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July wk3 P3 -- July wk3 P2 --  July wk3 -- July wk2 P3 -- July wk2 P2 -- July wk2 -- July wk1 P3 --   Click here for an overview by week in 2024
 

Special reports: TRIBUTES TO MOTHERS AND CHILDREN July 12, 2024 Noor Alyacoubi - "I'm fighting to keep my baby alive" and other stories Mothers and children: Boom-And again Boom

Special report: July 12, 2024: Scorched Hospitals - Schools -  Housing - Bodies -- fake or fact?

July 17 - 15, 2024 "Gaza's impossible living conditions: 'If we don't die under the bombs, we'll die a slow death'" Food for thought: The question is what the non-Palestinian people incl. politicians and sorts will do to ease their conscience? Gino d'Artali all actual news below but most with a 'give way or go away' yell!

July 15 - 13, 2024 Preface note by Gino d'Artalli: The genocide continues and there are only two words that can and in the end will stop it: STOP and FREEDOM Read all the actual news below and a 'give way or go away' yell!

July 13 - 11, 2024 "'critical lifeline'... ...Gaza 'is absolutely atrocious'... ...'safe zone' kills more than 70... ...Dozens of bodies recovered from rubble... ...Beatings, deprivation, torture, rape... ...Gazans mourn their loved ones killed... ...Death and rubble fill streets... ...and more news called 'genocide'   Click here to go throughout July and earler, 2024

June 14, 2024 Palestinian-Jordanian journalist Hiba Abu Taha sentenced to one year in prison

Related news: July 11, 2024: Media organizations demand access to Gaza July 2 2024: Arrests of Palestinian journalists since start of Israel-Gaza war   Click here for earlier stories/news

May 23, 2024 In commemoration of Roshdi Sarraj and tribute to Shrouq Al Aila

 
When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.

France 25 - July 17, 2024 - By: Marc Perelman
<<Israel keeps pounding Gaza after US criticises high civilian toll
Israel kept up its air strikes on Gaza Wednesday (July 17), despite renewed US criticism of the high civilian toll. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to ramp up the pressure on Hamas as hopes fade for a US-announced ceasefire plan. Jordana Miller, ABC correspondent, tells us more from Jerusalem.>>
Watch the video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240717-israel-keeps-pounding-gaza-after-us-criticises-high-civilian-toll



Jinha - Womens News Agency - July 17, 2024
<<160 journalists killed in Gaza since Oct.7
Another journalist was killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, the number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has risen to 160, the Government Media Office in Gaza said on Tuesday.
News Center- The number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7,2023 has kept rising. Mohammad Meshmesh, programmes director at Al-Aqsa Voice Radio, was killed in an Israeli attack, the Government Media Office in Gaza said in a statement on Tuesday. The number of journalists killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023 has risen to 160, the media office added. Mohammad Meshmesh was killed in Israeli attacks on the al-Razi school run by the United Nation in the central Nuseirat refugee camp on Tuesday.>>
Source:
https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/160-journalists-killed-in-gaza-since-oct-7-35388

France 25 - July 16, 2024 - By: Marc Perelman
<<War in Gaza 'one of the most critical cases of genocide', UN rapporteur tells FRANCE 24
Francesca Albanese, United Nations special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, told FRANCE 24 that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians in its war against Hamas. <The risk of genocidal violence expanding to the West Bank and East Jerusalem is there and it's in plain view,> said Albanese. <Genocidal pronouncements have been made against the Palestinians in the West Bank.>
As the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories, Albanese issued a report in late March to the UN Human Rights Council in which she stated that there were clear indications that Israel had violated three of the five acts listed under the UN Genocide Convention in its war on Gaza. <This is one of the most critical cases of genocide, a tragedy foretold, because of the intent to eliminate the Palestinians with all means available - be it transferring them or neutralising them or segregating them ... The situation today in Gaza cannot be analysed or qualified otherwise than as a genocide. I have not seen a genocide where the intent was so ostentatious and vindicated over and over,> Albanese told FRANCE 24. Israel has deliberately distorted the basic tenets of international law, such as the distinction between civilians and combatants, the principle of proportionality and the principles of precaution, she said. <Israel has declared safe zones through and through ... and Palestinians are bombed and killed and maimed in areas that are declared as protected areas, as areas of no hostility.> She rejected accusations by Israel, the US, France and Germany that she was biased and had not been clear enough in her condemnations of Hamas's actions in the October 7 attacks on Israel.
She stressed that she <never denied or downplayed crimes or justified the crimes that Hamas or other armed groups have committed on the 7th of October, rather the contrary>. <What I said is that history doesn't start on October 7 and Western governments have conveniently turned a blind eye to the horrible situation the Palestinians have been enduring under Israeli rule. How many October 7ths have the Palestinians endured?> Asked whether Hamas was currently committing crimes in Gaza, Albanese said, <Absolutely. No question about it ... but the question is the response to October 7 should have been justice.> >>
Source incl. video here:
https://www.france24.com/en/tv-shows/t%C3%AAte-%C3%A0-t%C3%AAte/20240716-war-gaza-one-of-most-critical-cases-genocide-un-rapporteur-tells-france-24-interview

Al Jazeera - July 16, 2024 - By Taj Hussain and Laurent A Lambert
<<Israeli courts cannot and will not prosecute Israel's war crimes
The Israeli judiciary's dismal track record on torture and collective punishment of Palestinians proves as much. For over nine months now, the United States and other close allies of Israel have repeatedly defended the conduct of the Israeli army in Gaza and the West Bank. They have rejected or ignored accusations of genocide, torture, collective punishment and other war crimes and crimes against humanity, despite numerous reports by UN experts and human rights organisations detailing various atrocities. In defending the Israeli army, Israeli allies often refer to the opportunity to seek justice for crimes in Israeli courts. In its response to International Criminal Court’s Prosecutor Karim Khan seeking arrest warrants for Israeli officials, the US State Department, for example, has claimed that the prosecutor did not defer to a national investigation first. The Israeli government has also made the same argument. Israel's legislative and judicial authorities do recognise international law and conventions. However, through legal exceptions, they also create spaces for the total disregard of international law by Israeli officials and security and military forces. This erodes the prohibitions from international law on matters of grave importance. Two examples of crimes that illustrate this legal contradiction between Israeli jurisprudence and international law are torture and collective punishment. Torture is unequivocally illegal under international humanitarian law and international human rights law. This prohibition derives from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Geneva Conventions and its Additional Protocols, the Convention against Torture, etc. Based on paragraph 277 of the 1977 Israeli Penal Code and the 1991 Israeli ratification of the Convention Against Torture, the Israeli legal system recognises torture as illegal. But in reality, the practice of torture has been extensively documented by Israeli NGOs and Israeli media, and it remains without any legal repercussions. In the past nine months, this illegal practice has even intensified, according to human rights activists. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) has documented that between 2001 and 2022, more than 1,400 claims of torture by Israeli authorities were made, but only two were investigated and none resulted in indictments.
That is because agents of the Shin Bet (internal security services) and Israeli soldiers are protected by a legal loophole which allows for <necessity> to determine if torture can be used in all so-called <ticking bomb situations>. These scenarios are loosely defined and justify the use of torture to extract information from a suspect that can supposedly help avert imminent danger to life and national security. Despite how open to interpretation a <ticking bomb situation> can be, this exception was upheld by two rulings by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999 and then again in 2018. The loophole has actually been recognised as problematic by the Israeli authorities who have promised to create an explicit law against torture, but nothing has materialised. PCATI even referred 17 of its cases to the ICC in 2022 as it realised that any justice for torture victims would be impossible in Israeli courts. This is because most cases are rapidly dismissed on the grounds that, supposedly, <there is no evidential basis supporting the interrogatees version>. The matter of collective punishment shows a similar pattern. Collective punishment is the infliction of penalties on multiple civilians based on the acts of one or several individuals. Its international prohibition dates back to the Hague Convention in 1899, reaffirmed by the Geneva Convention and has become customary international law. The Israeli judiciary has repeatedly affirmed its commitment to the ban on collective punishment. Furthermore, section 16 of the Penal Code facilitates prosecutions based on international agreements. However, in practice, the Israeli army regularly exercises collective punishment on a large scale. This includes the demolition of family homes of suspected <terrorists> in the occupied Palestinian territory and the 17-year-long siege on the Gaza Strip. Israeli courts have consistently rejected the claim that these two policies amount to collective punishment. Regulation 119 (1) of the Israeli Emergency Laws allows for the demolition of houses as punishment for committing illegal actions or if there is a suspicion that an illegal action is taking place in that home, even if multiple generations live in it. This is directly contradictory to Article 33 of the Geneva Convention as the policy disregards any non-involved people living in the house and therefore constitutes collective punishment. Nevertheless, in 1986, an Israeli court ruled that demolitions were not collective punishment, based not on the impact of home demolitions (which do affect whole families), but instead based on the odd consideration that it would make Regulation 119 (1) redundant as it would only be applied to <terrorists> who supposedly live alone. More surprisingly, the same court argued that demolitions are a <deterrent> rather than a <punishment>, and that the collective impact (of the punishment) actually enhanced the deterring effect. Judges have also been unwilling to <intervene>, as they are reluctant to infringe on the authority of Israeli field commanders, leaving these decisions entirely to their discretion, in violation of Article 71 of the Geneva Convention. These rulings have effectively closed the door on judicial accountability for this crime. To this day, no Israeli soldier has been prosecuted for the demolition of Palestinian family homes. In the case of the Israeli siege on Gaza - which has been widely recognised as a form of collective punishment - Israel has also sought to dodge international law provisions. Before October 7, Israeli officials and legal pundits argued that the siege was a set of economic sanctions. After October 7, the Israeli government imposed a total blockade, cutting off water, electricity, food and medical supplies. Despite the UN and various human rights organisations pointing out the clear evidence of collective punishment, including starvation, Israeli officials claimed that its forces are allowing enough aid <to prevent a humanitarian crisis>. According to Oxfam, the calorie count in Gaza currently stands at 245 per day, roughly a quarter of the bare minimum needed to avoid starvation. Against this background of internationally prohibited practices, authorised by judicially created legal exceptions that contradict international law, the Israeli legal system has consistently failed to hold the Israeli authorities accountable for violations of international law. In fact, by upholding loopholes, Israel's judiciary has systematically enabled torture and authorised instances of collective punishment. Over the years, Israel has put a lot of effort into covering up the abyssal gap between international standards and Israeli army policies, facilitated by a convoluted system of legal exceptions. Now, the house of cards has come tumbling down.
The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/7/16/israeli-courts-cannot-and-will-not-prosecute-israels-war-crimes

France 25 - July 16, 2024 - Video by: Delano D'SOUZA
<<Israeli strikes across Gaza kill dozens
Israel kept up its bombing of Gaza Tuesday (July 16), after its key military backer the United States renewed criticism of its ally over the high civilian casualty toll of the war. It comes after Israeli air and artillery fire pounded the Gaza Strip again Monday.>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/video/20240716-israeli-strikes-across-gaza-kill-dozens

France 25 - July 16, 2024 - By News Wires - Video by: Delano D'SOUZA
<<Israeli strikes kill more than 50 across the Gaza Strip
Israeli bombardments killed at least 57 people across the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, including almost two dozen people in a strike on a UN-run school housing displaced families, Palestinian health officials have said. Israel's military said in a statement that it had targeted <terrorists> operating inside the school. Israeli forces battled Hamas-led fighters in several parts of the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, and Palestinian health officials said at least 57 people were killed in Israeli bombardments of southern and central areas. The Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas has accused Israel of stepping up attacks in Gaza to try to derail efforts by Arab mediators and the United States to reach a ceasefire deal. Israel says it is trying to root out Hamas fighters. In Rafah, a southern border city where Israeli forces have been operating since May, five Palestinians were killed in an airstrike on a house, Gaza health officials said. In nearby Khan Younis, a man, his wife, and two children were killed, they said. Later on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike on a car killed at least 17 Palestinians and wounded 26 others in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, the officials said. The airstrike hit near a tented area housing displaced families in Attar Street in the humanitarian-designated area of Al-Mawasi, the health ministry said. The Israeli military said the strike targeted a senior militant of the Islamic Jihad group, an ally of Hamas. <We are looking into the reports stating that several civilians were injured as a result of the strike,> the military statement said.
Bodies on donkey carts, rickshaws
Reuters footage showed residents carrying bodies of the dead and wounded on donkey carts and in rickshaws to hospitals. <The car was targeted, the blood was splashing, and shrapnel hit our tents and martyrs were left on the street. We screamed: 'We need an ambulance'. We put (the casualties) on carts and rickshaws and the ambulance came after a while,> said eyewitness Tahrir Matir, who lives in a tent nearby. In the historic Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, at least four Palestinians were killed in separate shelling and aerial strikes in central Gaza, medics said. An Israeli airstrike killed four in Sheikh Zayed in northern Gaza, they said. Hours later, an Israeli air strike on a UN-run school that housed displaced families in the Nuseirat camp killed 23 people and wounded many others, health officials said. Among those killed was local journalist Mohammad Meshmesh, taking the number of journalists killed in the conflict to 160, the Hamas-run Gaza government media office said. The Israeli military said in a statement it attacked a group of <terrorists> who had operated from inside the school, after taking steps to mitigate the risk to civilians. Israel vowed to eradicate Hamas after its militants killed 1,200 people and took over 250 hostage in an attack on southern Israeli communities last Oct. 7, according to Israeli tallies. At least 38,713 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's retaliatory offensive since then, Gaza health authorities said in their latest update on Tuesday. Israel also says 326 of its soldiers have been killed in Gaza. Relatives visited Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza to say farewell to relatives before funerals. <We're exhausted, we're devastated, we are extremely tired, our patience is over,> said elderly Palestinian Sahar Abu Emeira. <Whether Hamas or the others (Israel) they need to agree as soon as possible.>
Talks paused
Efforts to end the conflict stalled on Saturday after three days of negotiations failed to produce a viable outcome, Egyptian security sources said, and after an Israeli strike targeting Hamas' top military chief, Mohammed Deif. The attack killed more than 90 people in the Khan Younis area, according to Gaza health authorities. A Palestinian official close to the negotiations told Reuters Hamas was keen not to be seen as halting the talks despite the stepped-up Israeli attacks. <Hamas wants the war to end, not at any price. It says it has shown the flexibility needed and is pushing the mediators to get Israel to reciprocate,> the official said. He said Hamas believed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was trying to avoid a deal by adding more conditions that restrict the return of displaced people to northern Gaza and to keep control over the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday that two senior advisers to Netanyahu had said Israel was still committed to reaching a ceasefire.
(Reuters)>>
Source incl. video:
https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20240716-israeli-strikes-gaza-kill-more-than-50-palestine-war-school

Al Jazeera - July 16, 2024
<<US airline Delta changes uniform rules after Palestinian flag pin outcry
Two flight attendants wearing the pins had complied with airline's dress code but a social media post sparked uproar. Delta Air Lines has changed its employee uniform policy following a controversy, involving two flight attendants who wore Palestinian flag pins, triggered by a social media post and the United States carrier's <unacceptable> response to it. The new dress code, which took effect on Monday, prohibits employees from wearing pins representing any country besides that of the US. A passenger posted a photograph last week of two flight attendants - without their consent - wearing Palestine flag pins and referred to them as <Hamas badges>. The post went viral on X and prompted a wave of criticism towards the airline.
Shortly after the images were published, Delta's official account on X responded: <Nothing to worry, this is being investigated already.>
It then added: <I hear you as I'd be terrified as well.>
The airline subsequently deleted that post and issued an apology for what it described as a <hurtful post> saying, <On Wednesday, we removed a reply that was not in line with our values.> Delta's Association of Flight Attendants, in a letter to the company's chief executive Ed Bastian on July 11, said the flight attendants were subjected to <harassment after pictures taken without their consent were circulated on social media with false, inflammatory, and discriminatory allegations>. The union said Delta's social media responses <showed contempt for current employees, and the subsequent lack of public response and concern for the safety of all crew members is unacceptable>, as it called for a public apology from management. <It is deeply troubling to publicly witness Delta seemingly affirm bigoted and inflammatory comments,> the union wrote. <Targeting any individuals on the basis of their nationality violates anti-discrimination laws, is antithetical to Delta's stated commitment to inclusivity and respect, and encourages a hostile work environment.> The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the country's largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, called Delta's response the latest example of <anti-Palestinian racism>. Before the uproar, the two flight attendants wearing the Palestine flag pins aligned with Delta's dress code policy, which gave employees more flexibility with uniform accessories. Delta's policy shift reflects the ongoing tensions surrounding Israel's war on Hamas, which has triggered protests across the US and on university campuses. <We are proud of our diverse base of employees and customers and the foundation of our brand,> the Atlanta-based airline said in a statement. <We are taking this step to help ensure a safe, comfortable and welcoming environment for all,> it added, saying the <employee responsible no longer supports Delta's social channels>.
Since the war began on October 7, more than 38,700 Palestinians have been killed by Israel's relentless bombardment of the enclave, according to Gaza's Ministry of Health. Edward Ahmed Mitchell, CAIR's national deputy executive director, told The Washington Post newspaper that the group welcomed Delta's apology and the <hope is that this incident will begin to slowly, slowly move the needle in a different direction>.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA AND NEWS AGENCIES>>
Source:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/7/16/us-airline-delta-changes-uniform-rules-after-palestinian-flag-pin-outcry

Le Monde - July 16, 2024 - By Eliott Brachet (Cairo, correspondent)
<<In Cairo, some 30 Gazans wait for their French visas: 'We're in limbo, without any rights'
These artists, intellectuals and journalists, who managed to flee the coastal enclave, have been promised jobs in France. Although they have support from the French Foreign Ministry, their paperwork has been held up for weeks at the Interior Ministry. <We live in the unknown. Neither in Gaza nor in France. We're stuck in Egypt with no idea of what's in store for us,> lamented Islam Idhair, a Palestinian journalist, fixer and translator who has been working for French media organizations in the Palestinian enclave for the past 15 years. Behind his good humor and the jokes he tells in perfect French lies a broken man suffering from the traumas of war. On October 21, his house in Rafah was bombed by an Israeli raid, killing his four children instantly. Only Islam's hand protruded from the pile of ruins, showing rescuers the location of his buried body. Once extracted from the rubble and transferred to hospital, the 37-year-old father discovered, one by one, the remains of his sons, Ayman, 13, and Aous, 5, and his daughters, Imane, 12, and Andalous, 10. <We were a wonderful family. I taught them French,> he recalled. <French culture has always been a window of freedom for us Gazans, in our open-air prison,> he added. Idhair worked as a French language assistant at Gaza's Al-Aqsa University, a documentary filmmaker for Ramallah's Al-Qattan cultural center and co-founded the French-language media outlet Bonjour de Gaza (<Hello from Gaza>).
Links with France
Idhair and his wife, Hiba, along with a few hundred Gazans, had been included on a list transmitted by France's consulate in Jerusalem to the Foreign Ministry's crisis unit in the spring for possible evacuation to Egypt, and then to France. After evacuating French nationals, dual nationals, staff of the French Institute and their neighbors from the enclave, the Foreign Ministry had wanted to extend the arrangements to certain hand-picked individuals with links to France. Around May 1, the Foreign Ministry forwarded a list to the Israeli authorities with a view to extracting some of the people on this list. But the operation never took place. On May 7, ignoring all international warnings and calls for restraint to spare the hundreds of thousands of civilian refugees in the south of the enclave, the Israeli army stormed the town of Rafah and took control of the border crossing, closing the only exit for Gazan civilians. Anticipating an imminent offensive, Islam and his wife had decided to flee to Egypt by their own means. On May 1, they arrived in Cairo after paying an exorbitant entry fee, which they were able to finance thanks to a donation campaign organized by French citizens. As soon as they arrived, the couple applied for a visa and obtained a first appointment with the French consulate. Two months later, despite a solid application including a promise of employment with a French community radio organization and guaranteed accommodation, they are still waiting for a response.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/16/in-cairo-some-30-gazans-wait-for-their-french-visas-we-re-in-limbo-without-any-rights_6685800_4.html

BBC - July 15, 2024 - By Fergal Keane in Jerusalem
<<Gaza man with Down's syndrome attacked by IDF dog and left to die, mother tells BBC. Muhammed Bhar was distressed by the sound of shelling in his neighbourhood, says his mother
Warning: Readers may find some of the details below distressing.
There was always his family. When he was bullied at school, and beaten, they were there to embrace him when he came home. And when the war started and he was terrorised by the sound of bombs falling, someone always said things were going to be ok. Muhammed was heavy and found movement difficult. He spent his days sitting in an armchair. If he needed anything, there was a niece or nephew to help. Muhammed Bhar was 24 and had Down's syndrome and autism. His mother, Nabila Bhar, 70, told the BBC: <He didn't know how to eat, drink, or change his clothes. I'm the one who changed his nappies. I'm the one who fed him. He didn't know how to do anything by himself.> On 27 June the war came back to the Bhar family's neighbourhood and Muhammed's small world shrank further. Along with other residents of Shejaiya, east of Gaza City centre, the Bhars were given orders to evacuate by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The IDF was advancing into Shejaiya in pursuit of Hamas fighters fighting from tunnels and houses. But the Bhars were tired of moving. In a weary tone, Nabila, who is a widow, reeled off the names of relatives' homes where they'd sought shelter. <We evacuated around 15 times. We would go to Jibreel's place, but then there would be bombing at Jibreel's place. We would go to Haydar Square, but then there would be bombing at Haydar Square. We would go to Rimal, but then there would be bombing at Rimal. We would go to Shawa Square, but there would be bombing at Shawa Square.>
Nabila Bhar sits in an armchair
Nabila Bhar says her family had to evacuate 15 times when the Israeli army advanced into Gaza City in late June. The fighting intensified in the streets around them. They would hide in different parts of the house, often in the bathroom when shooting became especially intense.
<We were under siege for seven days. The tanks and soldiers were all around the house.... Muhammed was staying on his sofa...and he didn't like sitting anywhere except for there,> says Nabila. For Muhammed war meant loud, violent sounds, the air vibrating with the concussion from shells exploding nearby. None of this could be explained to him. <He would panic and say, 'I'm scared, scared',> Nabila remembers. <He would say, 'Hey, hey', thinking that someone wanted to hit him. He was always scared, fearful. We would come around him, comfort him. He didn't understand much. His autism made it very difficult.> Muhammed Bhar relied on family members to help him eat and drink. On 3 July, according to the family, the IDF raided their home on Nazaz Street. Nabila says there were several dozen soldiers with a combat dog - animals used to find Hamas fighters, and check for booby traps and explosives. At first she heard them <breaking in and smashing everything> before the soldiers and dog arrived in the room. Referring to Muhammed, she says: <I told them, 'He's disabled, disabled. Have mercy on him, he's disabled. Keep the dog away from him.'>
Nabila saw the animal attack Muhammed. <The dog attacked him, biting his chest and then his hand. Muhammed didn't speak, only muttering 'No, no, no.' The dog bit his arm and the blood was shed. I wanted to get to him but I couldn't. No-one could get to him, and he was patting the dog's head saying, 'enough my dear enough.' In the end, he relaxed his hand, and the dog started tearing at him while he was bleeding.> Around this point, says Nabila, the soldiers took the young man into another room, and away from the dog. They tried to treat his wounds. A terrified Muhammed, who had always depended on his family for help, was now in the care of combat soldiers, who had come from streets where they'd been fighting close quarter battles with Hamas. Bloodstains on Muhammed's chair were pictured by family members who found his body a week later
<They took him away, put him in a separate room, and locked the door. We wanted to see what happened to him. We wanted to see Muhammed, to see what had become of him,> says Nabila. <They told us to be quiet and aimed their guns at us. They put us in a room by ourselves, and Muhammed was alone in another room. They said, 'We will bring a military doctor to treat him.'> At one point, according to Nabila, a military doctor arrived and went into the room where Muhammed was lying. Muhammed's niece, Janna Bhar, 11, described how the family pleaded with soldiers to help him. <We told them Muhammed was not well, but they kept saying he was fine.> After several hours, it is not clear how many, the family was ordered at gunpoint to leave, leaving Muhammed behind with the soldiers. There were pleas and cries. Two of his brothers were arrested by the army. They have still not been released. The rest of the family found shelter in a bombed out building. They returned a week later to a sight that haunts Muhammed's brother Jibreel. He produces his mobile phone and shows our cameraman a video of the scene. Muhammed's body is lying on the floor. There is blood around him, and a tourniquet on his arm. This was most probably used to stop heavy bleeding from his upper arm. Jibreel points to gauze used to bandage a wound, and remarks on the blood that clotted after the tourniquet was applied. <They were trying to stop the bleeding. Then they left him without stitches or care. Just these basic first aid measures. Of course, as you can see, Muhammed was dead for a period of time already because he was abandoned. We thought he wasn't at home. But it turned out he had been bleeding and left alone at home all this time. Of course, the army left him.>
Jibreel Bhar points to hole in wall
Muhammed's brother, Jibreel, is haunted by what he found when he returned to his home. It is not clear what exact injury caused Muhammed's death. Nor what happened to him in the time his family last saw him, and when his brother returned and filmed the dead young man on the floor. He was buried shortly after the family found him, in an alley between houses because it was too dangerous to take the corpse to the mortuary, or a graveyard. There was no post-mortem and no certificate of death. The family is demanding an investigation but with fighting still going on, and so many dead, it is hard to be hopeful that will happen any time soon. In response to queries from the BBC the IDF said they were checking on the report. Nabila is left with an image of her dead child that refuses to go away. <This scene I will never forget... I constantly see the dog tearing at him and his hand, and the blood pouring from his hand… It is always in front of my eyes, never leaving me for a moment. We couldn't save him, neither from them nor from the dog.>
With additional reporting by Haneen Abdeen and Alice Doyard.>>
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cz9drj14e0lo

BBC - July 15, 2024 - By David Gritten
<<Israeli strike on central Gaza school reportedly kills 22. At
Unrwa says two thirds of its school in Gaza have been hit since the start of the war. At least 22 Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded in a strike on Sunday on a UN-run school in central Gaza being used as a shelter by displaced people, the Hamas-run health ministry says. The Israeli military said it had targeted a number of Hamas <terrorists> operating from Abu Oraiban School in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp. Witnesses told BBC Arabic there were no armed fighters there and that children were among the casualties. It was the fifth attack on or near to schools in eight days.
Residents said there were fresh air and artillery strikes in central Gaza on Monday, with five people reportedly killed when a house in Maghazi refugee camp was hit. The Israeli military said its aircraft had struck dozens of <terror targets> across the territory over the past day. Meanwhile, Hamas said indirect negotiations on a ceasefire and hostage release deal with Israel were <ongoing> in the wake of an air strike in the southern al-Mawasi humanitarian area on Saturday that the health ministry said killed more than 90 people. The Israeli military said it had targeted a compound where the head of Hamas’s armed wing, Mohammed Deif, was hiding with the commander of its Khan Younis Brigade, Rafa Salama. The military has announced that Salama was killed, but said it is too early to conclude whether Deif also died. Hamas has said Deif is in good health. A US State Department spokesman said Antony Blinken expressed serious concerns about the recent civilian casualties during a meeting with two key Israeli officials on Monday. The US Secretary of State spoke with with national security advisor, Tzachi Hanegbi, and Minister of Strategic Affairs, Ron Dermer, who confirmed that Israel was still committed to reaching a ceasefire deal under terms laid out by Joe Biden in May. Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to an unprecedented attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 251 others were taken hostage. More than 38,660 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory's health ministry, whose figures do not differentiate between civilians and combatants. Witnesses denied that armed fighters were using Abu Oraiban School as a hideout
According to the UN, an estimated 1.9 million people - 90% of Gaza’s population - have been forced to flee their homes, including some who have been displaced up to 10 times. Thousands were reportedly sheltering at Abu Oraiban School, which is run by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (Unrwa), when it was it struck on Sunday afternoon. A displaced woman told BBC Arabic that she had been lighting a fire to cook in a corridor when a nearby room was hit. <As soon as the explosion occurred the walls of the room collapsed on us,> she said. <I saw a little boy whose leg was bleeding and a dismembered corpse which people covered with blankets. I also saw a little boy lying in a pool of blood, with his whole face bleeding.> She added: <I quickly ran out of the school. I found my aunt at the school gate, hugging her burnt young son. When I left the school, I saw many injured people lying on the ground and bodies torn to pieces.> Another resident said his family had been living at the school for six months because UN facilities were supposed to be safe. <There are no armed men and no reason to strike schools this way,> he added. <The dead and injured people are mainly women and children staying at this school.> Video footage filmed by a freelance cameraman working for BBC Arabic later on Sunday showed hundreds of people walking past the rubble of a destroyed structure in one corner of the school compound. A heavily damaged staircase could also be seen through two large holes in a wall of the adjoining three-storey school building. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Hamas fighters had used the school as <a hideout and operational infrastructure> from which attacks against its troops were directed and carried out. <Prior to the strike, numerous steps were taken in order to mitigate the risk of harming civilians, including the use of precise munitions and additional intelligence,> it added. The IDF also accused Hamas of systematically violating international law by exploiting civilians and civilian structures as <human shields> - an accusation the group has denied. A spokesman for Gaza's Hamas-run Civil Defence force, told AFP news agency on Sunday evening that 15 people were killed and that most were women and children. On Monday, the health ministry said the death toll had risen to 22, but it did not provide any further details. Hamas condemned the Israeli strike as what it called an <extension of the genocide> against displaced Palestinians. The IDF has acknowledged carrying out five strikes on or near to schools sheltering displaced people since 6 July. It has said they targeted Hamas politicians, police officers and fighters using them as bases. Last Tuesday, hospital officials said at least 29 people had been killed in an Israeli strike on a camp for displaced people outside a school in the town of Abasan al-Kabira, near the southern city of Khan Younis.
A total of 20 people, including a senior Hamas government official, were reportedly killed in three earlier strikes at two other Unrwa-run schools in Nuseirat and a church-run school in Gaza City.>>
Read more here:
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cd1631w5n9vo

Sky News - July 15, 2024 - by Faye Brown Political reporter
<<David Lammy calls for Gaza ceasefire in first trip to Israel as foreign secretary
The new foreign secretary has met political leaders and families of hostages held in Gaza during a trip to Israel.
David Lammy has said he hopes to see a hostage deal emerge <in the coming days> and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza during his first trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories as foreign secretary. The newly-appointed minister met Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Monday after having talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority PM Mohammad Mustafa on Sunday.
Politics latest: Sunak urged to stay on as Tory leader until November. In his meeting with Mr Herzog, the Labour frontbencher said he was using <all diplomatic efforts> to help bring about the release of the remaining hostages held by Hamas. Mr Lammy said: <I hope that we see a hostage deal emerge in the coming days. And I am using all diplomatic efforts, indeed last week with the G7 nations and particularly with [US secretary of state Antony Blinken] Tony Blinken, pressing for that hostage deal. And I hope too that we see a ceasefire soon and we bring an alleviation to the suffering and the intolerable loss of life that we're now seeing also in Gaza.> >>
Source:
https://news.sky.com/story/david-lammy-calls-for-gaza-ceasefire-in-first-trip-to-israel-as-foreign-secretary-13178197

Le Monde - July 15, 2024 - By Laure Stephan (Beirut (Lebanon) correspondent)
<<Gaza's impossible living conditions: 'If we don't die under the bombs, we'll die a slow death'
Accumulating waste, stagnant sewage and insect infestations have made the health situation in the Palestinian enclave unbearable, with many fearing the outbreak of epidemics, in the other face of the humanitarian crisis. Yet another calamity for civilians in the Israeli-bombed enclave of Gaza: forced cohabitation with mountains of decomposing garbage - which attracts rats, insects and even snakes - and sewage that contaminates the ground. The stench renders the air unbreathable. <The smell of garbage cans is everywhere in Deir al-Balah,> said Hanine Ajjour, a Gaza resident and local financial manager for the NGO Norwegian Refugee Council, forced to flee to the central Gaza Strip locality after the Israeli invasion of Rafah in early May. <Since we arrived, there are so many displaced people that some are sleeping in the street. Others have had to move into tents near piles of garbage by the sea because no other land is available. And the smell is unbearable. In the displacement camps, sewage overflows into the alleyways, coming from holes dug into the ground to serve as latrines under tents,> she described, in a reply written on WhatsApp messenger. Israeli authorities continue to prohibit the international press from entering into the enclave. Also in Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, displaced people fleeing Rafah have had no choice but to settle near a vast temporary garbage dump, opened as an emergency during the war. In addition to the stench and the mud puddles in which they have to wade, there is the pollution generated by <the fact that, in order to cook, people are burning everything they can get their hands on, such as plastic, because they have no gas,> said Ajjour.
Risk of cholera
The harsh living conditions, which Palestinians in Gaza have been enduring for months, are threatening to worsen as temperatures rise above 30 C. The heat and the proliferation of insects, coupled with the concentration of the population, have prompted humanitarians to fear an unprecedented public health crisis this summer. They are warning of the risk of cholera. Scabies, diarrhea, acute respiratory infections and hepatitis A are already present, as a result of insalubrity and a lack of access to clean water. The situation is a direct result of the war: More than half of the water and wastewater treatment facilities have been destroyed or damaged by Israeli strikes, according to the United Nations. Gaza's five wastewater treatment plants are at a standstill. The two main landfills, on the eastern edge of the enclave, are inaccessible: They are located in the buffer zone established by the Israeli army. Fuel is in short supply to run garbage trucks not already damaged. Waste collection workers have been killed or have themselves been displaced. In June, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) noted that garbage transfers were one of the missions refused by the Israeli authorities, who control all humanitarian operations in Gaza. Informal garbage dumps have multiplied and over 300,000 metric tonnes of solid waste are currently accumulating in the Gaza Strip, where the population is subject to repeated displacements.>>
Read more here:
https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/07/15/unsanitary-living-conditions-in-gaza-if-we-don-t-die-under-the-bombs-we-ll-die-a-slow-death_6685063_4.html

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