The power is off, communication is cut. Horea and her family – and 2 million others – are isolated and in the dark. (photo)

When bombs are dropping all around you, do you embrace your wretched life, or pray for death? From Gaza, Horea shared her heart.

by Kathryn Shihadah,

Americans, we can not hide our heads in the sand any longer. Today we learn from an expert what it’s like to sit through Israeli airstrikes.

Below is part of a conversation I had with my dear niece Horea, and a message she wanted me to pass on to you. Horea lives in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. She is 26 and lives with her parents and eight younger siblings.

She and I have been communicating for years via WhatsApp (shoutout to Google Translate). Every few weeks, my husband and I FaceTime with her family. We celebrate birthdays, Islamic holidays, and graduations together.

As soon as the escalation between Hamas and Israel began on Saturday, I contacted her (as always when the conflict heats up) to make sure everyone was okay (important background here).

For the first few hours after the incursion, Israel was so taken aback it didn’t know what to do – but we knew the quiet would not last. Mid-afternoon her time, the messages began to turn grim (lightly edited for clarity):

In fact, the situation now is very tense. The number of martyrs in Gaza now stands at about 198, including two journalists. A short while ago, the Palestine Tower was bombed with a reconnaissance missile.

The sound of planes flying in the Gaza Strip was loud.

Several times, she described the bombing of sites near her family’s home:

The sound of the bombing was very violent, and the house shook from it…

As I write now, I hear a very strong bombing sound that shook the house…

The Younes family home was targeted without warning in the Nuseirat camp [the refugee camp where Horea and her family live, population about 85,000 in 0.2 square miles].

Their house is approximately 200 meters away from us, and is attached to other houses, and near the agency’s schools. We felt a very strong shaking, and there are reports of martyrs and injuries.

She described the family’s attempt to help the children cope with their fear:

We are now gathered in one room, listening to the news on the radio and also through social media.

My brother Mahmoud always feels fear in every war, and we try to calm him down. He asks: “How does death feel? He cries. “I am afraid of dying.”

Mahmoud (age nine) does not want to eat anything and is very afraid. I tried to make him watch a movie until he forgets, but he still thinks about death, and asks: “What is death like, and what do we feel when we die?” His face is pale.

As for Samir and Heba (ages eleven and thirteen), they have passed this stage. They sit and watch the movie.

We try to alleviate their fear, support them, and tell them not to be afraid, the war will end soon.

I feel a strange and different feeling, a feeling of fear mixed with resignation, and sometimes I feel depressed and hopeless. Sometimes I wish I would die rather than live through all these wars. 

A little later:

My phone is now 1%. I am waiting for the electricity to come on [they usually have 4 hours of power per day] to charge it, and I will be in touch with you.

I love you with all my heart.

The next time I heard from her was many hours later:

The bombing is still continuing today, and occupation aircraft are still flying intensely in the skies of the Gaza Strip.

We also now smell smoke. I think it is [white] phosphorus gas they threw into the sky today. I feel suffocated by it. My friend died from inhaling white phosphorus in the 2008 war.

Message from the Electricity Distribution Company: “The percentage of electrical deficit is approximately 80%, which calls us to issue an urgent appeal to the international community and human rights institutions to intervene quickly and urgently to stop the imminent collapse of vital sectors and exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.”

A little later, this message:

An hour ago, they [the occupier] called a house approximately 40 meters away from us and warned that it would be bombed [the family evacuated].

We are still nervous now, since our house is made of asbestos and cannot withstand any bombing near it. We do not know what will happen to us? We are very afraid.

I hope the news is fake and nothing happens.

When I asked whether they could flee their home, she said:

We don’t know where to go!

We are sitting in a faraway room, and it will be less harmful than sitting in other rooms.

I asked how she was feeling emotionally. She said:

I have lived through many wars. I do not like war. I love peace, tranquility and life. I love that hope inside me that was pushing me to achieve the dreams I wished for. 

We are dying slowly. In every war you die a little within. We try to restore things over time, but we cannot restore all of them. I am very afraid for my family, I am afraid that something will harm them.

I say as [Palestinian poet] Mahmoud Darwish said: “We love life if we can find a way to it.”

Then, as night approached in Gaza:

Praise be to God, we are still fine, but the sound of the bombing is very scary, darkness descends everywhere, and the electricity is cut off.

An hour ago, they bombed a house in our camp, resulting in martyrs and injuries.

The conditions are frightening and disturbing. I feel that the nerves in my brain have been damaged, and I feel chills in my body. I hope that the wars will end. I do not want to hear the sound of bombs, I want to hear the sound of birds singing.

The events that happened today are very terrifying and frightening. Many massacres occurred, and the most horrific massacre occurred in the Jabalia market while people were going to bring food and drink and secure their needs [so they can shelter in place]… and the bombing of adjacent houses, not distinguishing between one citizen or another.

I hope that the situation in Gaza will improve. The people of Gaza only want to live freely and in peace without wars, to be able to travel around their country, not to be prevented or searched, and not to feel humiliated everywhere. They treat the people of Gaza like monsters. Why?

The poet in Horea peeked out:

This life is like dying a thousand times every day.

We want the freedom to travel to any country.

To express our opinion.

To find a job opportunity.

To live free from siege.

To live a decent life.

We are in the 21st century and our electricity is still cut off!

All the psychological effects that the people experienced… and the crises led to the migration of young people…and also led many young people to commit suicide…

The occupation has not only shed our blood, but they also shed our souls. 

The children of Gaza need psychological support in order to get rid of their spiritual pain. Many children have the problem of bedwetting and trauma that they will never forget.

It will remain engraved in memory, at a time when other children of the world engrave in their memories the most beautiful and happy days of their childhood.

Our children in Gaza grow up feeling their lives lack some essential thing.

People are dying of hunger every day.

People die after they’re denied the opportunity to travel for medical treatment abroad.

Pain all over Gaza.

There are prisoners dying behind prison bars, longing to hold their children… deprivation and hardship.

Violation of Al-Aqsa Mosque…preventing Palestinians from practicing their religious rituals, torture, killing, imprisonment of the innocent.

And the occupier is above international law.

Our Christian brothers are not spared from it – they are being harmed by this occupier whose humanity has disappeared.

In Gaza, they use internationally banned weapons. They throw white phosphorus into the atmosphere.

Painful memories and painful reality.

As a Palestinian citizen, I am for humanity and against the shedding of a single drop of blood.

I am for humanity and against racism.

The electricity in the Gaza Strip has been cut off, electricity will not come again, there is a scarcity of water, and there are people who have been displaced to UNRWA schools, and even the schools have not been spared from the occupation’s bombing.

We knew our time together was about to end, and we didn’t know when we would speak again. I asked her, before we lost communication, if she has a message – anything that was on her heart – to share with Americans. This is what she said:

My name is Horea and I am 26 years old. I have many dreams that I hope will come true.

I was just starting to write my master’s thesis, and I was very excited because I was starting to realize my dreams, but now I feel like death is getting closer.

I want you to read and feel my words.

I am a girl who loves life very much and seeks to achieve her dreams and to change the life of her family. The life I have lived is unlike any other life. I had lived through many wars since I was a child. I was very afraid. I was afraid of losing someone from my family. That feeling still haunts me in every war. I still hear the sound of my crying.

I am writing this letter with tears streaming down my cheeks. I took my blood pressure, it was very low and my heart was beating fast. I felt for a moment that death was approaching.

My little heart cannot bear war and cannot bear its dreams to die before its eyes.

Please stand with Gaza – Gaza under bombardment. 

We can’t sleep at night. The sound of bombing is very frightening, and it gets worse at night. The smell of smoke is very bad. I feel like I cannot breathe. 

We live the night in complete darkness. The sound of children crying. The sound of fear and pain is heard at night.

Every moment we die. How it frightens me to see massacres committed against defenseless citizens. [The occupier is] using forbidden weapons against us. 

Wherever you are in the world, help us, stand with us. 

Now the electricity will be cut off and will not return, and our communication with the world will be cut off. There is also a scarcity of water. 

The situation in Gaza is worse than all imaginings. 

I am writing to you from under bombardment, and I know that we love life, and we love peace. 

Please…help us…convey a voice to the world.

I love you all..and I trust that you will not abandon us.

That was Monday. Since then, there has been only silence. They have no power, no fuel, possibly no water. No access to food. No comfort, no sleep, and no hope. Some in Gaza are praying to die – just to get it over with.

I can not imagine what Horea is going through right now. I can not imagine what her parents feel, unable as they are to protect their children.

This war is not Gazans’ first, but it is by far the worst. And why? Because they dared to fight back against their oppressor.

Grace Colored Glasses is Kathryn Shihadah’s blog on Patheos, an online destination to engage in the global dialogue about religion and spirituality. Kathryn is also an editor and staff writer for If Americans Knew, and occasionally blogs at Palestine Home.

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As in Gaza, it’s hard to find a safe place in the West Bank. (Pictured: Israeli forces continue to tighten measures at military checkpoints near Nablus in the northern West Bank.) (photo)

Gaza has been in the spotlight for two weeks; meanwhile the West Bank has seen more than its share of Israeli violence. Israelis have killed at least 84 people, including children, in the occupied West Bank since October 7… And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few samples from the last seven days.

by Kathryn Shihadah

The occupied Palestinian West Bank, including East Jerusalem, has not been making headlines lately. When it does get noticed, it is often portrayed as an equal partner with Israel in violence. For example, a recent New York Times article used phrases like “the deadliest fighting” and “clashes with Israeli forces and armed Israeli settlers.”

In reality, “deadly fighting” means, in this particular case, 13 Palestinians and 1 Israeli were killed. This was the first Israeli to lose his life in the West Bank since August. The numbers of dead tend to be this lopsided because Israel’s military are heavily armed and armored, and have advanced weapons, drones, helicopters, and tanks. Palestinians have a very limited number of weapons and little or no protective gear.

“Clashes,” then, generally consist of large Israeli forces invading a town or refugee camp, sealing off roads, and using their superior equipment against lightly armed militants and large numbers of civilians who protest their very presence in Palestinian areas. Israeli soldiers frequently use live ammunition as a crowd dispersal method.

Palestinian casualty figures are also higher because after shooting a Palestinian, Israeli soldiers often block medics and ambulances until the victim has bled to death.

Below are a few examples of recent West Bank news (with links to full articles).

Deaths:

Jibril Awad, who was killed Thursday, was the brother of Sair Awad, whom Israeli soldiers killed in 2013.

Also Thursday, Israeli soldiers shot 16-year-old Taha Ibrahim Mahameed in the eye and the face after invading the refugee camp where he lived. They then prevented Palestinian medics from reaching him. When his father tried to move him, they shot him in the back. The youth died.

On Wednesday, during an invasion of Palestinian land, Israeli settlers (or soldiers) shot Mohammad Fawaqa in the abdomen; when Palestinians tried to reach him to provide help, both settlers and Israeli soldiers fired live rounds at them. Fawaqa died.

On Tuesday, Israeli soldiers invaded Nablus and fired live bullets randomly toward protesters. Samir Sabra, age 72, was hit in the abdomen by a bullet while standing on his balcony. He died.

There are many more such examples.

At least 84 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since October 7th.

Israeli settler violence:

It is sometimes hard to distinguish between Israeli settler and military violence: the groups often stick together, soldiers watching or pitching in as settlers attack Palestinians. Since the escalation in Gaza began, attacks have become more frequent and more violent.

Before the war started, close to 200 West Bank Palestinians had been killed by Israelis this year – already making 2023 the worst year for settler violence since the UN started keeping track.

But when Israel began its invasion of Gaza, the situation in the West Bank got much worse. In just over 2 weeks, Israeli soldiers and/or settlers have killed at least 84 Palestinians, injured 1,300, and attacked healthcare facilities 77 times.

Twice last week, fatal attacks by Israeli settlers were caught on tape – one was an attack on a funeral procession for 4 Palestinians who had been killed by settlers the previous day.

Notably, Israel’s extremist national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, recently passed out 10,000 assault rifles to settlers.

Abductions/arrests:

In the past week, the Israeli military has abducted at least 496 Palestinians from the West Bank. Since October 7th, the number is close to 700 – 25 percent of whom are children, elders, and patients. Since the beginning of 2023, at least 6,000 Palestinians have been abducted.

Al Jazeera reports that the number of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli custody has doubled from 5,000 to 10,000 in the last 2 weeks. About 80 percent of them are laborers from Gaza; the rest are from the West Bank.

Miscellaneous actions:

The list of miscellaneous misdeeds against West Bank Palestinians is too long to enumerate here, but below are a few examples.

Thursday, Israeli soldiers fired gas bombs and concussion grenades into a school for girls.

Israeli soldiers invaded a hospital in Jerusalem and abducted Mohammad Abu Mayyala. Mayyala was in the hospital recovering from wounds he’d suffered when he’d been assaulted by soldiers a few days earlier.

On Wednesday, Israeli soldiers invaded the town of Tarqoumia, storming a mourning house, and invading homes and apartments. As Palestinians protested the invasion, soldiers fired a barrage of live rounds, rubber-coated steel bullets, and gas bombs into the crowd.

Also on Wednesday, Israeli soldiers, without warning, forced a Palestinian family of 9 out of their home in Beit Hanina, and demolished the home and a commercial building. The owner, Soheib Rawajba, said Israel is using emergency laws that enable demolition of buildings without official procedures. The family was unable to remove anything before their home was destroyed.

NOTE: The entire West Bank has been under Israeli occupation since 1967; all its official entrances and exits are controlled by Israeli soldiers, making its Palestinian inhabitants virtual prisoners. Many are families that were ethnically cleansed from Israel during Israel’s founding war (see this and this and this) and its 1967 war. Israeli forces often invade them; one example is here.

Israel was established in 1947 through a war of ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population, both Muslims and Christians, and it continues to steal other people’s land for illegal colonies known as ‘settlements.’ While Palestinians most often use nonviolent resistance, a small number use armed resistance against the invaders.

Thanks to the pro-Israel lobby in the US, Congress disburses over $20 million per day of Americans’ tax money directly to and/or on behalf of Israel.

Kathryn Shihadah is an editor and staff writer for If Americans Knew. She also blogs occasionally at Palestine Home.

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 ALISON WEIR  

The only surviving picture from al-Ma’in village. Taken in 1944, it shows author Salman Abu Sitta (front row, wearing Tarbouch/fez) with members of his family. In 1948 Israeli forces violently expelled the villagers, destroyed their village, committed atrocities, and stole their land. Today, four Israeli kibbutzim are on the stolen land: Nirim, Nir Oz, Magen, and En HaShlosha. (photo)

The Israeli kibbutz settlements that surround Gaza are built on stolen land. About 80 percent of Gaza’s population are families Israel violently expelled, caged in one small corner of their original lands for over 75 years. 

The residents of these Israeli kibbutzes and “farming communities” on the perimeter of Gaza have been able for years to prosper, swim in pools, dance, sing and celebrate “unity and love” in large concerts just a few kilometers away from where over 2.1 million people live on 365 squared kilometers, usurped from their lands, subjugated to daily humiliation, purposely impoverished and caged in, unable to move, live, fish in the sea, and certainly unable to celebrate “unity and love.”

And all of this is largely hidden from the world, especially the ruthless, lethal violence by which Israeli forces wiped out their villages and stole their land – and the accompanying atrocities committed by Israeli soldiers.

For example, Nirim, now in the news about the Gaza prison break, was the site of a gang rape in which 17 Israeli soldiers raped and then killed a Palestinian girl:  

 “The victim, a 10 to15-year-old Palestinian girl, was given a bath and a haircut in full view of the platoon’s members before they serially raped her, (which, it must be admitted, was decided democratically by a vote at the mess hall during that Saturday eve gathering in Kibbutz Nirim, newly established on Abu Sitta’s private land). Later, they execute the girl and bury her body in a shallow grave.” (See second article below)

by Perla Issa, reposted from Institute of Palestine Studies

If you are to read Western news reports coming from Israel, you would likely believe that Kfar Azza, Be’eri, Erez, Nahal Oz, and the other settlements that surround Gaza are “idyllic spots,” “little pieces of paradise, little pieces of heaven;” and “small farming communities.”

What is missing from this picture, what is missing from the vast majority of Western news reports on the genocide unfolding in Gaza is that these “pieces of paradise” are built on stolen land — stolen by Zionists from the Palestinian people through violence. And that the Palestinian population have been huddled and caged in one small corner of their original lands for over 75 years. That is what is currently called the Gaza Strip. About 80 percent of Gaza’s population are refugees, refugees from what today is called the Gaza perimeter. As Palestinian resistance increased over the years, as Palestinians, generation after generation, have tried to break the cage and return home, that cage has become tighter and tighter.

That is how the Israeli residents of these “farming communities” — around 50,000 people living on 1,038 squared kilometers of stolen lands (the Sha’ar HaNegev, Eshkol, and Sdot Negev regional councils)— have been able for years to live, prosper, raise families, have dinners, swim in pools, dance, sing and celebrate “unity and love” in large concerts just a few kilometers away from where over 2.1 million people live on 365 squared kilometers, usurped from their lands, subjugated to daily humiliation, purposely impoverished and caged in, unable to move, live, fish in the sea, and certainly unable to celebrate “unity and love.”

A simple glance at Google maps puts this reality in plain sight. How can such an urban reality exist? A people density of 5,753 people per squared kilometer next to a people density of 48 people per squared kilometer. Can there be any doubt that in order to keep such a reality for decades a vast amount of daily violence needs to be applied in order to prevent any spill over?

Palestinians live this reality on a daily basis, while Israelis, living in “idyllic spots,” thought that they could afford to forget it. They thought they could afford to forget how they came to live on that very land.

Let us here, remind ourselves of this reality.

In an oral history project of interviews with Zionist fighters, the truth is spoken plainly and simply. Michael Cohen from the Negev Brigade of the Israeli Occupation Forces (Formed from the Palmach, the elite fighting force of the Haganah) explains in a recorded video how the brigade expelled Palestinians in October 1948 from what “today you would call the Gaza Perimeter. It’s the entire Western sector bordering on today’s Gaza Strip.” He explains how “expelling was easy.” That the majority of the Palestinians “had no plans to hurt us” but that “we couldn’t allow ourselves, we, as an army and the [Jewish] settlements around us, to leave Arab settlements in our underbelly. We kicked them out.”

He explains how in many places, Palestinians left without a fight: “On one or two occasions, there was some sort of resistance, even using firearms. But that was rare … The Negev was cleared of all villages!” But with time the soldiers realized that the people they had expelled were coming back and that “it was difficult to finish the job with them.” He explains that they had to block them, “block means shoot to kill!” In his own words: “So in that case I saw it with my own eyes, I didn’t just see it with my own eyes, I also did it. Expulsion was one thing that needed to be done and it was done.”

Indeed, violent expulsion was done, but violence breeds violence. Through Cohen’s testimony we can see how Palestinian resistance was changing and adapting in response to Israeli violence. The villagers and Bedouins went from friendly coexistence, to acquiescence, to non-violent resistance by quietly returning to their lands, but once faced with deadly force, they resorted to armed resistance, they started attacking roads and planting mines. The Israeli response was more violence, they demolished Palestinian homes and burned fields forcing the population to flee again. Cohen explains how they planted explosives and “would topple down the houses in one full swoop.” He further explains: “The demolition [of the houses] and/or the burning of the fields, it wasn’t a one-time thing during the deportation, it was a process.”

Avri Ya’ari of the Haganah explains in another recorded video how they expelled the people of Huj (هوج), a Palestinian village lying 2.5 kilometers from the current Israeli settlement of Sderot and 6.5 kilometers from the Gaza Strip; where Ariel Sharon built a ranch. Through Ya’ari’s testimony we get a sense of the large disproportionate of force between the Israeli armed forces and the Palestinians and again we see how the Palestinian population was peaceful.

Ya’ari: There was Huj … but the relations with them were very good …

Interviewer: The Arab population, when did they leave the area?

Ya’ari: When they were told to. [Laughter]

Interviewer: What do you mean?

Ya’ari: They were told to take a hike.

Interviewer: Who told them?

Ya’ari: The army, the Israeli Defense Forces. In certain stages … how should I say it? They cleared the area of Arabs. The people of Huj, who had been very friendly and later suffered terribly in the refugee camps, they told them, they’d be back in two or three weeks.

Palestinians indeed have been attempting to return ever since by any and all means at their disposal. Therefore, if you wish to help end the violence, to usher in peace and security for Palestinians and Israelis, then recognize what lands Israeli settlements have been built on and call them by their names, their real names. In the table below is a list of some of the settlements that surround Gaza and the corresponding Palestinian lands that they have been built on, whether it be city, village, or tribal lands.

Perla Issa is a researcher at the Institute for Palestine Studies in Beirut, Lebanon. The list above is not an exhaustive list. Feel free to contact the author directly at perla@palestine-studies.org. You may also seek additional resources such as All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948, the Interactive Encyclopedia of the Palestine Question (Places section), Palestine Open Maps, Palestine Remembered, and The Return Journey (Atlas) for further reading on the history of destroyed and depopulated villages across all of Palestine.

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‘I Saw Fit to Remove Her From the World’

By Aviv Lavie, Moshe Gorali, reposted from Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Oct. 29, 2003

Documents obtained by Haaretz tell the long-hidden story of what Ben-Gurion described as a ‘horrific atrocity’: In August 1949 an IDF unit caught a Bedouin girl, held her captive in a Negev outpost, gang-raped her, executed her at the order of the platoon commander and buried her in a shallow grave in the desert. Twenty soldiers who took part in the episode, including the platoon commander, were court-martialed and sent to prison.

There was a particularly festive atmosphere at the Nirim outpost on August 12, 1949, the eve of Shabbat. A week of dusty patrols and pursuits of infiltrators in the sands of the western Negev desert was at an end, and the commander of the hilltop site, Second Lieutenant Moshe, gave the order to make the preparations for a party. The tables in the large tent that was used as a mess hall were arranged in rows, sweets of various kinds were laid out on them and even a bit of wine was poured, though not enough to get drunk on. At exactly 8 P.M. the soldiers took their places and platoon commander Moshe recited the blessing over the wine. He then gave a Zionist pep talk, reiterating the importance of the unit’s mission and the troops’ contribution to the infant state. At the order of his deputy, Sergeant Michael, Private Yehuda read from the Bible. When he finished the soldiers burst into song, told jokes, ate and drank. A merry time was had by all.

Shortly before the end of the party, at about 9:30, the platoon commander asked for quiet. He got up and, with a smile on his face, reminded the soldiers about the Bedouin girl they had caught earlier that day during a patrol in their sector. They had brought her to the outpost and she was now locked up in one of the huts. Platoon commander Moshe said he was putting forward two options for a vote. The first was that the Bedouin girl would become the outpost’s kitchen worker; the second was for the soldiers to have their way with her. The proposals got an enthusiastic reception. A melee ensued. The soldiers raised their hands and the second option was accepted by majority vote. “We want to fuck,” the soldiers chanted. The commander decided on the order: Squad A on day one, Squad B on day two and Squad C on day three. The driver, Corporal Shaul, asked jokingly, “And what about the drivers? Are they orphans?” The platoon commander replied that they were part of the staff squad, together with the sergeant, the squad commanders, the cooks, the medic and he himself, of course. He added a threat – if any of the soldiers touch the girl “the tommy [tommy gun] will talk.” The soldiers took this as a warning not to violate the order the commander had decreed.

The party ended, the soldiers went off to their tents. The officer ordered the platoon sergeant to bring a folding bed to the tent they shared and to place the Bedouin girl on it. Sergeant Michael did as he was told, entered the tent, closed the flap and shut off the lantern.

Thus began one of the ugliest and most appalling episodes in the history of the Israel Defense Forces. Even at a remove of 54 years, it is difficult to understand how an event of this kind could have happened with the participation, active or less active, of dozens of soldiers in uniform.

Low professional and moral level

The IDF of 1949, still in its infancy and called upon to defend the borders of the newborn state, found itself having to cope – not always successfully – with the rapid absorption of a very large number of untrained soldiers, especially those who were sent to the front immediately after disembarking from the ship in which they had arrived in Israel. “A rabble of new immigrants with a low professional and moral level,” was the blunt description offered by the special military court in its verdict on the episode of the Nirim outpost.

Yehuda (his full name, as well as the names of others who were interviewed for this article, are in the possession of Haaretz) was one of the soldiers serving in the outpost in August 1949. He is now a 74-year-old pensioner who lives in the north. He accepts the description of the group as a “rabble”: “I was then 20 years old,” he says. “I ran away from the Turkish Army to Palestine and immediately enlisted. I remember that all the members of our battalion were new immigrants. Everyone was from a different country: Algeria, Hungary, Romania, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco. We didn’t know Hebrew, we communicated between us by sign language. We did our basic training at the Dead Sea. We were taught how to hold a rifle in a mess hall at Sodom. Then we were sent to the outpost, where we did patrols or trained in the trenches and practiced rushing to our positions.”

Yehuda remembers the night of the party, but claims that he was then on guard duty and that he heard the story about the vote and what happened afterward only as a rumor. Together with 17 members of the platoon he was court-martialed for “negligence in preventing a crime.” He was sentenced to four years in prison; his term was cut in half by the appeals court.

Yitzhak, who is the same age as Yehuda and now lives in the center, received the same punishment. He, too, had arrived in Israel a few months before the summer of 1949, and he did not know Hebrew. Today he is retired and has health problems. “I remember being in the Negev but I can’t even remember the name of the unit. I had just arrived in the country, I looked like a boy, I did a lot of guard duty. I had forgotten about that whole affair, I don’t remember a thing, I haven’t thought about it for maybe 50 years. The only reason I was tried was that I was in the outpost when it happened. Beyond that I don’t remember a thing and I have nothing to say. Was I angry at those who did it? What would it help me to be angry?”

The developments in the IDF after the War of Independence may furnish a partial explanation for the chain of events that is described in this article; but no more than a partial explanation. After all, the platoon commander, Moshe, who spearheaded the affair, was not part of the “new IDF.” “The officer and the sergeant were veteran Israelis and spoke fluent Hebrew,” Yehuda recalls. As far as is known, Moshe served in the British Army and afterward in the 8th Brigade under the command of the legendary Yitzhak Sadeh in what was the only IDF armored brigade in the War of Independence. The brigade was disbanded after the war and its officers and soldiers were reassigned to various units. Officer Moshe was sent to the Negev.

The Negev Region Command was established after the War of Independence. It was a regional command and its assignment was to secure the lengthy new border line between Israel and Egypt. The staff headquarters were located in Be’er Sheva, and the units were deployed in outposts along the border with the aim of preventing the infiltration of Bedouin from the Egyptian desert. The military historian Meir Pa’il, a retired colonel, was appointed operations officer of the Negev Region in December 1949, four months after the events with which this article deals. Pa’il: “The Negev was sparsely populated. We were barely able to cobble together one reserve battalion from all those who lived in the settlements in the region. In order to man the border line, units were sent on a rotating basis from other regions, such as the Golani Brigade, the 7th Brigade and so forth. In addition to preventing infiltrations, there was also an effort to remove as many Bedouin as possible from the country – from the Halutza Dunes area, for example. It was a kind of cleansing across the Egyptian border. The tribes who had cooperated during the war were left where they were; those who were hostile were expelled.”

One of the battalions of the Negev Region was known as the Sodom District Battalion. The battalion was originally in charge of the Dead Sea and Arava area, but at the beginning of August 1949 it was moved to the Bilu Junction, near Rehovot, where it waited a few days for new orders. The battalion commander was Major Yehuda Drexler, who was nicknamed “Idel.” Over the years, Drexler, afterward a leading architect, worked for the Jewish Agency, was one of the planners of Kibbutz Sde Boker in the Negev (Ben-Gurion’s kibbutz) and reached the rank of department head in the Israel Lands Administration. One of the company commanders in the battalion was Captain Uri.

On August 8, his company was ordered to move south to man the outposts in the western Negev. The platoons were stationed at three kibbutzim: Be’eri, where the company headquarters and Captain Uri himself were stationed, Yad Mordechai and Nirim. Platoon 3, headed by the new commander, Second Lieutenant Moshe, who had been given command of the unit only a few days earlier, was sent to the Nirim outpost, which was responsible for the most remote and most dangerous sector – adjacent to the border with Egypt. Sergeant Michael was the deputy commander of the platoon.

On the eve of the move south, the company commander, Captain Uri, briefed the soldiers. Intelligence reports received from aerial patrols over the western Negev mentioned two Bedouin tribes that had been spotted in the sector. “You are to shoot to kill at any Arab in the territory of your sector,” the company commander said. Moshe asked for the operational order in writing, as customary. The company commander promised to bring the written document to the outpost at a later date.

Platoon 3 reached Nirim on the afternoon of Tuesday, August 9. The infrastructure of the camp was quickly put in place: three large tents as the soldiers’ quarters, a small tent for the officer and the sergeant, and a big tent as the mess hall. In addition, there was a small hut that served as the office of the platoon’s headquarters and another hut, unused, which would play a central role in the episode.

In the summer of 1949, there was no longer any connection between Kibbutz Nirim and the outpost of the same name. The outpost bore the name Nirim because it was situated at the place where Kibbutz Nirim was originally established, in June 1946. The young kibbutz, which was located on the edge of the desert, fought for its survival in the harsh climatic conditions of the area and became the first settlement to be attacked on the first day of the War of Independence, on May 15, 1948. The Egyptians, with a force that included an artillery battalion, an infantry battalion and dozens of armored vehicles, launched a heavy barrage that caused immense damage: all the buildings of the kibbutz were burned to the ground, the animals died, and eight kibbutz members were killed and four wounded (of a total of 39 members). The barrage was followed by an assault mounted by hundreds of infantry soldiers, who reached the fence of the kibbutz. The kibbutzniks, firing from their trenches, inflicted heavy losses on the Egyptian force and miraculously the attack ended. The Egyptians changed their mind and decided to forgo the pleasure of infiltrating and capturing the kibbutz. Instead, they simply went around it on their way north.

The Nirim group spent the war in shelters and caves that they dug. When the hostilities ended and they were finally able to come to the surface in safety, they entered into talks with the army and the state authorities. There was a confluence of interests: the army coveted the site because of its strategic location; the kibbutzniks wanted to move north, to the line of 200 millimeters of rain a year.

In March 1994 the kibbutz moved about 15 kilometers north, to its present location. The IDF took over the terrain-dominating outpost, which was henceforth known as “Old Nirim,” or “Dangour,” as it was originally called – the name still appears on some maps – apparently after an Egyptian Jew who purchased land in the area. There is now a monument of rough concrete at the site that commemorates the kibbutz members who were killed in the Egyptian assault on the first day of the 1948 war. The monument bears an inscription: “It is not the tank that will triumph, but man.” If you climb the monument and look west, you can see the rooftops of Khan Yunis.

The commander orders an execution

On Tuesday, August 9, the platoon organized itself at the outpost. The soldiers soon got used to the ways of the new commander. Second Lieutenant Moshe turned out to be a strict disciplinarian who demanded order and obedience. The soldiers had to dress properly and shave every day. Anyone who violated the orders was hauled before Moshe. The soldiers were apparently somewhat in awe of him. The next day the company commander, Captain Uri, visited the platoon. The first couple of days passed uneventfully. Until the morning of Friday, August 12.

At about 9 A.M. that day, Second Lieutenant Moshe set out on a patrol in the southwestern section of the sector, in a vehicle known as a “command car.” With him were two squad commanders, Corporal David and Corporal Gideon, and three soldiers: privates Moshe, Yehuda and Aziz. The driver was Corporal Shaul. All the men were armed.

On the way they came across an Arab who was holding an English rifle. When the Arab spotted them he threw down the rifle and started to run up the dune. One of the soldiers opened fire at him with a submachine gun. The Arab was hit and died on the spot. His rifle was taken as booty.

A short time later, the patrol encountered three Arabs – two men and a girl. There are different versions regarding the girl’s age. According to some accounts she was a young girl aged between 10 and 15; others say she was between 15 and 20. Platoon commander Moshe ordered the soldiers to seize the Arabs and search them. The soldiers found nothing. Officer Moshe then ordered the soldiers to bring the girl into the vehicle. Her shouts and screams were to no avail. Once she was inside the vehicle the soldiers scared off the two Arabs by shooting in the air. On the way back to the outpost they came across a herd of camels grazing. Officer Moshe ordered the soldiers to shoot the animals. Six camels were shot dead; their carcasses were left to rot in the field.

After the girl calmed down a bit, the soldiers exchanged a few words with her – especially Corporal David. They also talked among themselves, and the word “fuckable” came up in the conversation. The patrol returned to the outpost in the afternoon. At about the same time, another vehicle also arrived at the outpost: the battalion commander, Yehuda Drexler, was paying a visit, He was accompanied by Captain Mordechai (Motke) Ben Porat, operations officer of the Negev Region. Ben Porat eventually reached the rank of brigadier general in the Armored Corps and after his retirement from the army served as chairman of the National Parks Authority.

At the outpost, the soldiers removed the girl from the vehicle. Officer Moshe ordered that she be taken to the unused hut and a guard placed at the door. Private Avraham was designated the guard. Drexler, who noticed a certain commotion around the girl, asked what she was doing there. Officer Moshe replied that on the patrol he had encountered her and her husband, who was armed with a rifle. He told Drexler that they had killed the husband and taken the girl prisoner in order to interrogate her about the location of her tribe. Drexler authorized her interrogation but ordered that afterward she be taken back to the place where she had been seized, and released. He also asked platoon commander Moshe to ensure that the soldiers did not abuse her. Drexler and Ben Porat spent about two hours at the outpost, had lunch and left.

Shortly after their departure, Officer Moshe went out on another patrol, this time in the northern sector, in the direction of the new location of the kibbutz. After he had left, the platoon sergeant, Michael, removed the girl from the hut and pulled off the traditional garment she was wearing. He then made her stand, completely naked, under the water pipe that the soldiers used as a shower, then soaped her and rinsed her off. The pipe was outside and everyone at the outpost was able to witness the spectacle.

After the shower was over, Sergeant Michael burned the girl’s dress and dressed her in a purple jersey and a pair of khaki shorts. Now looking like a regular Palmach commando, she was taken back to the hut and placed under the guard of Private Avraham. In short order a group of soldiers gathered around the hut. They milled around the guard and demanded that he let them go inside. At first he refused, but finally relented. In fact, he was the first to go in. He spent about five minutes in the hut and emerged buttoning up his trousers. He was followed by Private Albert, who was also in the hut for about five minutes, and then Private Liba.

Liba was still in the hut when platoon commander Moshe returned from the patrol. A few soldiers shouted a warning to Liba, who ran out of the hut and disappeared. Officer Moshe apparently understood what had happened, conducted a quick debriefing, and afterward, in the dining room, was heard to say that “three soldiers raped the Arab girl.” He ordered her to be brought to the staff hut. The squad commanders, Corporal David and Corporal Gideon, were present in the hut. Officer Moshe took note of the girl’s new apparel but said nothing. She told him, in Arabic, that the soldiers “played with her.” It was obvious to Moshe what she meant. Corporal Gideon, who would be one of the main prosecution witnesses in the trial, testified that after the girl told Officer Moshe what she told him, he said to the others that she must be washed so she would be clean for fucking. Gideon, who lives in Givatayim and works as a tour guide, declined to be interviewed for this article.

At about 5 P.M., the platoon commander ordered Private Moshe, who was a barber by profession, to give the girl a haircut. That was done in the presence of the commander and the sergeant. Her hair, which had spilled down to her shoulders, was cut short and washed with kerosene. Again she was placed under the pipe, naked, before the scrutinizing eyes of the officer and the sergeant. Afterward she was dressed in the same jersey and shorts and sent back to the hut.

Then came the party, after which Officer Moshe and Sergeant Michael closeted themselves with the girl in their tent. After about half an hour, Officer Moshe ordered her taken out of the tent, because “there is a stink coming off her.” Sergeant Michael called Private David and the two of them removed the bed from the tent, with the girl lying on it in a state of unconsciousness. They carried the bed to the entrance of the hut. Michael placed the girl on the floor, went to get water and poured the water on her. He then carried her in his arms into the hut. Corporal David accompanied him.

At about 6 A.M. the next day, Private Eliahu was on guard duty and saw the girl leaving the hut. He asked her where she was going and she told him, weeping, that she wanted to see the officer. Private Eliahu showed her the way to Officer Moshe’s tent. She complained to him that the soldiers had “played with her.” He threatened to kill her and sent her back to the hut. A short time later, while shaving at the water pipe, Sergeant Michael asked the platoon commander what to do with her. Officer Moshe ordered him to execute the girl.

Michael ordered Corporal David to have two soldiers get shovels and accompany him. Michael and David removed the girl from the hut and had her get into the patrol vehicle. Just before the vehicle left the outpost, one of the soldiers shouted that he wanted back the short pants the girl was wearing. Officer Moshe ordered her to be stripped and the pants returned to the soldier. She now wore only the jersey, her lower body exposed.

Eliahu and Shimon dig a grave

The vehicle set out, driven by Corporal Shaul. Also in the vehicle were Sergeant Michael, Corporal David, the medic, and the two soldiers who were to be the gravediggers, Privates Eliahu and Shimon, with their shovels. They drove about 500 meters from the outpost. The driver, Shaul, stayed in the vehicle, while the others, with the girl, moved off a little way into the dunes. Privates Eliahu and Shimon set about digging a grave. When the girl saw what they were doing, she screamed and started to run. She ran about six meters before Sergeant Michael aimed his tommy gun at her and fired one bullet. The bullet struck the right side of her head and blood began to pour out. She fell on the spot and did not move again. The two soldiers went on digging.

Sergeant Michael went back to the vehicle. Pale and trembling, he laid down his weapon and said to Shaul, “I didn’t believe I could do something like that.” Shaul said that maybe the bullet didn’t kill her and that she was liable to lie in torment for a few hours, buried alive. He asked Michael to do him a personal mercy by going back to the girl and shooting her a few more times, to ascertain that she was dead. The sergeant did not manage to carry out that mission. Corporal David came over, took the tommy gun and fired a few bullets into the girl’s body. The pit the privates dug wasn’t very deep, only about 30 centimeters. They placed the body in the pit, covered it over with sand and returned to the outpost.

That afternoon the company commander, Captain Uri, visited the outpost. Not finding Second Lieutenant Moshe at the site, he left the written operation order that Moshe had requested with the platoon sergeant. Officer Moshe was then on his way to Be’er Sheva. It was Saturday night and he was on his way to see a movie. At the movie theater he met the battalion commander, Drexler. Drexler asked whether the Bedouin girl had been taken back to the place where she was found. Officer Moshe said she hadn’t: “They killed her,” he said, “it was a shame to waste the gas.” Drexler said nothing but the next day ordered the company commander to go to the outpost and find out exactly what happened there.

Even before he received the order, Captain Uri, who had heard rumors about the events at the outpost, asked Officer Moshe for a report about what had happened with the Arab girl. Moshe ordered Sergeant Michael to draw up the report in his handwriting. When the report was completed, Officer Moshe signed it and sent it to the company commander. The following is the report, dated August 15, 1949:

“Nirim Outpost. To: Company Commander. From: Commander, Nirim Outpost.

Re: Report on the captive

In my patrol on 12.8.49 I encountered Arabs in the territory under my command, one of them armed. I killed the armed Arab on the spot and took his weapon. I took the Arab female captive. On the first night the soldiers abused her and the next day I saw fit to remove her from the world.

Signed: Moshe, second lieutenant.”

More info here.

 CONTACT@IFAMERICANSKNEW.ORG  

The skies over Gaza City were filled with huge plumes of smoke again on Tuesday as Israel intensified its four-week offensive in the Palestinian territory. (photo)

Jabaliya refugee camp attack, humanitarian situation, hostage update, latest in the West Bank. Death toll in Gaza has passed 8,000.

This is a developing story, check back for updates

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live broadcast news from the region is here.

Latest statistics:

Palestinian death toll 8,170* (8,054 in Gaza* (including at least 3,542 children and 2,187 women – among these fatalities, 995 have not been identified yet, including at least 248 children.), and at least 116 in the West Bank); 23,256 injured (21,048 in Gaza and over 2,208 in the West Bank). It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.4 million people have been displaced; more than 1,950 missing (1,050 children) and presumed to be under rubble.

*NOTE: The official UN death toll includes 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast. IAK does not yet include those deaths since the source of the projectile is being; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation.

Israeli death toll remains near 1,400** (1 killed in West Bank, 1 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 5,431 injured.

**NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the Israeli deaths and injuries may have been caused by Israeli soldiers; additionally, since Israel has a policy of universal conscription, it is unknown how many of those attending the outdoor rave a few miles from Gaza on stolen Palestinian land were Israeli soldiers.

The names of those killed: Palestinians killed in Gaza are here (an English translation appears to be here). The names of the Israelis killed are here.https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/death-chart-650px/Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Humanitarian aid for Gaza: The Palestine Red Crescent Society said Tuesday evening it received 59 trucks. According to an Israeli spokesperson, later Tuesday evening, the number of trucke reached 70. The shipments include only water, food, and medical equipment, not fuel.

The decision was made “at the request of the US Administration.

Youth killed in West Bank: Israeli forces killed a 16-year-old boy near Hebron, after they fired live ammunition to break up an apparent march by a group of Palestinians, who were protesting the latest deadly Israeli strike on Gaza’s Jabaliya refugee camp.

Washington out of touch with Americans: Palestinian political analyst Omar Baddar says there is a “big gap between public opinion” in the United States and the position of the Biden administration:

It’s such a significant discord that the overwhelming majority of Americans now support a ceasefire, and yet it seems like the political establishment is entirely deaf to the calls of the American people.

Unfortunately it looks like Washington is beholden to the influence of private lobbying groups that they’re tying to cater to … and are operating with an outdated mindset in which you have to be pro-Israel to have a political career and survive politically.

3 massacres today: Jabaliya, al-Shati, Nuseirat refugee camps: In addition to the mass killing at Jabaliya today (see below), Israeli airstrikes also hit al-Shati and Nuseirat refugee camps.

In al-Shati, news reports describe the destruction of several residential buildings while many families were still inside. Rescue workers and volunteers are desperately attempting to save people trapped underneath rubble, often using their bare hands. Medical reports said that so far 14 bodies have arrived and scores of wounded. The number is expected to rise dramatically in the coming hours. Check back for updates.

In Nuseirat, Israeli airstrikes hit a multi-story residential building with many families inside. Because of the evacuation orders in Gaza, many families are hosting large numbers of internally displaced persons. Scores are believed to be killed and wounded. Check back for updates.

Jabaliya update: Israel claims the massive attack on the crowded refugee camp targeted a Hamas commander – a claim the Palestinian group denies.

An Israeli military spokesman told CNN that Israeli forces bombed the Jabaliya camp, where a Hamas leader was hiding, but “We cannot confirm that we killed him.”

Each of the 6 American-made bombs weighed one ton.

Update on Jabaliya refugee camp: Jabaliya resident Ragheb Aqal described the bombardment as “an earthquake” that shook the entire refugee camp. Video here.

The attack was carried out using 6 US-made bombs.

Dr Mads Gilbert, Norwegian physician and humanitarian, said,

The last number I got was about 100 killed and 300 injured. There is absolutely no doubt that this is a mass murder. The hospital system in Gaza cannot accommodate 300 new injuries…

It’s a continuation of an attack on civilian society and the diminishing capacity of the healthcare system. I wonder when [US] President Joe Biden and EU President Ursula von der Leyen are going to say “enough is enough, stop this mass killing.

Jabaliya refugee camp ‘completely destroyed’: Israeli bombardment has apparently leveled the Jabaliya refugee camp. “These buildings house hundreds of citizens,” Gaza’s civil defense director stated. “The occupation’s air force destroyed this district with six US-made bombs. It is the latest massacre caused by Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.”

It is not immediately clear how many people have been killed or wounded in the bombing, but a spokesman from the Gaza health ministry said “the number of victims may be nearly as many as the number of victims at the Ahli Baptist Hospital.

Cyberattacks: Al Jazeera Media Network (along with other networks and websites) has been subjected to an unprecedented surge of cyberattacks aimed at crippling its website and broadcasting capabilities, while covering the war on Gaza. These attacks are some of the most severe and intense that the network has encountered.

Teams at Al Jazeera have uncovered that a significant portion of them are originating from IP addresses connected to entities actively engaged in the ongoing conflict. Additionally, certain IP addresses have been found to be employing tactics to conceal their true origins.

The nature of these cyberattacks is persistent and well coordinated, evidently with the intention to cause substantial disruption. They demonstrate a systematic and methodical approach, coupled with the use of sophisticated techniques.

Gaza population news: According to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, over two thirds of Gazan fatalities have been killed in their homes.

The UN Children’s Fund’s executive director has said that more than 420 children are being killed or injured in Gaza every day.

The Gazan government’s media office reports that 116 medics and 35 journalists have been killed since the conflict erupted.

• Recommended reading: Gaza death toll reaches 8,000

Gaza humanitarian news: Water supply from Israel to southern Gaza came to a halt on 30 October for unknown reasons, while the announced repair of another pipeline from Israel to the Middle Area, ahead of its reactivation, did not take place. This follows several days of gradual improvement of water supply in central and southern Gaza following the distribution of limited amounts of fuel available in Gaza to key water facilities, enabling their reactivation. At the time of writing, no water is provided to Gaza from Israel.

Israeli air strikes have targeted warehouses that were storing food supplies and materials that civilians were using to light fires and cook meals in the Tal al-Hawa area.

The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) announced that, due to the lack of fuel, it was forced to reduce the number of ambulances it operates.The Palestinian Civil Defense has stated that the decomposition of bodies under collapsed buildings, amid the limited rescue missions, raises humanitarian and environmental concerns.

• Recommended reading: Human rights reports on Israel-Palestine (regularly updated)

Hostage news: On 30 October, as part of their ground operations, Israeli forces released one female Israeli soldier who was held captive in Gaza. This followed Hamas’ release of four civilian hostages on 20 and 23 October.

The Israeli government claims that the hostage video released yesterday is merely Hamas propaganda (see video here). Most observers find it authentic.

Hamas has suggested it will release all the captives in exchange for Israel releasing more than 6,000 Palestinians currently held in Israeli jails; Israel has dismissed the idea.

Israel has also rejected calls for a ceasefire, despite the fact that it would likely save numerous lives on all sides, perhaps prevent the violence from spreading throughout the region, and that countries around the world are calling for it.

• Recommended reading: Media bias in Western coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza

West Bank news: Six West Bank Palestinians have been killed so far today (Oct. 31), and 1 more succumbed to wounds from an Israeli settler last week. Of those killed today, at least 1 was disabled, and 2 were blocked by Israeli forces from receiving potentially lifesaving medical aid.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 122 Palestinians (including 33 children), and 1,680 others have been detained by the Israeli army in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

Since October 7, Palestinians have killed one Israeli soldier.

Since October 7, more than 100,000 Israelis in recent weeks have submitted gun license applications, compared to 42 during the same period last year.

In the West Bank, the only Palestinians allowed to own arms are members of Palestinian security forces, according to the Oslo Accords. Palestinian weaponry is extraordinarily minor compared to the Israeli military.

Nearly 1,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced from their homes in the West Bank since 7 October. This includes at least 98 Palestinian households, comprising over 800 people, driven out from 15 herding/Bedouin communities in Area C of the West Bank (Palestinian land under full Israeli control), amid intensified settler violence and access restrictions.

Another 121 Palestinians were displaced following the demolition of their homes by the Israeli authorities on grounds of lack of Israeli-issued building permits or as a punitive measure.

• Recommended reading: It’s not just Gaza – Israel is also killing scores in the West Bank

MORE RECENT NEWS ON GAZA:

• Media bias in Western coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza
• What Americans Need to Know about Gaza and Israel Right Now
• Hersh: Israel considering flooding Gaza tunnels (this would kill hostages)
• Essential facts about the Hamas-Gaza-Israel war
• Sec’y Blinken (indirectly) calls Israel’s treatment of Gazans “barbaric”
• WATCH: What was happening in Gaza BEFORE the Hamas attack…
• October 30: Today’s news on Palestine & Israel

 CONTACT@IFAMERICANSKNEW.ORG  

A rescuer looks on amid debris in the aftermath of Israeli strikes, in Gaza City, October 11, 2023. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (photo)

Current situation in Gaza; Bombing intensifies; Blackout continues; Israeli troops inside Gaza; US calls for protection of innocents; children at risk; Israeli settlers; Elon Musk assistance; Russian hostages.

This is a developing story, check back for updates

Find daily casualty figures and previous daily news updates here. For more news, go here and here. Live news is here.

Latest statistics:

Palestinian death toll 7,342* (7,232 in Gaza* (including at least 3,500 children and 1,709 women, and at least 110 in the West Bank); 20,880 injured (18,967 in Gaza and over 1,967 in the West Bank). It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties. About 1.4 million people have been displaced, more than 1,700 missing (940 children) and presumed to be under rubble. *NOTE: The official OCHA death toll includes 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast. IAK does not yet include those deaths since the source of the projectile is in dispute; although much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, experts are still looking into the incident. Israel is blocking an international investigation.

Israeli death toll remains near 1,400 (1 killed in West Bank, 1 in Gaza), including 32 Americans, and 5,431 injured. (It is unclear how many of the Israeli deaths and injuries may have been caused by Israeli soldiers.)

The names of the Palestinians killed are here (scroll down; we are working on obtaining an English translation), and the names of the Israelis are here.https://israelpalestinetimeline.org/death-chart-650px/Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org

Israel says its ground troops are fighting inside Gaza as it subjects the besieged territory to the heaviest bombardment since the war began. Hamas says its fighters have confronted Israeli troops in various locations.

International media and aid agencies say they lost contact with staff in Gaza amid a near-total communications blackout.

US quietly expands secret military base in Israel 

As Americans ponder the possibility of being pushed into another disastrous regional war in the Middle East, it appears that we may already be investing in one, as the Intercept reports:

Hamas attacked Israel, the Pentagon awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to build U.S. troop facilities for a secret base it maintains deep within Israel’s Negev desert, just 20 miles from Gaza. Code-named “Site 512,” the longstanding U.S. base is a radar facility that monitors the skies for missile attacks on Israel [from Iran].

Though President Joe Biden and the White House insist that there are no plans to send U.S. troops to Israel amid its war on Hamas, a secret U.S. military presence in Israel already exists. And the government contracts and budget documents show it is evidently growing.

Read the full article here.

Medical casualties

According to the Gaza Ministry of Health, at least 110 medical staff in the Gaza Strip have been killed by Israeli shelling and air raids since October 7, and more than 100 have been injured.

50 ambulances have been attacked, of which half are no longer functioning.

12 hospitals and 46 primary healthcare clinics have shut down because of damage from bombing or lack of fuel, and 24 hospitals – with a bed occupancy of 2,000 – have been told to evacuate in northern Gaza.

OCHA news

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that Israel permitted 10 trucks full of humanitarian aid into Gaza on Friday, for a total of 84 trucks since October 21. Prior to the hostilities, an average of 500 truckloads entered Gaza every working day.

None of the aid trucks that have entered thus far contained urgently needed fuel. Consequently, humanitarian actors have been forced to drastically limit the use of fuel and prioritize the most essential activities.

For the first time since the start of hostilities, a small team of medical specialists, of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), was allowed into Gaza.

Over 40 per cent of Gaza’s education facilities have been hit since hostilities started, including 38 schools destroyed and/or severely damaged; 75 which sustained moderate damage; and 108 with minor damage. In the West Bank, 150-200 schools report daily disruptions due to movement restrictions and settler harassment.

After voting against truce, US envoy to UN says ‘innocent Palestinians must be protected’

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US ambassador to the UN, has called for protecting Palestinian civilians, citing the killing of family members of Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh in an Israeli air attack.

Thomas-Greenfield stated, “The lives of innocent Palestinians must be protected…The lives of UN personnel and humanitarian workers and journalists must be protected. We mourn the loss of every single innocent life in this crisis. Every single one.”

The US has pledged to support Israel militarily and diplomatically throughout the war, and President Biden has asked Congress for $14bn in aid for the country. Israel already receives $13.1 million per day from the US due to the influence of the Israel lobby.

Full Israeli ground invasion would threaten more than 1 million children: Aid group

As Israeli forces expand ground operations in Gaza, Save the Children says children will “bear the brunt” of Israel’s intensified attacks.

“While the scale and nature of this operation remain unclear, in the event of a full ground incursion, more than one million children’s lives – nearly half of the 2.3 million population of Gaza – will be on the line,” the group said in a statement.

Jason Lee, the group’s country director in the occupied Palestinian territories, stressed that Palestinian children and their parents are experiencing “pure horror.”

“The Gaza Strip is a small, densely populated urban environment, with no way out. Any military ground operation inside Gaza puts children in immediate danger and has devastating impacts on access to healthcare, water, shelter and food,” he said.

Journalists at risk

Over the past three weeks, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has documented the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict since CPJ began tracking in 1992. From October 7 to October 27, 2023, at least 29 journalists were among more than 8,000 dead on both sides since the war began.

This deadly toll is coupled with harassment, detentions and other reporting obstructions that include the West Bank and Israel.

Israeli settler violence and threats

A Palestinian man in the occupied West Bank was shot dead by an Israeli settler as he harvested olives.

Bilal Muhammed Saleh, 40, was shot in the chest; his death was confirmed by the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry, and by military sources. Saleh was part of a group harvesting olives outside the village near Nablus when they were attacked by settlers.

There is no immediate comment on the incident from the Israel Defense Forces.

In another part of the West Bank, Palestinians returning to their cars after harvesting olives found threatening leaflets under their windshield wipers. The leaflets said, in Arabic, “You wanted war, wait for the great Nakba [the ‘catastrophe,’ in which 750,000 Palestinians were ethnically cleansed in 1948]” and warned that it was “their last chance to flee to Jordan in an orderly fashion before we forcefully expel you from our holy lands bequeathed to us by God.”

Elon Musk promises communication assistance

After virtually all communication in and out of Gaza was cut off on Friday, the hashtag #starlinkforgaza went viral, calling for Elon Musk to provide internet access to Gaza via his Starlink satellite. Musk replied on X (formerly Twitter), “Starlink will support connectivity to internationally recognized aid organizations in Gaza.”

8 Russian hostages may be released

Hamas is reportedly looking for eight people, identified by Russia as possibly being among the hostages in Gaza, and is ready to free them. All of them have dual citizenship.

Hamas reportedly said, “We are very attentive to this list and we will handle it carefully because we look at Russia as our closest friend…Now we are looking for those people. It’s difficult, but we are looking. And as soon as we find them, we will release them. Despite the difficulties due to the current situation.”

MORE RECENT NEWS ON GAZA:

• Gaza-Israel: Latest news and statistics (ongoing updates)
• What Americans Need to Know about Gaza and Israel Right Now
• Hersh: Israel considering flooding Gaza tunnels (this would kill hostages)
• Essential facts about the Hamas-Gaza-Israel war
• Sec’y Blinken (indirectly) calls Israel’s treatment of Gazans “barbaric”
• WATCH: What was happening in Gaza BEFORE the Hamas attack…
• It’s not just Gaza – Israel is also killing scores in the West Bank