Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza and West Bank/East Jerusalem-September 14, 2024

Reports
Defense for Children International: "Targeting Childhood: Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank," details and analyzes 141 Palestinian child fatalities since 10/7. They found that 20% of the Palestinian children killed by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 2000 were killed after October 7, 2023, at a rate of one child every two days. Israeli forces routinely targeted Palestinian children with live ammunition and aerial attacks, prevented ambulances and paramedics from reaching wounded children, and confiscated children’s bodies in violation of international law. 

90% of Palestinian children shot and killed by Israeli forces and settlers were shot in the head, torso, or in multiple areas, indicating the shooter's clear intent to kill. In 43% of cases, Israeli forces deliberately blocked ambulances, paramedics, and civilians from providing medical aid to wounded children. 
Read and share the report »

 
Gaza: “The first victim of the war is truth”

Muhannad Hadi is the Resident Coordinator/Humanitarian Coordinator for Palestine and the Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process. He met with EU officials:

“When I first crossed the border, it was like a Hollywood horror movie, from the destruction I have seen. It’s like you’re watching a movie; sometimes you lose your sense of reality, and it’s hard to process. Then once you meet the people and talk to women and children, you go into a different mode of operation.

“A man I met in Gaza described the situation: ‘You have to look at us as 2 million zombies living on our own. The community is broken, the family is broken, society is broken. All ties are broken.’ There are 17,000 to 18,000 unaccompanied children, boys and girls running around the streets of Gaza without any protection and no family members. Can you imagine the exploitation, the gender-based violence? Can you imagine what they go through? It’s horrible…

“Women in Gaza shave their heads because of lice and lack of shampoo…

“When you’re in the business of saving lives, you don’t leave a stone unturned... It’s not about the people we serve, it’s about the people we are unable to serve. When the UN tries to implement the agenda and the Charter of the United Nations, they need the support of Brussels and the EU member States. We can’t afford to give up.

“Access for humanitarian aid is a word that is sometimes misused or, more often, misunderstood. Access is more than physical access as people think. In our case, access starts with unconditional visas to the humanitarians, which we don’t have. Physical access on the roads that we don’t have, because not all crossings are open. Access has to do with accountability, which we don’t have. In order for us to meet the needs of the people, we need to do assessments, but we don’t have the space to do that. The situation in Gaza does not allow us to do the pre-monitoring to monitor the distribution and then to do a post-monitoring… Access also has to do with duty of care. Staff members need to be protected. We need communication equipment, but we don’t have everything we want. We need armored vehicles, personal protection equipment; the list goes on and on.

“We are held at checkpoints, sometimes for 6, 7, 8 hours. It is normal for a staff member to sit in an armored vehicle waiting for agreed green light to proceed to northern Gaza or any part of Gaza for 7 or 8 hours. Trust me, sitting in an armored vehicle waiting for a green light to proceed in a war zone is nerve-wracking. And while you’re sitting, if you receive a couple of bullets on the vehicle, that takes it to another level of anxiety.

“The risks that the NGOs and the United Nations are taking in Gaza to save lives is unprecedented. Nowhere in the world have we accepted this level of risk for our staff.

Since the beginning of the conflict, 7 colleagues from the NGO World Central Kitchen, 1 colleague from UN Security (UNDSS) and 214 UNRWA staff lost their lives.”

Mr. Hadi’s complete testimony: here

Israeli air & land bombardment continues across Gaza, causing further civilian casualties, displacement, evacuation orders, & destruction of homes & other civilian infrastructure. Ground incursions and heavy fighting continue, especially in Khan Younis, Deir al Balah, Gaza City & Rafah. The extension of the war to the West Bank is extremely alarming.  Jenin is once again the epicenter of a massive military offensive, with hundreds of troops, backed by armored vehicles, fighter jets and drones, raiding the city along with Tubas, Tulkarem, and elsewhere. Many of the same tactics used by the Israeli military in 2002 and since are being repeated in this latest assault: killings, arrests, home demolitions, destruction of civilian infrastructure, and attacks on hospitals.

GAZA 

Numbers are cumulative

·       Killed: 41,118 (240 this week)

·       Injured: 95,125 (671 this week)

·       Israeli soldiers killed: 342 (2 this week)

·       Israeli soldiers injured: 2,280 (10 this week)

·       Hostages: 101 

Israeli attacks

•  9/6, 6 killed and 5 injured in Gaza city. 

• 9/6-8, 20 killed (1 child) in An Nuseirat Refugee Camp in Deir al Balah. 

• 9/6, 5 killed and 10 injured in central Khan Younis.

• 9/7, 11 killed (4 children) and others injured in 2 shellings in Al Bureij Refugee Camp, Deir al Balah. 

• 9/8 & 10, 20 killed (7 children) and others injured in Jabalya. Among them, the Deputy Director for the Civil Defense (PCD) brings the number of PCD staff killed to 83. 

• 9/9 & 11, 10 killed (2 children) and others injured in Gaza City. 

• 9/11, 13 killed (including children) and others injured in Khan Younis. 

• 9/11 6 UN staffers killed in Nuseirat

• 9/10, Israeli airstrikes in Al Mawasi, where the Israeli military had instructed civilians to take shelter for their safety, killed at least 19 and wounded 60 according to the UN Human Rights Office. A Shelter Cluster assessment on 9/11 found 68 families (413 people) lost their shelters in the attack. UN Secretary-General António Guterres condemned the air strikes: “the use of heavy weapons in densely populated areas is unconscionable.” The UN Human Rights Office deplored the strikes in the Israeli designated zone where people were forced to move for the past 11 months. UNRWA reports this incident represents the highest death toll among its personnel in a single event, with the shelter manager and other team members among those killed. The school has been attacked 5 times since October. IOF: it “struck significant Hamas terrorists who were operating within a command and control center embedded inside the humanitarian area”

Polio

• The 2nd phase of the polio vaccination campaign ended on 9/8 in southern Gaza, with a total of 256,572 children reached in Khan Younis and Rafah over 4 days. 4 health facilities continue to give vaccines, with a total of 195,555 children immunized in Deir al Balah. The 3rd phase of the polio vaccination campaign took place in northern Gaza 9/10-12 as >231 teams deployed in north Gaza, immunizing 112,311 children in a 3-day effort. As of 9/13, over 560,000 children <10 years old received their 1st of 2 necessary polio vaccines in Gaza. The 2nd set of immunizations is scheduled to begin in 4 weeks. 

• 9/9, Israeli forces stopped, threatened and attacked a UN aid convoy, fully coordinated with Israeli authorities to support the 3rd phase of the polio campaign, at Al Rasheed checkpoint in northern Gaza. The situation escalated quickly, soldiers pointed their weapons and shot at convoy personnel. Tanks and bulldozers damaged UN vehicles, further endangering UN staff. Convoy was held at gunpoint while senior UN officials attempted to de-escalate the situation. After 7.5 hours at the checkpoint, the convoy returned to base unable to fulfil its mission to support the polio campaign. Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Muhannad Hadi stated, “the UN and humanitarian organizations face continuous obstruction and insecurity in their efforts to provide humanitarian assistance to the devastated population in Gaza.” This is at least the 17th UN convoy to be hit since January. 

Aid

• Disruption of aid operations continues due to network outages, as local Mobile Network Operators and internet service providers (ISPs) cope with movement restrictions, damaged infrastructure, and lack of fuel and spare parts. 9/8, internet service was cut for 5 hours in central and south Gaza. The Emergency Telecommunications Cluster (ETC) struggles to deliver service despite limitations of equipment. Since October, import of only 20 satellite phones, 30 digital VHF radios, 4 VHF repeaters, and 4 solar generators have been approved by Israeli authorities. Limited communication services hamper the ability of humanitarian partners to deliver services and also pose significant risks as people try to access services, to learn of Israeli evacuation orders, etc. 

• The denial of missions in Gaza by the Israeli authorities almost doubled in August compared to July (105 vs. 53). Ongoing hostilities, lack of internal security (including looting), attacks on aid convoys, unexploded ordnance (UXOs), road destruction, and Israeli checkpoint delays all limit access. In southern Gaza, the number of facilitated missions dropped by 28% (from 250 to 179). In northern Gaza, the number of facilitated aid missions increased by 10% (from 67 to 74) but the number of missions denied rose by 140% (from 30 to 72). 

• UNRWA: “We estimate that over a million Gazans will go without food in September. “Over half the medicines in our health centers are running low, as is chlorine for water purification and other basic supplies.”

Education

• For a 2nd year, over 600,000 students are deprived of schooling. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, over 10,000 students have been killed and 90% of school buildings have been damaged since October. An Education Cluster assessment found 53% of schools sheltering IDPs have been directly hit. According to UNRWA, no schooling is available in any of their 200 facilities, although recreation and psychosocial support are provided in some. 

• Younger children suffer in their cognitive, social and emotional development, and older ones are at risk of being pulled into work or early marriage, says a UNICEF official.

Evacuations

• 9/9, Israeli military issued a new evacuation order affecting 4 areas in northwest Beit Lahia and Jabalya, northern Gaza. Israeli military justified the order due to rocket fire launched from there into Israel. Already subjected to previous evacuation orders, over 28,000 people resided in these areas before October. As of 9/9, more than 55 evacuation orders remain in effect, covering up to 86% of Gaza. Only 11% of the Gaza Strip has not been placed under evacuation orders.

Hospitals and health care

• Health Cluster reports that ~50% of essential medicines are unavailable. Primary health centers have critically low levels of insulin. Routine vaccines, such as BCG and DPT to protect infants against TB and diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, are nearly exhausted. 9/1, WHO delivered medications and supplies to Kamal Adwan and Indonesian hospitals in northern Gaza, as well as providing 20 ICU beds to the Indonesian Hospital. They also facilitated the deployment of an Emergency Medical Team (EMT) to the Indonesian Hospital and the rotation of an EMT pediatric surgeon to southern Gaza. They transported a critical patient with below-knee and above-elbow amputations from the Kamal Adwan Hospital to the International Medical Corps (IMC) Field Hospital in Deir al Balah, pending referral abroad. 

• 9/12, WHO managed to evacuate 97 critically injured and sick patients, along with 155 caretakers, from Gaza to the UAE. This largest single medical evacuation since October 2023 included 45 children and 52 adults with injuries, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and other conditions. Only 221 patients with 292 caretakers have been evacuated from Gaza on 5 separate occasions since the May closure of the Rafah crossing. ~12,000 patients are still unable to exit Gaza. 

• Health facilities in northern Gaza continue to face severe fuel shortages. 9/9, the Indonesian Hospital warned that due to the acute scarcity of diesel fuel, they were forced to suspend several services to prolong operating hours. The PRCS similarly noted that its teams in central and north Gaza are operating at minimum capacity due to critical ongoing fuel shortages. 

• UNFPA has warned of an alarming increase in high-risk pregnancies and birth and postpartum complications. Beyond a marked rise in pre-term births and sexually transmitted, urinary and reproductive tract infections, other severe complications like eclampsia, sepsis and postpartum hemorrhage are being increasingly reported by health workers. Neonatal complications and admissions to Neonatal ICUs have also increased. Nearly 1 in 10 pregnant and breastfeeding women are acutely malnourished, contributing to severe anemia, infections and delayed recovery after delivery. The lack of adequate water and sanitation further exacerbates the risk of maternal and newborn infections. Currently, 11 hospitals and field hospitals offer comprehensive Emergency Obstetric and Newborn Care – 4 in the north, 2 in Deir al Balah, 4 in Khan Younis, and 1 in Rafah - and 7 facilities have NICUs. The UNFPA established 6 mobile maternal health units in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis. To alleviate pressure on overstretched hospitals, 10 primary health centers have been equipped to provide specialized gyn services and midwives and other Sexual & Reproductive Health personnel are being recruited, trained and deployed. 

• Hepatitis A is spreading rapidly among the displaced people in the Gaza Strip, due to overcrowding, poor hygiene and contaminated water.. According to the UN in August, 40,000 cases of the disease had been diagnosed. There were just 85 cases in all of Gaza before October last year.

Food & Nutrition

• 9/30, UN Satellite Center and Food & Agricultural Organization cropland damage assessment found that 68% of fields (102 of 150 sq.km.) showed a significant decline in health and density compared to the previous 7 years; a 4% increase in damaged cropland since July caused by razing, heavy vehicle activity, bombing, shelling, and other conflict-related dynamics. In central Gaza, 75% of cropland was damaged, up from 73% in July, while Deir al Balah saw a 5% increase in the same period. An assessment of the road network revealed 68% of Gaza’s roads have been damaged. 

Environment

• Toxic waste, water-borne diseases, vast carbon emissions: the Gaza war is an environmental catastrophe. Israel’s ceaseless bombardment of the Strip over the past 11 months has caused unspeakable humanitarian consequences, but it will also have dramatic and lasting effects on Gaza’s already imperiled natural environment — and indeed, that of the entire region.

WEST BANK INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

The OCHA Occupied Palestinian Territory has issued a new infographic resource: Violence, destruction and displacement | West Bank: here

Israel is continuing its military assault across the occupied West Bank, with soldiers storming the Palestinian city of Tulkarm after midnight, just days after Israeli forces withdrew from Tulkarm and Jenin following a brutal incursion that lasted over one week. Israeli troops have also raided other towns and villages across the occupied territory as part of the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank in about two decades, deploying hundreds of soldiers backed by armored vehicles, bulldozers, fighter jets and drones. Israel has killed dozens of Palestinians since launching the operation on August 28. “The brutality is truly unprecedented,” says Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti, who adds that in many of the targeted areas, Israel has “bulldozed the overwhelming majority of the civilian infrastructure.” 

Killed: 652 Palestinians, including 634 by Israeli forces, 11 by settlers, 7 unclear. 

This week, Israeli forces killed 10 Palestinians (3 children), 1 Jordanian, and 1 US/Turkish citizen, and wounded 59 (9 children). 

Israelis killed: 3 soldiers. 

Israeli military attacks

• 9/3, Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old girl near Jenin and injured 5, including 4 journalists. The military surrounded a 2-story house, fired at it and demanded residents to come out. 2 families exited. An hour later, 2 bulldozers arrived followed by an exchange of gunfire. Israeli forces fired off-shoulder missiles and the bulldozers began demolishing the besieged house. The Palestinian Red Crescent tried to assist an injured girl, but Israeli forces opened fire on the ambulance. The girl was dead by the time the medical team reached her. 

• 9/3, Israeli forces shot and killed 2 during an operation in near Tulkarm. Israeli forces surrounded a house, demanding the women and children leave. 2 armed men refused to surrender and remained in the yard of the house. Israeli forces made the young nephew of one of the armed men to urge the men to surrender. During a 2-hour standoff, an exchange of gunfire was followed by Israeli forces firing 2 shoulder-launched missiles at the house. The Israeli forces took the bodies of the men they had killed.

• 9/5, an Israeli airstrike killed 5 and injured 3 in Tubas during an Israeli operation in the El Far'a Refugee Camp. According to the Israeli military, they struck armed Palestinians who posed a threat to their forces. The PRCS took the wounded to hospital. The same day in El Far’a, Israeli forces shot and killed a 16-year-old boy and injured another. The boy was attempting to return home when he was shot 3 times in the leg and prevented from receiving medical help from PRCS who reported: the boy cried out "do not shoot me" and Israeli forces ordered him to remove his clothes. When he failed to do so, they shot him in the chest. After he was killed, an Israeli bulldozer dragged his body to another location, mutilating his body. 

• 9/6, Israeli forces shot and killed a female foreign national and injured a Palestinian boy on Mount Sbeih in Beita town, southeast of Nablus. Palestinian villagers were holding a weekly protest against the Evyatar settlement expansion when Israeli forces fired tear gas canisters and live ammunition at the protesters. The US/ Turkish national Aysenur Eygi was shot in the head while standing ~250m away from the demonstration. The boy was injured in his leg by shrapnel and transferred to a hospital.

• 9/8, a Jordanian truck driver shot and killed 3 Israeli officers at the Allenby Bridge crossing. He was shot and killed by Israeli forces at the scene. Israeli authorities closed the Allenby Bridge crossing in both directions, assaulting and interrogating Palestinian and Jordanian workers present during the incident. Furthermore, Palestinian travelers were denied access and forced to leave. The Allenby Bridge reopened later that day.

• 9/11, an Israeli airstrike killed 5 in Tubas.

• 9/11, Israeli forces shot and injured a Palestinian whose vehicle hit and critically injured an Israeli soldier in the West Bank.

Israeli Operations in Northern West Bank

• 9/5-6, Israeli forces withdrew from Jenin and Tulkarm after a 10-day operation, during which Israeli forces employed excessive use of force with lethal, war-like tactics. A needs assessments was carried out in Jenin and Tulkarm.

• Jenin: the operation killed 19, injured 58, and arrested at least 44 Palestinians, as well as causing significant damage to civilian infrastructure, residential, and livelihood structures. The operation displaced over 1,000 families, most of whom have since returned, but at least 74 households (297 people, 102 children) remain displaced from 45 houses, now uninhabitable. At least 1,900 housing units were damaged and ~70% of the roads were bulldozed, severely damaging essential services of water, sanitation, healthcare, education, and markets. Since 8/28, water has been cut to ~35,000 camp residents and neighbors, who have also experienced sewage overflows.

• Tulkarm and Nur Shams Refugee Camps: the operation killed 7, injured 14, and extensively damaged infrastructure and housing. Over 400 housing units were damaged in and around the 2 camps, rendering 61 uninhabitable and displacing 89 households (327 people, 123 children). More than 2.6 km. of the water and sewage networks in the camps were bulldozed, impacting the safety of movement and access to water, sanitation, healthcare, education, and markets. Since 8/28, water has been cut to approximately 33,000 camp residents and neighbors, who have also experienced sewage overflows.

• PRCS, UNRWA, and the Ministry of Social Development are distributing food parcels and water, aiming to reach 1,500 families in Jenin. In Tulkarm refugee camps, the WFP, UNRWA and MoSD distributed 1,000 NIS cash assistance to 2,300 families.

• Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) is leading efforts to extend mental health and psychosocial support services. Read more here:

• The WASH cluster, UNRWA and the Palestinian Water Authority are coordinating water trucking, hygiene kit distribution, installing PE tanks, setting up water distribution points, providing water pipes, bottled drinking water, and sewage vacuuming. The Shelter Cluster, OCHA and UNRWA are working closely with partners to provide assistance to both refugees and non-refugees for the next 2-3 weeks.

• During the Israeli operation, access to hospitals and medical facilities was severely restricted. Israeli forces surrounded both Jenin Governmental Hospital and Ibn Sina Hospital, blocking ambulances and hindering medical teams. Medical teams in Tulkarm were prevented from reaching casualties in Nur Shams refugee camp. In Tubas, restricted access following an airstrike hampered medical assistance, and a damaged generator caused a temporary power outage across the camp. PRCS has expressed deep concern over the shrinking humanitarian space, particularly in Jenin and Jenin refugee camp. Israeli forces have directly targeted PRCS ambulances, injuring two Emergency Medical Team (EMT) members and a volunteer doctor. The PRCS urges the international community to ensure adherence to international humanitarian law.

Settler Violence

This week, settlers perpetrated 43 attacks against Palestinians, killing 1, wounding 10, and damaging property. October 2023-September 2024, OCHA recorded  ~1,350 attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, of which over 130 led to Palestinian fatalities and injuries, ~1,080 led to damage to Palestinian property, and >140 led to both casualties and property damage. 

This week, 17 households (80 people, 41 children) were displaced due to settler violence, harassment, and the takeover of Palestinian property. Since October 2023, 276 Palestinians households (1,627 people, 794 children) have been displaced by settler violence.

Palestinians perpetrated 2 attacks against settlers in this period, injuring 1.

• 9/3, 8 Bedouin herders from Baryet Hizma were displaced by Israeli settlers from an outpost established on 10/8/23, constructed on the remains of a Palestinian residence demolished by Israeli forces. Armed Israeli settlers are harassing Palestinian residents daily, firing live ammunition, burning vehicles, and damaging property. 8/23, settlers launched a violent attack, ransacking homes, burning a residential structure, damaging and stealing property, and blocking access to the community. 

• 9/5, 2 Bedouin households (20 people, 8 children) were displaced from Ein al Hilwa–Wadi al Faw, Tubas. Armed settlers and their livestock entered the community the previous day, threatening Palestinians at gunpoint and demanding they leave. The settlers pepper-sprayed 2 men. Israeli police arrived, detaining a Palestinian and a foreign activist, confiscating their phones, and releasing them later that night. While the families were relocating, Israeli forces assaulted and injured 2 men helping the families relocate to Khirbet ‘Atuf, then taking one to a military base, where he was later released.

• 9/6, Israeli forces shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian girl in Qaryut village, south of Nablus. Settlers from Shilo settlement, escorted by Israeli forces, attacked the village with stones and attempted arson. Villagers responded by throwing stones at the settlers, and Israeli forces fired live ammunition, killing the girl inside her house ~150m away from the confrontation. Israeli settlers burned hundreds of olive trees. 

• 9/7, settlers from Evyatar injured 4, including an elderly man, in Beita, near Nablus. Masked settlers threw stones at 2 houses, breaking windows, invading 1 house, injuring a 60-year-old woman, pepper-spraying and stoning a 68-year-old man, and injuring a woman’s head and face. Settlers broke windows of 4 vehicles and further damaged a car. 

• 9/7, settlers assaulted a man near At Tuwani, Hebron. The Palestinian, head of the Susiya Council, was driving on Road 316 when 3 settlers forced him to stop and hit him with gun, telling him “they knew who he was.” He managed to drive to a hospital.

• 9/8, Palestinians threw stones and injured a settler traveling near Masu'a settlement on Road 90, Jericho. The stones also damaged her vehicle.

Demolitions

Since October, Israeli authorities destroyed 1,598 Palestinian structures across the West Bank, displacing more than 4,023 Palestinians (1,689 children), more than double the displacement recorded the previous year. Demolitions since October include >500 inhabited structures, >300 agricultural structures, >100 water, sanitation and hygiene structures, and >200 livelihood structures. 

• This week, Israeli authorities demolished 38 Palestinian-owned structures. 2 houses were bulldozed in the Israeli military operation in Kafr Dan, Jenin, displacing 14 people (7 children). The remaining 36 structures included a forced self-demolition in East Jerusalem and 35 demolitions in Area C due to the lack of impossible to obtain Israeli-issued building permits. A total of 42 people (24 children) were displaced.

• 9/3, Israeli forces demolished 6 structures, including 3 residential buildings, 2 livelihood buildings, and 1 WASH structure in Duma, south of Nablus, Area C, displacing 2 households (15 people, 9 children). This is the 3rd demolition affecting these families in Duma village in less than 6 months.

• 9/5, the Israeli Civil Administration with Israeli forces demolished an inhabited residential building and a water cistern for lack of an Israeli-issued permit, in Qalqas community (Area C) near Hebron, displacing 1 family (8 people, 4 children) for the 2nd time. No written demolition orders were provided prior to the demolition.

• Under cover of war, Israel is demolishing home after home in Silwan. The government has accelerated plans to depopulate the East Jerusalem neighborhood, displacing dozens of Palestinian residents this year.

ISRAEL

• ~ 300,000 Bedouins living in the Negev. As “Muslim-Arab” citizens of Israel, many are still struggling to find their place in Israeli society. The war with Hamas has only deepened that sense of uncertainty. Bedouins living near the Gaza border feel they have been doubly victimized. Bedouin villages are usually not recognized by the Israeli state. Residents live a semi-nomadic life, in an open desert area and in dwellings that aren’t connected to the Israeli electricity grid or water supply. Unrecognized villages have no schools or hospitals, and residents say that women have been forced to give birth in cars on the way to hospital because ambulances struggle to reach the town.

• Education Ministry summoned a middle-school teacher, Ofer Shor, for questioning after he posted a video in which he spoke out in favor of soldiers who refuse to serve in the West Bank and condemned the current fighting in Gaza.

• Netanyahu reportedly asked Israel's attorney general to open a criminal probe against himself and Defense Minister Gallant to nullify the ICC chief prosecutor's request to issue arrest warrants against them

• As Gaza starved, the EU decided to finance an Israeli project on binge-eating. The binge-eating project is coordinated by the Weizmann Institute of Science. It is among the recipients of more than 150 grants to Israel which Brussels officials have signed since the war on Gaza was declared in October last year.

• After pointing to his gun and refusing to let an Arab nurse into his wife's operating room at Soroka Medical Center to treat his wife, an Israeli man was arrested, and then released on bail and his weapon was seized by police.

• Amir Arzani, a police officer actively involved in changing the status quo barring Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount/Al-Aqsa compound, a policy promoted by far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, was made Jerusalem's police chief as part of a long list of new appointments agreed on by Ben-Gvir and Police Commissioner Danny Levy. Ben-Gvir's security secretary, Brig. Gen. Moshe Pinchi, has been put in charge of the police's West Bank District.

• A representative from Israel's National Security Council told a confidential Knesset meeting that the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry has decided not to issue any more visas to employees of international aid organizations add that the reason given was that the Welfare Ministry claims that it has no means to examine or supervise the organizations' applications.

• “Our resilience is starting to crack.” A looming brain drain crisis threatens Israel's Arab society. Amid a rise in crime, racism and persecution fueled by a far-right government and a seemingly endless war, more and more high-tech entrepreneurs, doctors and business professionals from Israel's Arab elite contemplate restarting life abroad. 

• As the threat of an all-out war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon looms, the commander of the United States Central Command, Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, visited Israel to assess the country’s readiness, the Israeli military said.

US

• When Cindy and Craig Corrie heard about the death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the American-Turkish woman killed at a protest in the occupied West Bank last week, it reopened a 21-year-old wound. In 2003, their daughter Rachel was crushed to death by an Israeli army bulldozer during a protest in Rafah against the demolitions of homes in Gaza. This week, the couple have joined a chorus of human rights advocates calling for an independent investigation into Eygi’s death, saying that they feared her case would go unpunished like their daughter’s.

• Biden administration officials refused to publicly acknowledge that an Israeli soldier killed an American citizen in the occupied West Bank, saying they would let Israel’s investigation “play out.”

• Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at Arab Center Washington DC : “The reality is that the public is far more in favor of stopping arms sales to Israel than opposed.” He pointed to a June poll from CBS that showed 61% of all Americans said US should not send weapons to Israel, including 77% of Democrats and nearly 40% of Republicans. Poll results have been consistent for months. 

• A man in Boston reportedly lit himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston on 9/11, making him the third person in the US to self-immolate outside an Israeli consulate since the Gaza genocide began.

• Back in May, Jewish Currents magazine arranged to use Brooklyn College facilities for a day of panels and performances about politics and culture that would include, among many other speakers, Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories. Scheduled for 9/15, the event was also a fund-raiser for humanitarian services for Palestinian children and legal support for pro-Palestinian activists in the US. But just two weeks ago, Brooklyn College canceled.

• Ahead of a new school year, colleges across the country have adopted a wave of new rules around protest and speech in an effort to avoid a repeat of the spring semester, when thousands of people were arrested at protests and encampments prompted by the Israel-Hamas war. The rules vary from campus to campus, but they generally set limits on when and where protests can occur, and clearly prohibit encampments.

INTERNATIONAL

• High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk asked countries to act on what he called Israel's "blatant disregard" for international law in the West Bank and Gaza.

• UN has offered to monitor any cease-fire in Gaza and demanded an end to the worst death and destruction he has seen in his more than seven-year tenure. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with The Associated Press that it’s “unrealistic” to think the U.N. could play a role in Gaza’s future, either by administering the territory or providing a peacekeeping force, because Israel is unlikely to accept a UN role.

• Amid a global wave of repression against Palestine solidarity activists, the British government announced it would be suspending a small number of licenses for arms exports to Israel. But the token measure amounts to less than 9% of British arms export licenses to Israel.

• Palestinians took a seat among member states for the first time at the UN General Assembly, exercising a new right accorded to the delegation despite not being a full member of the organization.

• A campaign is under way to drive the UN relief agency for Palestinians out of existence, its commissioner general has said, days after 18 people were killed when Israeli jets bombed an UNRWA school in Gaza. The Israeli government was seeking to close down the agency, having failed to persuade western donors to stop funding it on the grounds of allegations about links between staff and Hamas. “…This deliberate attempt to eliminate UNRWA and prevent it from operating would have devastating consequences for the multilateral system, the UN and the cause of a Palestinian transition to self-determination.”

• Jewish American director Sarah Friedland used her acceptance speech at the Venice Film Festival for her debut film ‘Familiar Touch’ to voice support for Palestinians facing what she described as ‘the 336th day of Israel’s genocide in Gaza’.

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, CNN, +972, Defense for Children International, Democracy Now, Haaretz, APnews.com, Electronic Intifada, The Guardian, The Intercept, Jewish Currents, Mondoweiss, Aljazeera, New York Times