Israel launches 2nd stage of Gaza occupation plan

 

from Daily Sabah

Israel’s top general, Eyal Zamir, said Wednesday the army has entered the second phase of its operation to occupy Gaza, which is expected to displace the blockaded Palestinian enclave's population, amid growing international outrage.

"We have entered the second phase of Operation ‘Gideon’s Chariots’ to fulfill the objectives of the war. Returning our hostages is both a moral and national mission,” Zamir told army troops in the field.

The move came days after the Israeli army declared Gaza City a "dangerous combat zone” on Friday.

On Aug. 8, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved a plan by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to gradually reoccupy the Gaza Strip, beginning with Gaza City.

A senior Israeli military official said on 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 two million 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...

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40 killed in new Israeli strikes as Gaza aid lines turn into frontlines

from Daily Sabah

Israeli strikes and gunfire killed at least 40 Palestinians across the Gaza Strip on Monday, including 10 civilians who were shot while trying to collect humanitarian aid, Gaza’s Health Ministry reported, as deaths from starvation and disease also surged in the war-ravaged enclave.

The bloodshed unfolded amid chaotic food distributions in central and southern Gaza, where the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) operates several aid centers.

Medics said the victims were gunned down in two separate incidents near GHF sites – one in the Netzarim Corridor and the other in Rafah.

“No one comes back safe”

Near the morgue at Gaza City’s Al Shifa Hospital, 40-year-old Bilal Thari waited with dozens of others to collect bodies wrapped in thick household blankets – a grim substitute for the traditional white burial shrouds that have grown scarce.

“Everyone who goes to the aid sites comes back either with a bag of flour or as a martyr,” he told reporters. “No one comes back safe.”...

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Israel declares 'tactical pause' in 3 Gaza areas amid mass hunger

from Daily Sabah

The Israeli military on Sunday began a daily 10-hour "tactical pause" in fighting across three densely populated areas of Gaza, aiming to ease access for humanitarian aid amid growing international criticism and escalating concerns over widespread hunger during the 21-month war.

The military said it would begin the pause in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah and Muwasi, three areas of the territory with large populations, to "increase the scale of humanitarian aid" entering the territory. The pause begins every day at 10 a.m. and lasts until 8 p.m. local time, effective Sunday.

The military also said that it would establish secure routes for aid delivery and that it carried out aid airdrops into Gaza, which included packages of aid with flour, sugar and canned food.

Food experts have warned for months of the risk of famine in Gaza, where Israel has restricted aid, alleging Hamas siphons off goods to help bolster its rule, without providing evidence for that claim...

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'You'll get hell': How Israeli officials justify using starvation as weapon of war in Gaza

from PressTV

Lana no longer plays with her brother. The rosy-complexioned child who once ran barefoot across the courtyard now sits slumped against a cement wall, her yellowed skin barely concealing the skeleton underneath.

“She can’t walk. She can’t stand for long,” wrote Alaa Arafat, the aunt of little Lana. “All she wants is to sleep and sit. I can’t believe what has become of her.”

Lana is one of Gaza’s million children, over half the besieged territory's population, enduring the slow and systematic agony of the Israeli regime’s starvation campaign.

For months now, the war-ravaged coastal strip has been at the epicenter of what experts describe as a textbook case of genocidal assault—one that uses hunger itself as a calculated instrument of war.

The Health Ministry in Gaza reported that 101 Palestinians, including 80 children, have already died from starvation and dehydration since the genocidal war began.

In the last week alone, dozens more hunger-related deaths were reported across the territory with haunting images shared on social media platforms...

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Over 100 aid groups warn of ‘mass starvation’ across Gaza, demand sanctions on Israel

from PressTV

More than 100 humanitarian organizations and human rights groups have warned that “mass starvation is spreading” across the Gaza Strip, as the Tel Aviv regime is implementing a strategy of genocide by hunger in the besieged coastal territory.

A declaration endorsed by 111 signatories, among them Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Save the Children, and Oxfam, cautioned on Wednesday that “our colleagues and those we serve are wasting away.”

The organizations have urged for an immediate negotiated ceasefire, the opening of all land crossings, and the unrestricted flow of aid through mechanisms led by the United Nations.

In their statement, the humanitarian organizations indicated that warehouses filled with tons of supplies remained untouched just outside the territory, and even within it, as they were obstructed from delivering the goods.

“Palestinians are trapped in a cycle of hope and heartbreak, waiting for assistance and ceasefires, only to wake up to worsening conditions,” the signatories said.

“It is not just physical torment, but psychological. Survival is dangled like a mirage,” they added.

“The humanitarian system cannot run on false promises. Humanitarians cannot operate on shifting timelines or wait for political commitments that fail to deliver access.”...

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Israeli attacks kill 26 Palestinians near aid centers in Gaza

from Daily Sabah

Israeli attacks killed at least 26 people and wounded more than 100 near two aid centers in the southern Gaza Strip, the enclave’s civil defense agency said Saturday.

Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that the Palestinians had gathered near an aid distribution center affiliated with an American-Israeli company in search of food, as humanitarian conditions in Gaza continue to deteriorate.

The Israeli army fired a volley of live ammunition at the crowd, resulting in a high number of casualties, the agency said...

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This is how the U.S.-run GHF tried to build a local network of ‘aid collaborators’ in Gaza

from Mondoweiss

The Israel-backed and U.S.-run Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) has been weathering one public relations disaster after another as new information continues to expose the organization’s complicity in Israel’s plans to “concentrate” Gaza’s population in camps ahead of their forcible displacement — in keeping with Israel’s stated military goals of conquering the Strip and expelling its people. In service of these goals, the GHF has replaced the UN’s aid distribution system with what Gazans describe as “death traps,” leading Palestinians to accuse the organization of fulfilling Israeli military objectives under the guise of humanitarianism. 

In order to bolster this facade, the GHF has been actively attempting to pressure international humanitarian organizations into cooperating with the GHF and participating in its operations. The GHF has also actively attempted to form a local network of distributors run by companies known to have collaborated with the Israeli army in the past.

Speaking with several individuals and organizations approached by the Israeli army and the GHF’s local agents, Mondoweiss investigations reveal that Israel and the GHF are attempting to coerce local and international actors into cooperating with the U.S.-Israeli aid scheme. In some cases, the GHF has tasked local companies with outreach to the population to advertise its centers and handle distribution and logistics...

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Israeli forces bomb Palestinians at Gaza’s water distribution point

from al Jazeera

Gaza’s Civil Defence agency says Israeli air strikes have killed at least 70 Palestinians today, including 10 near a water distribution point.

Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza killed 110 Palestinians across the Strip yesterday, including 34 people waiting for food at the US-backed GHF site in Rafah.

The family of Sayfollah Musallet, an American-Palestinian who was beaten to death by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, is calling on the United States to launch an inquiry and hold the perpetrators accountable.

 

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Massacre in Deir al-Balah: ‘Israel’ kills women, children in aid queue

from al Mayadeen English

A brutal massacre unfolded in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, after Israeli occupation forces targeted a crowd of starved Palestinians waiting for humanitarian aid. According to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, the devastating airstrike killed 16 civilians, including 10 children, as desperate parents stood in line to receive nutritional supplements for their little ones.

The Israeli attack reportedly struck near the al-Bashir laundry, in the vicinity of the al-Zuwari junction, where mothers and children had gathered in hopes of securing basic sustenance. Eyewitnesses described a chilling scene: lifeless bodies strewn across the street, many of them young children, an atrocity captured in graphic footage widely circulated by local media...

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US contractors confirm; Gazans are being targeted at aid sites: AP

from al Mayadeen English

American contractors guarding food distribution sites in Gaza have been accused of using live ammunition and stun grenades on Palestinians seeking aid, according to testimonies and videos obtained by The Associated Press.

Two US contractors, speaking anonymously due to the sensitivity of the matter, revealed on Thursday that security personnel hired by the US-led Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) were often unqualified, heavily armed, and operated with little oversight. The accounts confirm that these contractors regularly deployed stun grenades, pepper spray, and, at times, live rounds to "manage crowds".

As a testament to their claims, videos from the sites show hundreds of Palestinians jostling for food amid gunfire, stun grenades, and pepper spray. One contractor recounted a moment when he believed a Palestinian was hit by a bullet, saying: "There are innocent people being hurt. Badly. Needlessly."...

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Israel kills more than 300 in Gaza in 48 hours as focus intensifies on GHF

from al Jazeera

More than 300 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the last 48 hours, according to the Gaza Government Media Office, which says Israel has “committed 26 bloody massacres” in that period.

At least 118 Palestinians were killed and 581 others injured in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, the enclave’s Health Ministry said on Thursday. At least 73 of those were killed since dawn, including 33 aid seekers at the controversial Israeli and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid sites...

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Haaretz report exposes deliberate Israeli policy of massacring aid-seekers in Gaza

(In spite of Netanyahu's unhinged accusations of this all being a 'blood libel' unleashed by the leader paper in Israel, Haaretz, today, this morning, senior military leaders admitted the 'uncalculated' fire at starving Gazans.)

from WSWS

Over the past month, Israeli forces have opened fire almost every day at aid seekers collecting food from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the US/Israeli-backed food distribution organization. More than 549 people have been killed and over 4,000 wounded so far, during nineteen separate incidents. 

From the start, it was clear that the level of daily mass killing was the result of a deliberate policy of shooting live small arms ammunition, tank rounds and mortars into crowds of aid-seekers, with the aim of turning the food distribution points into killing fields as part of the ongoing genocide.

On Friday, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz published an in-depth report substantiating the existence of orders instructing Israeli soldiers to fire into the crowds. Internally, the massacres are officially justified as a form of crowd control, with soldiers moving groups of unarmed people from one place to another by shooting at them.

One soldier interviewed by Haaretz said that the oversight of the food distribution by the Israeli forces was referred to as “Operation Salted Fish,” a reference to the Israeli version of the children’s game “Red light, green light.” By all appearances, this name is based on the Korean television series Squid Game. In the fictional series, contestants are forced to play the children’s game “red light, green light,” with those who move before the “green light” being shot with live bullets...

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Israel's leaders slam a news report on a Gaza 'killing field' near food sites

from NPR

A newspaper report published in Hebrew and English quoting Israeli soldiers saying commanders have ordered them to shoot at unarmed hungry crowds of people in Gaza trying to reach food distribution sites prompted a scathing response by Israel's prime minister on Friday. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz issued a joint statement calling the Haaretz report "blood libel."

"These are malicious falsehoods designed to defame the IDF [Israel Defense Forces], the most moral military in the world," they added.

Gaza's Health Ministry says more than 500 people have been killed and more than 4,000 wounded by Israeli forces while seeking food aid in the past month.

The Haaretz report quotes multiple anonymous Israeli soldiers describing what they say are the military's attacks on people trying to get food aid in Gaza since May 27. The soldiers say they were ordered by commanders to fire at unarmed civilians who were approaching food distribution sites during off hours, even when the crowds posed no threat...

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'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid

from Haaretz

IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes ■ Netanyahu, Katz reject claims, call them 'blood libels' 

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Israel kills nearly 600 Palestinians at aid centres: All you need to know

from al Jazeera

Since May 27, at least 583 Palestinians have been killed and 4,186 injured while waiting for food at aid distribution sites operated by the Israeli- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), according to the Gaza Strip’s Ministry of Health.

The killings have occurred daily as famine looms over the besieged enclave. International organisations have warned for weeks that Gaza’s 2.1 million residents face catastrophic food shortages with markets emptied, clean water scarce, and aid deliveries sporadic and dangerous...

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Israel bombards Gaza City after ordering Palestinians to flee

from al Jazeera

• Israel has launched dozens of air strikes across Gaza with northern Gaza City in its crosshairs after the military issued forced evacuation threats, raising fears of an intensified ground assault.
• Israeli forces killed at least 48 Palestinians in Gaza since dawn with dozens wounded including in an attack on Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir el-Balah.
• Egypt’s foreign minister says his country is working on a new Gaza deal that includes a 60-day ceasefire in exchange for the release of some Israeli captives.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,500 people and wounded 133,419, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 taken captive.

 

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Targeting Gazan carrying flour ‘heinous crime by fascist Israeli army’, says Hamas

from PressTV

The Palestinian Hamas resistance movement has vehemently denounced the Israeli military’s targeting of an ordinary citizen carrying a sack of flour on his back in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood of Gaza City as a “sadistic and brutal act.”

“These scenes document a moment from a heinous crime committed daily by the fascist occupation army, which targets starving people searching for food, amid a suffocating blockade and systematic starvation imposed by the war criminal Netanyahu’s government for nearly four months,” the Gaza-based group said in a statement released on Sunday.

The movement highlighted that the footage of the drone strike aired by the Al Jazeera television news channel exposed “a sadistic and brutal act by a criminal army stripped of all ethics or humanity, with no regard for values or laws.”

It went on to state that Israeli occupation forces have consistently taken the lives of innocent Palestinian children, women, and the elderly ever since the Zionist entity was created on May 14, 1948, and the troops have perpetrated the most egregious violations of human rights.

Hamas emphasized that the ongoing and unparalleled atrocities, which involve the systematic targeting of starving civilians and the relentless massacres against civilians across the Gaza Strip, necessitate that the international community, its institutions, and the collective human conscience take decisive action to halt these actions and bring the fascist offenders to justice in international courts...

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Israel’s Military Appears Poised to Expand Into Gaza City Amid Cease-Fire Calls

from the NYT

The Israeli military issued broad evacuation orders on Sunday for neighborhoods of Gaza City, amid growing calls for a cease-fire deal from President Trump.

The notifications for people to leave parts of Gaza City, where Israeli troops have refrained from operating for months, as well as other areas in northern Gaza, came as the Israeli military warned that it would intensify operations that would expand west toward the city center. Residents were instructed to move south.

It was not clear if the military’s evacuation orders heralded a new phase in its offensive, a return to areas that were partly destroyed in previous rounds of fighting, or if they could be a pressure tactic to try to get Hamas to concede to Israel’s terms for ending the war.

Attention in Israel and Washington has refocused on Gaza since Israel’s 12-day war with Iran ended on Tuesday. The military campaign in Gaza — which was ignited by the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel — has lasted more than 630 days and is one of Israel’s most protracted and deadliest wars.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing increasing pressure at home to end the conflict by agreeing to a cease-fire deal that would see Hamas release the hostages still being held in the enclave. Those hostages include up to 20 people who were taken captive in the October 2023 attack and are believed to still be alive, along with the remains of about 30 others.

Mr. Trump on Sunday publicly pressed for a deal. “MAKE THE DEAL IN GAZA. GET THE HOSTAGES BACK!!! DJT,” he wrote on social media, hours after arguing that Mr. Netanyahu’s long-running corruption trial be canceled since it would interfere with “the process of negotiating a deal with Hamas.”...

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Israel’s attacks on Gaza kill 47, including children and aid seekers

from al Jazeera

• Israeli attacks across Gaza today have killed at least 47 people, including several aid seekers and children, according to medical sources.
• Israel’s attack on Evin Prison in Iran’s capital killed at least 71 people last week, Iranian judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir says, with the dead including family members of detainees.
• At least 66 children have died of malnutrition in Gaza over the course of Israel’s war, authorities in the territory say.
• Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 56,500 people and wounded 133,419, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7 attacks, and more than 200 taken captive.

 

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Israel kills at least 70 Palestinians in Gaza’s deadliest day at aid sites

from al Jazeera

Israeli troops have killed at least 70 Palestinians and wounded hundreds as they sought aid in Gaza on Tuesday, firing at them with tank shells, machine guns and drones. Those casualties are among the 89 Palestinians killed in attacks across the besieged enclave since dawn.

Israeli soldiers fired at the desperate crowds of aid seekers on Tuesday morning as they gathered along the main eastern road in the southern city of Khan Younis. It was the latest in a sustained wave of carnage since the Israel- and United States-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched operations to distribute food in the territory three weeks ago...

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