Above photo: Palestinians mourn the death of 9-year-old Mira Khreis, who succumbed to her injuries following an Israeli airstrike on displaced persons’ tents in the Al-Suwariha area west of Nuseirat. Her father and mother were martyred in the attack, and her twin brother was injured, suffering moderate wounds. He is currently receiving treatment at the Martyrs of Al-Aqsa Hospital, in Dair El-Balah, on November 13, 2024. Loai Abu Khousa /apaimages.
Israel and the U.S. are reportedly preparing another ceasefire proposal in Lebanon.
Human Rights Watch joins the chorus of international rights groups and experts condemning Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza.
Casualties
- 43,736 + killed* and at least 103,370 wounded in the Gaza Strip, including 59% women, children and elderly, as of October 21, 2024.*
- 783+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes at least 146 children.**
- 3,386 Lebanese killed and more than 14,417 wounded by Israeli forces since October 8, 2023***
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,189.
- The Israeli army recognizes the death of 890 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 5,065 others 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 November 14, 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 November 13, 2024.
*** This figure was released by the Lebanese Health Ministry, updated on November 14, 2024. The counting is based on the Lebanese official date for the beginning of “the Israeli aggression on Lebanon,” when Israel began airstrikes on Lebanese territory after the beginning of Hezbollah’s “support front” for Gaza.
**** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot 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 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been 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 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
Gaza
- Israel kills 27 Palestinians in multiple airstrikes across the Gaza Strip in the past 24 hours, most of them in the north of Gaza.
- The UN Office of Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs – OCHA says on Thursday that Israel blocked six attempts to deliver life-saving aid to the north of Gaza in the past two days.
- The Euro-Mediterranean human rights observatory reports a new Israeli massacre, on Wednesday, in northern Gaza city, causing 70 casualties killed or wounded, after an Israeli strike on Palestinians waiting for announced aid trucks to arrive.
- Israeli forces detonate residential buildings in Jabalia as part of its offensive on the refugee camp, ongoing since October 6.
- Israeli forces reportedly raid multiple shelter centers in Beit Lahia in the north of Gaza and force displaced Palestinians to leave south.
- The director of the Kamal Adwan hospital in Beit Lahia says that new patients lose their lives every hour due to the lack of medical supplies.
- The director of the Kamal Adwan hospital says that new cases of severe malnutrition have been registered among children in the hospital due to the lack of food.
- Human Rights Watch released a new report on Wednesday, describing Israel’s “systematic” and “widespread” displacement of Palestinians in Gaza, accusing it of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.
Lebanon
- Israel bombs Beirut’s southern district multiple times on Thursday.
- Israel announces the second phase of its ground invasion of the south of Lebanon.
- The Israeli army confirms 6 Israeli soldiers were killed in a single combat event on Wednesday against Hezbollah’s fighters in the south of Lebanon.
- Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, Haifa and Nahariya with rocket barrages, killing two Israelis in Nahariya.
- Hezbollah rockets target several Israeli military airbases in Haifa and the Galilee; the group also announced launching a drone attack on Israel’s war ministry building in Tel Aviv, with no Israeli comment.
- Axios reports that Israel’s strategic affairs minister and US officials discussed a ceasefire deal to be later presented to Lebanon.
- The Lebanese government says it will not accept any deal which allows Israel freedom of action in Lebanon.
West Bank
- Israeli settlers attack Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest in the villages of Jalud in Nablus and in Azbet Shoufa, near Tulkarem
- Israeli forces raid the Jalazoun refugee camp north of Ramallah and arrest several Palestinians.
- Israeli forces demolished another house in the northern Jordan Valley on Wednesday.
- Israeli forces demolished Palestinian homes in the Jordan Valley.
- Israel kills four Palestinians aged between 18 and 38 in the West Bank in separate raids in the West Bank.
Human Rights Watch: Israel Is Committing Ethnic Cleansing And Crimes Against Humanity
Israel is committing “systematic,” “widespread” displacement of the Palestinian population in the Gaza Strip, the international human rights group, Human Rights Watch, said in a report on Wednesday. According to the report, Israel’s actions may amount to a crime against humanity.
The group dismissed Israeli claims about Palestinian fighters hiding among civilians, and said that “There is no plausible imperative military reason to justify Israel’s mass displacement of nearly all of Gaza’s population, often multiple times,” indicating that “from the first days of the hostilities, senior officials in the Israeli government and the war cabinet have declared their intent to displace the Palestinian population of Gaza.”
The report comes on the heels of declarations by the chief of European diplomacy, Josep Borrell, who also used the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza.
On Wednesday Borrell proposed that member states suspend a political dialogue with Israel, citing “serious concerns about possible breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza,” adding “thus far, these concerns have not been sufficiently addressed by Israel”.
These reactions come as Israel continues its siege of the northern part of the Gaza Strip for the 40th day, during which it put three hospitals out of service, destroyed virtually all infrastructure, prevented access to food or medicine, and killed more than 1,000 Palestinians.
Last week, a spokesperson of the Israeli army, Yitzahak Cohen, admitted in public press remarks that his army had almost completed the “evacuation” of most civilians, and that they will never be allowed back.
Before October 7, there were 700,000 Palestinians living in the north of Gaza. The current number is estimated between 80,000 and 100,000, after all public services were destroyed by Israel, including ambulance services and civil defense.
In the beginning of the assault on Gaza, a year ago, Israel forced most of the population of the north of Gaza and Gaza City to leave south, emptying most of the north while overcrowding the south. Israel’s continuous insistence on not allowing displaced Palestinians in the south to return to their homes in the north of the strip has been a major disagreement point, which prevented reaching a ceasefire deal last July.