Above photo: Palestinians search among the rubble of the Salah al-Din school following an Israeli airstrike on the displacement center on August 21, 2024. Hadi Daoud /APA Images.
Israel continues to bomb several school shelters across Gaza, killing dozens of displaced civilians.
Meanwhile, Israel’s internal security chief said settler violence “threatens Israel’s security.”
Casualties
- 40,256 + killed* and at least 93,144 wounded in the Gaza Strip. The identities of 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly, as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
- 632+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes 140 children.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- 693 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 15, 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 15.
*** 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 Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 40,256, with 93,144 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
- Israel kills at least 38 Palestinians in new bombing on Wednesday on Gaza UNRWA school.
- Naser Hospital in Khan Younis demands international community to pressure Israel to let in medical supplies to Gaza.
- Round of ceasefire set to continue in Cairo despite low expectations; Israeli officials call upon citizens to lower expectations regarding chance of ceasefire deal.
- Israel’s head of internal intelligence warns against Israeli settler violence in the West Bank, says Ben-Gvir rhetoric emboldens settlers; Ben-Gvir fires back, calls upon Netanyahu to expel internal intelligence head.
- Hezbollah targets Ramat David military airbase.
- Israel strikes eight Lebanese towns along southern Lebanese border.
Israel to resume talks with mediators this week
ِAn Israeli negotiating team will head to Egypt in the coming days in order to resume the latest round of ceasefire talks that started last week, Israeli media sources reported on Thursday. The team will hold talks with Egyptian and Qatari mediators and with U.S. officials over the status of the Philadelphi corridor and the Rafah land crossing.
U.S. Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield addressed the UN Security Council on Thursday, stating that a ceasefire deal was “in sight,” despite evidence that Netanyahu is once again aiming to sabotage the talks by insisting on holding onto the Philadelphi and Netzarim corridors, hence continuing to occupy Gaza and maintain an indefinite military presence in the coastal enclave.
The coming round of talks follows last week’s failure to make a breakthrough in the ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. The talks ended with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visit to Israel and Egypt, in which he said that Israel had accepted the proposed deal and that the ball was in Hamas’s court.
On Tuesday, Netanyahu said in public that Israel would never withdraw from the Philadelphi corridor along Gaza’s border with Egypt and that there might not be a ceasefire deal after all. Netanyahu’s insistence on maintaining Israeli forces in the Philadelphi corridor has been the main obstacle to reaching a deal in the most recent round of negotiations, according to Israeli officials quoted by the Israeli daily Maariv.
Netanyahu introduced the demand to maintain forces in Philadelphi in July after Hamas accepted a deal presented by Biden, who claimed that it was an Israeli proposal.
However, Blinken’s remarks on Tuesday at the end of his visit to Israel claimed that it was Hamas that had not accepted a deal yet. This drew criticism from Hamas and other Palestinian factions, who accused the U.S. of complying with Netanyahu’s will to continue the war rather than pressuring him to end it.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Israel bombed another UNRWA school sheltering civilians, in Deir al-Balah, killing some 38 Palestinians, including children. The majority of Gaza’s population has been crowded into 20-25 square kilometers, facing a shortage of food and medical supplies and the spread of diseases like Polio and Hepatitis-B.
Head of the Israeli intelligence warns against settler violence in West Bank
Israeli settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank has become a threat to Israel’s security according to Ronen Bar, head of the Israeli Internal Security Service, or Shin Bet.
Bar delivered his message to Netanyahu and Israeli war minister Yoav Gallant according to Israel’s Channel 12. The intelligence chief warned, according to reports, that settlers’ violence was enabled by the complacency of the police and encouraged by statements made by Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir. Bar accused the settlers of wanting to destabilize Israel’s security system in the West Bank, which would have “catastrophic” consequences. Ben-Gvir fired back by calling on Netanyahu to expel the head of the Shin Bet from his position.
Bar’s remarks came days after around 100 Israeli settlers attacked the Palestinian village of Jit, near Qalqilya, killing one Palestinian and burning several cars and property.
Settler violence, which has been increasing in its degree of organization and brutality, has targeted rural Palestinian communities in particular. Since October 7, settlers have ethnically cleansed the residents of at least 20 Palestinian Bedouin communities in the West Bank.