Above photo: Palestinians inspect the area after an Israeli attack hit the al-Zahraa School in the east of Gaza City, on August 08, 2024. Hadi Daoud/APA Images.
Israel Bombs Two More Schools In Latest Massacres.
A reported 15 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes on the Abdel Fatah Hamoud and the al-Zahraa schools in Gaza City. With these latest massacres, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks on Thursday alone rose to at least 56.
Casualties
- 39,699 + killed* and at least 91,722 wounded in the Gaza Strip. The identities of 32,280 of the killed have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the killed, and 2,770 elderly, as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
- 620+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This include 140 children.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- 690 Israeli soldiers and officers have been recognized as killed, and 4096 as wounded by the Israeli army, since October 7.***
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on August 8, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of August 8.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahranot reported on August 4, 2024 that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000 including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Israel has killed 116 Palestinians and wounded 324 across Gaza since Thursday, August 1, raising the death toll since October 7 to 39,699 and the number of wounded to 91,722, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
- Israel continues to strike displaced camps in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, killing 24 in the past 24 hours alone.
- The Israeli army orders Palestinians to evacuate Beit Hanoun north of Gaza City.
- The Palestinian Civil Defense says that Israel concentrates its bombing on displaced camps and that Israeli bombings caused widespread fires in Beit Lahia, north of the strip.
- UNRWA chief calls for allowing fast delivery of 1.3 polio vaccines to Gaza amidst warnings of the disease spreading.
- Hamas elects Yahya Sinwar as head of its politburo succeeding Ismail Haniyeh.
- Hamas says that its senior leader Khalil Al-Hayeh will continue to lead ceasefire negotiations.
- US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says that a ceasefire deal is in the last phase of negotiations.
- Netanyahu’s office says in a statement that it has not received a response from Hamas to its latest deal proposal.
- The UN calls for accountability for Israeli soldiers who abused Palestinian detainees.
- West Bank: Israel kills 12 Palestinians in a single day in separate incidents on Tuesday.
- Lebanon: Hezbollah attacks two military bases of Israeli elite units in the western Galilee in response to Israeli bombings on southern Lebanese towns.
- Lebanon: One Israeli killed and 17 wounded in Nahariya, near Haifa, during Hezbollah’s drone attack. The Israeli army said the explosion in Nahariya was due to an iron dome round malfunction.
- Norway says that it will be obliged to arrest Netanyahu in case he visits its soil if the ICC issues an arrest warrant against him.
- Israel revokes accreditation of Norwegian diplomats in Palestinian territories.
- Norway says that Israel’s revocation of its envoy’s diplomatic status ‘will have consequences.”
Israel Bombs Two Schools Sheltering Displaced Palestinians In Gaza City
At least 15 Palestinians were killed earlier on Thursday, August 8, 2024, in two new massacres by Israeli forces in Gaza, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society reported.
According to reports, Israeli aircraft conducted separate strikes on the Abdel Fatah Hamoud and the al-Zahraa schools in eastern Gaza City. Both schools sheltered Palestinian families displaced by previous bombings.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said that 15 killed Palestinians and dozens of wounded were transferred to the Baptist Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza City. The Palestinian Civil Defense also reported that three Palestinians were killed in a strike on the Zeitoun neighborhood in the city.
The Palestinian civil defense said earlier this week that Israeli forces had been systematically attacking sheltering centers. The Palestinian presidency reacted to Thursday’s massacre in a statement calling on the international community to “intervene and force Israel to halt its aggression on the Palestinian people.”
With the latest massacres in Gaza City, the number of Palestinians killed by Israeli strikes on Thursday alone rises to at least 56.
Hamas Elects Yahya Sinwar To Succeed Ismail Haniyeh
Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, was elected as the new president of the movement’s politburo and the successor of Ismail Haniyeh, who Israel assassinated in Tehran a week ago.
Hamas said that its senior leader, Khalil al-Hayeh, will continue to lead the ceasefire negotiations, by Sinwar’s decision.
The spokesperson of the Israeli army said that the new position of Sinwar will not stop Israel from hunting him down. Palestinian factions welcomed Sinwar’s election in separate statements and considered it a sign of Hamas’s unity.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Sinwar must accept a ceasefire deal.
Blinken added that the ceasefire talks reached their final phase before the recent escalation – which was provoked by Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s leader and Hezbollah’s top commander- and that he is confident that it will be concluded.
Netanyahu, for his part, stated that Israel has not yet received a response from Hamas to its latest deal proposal. Last week, Israel’s negotiating team returned from Cairo after differing with Netanyahu, as reported by Israeli media.
On Thursday, the Israeli daily Times of Israel reported that three Israeli officials whom it did not name said that the Israeli negotiating team in Qatar is losing credibility. According to the quoted officials, Israeli negotiators had accepted several points of the deal but returned and opposed them after discussing them with Netanyahu.
Meanwhile, fighting intensified in the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Palestinian factions launched a rocket barrage on the city of Ashdod, to the north of the Gaza Strip’s separation line. Israeli media reported a fire in Ashdod and that shelters were opened. The rocket attack was the first of its kind in months. The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – PIJ claimed responsibility for the attack. The Israeli army later ordered Palestinians in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, to evacuate.
On Tuesday, the armed wing of Hamas released footage of an ambush against Israeli soldiers, showing an IED explosion, followed by soldiers carrying four of their own to armored vehicles.
On Wednesday, Israeli strikes killed 19 Palestinians across the strip in separate strikes, one of them targeted a tent camp for displaced families in the Mawasi area in Khan Younis. The Palestinian civil defense said that Israeli strikes have been systematically targeting displaced camps. Last week, Israeli air strikes targeted three schools sheltering Palestinians in less than 48 hours, killing 47 Palestinians.
Hezbollah-Israel Fighting Accelerates As Both Sides Exchange Threats
Tensions continued to rise between Lebanon and Israel as the latter braces for a retaliatory strike in response to Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah’s top commander Fouad Shukr in Beirut a week ago. On Tuesday, Hezbollah Secretary General Hasan Nasrallah said in a speech that his group will “definitely respond,” adding that making Israel wait for the response is part of the response itself.
Israel has been making preparations for a large attack, mobilizing troops to the north and preparing underground shelters for members of its government.
On Tuesday, Hezbollah attacked the headquarters of two Israeli elite units in the western Galilee near Haifa with drones, while an object fell and exploded in Nahariya, wounding at least 17 Israelis. The Israeli military later announced that the explosion was caused by an iron dome round malfunction. Netanyahu said on Wednesday that Israel is “ready for defense and attack.”
Since Wednesday, Hezbollah announced that its fighters conducted nine attacks on Israeli positions across the borders, and released footage of a drone attack on an Israeli armored vehicle in the occupied Lebanese Shabaa farms. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes targeted the Lebanese towns of Kafr Kila, Azziyeh, and Yarin, wounding three Lebanese.
Meanwhile, Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian said on Thursday that Iran’s response to Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran “will be costly for Israel, but it will be for the good of the region.” Pezeshkian added that “Israel is not ready to go to war with Iran.”