arab takes a look at a few of the significant events relating to Gaza that have taken place in the past 100 days.

Hamas attack on Israel

Hamas's military wing launched an attack of unprecedented scale on Israel on 7 October: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood.

Surreal video from the Al-Qassam Brigades of paragliders taking off from Gaza to float across the border and attack Israel was soon circulating worldwide. Palestinians penned into Gaza for some 16 years poured out of holes bulldozed out of a heavily fortified border into modern-day Israel, or historic Palestine.

Palestinian fighters attacked three sites close to the Gaza-Israel border - the Beeri and Kfar Azza kibbutzes, and the Nova music festival.

Estimates for the number of Israeli and foreigners killed in the attack have fluctuated, but they currently sit at around 1,100 people. More than 200 others were taken by the fighters back to Gaza as hostages.

Growing evidence has also emerged that Israel may have killed a number of its own people on October 7, including by helicopter missile fire and tank shells shot into homes where Palestinian fighters were holed up with hostages. This includes the testimonies of Israeli soldiers who served and commanded on the day, as well as those of survivors.

Israelis and others were left astounded as to how these fighters could commit so deadly an attack, and penetrate such a heavily surveilled and fortified border.

It would later emerge that Israeli military and intelligence had committed many security failings. Netanyahu had reportedly been warned on a few occasions that Hamas or other groups could soon commit a large-scale attack on Israel, but these warnings were ignored.

While war on Palestinians has proven popular among Israelis, their military's failure to bring home the hostages in Gaza has been a major political thorn in the side of a Netanyahu government, already unpopular for its handling of domestic issues prior to 7 October, including a judicial overhaul.

'Beheaded babies'

Israel responded to the 7 October attack quickly and intensively, renewing its bombing Gaza City and the rest of northern Gaza.

Soon after the attack on Kfar Azza, the Israeli military paraded foreign press around the site, while preventing foreign media workers from reporting from Gaza.

Without proof, an Israeli military officer told journalists that Hamas had beheaded 40 babies during the attack - a claim parroted by reporters from some of the world's biggest news organisations without verification.

Some journalists disputed the claim, and Hamas denied it; some journalists apologised for or retracted their reports, saying that they should not have been published or aired without verification.

This did not stop US President Joe Biden from claiming that he personally had seen photos of beheaded babies, proof of "terrorists beheading children".

The claim has widely been dismissed, but the damage had already been done in the minds of publics worldwide who were relying on prestigious news outlets to explain to what has happening in Israel and in Gaza to them.

It was an early example of how Israel would use disinformation and misinformation to inflate the level of violence Hamas's attack and detract from its own war crimes in Gaza.

Al-Ahli "Baptist" Hospital strike

Just ten days into the war, we saw horrifying loss at a hospital in Gaza City.

Almost 500 people were killed in a strike on the Al-Ahli "Baptist" Hospital on 17 October.

Thousands had been taking shelter at the hospital after losing their homes in Israeli bombardment. Others were at the hospital being treated for injuries they had suffered in the strikes. Bombing a is hospital considered a war crime under international law.

sraeli deflection tactics struck once again. Israel claimed Palestinian militants had misfired and accidentally fired at the hospital. They released audio and video clips of highly questionable authenticity that they said backed up their claim.

Again, Israel's allies including Biden, said that they believed Israel's claims about the hospital strike.

Once the army invaded the hospital, no evidence of a Hamas command and control centre was presented, nor were any captives or fighters found.

Again, Israel got away with a brutal act with impunity, and has since struck other hospitals, refugee camps, places of worship, and schools.

Temporary ceasefire

Israel was relentless in its strikes, forcing much of the population south. People were not even able to evacuate when ordered to do so by Israel.

Aid was only being allowed in in trickles, and the constant airstrikes meant that the little aid that was getting in was not getting where it was most needed.

Meanwhile, Israelis were growing increasingly frustrated about the hostages still trapped in Gaza.

Outraged people worldwide were calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire to bring an end to the seemingly endless suffering we were seeing, but Western politicians opposed this.

Finally, after six weeks of the onslaught some kind of respite came in the form of a four-day truce between Israel and Hamas that had been meditated by Qatar.

As part of the truce, Hamas was to release some of the hostages in exchange for Israel releasing Palestinians held in its prisons.

More than 100 hostages were released, and over 300 Palestinian prisoners.

The truce was extended for a few days, and there was hope that a more permanent deal could be reached, but this was quickly snuffed out. By 1 December, Israel was back to pounding Gaza.

South Africa files at the ICJ

As Israel returned to bombing Gaza with new fervour, Palestinians were left with the feeling that they had been abandoned by the rest of the world.

Israel has been committing field executions, stealing bodies from mass graves, sniping at churchgoers, and torturing journalists in their captivity, to name but a few crimes.

South Africa has had a long history of solidarity with Palestine, and that's been the case since Israel launched its war too. It pulled its diplomatic staff from Israel, and there have been huge protests in South African cities urging not only for an immediate ceasefire, but a free Palestine.

South Africa pulled its most emphatic move while most of the rest of the world embraced its usual end-of-year lethargy. On 29 December, they announced that they had filed a case with the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing Israel of committing genocide against the Palestinian people, particularly in Gaza.

There were emotional scenes from the West Bank, where Palestinians convened at a statue of late South African freedom fighter and formmer president Nelson Mandela on the eve of the case.

Not much new was said in South Africa's hearing, but that it was being heard at a world court and with a global audience was deeply moving to many, and felt like an inching towards justice.

Israel has of course denied that it is committing genocide, saying that it is trying to eradicate not a people, but a particular organisation that has genocidal intent against Israelis.

An ICJ ruling that Israel is indeed committing genocide is symbolic, and Israel could also ignore any ruling the ICJ makes against it, including one for an immediate ceasefire.

But that South Africa brought the case to an international court shows that not all are willing to sit and watch a genocide happen, and a reminder to Palestinians, especially those in Gaza, that they are not alone.

Even so, Israel is continuing to strike Gaza and kill its inhabitants, and it is still unclear what awaits the millions of people crammed into ever-shrinking "safe areas".

Could they be expelled from Palestine altogether? Will they be killed by strikes, or starve in an increasingly acute humanitarian crisis? Or will the world's most powerful finally act to stop Israel and its onslaught?

Hearings began at The Hague in case claiming Israel’s Gaza war is genocide

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Written by alib

Category: MENA

Published: 11 January 2024

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THE HAGUE - A legal hearing into the war in Gaza opens in The Hague on Thursday as the international court of justice (ICJ) hears arguments alleging that Israel is committing genocide in the territory.

South Africa, which has brought the case, is asking the UN court to act urgently “to protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the genocide convention, which continues to be violated with impunity”.

It comes as the assault on Gaza – launched in response to the 7 October attacks on Israel by Hamas in which militants killed 1,200 people, mainly civilians, and took 240 people hostage – continues to wreak a devastating toll.

Since the 7 October attacks, Israel has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Gaza’s health ministry, about 70% of whom are believed to be women or children. The UN’s Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, has estimated that 1.9 million people have been internally displaced by the war in Gaza – nearly 85% of the population – while tens of thousands of buildings have been destroyed.

In its 84-page written application to the ICJ to open proceedings, South Africa said: “The acts and omissions by Israel complained of by South Africa are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.”

Genocide cases, which are notoriously hard to prove, can take years to resolve, but South Africa is asking the court to speedily implement “provisional measures” and “order Israel to cease killing and causing serious mental and bodily harm to Palestinian people in Gaza”. The filing also says Israel should cease deliberately inflicting conditions calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinians as a group, be ordered to prevent and punish incitement to genocide, and halt restrictions on aid as well as evacuation directives.

Israel reacted furiously when the application was made, calling it “baseless” and a “blood libel”. It says it is acting in self-defence, to protect Israelis by destroying Hamas. The country’s biggest supporter, the US, has dismissed the case as “meritless”.

Ahead of the case, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted a video clip saying Israel was fighting Hamas, not the Palestinian population, and was acting in full compliance with international law. “Israel has no intention of permanently occupying Gaza or displacing its civilian population,” he said.

Outside the court, both sides will also attempt to win the battle of public opinion. Israel is holding a series of events in The Hague, including a peace march on Thursday morning as South Africa prepares to state its case, exhibitions about the Israeli hostages still held by Hamas, and interviews with the relatives of hostages.

South Africa said on Wednesday that its delegation will include the former UK Labour party leader Jeremy Corbyn, who is a longtime supporter of the Palestinian cause but whose time as opposition leader was marred by antisemitism allegations.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has a long history of comparing Israel’s treatment of Palestinians with that of black South Africans under apartheid.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, which has 57 member states, has welcomed South Africa bringing the case, while individual countries have also expressed support. Belgium’s deputy prime minister, Petra De Sutter, tweeted that she wanted her country “to take action at the International Court of Justice, following the lead of South Africa”.

Both sides’ legal teams will have the same time to make their case – approximately three hours – with South Africa going first on Thursday and then Israel responding on Friday. Judgment will be reserved until a later date, but could come within weeks.

The genocide convention, drawn up in 1948 after the second world war and the murder of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, describes the crime as “acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole, or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group”. The acts include killing members of the group or causing them serious bodily or mental harm,

The Hague cannot enforce its decisions and it is possible that Israel could ignore an adverse judgment, but that would only fuel further international condemnation of its military campaign.

Israeli strike kills an elite Hezbollah commander

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Written by alib

Category: MENA

Published: 08 January 2024

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BEIRUT - An Israeli airstrike killed an elite Hezbollah commander in southern Lebanon on Monday, the latest in an escalating exchange of strikes along the border that have raised fears of another Mideast war even as the fighting in Gaza exacts a mounting toll on civilians.

The strike on an SUV killed a commander in a secretive Hezbollah force that operates along the border, according to a Lebanese security official, who spoke on condition of anonymity according to regulations. Hezbollah identified the slain fighter as Wissam al-Tawil without providing details.

He is the most senior militant in the armed group to have been killed since Hamas' Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel triggered all-out war in Gaza and lower-intensity fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, which has escalated since an Israeli strike killed a senior Hamas leader in Beirut last week.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is back in the region this week, appears to be trying to head off a wider conflict.

Israel says it has largely wrapped up major operations in northern Gaza and is now focusing on the central region and the southern city of Khan Younis. Israeli officials have said the fighting will continue for many more months as the army seeks to dismantle Hamas and return scores of hostages taken during the militant group's Oct. 7 attack that triggered the war.

The offensive has already killed over 23,000 Palestinians, civilians and combatants, devastated vast swaths of the Gaza Strip, displaced nearly 85% of its population of 2.3 million and left a quarter of its residents facing starvation.

'SICKENING SCENES' IN GAZA'S OVERWHELMED HOSPITALS

Medics, patients and displaced people fled from the main hospital in central Gaza as the fighting drew closer, witnesses said Monday. Losing the facility would be another major blow to a health system shattered by three months of war.

Doctors Without Borders and other aid groups withdrew from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah in recent days, saying it was too dangerous. That spread panic among people sheltering there, causing many to join the hundreds of thousands who have fled to the south of the besieged territory.

Tens of thousands of people have sought shelter in Gaza's hospitals, which are also struggling to treat dozens of people wounded each day in Israeli strikes. Only 13 of Gaza's 36 hospitals are even partially functioning, according to the U.N. humanitarian office.

Omar al-Darawi, an employee at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, said the facility has been struck multiple times in recent days. He said thousands of people left after the aid groups pulled out, and that patients have been concentrated on one floor so the remaining doctors can tend to them more easily.

“We have large numbers of wounded who can’t move” he said. “They need special care, which is unavailable.”

More dead and wounded arrive each day as Israeli forces advance in central Gaza following heavy airstrikes. Gaza’s Health Ministry said Monday that 249 Palestinians have been killed and 510 others were wounded across the territory in the last 24 hours.

World Health Organization staff who visited Sunday saw “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the U.N. agency, said in a statement. “The bloodbath in Gaza must end.”

DIRE CONDITIONS IN THE ISOLATED NORTH

The situation is even more dire in northern Gaza, which Israeli forces cut off from the rest of the territory in late October.

Entire neighbourhoods have been demolished, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled, while those who remain face severe shortages of food and water. The WHO said late Sunday it has not been able to deliver supplies to northern Gaza in 12 days.

Even there, Israel is still battling what it describes as pockets of militants.

An airstrike early Sunday flattened a four-story home filled with displaced people in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp, killing at least 70, including women and children, according to Mahmoud Bassal, a spokesman for Gaza's civil defense. There was no immediate confirmation from the Health Ministry, which has struggled to maintain its operations in the north.

Search efforts were still underway on Monday. The civil defense circulated a graphic video showing the aftermath of attack, with several bodies scattered among the rubble.

Jabaliya, which was built for Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation and is now a dense, built-up neighborhood, has seen weeks of heavy fighting.

More than 23,000 Palestinians have been killed, and more than 58,000 wounded, since the war began, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-run Gaza. The death toll does not distinguish between combatants and civilians. Health officials say about two-thirds of those killed have been women and minors.

Israel blames Hamas for civilian casualties because the group operates in heavily populated residential areas, but the military rarely comments on individual strikes. The military says it has killed some 8,000 militants, without providing evidence, and that 176 of its own soldiers have been killed in the offensive.

SEEKING TO HEAD OFF A WIDER WAR

Blinken, who met with the leaders of Jordan and Qatar on Sunday, once again spoke of the need for Israel to adjust its military operations to minimize harm to civilians and allow more aid into the territory.

But his main focus appeared to be preventing the war from spreading.

A Hezbollah rocket barrage hit a sensitive air traffic base in northern Israel on Saturday in one of the biggest attacks in three months of low-intensity fighting along the border. The militant group said was an “initial response” to the killing of Hamas' deputy political leader Saleh Arouri in Beirut last week.

Israel has mostly sought to limit the fighting in its north, but its leaders say their patience is wearing thin, and that if the tensions cannot be resolved through diplomacy, they are prepared to go to war. They have expressed particular concern about the Radwan Force, the elite Hezbollah unit in which al-Tawil was a commander, which operates along the border.

Hezbollah began firing rockets shortly after Hamas' Oct. 7 attack ignited the war. Hamas and other militants killed about 1,200 people in southern Israel that day, mostly civilians, and took some 250 people hostage, over 100 of whom were released during a cease-fire in November.

Hezbollah has said its attacks, which have driven tens of thousands of Israelis from their homes, aim to ease pressure on Gaza. But the group appears wary of risking an all-out war that would bring massive destruction to Lebanon.