[1]
ELECTRONIC INTIFADA
HAMAS FIGHTERS FROM GAZA STORM ISRAEL,CAPTURE AND KILL
SOLDIERS
7 OCTOBER 2023
Hamas launched a surprise operation on an unprecedented scale against Israel early Saturday, which the resistance group’s military chief Muhammad Deif said was codenamed “Al-Aqsa Flood.”
The day marks a tremendous strategic failure and defeat for Israel, even as it bombs Gaza in retaliation.
After hours of public silence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Hamas would pay an “unprecedented price” as fighting continued in several locations near Gaza between Palestinian resistance fighters and Israeli forces.
Palestinian fighters infiltrated Israel from Gaza as thousands of rockets were launched from the territory over multiple hours.
Hamas claims to have captured dozens of Israelis.
Palestinian civilians entered Israel from Gaza as well. The vast majority of Gaza’s population of more than two million people are refugees from lands around the periphery of the coastal enclave, which has been under a punishing Israeli siege for 16 years and military occupation for more than a half-century.
Video shows Palestinians bulldozing the militarized border fence along the periphery of Gaza, which is commonly described as an open-air prison due to Israel’s siege:
Videos recorded from Israeli communities near the Gaza boundary showed unprecedented scenes of armed fighters spread out through the streets.
Other videos appeared to show an injured or killed Israeli soldier being pulled out of a vehicle in Gaza. Another graphic video was said to show the body of an Israeli on the back of a truck in Gaza.
Numerous videos show Israeli soldiers and possibly civilians detained by Palestinians.
Additional videos showed Palestinian fighters with what appears to be a captured Israeli military vehicle in Gaza after returning from the surprise attack as an ecstatic crowd gathers around them:
At least one Israeli tank was destroyed and at least one Israeli soldier was shown on video being pulled out of a tank and taken into Gaza.
A man seen in a video standing near the burning weapon claimed that its entire crew was captured by Palestinian fighters:
Palestinian resistance fighters completely took over an Israeli military base. Videos filmed by resistance fighters and broadcast on Al Jazeera and circulated online show dead soldiers, abandoned positions, Israeli armored vehicles and tanks.
Video disseminated by the military wing of Hamas shows the bodies of a dozen Israeli soldiers.
Any surviving Israeli soldiers appear to have fled the base, a substantial installation fortified with concrete walls.
Carrying only light weapons, Palestinian forces riding mopeds appear to have executed an astonishing tactical success against what is described as one of the world’s strongest militaries.
The military wing of Hamas also published a video of its elite “Saqr” squadron deploying using paramotors, a type of light aircraft. The unit is said to have taken part in today’s assault although the video may show a training operation filmed earlier:
Another video shows a captured man, seemingly not seriously harmed, in a vehicle in Gaza.
Palestinian fighters reportedly infiltrated a police station in Israel, where a shootout was underway at around 9 am local time.
Four people were reported killed in rocket strikes in Bedouin villages in southern Israel and one Israeli woman was killed as a result of rocket fire.
The Bedouin villages where people were killed most likely did not have shelters.
Israel declared a state of emergency in the south and center of the country, including Tel Aviv and Israeli media appear to be subject to military censorship.
Resistance decided to act
Muhammad Deif, the Hamas military chief, said that “we have decided to put an end to all of the occupation’s crimes,” including attacks on worshippers and provocations at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem.
Ismail Haniyeh, the head of Hamas’ politburo, said that provocations at al-Aqsa in recent days were the principal reason for the surprise attack.
Deif also said that calls for a prisoner exchange “were met with refusal, and daily violations continue in the West Bank.”
Deif also announced that “starting from today, security coordination ends,” referring to the Palestinian Authority functioning as a policing arm of the Israeli occupation by cracking down on resistance activists in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority has engaged with Saudi Arabia to leverage a normalization deal between the Gulf kingdom and Israel pushed by the US, a process rejected by Hamas and the rest of the resistance axis.
Deif urged Palestinians in Jerusalem and in Israel to join the fight and for “Islamic resistance in Lebanon, Iraq, Syria and Yemen” to march towards Palestine.
Some mosques in East Jerusalem reportedly urged Palestinians to mobilize.
Hamas refrained from engaging in direct battle with Israel after it assassinated three Islamic Jihad leaders in surprise airstrikes on Gaza earlier this year.
But Hamas considers Jerusalem, with al-Aqsa at its heart, as a national cause for which it has gone to war with Israel in the past, most recently in May 2021.
Yoav Gallant, Israel’s defense minister, said on Saturday that Israel “will win this war.”
He added that Israeli “soldiers are fighting the enemy at all the infiltration sites,” but residents of Israeli communities infiltrated by Palestinians told media that they had been abandoned by the authorities.
Kobi Shabtai, Israel’s chief of police, said on Saturday morning that “we’re in a state of war. We are under a massive attack from the Gaza Strip” with more than 21 scenes of confrontation in the south of the country.
As Israel’s security cabinet convened on Saturday, Palestinians in Gaza stocked up on provisions in anticipation of yet another major military operation in the territory:
Hundreds of Palestinians living along Gaza’s boundary with Israel fled their homes, fearing Israeli strikes:
Massive failure
Images of Palestinians taking the vaunted Israeli military totally by surprise will be seen in Israel and around the world as a massive strategic failure no matter what Israel does next.
It comes almost 50 years to the day after Egypt inflicted an historic strategic surprise. On 6 October 1973, Egyptian forces executed a massive amphibious assault across the Suez Canal, aiming to liberate the Sinai Peninsula which Israel had occupied along with the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights in 1967.
Defying expectations, Egypt breached the so-called Bar-Lev Line, military fortifications Israel considered impregnable, but which were overrun by Egyptian forces in a matter of hours.
Although Israel managed – with the help of a huge American military airlift – to turn the tide of the war and re-occupy most of the liberated Egyptian territory, the recriminations and sense of failure ultimately led to the end of Prime Minister Golda Meir’s tenure and political career.
The events of Saturday are already being described as a “colossal failure” by Israeli analysts.
On Saturday morning, Eli Maron, a former Israeli navy chief, said during a television interview: “All of Israel is asking itself: Where is the [Israeli military], where is the police, where is the security?”
“It’s a colossal failure; the hierarchies have simply failed, with vast consequences,” Maron added.
The Palestinian resistance has blown away all expectations of its capabilities, despite being at a massive resource disadvantage compared to Israel.
Even as the military situation unfolds, it is already clear that 7 October 2023 will have profound political implications across the region, especially as Israel and Saudi Arabia appear closer than ever to formalizing their longstanding secret ties.
Netanyahu has been fond of saying that normalization with Riyadh would be a “quantum leap” that would transform the region in Israel’s favor.
Last month, he asserted that a deal with the Saudis would “change the Middle East forever.” It would, he said, bring down “walls of enmity” and create “a corridor of energy pipelines, rail lines, fiber optic cables, between Asia through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and the United Arab Emirates.”
The shocking and unprecedented scenes unfolding now have dashed that fantasy.
One unmistakable message that Hamas is sending is that whether or not Arab regimes like Saudi Arabia normalize their relations with Israel, the question of Palestine cannot be brushed under the carpet.
The Palestinian people refuse to be buried under Israeli tyranny, out of sight and out of mind forever, while the region’s regimes throw a party.
END
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
ISRAEL/OPT:
CIVILIANS ON BOTH SIDES PAYING THE PRICE
OF UNPRECEDENTED ESCALATION IN HOSTILITIES
BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA AS DEATH TOLLS MOUNT
7 OCTOBER 2023
Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups must make every effort to protect the lives of civilians in today’s outbreak of fighting in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said Amnesty International amid a mounting civilian death toll.
Today’s escalation in violence began with Hamas firing rockets into Israel and launching an unprecedented operation by its fighters into southern Israel.
“We are deeply alarmed by the mounting civilian death tolls in Gaza, Israel and the occupied West Bank and urgently call on all parties to the conflict to abide by international law and make every effort to avoid further civilian bloodshed. Under international humanitarian law all sides in a conflict have a clear obligation to protect the lives of civilians caught up in the hostilities,” said Agnès Callamard Amnesty International’s Secretary General.
“Deliberately targeting civilians, carrying out disproportionate attacks, and indiscriminate attacks which kill or injure civilians are war crimes. Israel has a horrific track record of committing war crimes with impunity in previous wars on Gaza. Palestinian armed groups from Gaza, must refrain from targeting civilians and using indiscriminate weapons, as they have done in the past, and most intensively in this event, acts amounting to war crimes.”
Israel’s retaliatory attack on Gaza has killed at least 232 people and injured nearly 1,700, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Israeli media have reported at least 250 deaths and Israel’s health ministry reported over 1,500 injured in attacks by Palestinian armed groups.
Israeli military confirmed to media that Israeli civilians, as well as soldiers have been abducted by Palestinian armed groups and taken hostage. The abduction of civilians and hostage-taking are prohibited by international law and can constitute war crimes. All civilians held hostage must be released immediately, unconditionally, and unharmed. All those held captive must be treated humanely, in accordance with international law and granted medical treatment.
The root causes of these repeated cycles of violence must be addressed as a matter of urgency. This requires upholding international law and ending Israel’s 16-year-long illegal blockade on Gaza, and all other aspects of Israel’s system of apartheid imposed on all Palestinians. The Israeli government must refrain from inciting violence and tensions in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, especially around religious sites. Amnesty International calls on the international community to urgently intervene to protect civilians and prevent further suffering.
In 2021, the International Criminal Court opened an investigation into the situation in the State of Palestine. Its mandate includes crimes under international law committed by all parties in the current fighting, as well as the crime against humanity of apartheid against Palestinians.
Background
Since 2007, Israel has imposed an air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip collectively punishing its entire population.
In June, Amnesty International published its investigation into the May 2023 offensive on the Gaza strip, finding that Israel had unlawfully destroyed Palestinian homes, often without military necessity in what amounts to a form of collective punishment against the civilian population.
In its February 2022 report, Amnesty International set out how Israeli forces have committed in Gaza (as well as in West Bank and Israel) acts prohibited by the Rome Statute and Apartheid Convention, as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population with aim of maintaining a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians, thereby constituting the crime against humanity of apartheid.
END
[2]
ALJAZEERA
ISRAELI FLAGS ADORN EU BUILDINGS AFTER HAMAS
ATTACKS. IS THE BLOC UNITED?
11 OCTOBER 2023
An EU official says the bloc’s response to the Israel-Hamas war is a sign of hypocrisy, as divisions emerge.
Brussels, Belgium – After Hamas’s unprecedented attacks in Israel, the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, the Eiffel Tower in Paris and the Bulgarian parliament were among buildings across the European Union that were lit up in the white and blue of Israel’s flag.
In other demonstrations of solidarity, the European Commission and European Parliament hoisted Israeli flags outside their headquarters in Brussels.
On Wednesday, as part of a European Parliament vigil led by its president, Roberta Metsola, a minute’s silence was held to commemorate the Israeli victims and the country’s national anthem was played through speakers.
The Hamas assault on Saturday set off a major new war, with Israel now preparing a ground invasion of Gaza, having blockaded the besieged strip. More than 2,000 people on both sides have been reported killed since Saturday.
“This is a strong message against terrorism in Israel,” an Austrian tourist in Paris said of the Eiffel Tower display.
“So what if it is the EU stance on the conflict now?” said the woman, who requested anonymity.
But some said the gestures do not represent them.
“As a European citizen, I felt that my voice was erased through that action,” Elena, from Italy, told Al Jazeera.
“I was shocked. Especially when I saw [the Israeli flag] on the EU Parliament building. It’s the house of democratically elected representatives of Europe, many of whom do not simply ‘stand with Israel’.
“I was also shocked at how quickly the EU institutions put up the flags, I think it was even faster than Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Considering the incredibly complex situation of Israel and Palestine, I think this rapid step is incredibly irresponsible.”
In the diplomatic corridors of Brussels, too, debates over the flag were heated.
THE STANDARD
LANDMARKS AROUND THE WORLD LIT UP
IN BLUE AND WHITE IN SOLIDARITY WITH
ISRAEL
10 OCTOBER 2023
Many of the world’s most recognisable landmarks have been lit in the colours of Israel’s flag in a show of solidarity following Hamas’ deadly attack.
In London, the Star of David flag was projected onto 10 Downing St while the entire Palace of Westminster was covered in blue and white lights.
The White House in Washington DC and New York’s Empire State Building also displayed the colours.
Meanwhile, Germans in Berlin gathered in the rain to see the Brandenburg Gate exhibit the Israeli flag.
The iconic Eiffel Tower shone blue and white lights across Paris with Sydney’s Opera House doing the the same in Australia.
Ukraine has also thrown its support behind Israel, with the Star of David flag illuminated on an advertising screen in Kyiv.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said: “Israel has the full right to defend itself against terror. As any other state. And it’s critical that the whole world responds to terror in a unified and principled manner.”
Rishi Sunak also posted about the “UK’s steadfast support as Israel defends itself against these attacks” on Sunday.
The Prime Minister visited Finchley United Synagogue, in north London, for a vigil with local Jewish communities on Monday night.
He wrote: “The people who support Hamas are fully responsible for this appalling attack. They are not militants. They are not freedom fighters. They are terrorists.”
The death toll has risen to more than 900 in Israel and more than 680 in Gaza, after Hamas started firing thousands of rockets on Saturday morning.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned his people to brace for war on Sunday, before launching airstrikes on the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Israel announced, on Tuesday, it has retaken control of Gaza’s border fence, reporting no new infiltrations by militants since Monday.
The Western world, where Hamas is classified as a terrorist organisation in several countries, has rallied behind Israel with the US sending military supplies.
Tensions have been high in London over the last few days, with three people arrested during protests and vigils over the conflict.
Pro-Palestine activists gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Kensington on Monday night with chants from the crowd including “Israel is a terrorist state”, “Free Palestine” and “Allahu Akhbar”.
Foreign Secretary James Cleverly has called for a pause to the demonstrations, saying they were causing concern for the Jewish community, “who have often been on the receiving end of prejudice and threats of violence”.
POLITICO
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT WON’T FLY ISRAEL
FLAG
12 OCTOBER 2023
Scottish parliamentary corporate body declined the request.
LONDON — The devolved Scottish parliament has been criticized by the country’s Conservative lawmakers, after its authority refused to fly Israel’s flag outside the building as a gesture of solidarity.
The Holyrood parliament’s managing authority declined a request from the Scottish Conservatives to fly the Israeli flag following surprise attacks by Hamas on Israel from Gaza at the weekend.
“A request was received to fly the Israeli flag. The [Scottish parliamentary corporate body] considered the request and approval was not given,” a spokesperson for the SPCB, made up of four MSPs plus the parliament’s presiding officer, said.
“In this case there was a majority view and no vote took place,” they added.
The Israeli flag was projected onto the U.K.’s House of Commons building in London, as well as on No. 10 Downing Street, the office of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The Telegraph newspaper reported that the Scottish body had also rejected calls to light the parliament in the blue and white of Israel’s flag.
The decision came as Scottish Green MSP Maggie Chapman — who is one of the five MSPs on the SPCB committee that made the call — came under fire over a controversial post on X, formerly Twitter, about the conflict.
Though Chapman is only a backbench lawmaker, the left-wing Greens are in government with the ruling Scottish National Party as a junior partner.
“What’s happening in #Palestine is a consequence of #Apartheid, of illegal occupation … of imperial aggression by the Israel state. Palestinian civilians have seen their homes destroyed, their water stolen & their land appropriated illegally,” she posted, adding “#GazaUnderAttack” and “#VivaPalestine.”
In a follow-up post Wednesday, Chapman said she “condemns wholeheartedly” the “killing of innocent civilians by Hamas & Israel.”
Donald Cameron, the opposition Scottish Conservatives’ external affairs spokesperson, criticized both Chapman and the parliamentary board. “It’s perhaps not surprising the parliament’s corporate body rejected the reasonable proposal of my colleague Sandesh Gulhane, given that Maggie Chapman herself sits on that very body,” he said.’
[3]
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
ISRAEL: UNLAWFUL GAZA BLOCKADE DEADLY FOR
CHILDREN
18 OCTOBER 2023
Denial of Water, Fuel, Electricity Endangers Lives
Update October 19, 2023: President Joe Biden announced that the United States mediated an agreement allowing the movement of up to 20 trucks of food, medicine, and water into Gaza. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has urged negotiators to raise their “level of ambition.” OCHA reported that, in August 2023 alone, 12,072 truckloads of “authorized goods entered Gaza through the Israeli and Egyptian-controlled crossings.” After the total siege on the civilian population on October 9, a single dispatch of 20 truckloads does not adequately address the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, Human Rights Watch said. Israel’s international partners should press the Israeli government to restore water and electricity supplies and lift its unlawful restrictions on aid delivery and closure.
(Jerusalem) – The Israeli government should immediately end its total blockade of the Gaza Strip that is putting Palestinian children and other civilians at grave risk, Human Rights Watch said today. The collective punishment of the population is a war crime. Israeli authorities should allow desperately needed food, medical aid, fuel, electricity, and water into Gaza, and let sick and wounded civilians leave to receive medical treatment elsewhere.
Israel announced on October 18, 2023, that it would allow food, water, and medicine to reach people in southern Gaza from Egypt, but without electricity or fuel to run the local power plant or generators, or clear provision of aid to those in the north, this falls short of meeting the needs of Gaza’s population.
The Israeli bombardment and total blockade have exacerbated the longstanding humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s unlawful 16-year closure of Gaza, where more than 80 percent of the population relies on humanitarian aid. Doctors in Gaza report being unable to care for children and other patients because the hospitals are overwhelmed by victims of Israeli airstrikes. On October 17, a munition struck al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City, causing mass casualties; Hamas blamed Israel for the strike, while Israel said it was a rocket misfire by Palestinian militants. Human Rights Watch is looking into the strike.
Public health officials said the lack of water, contamination of areas by sewage, and many bodies that cannot be safely stored in morgues could trigger an infectious disease outbreak.
“Israel’s bombardment and unlawful total blockade of Gaza mean that countless wounded and sick children, among many other civilians, will die for want of medical care,” said Bill Van Esveld, associate children’s rights director at Human Rights Watch. “US President Joe Biden, who is in Israel today, should press Israeli officials to completely lift the unlawful blockade and ensure the entire civilian population has prompt access to water, food, fuel, and electricity.”
Senior Israeli officials have said the total blockade of the Gaza Strip, where children comprise nearly half of the population of 2.2 million, is part of efforts to defeat Hamas, following its October 7 attack on Israel. Hamas-led Palestinian fighters killed more than 1,300 people, according to Israeli authorities, and took scores of civilians, including women and children, as hostages. On October 9, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced “a complete siege … no electricity, no water, no food, no fuel. We are fighting human animals, and we act accordingly.” The Palestinian Health Ministry has reported, as of October 18, that 3,478 Palestinians have been killed. The Palestinian rights group Defense for Children International – Palestine reported that more than 1,000 children are among those killed.
The laws of war do not prohibit sieges or blockades of enemy forces, but they may not include tactics that prevent civilians’ access to items essential for their survival, such as water, food, and medicine. Parties to the conflict must allow and facilitate the rapid passage of impartial humanitarian aid for all civilians in need. Aid may be inspected but not arbitrarily delayed.
In addition, during military occupations, such as in Gaza, the occupying power has a duty under the Fourth Geneva Convention, to the fullest extent of the means available to it, “of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population.” Starvation as a method of warfare is prohibited and is a war crime.
Under international human rights law, states must respect the right to water, which includes refraining from limiting access to, or destroying, water services and infrastructure as a punitive measure during armed conflicts as well as respecting the obligations to protect objects indispensable for survival of the civilian population.
Israel’s total blockade against the population in Gaza forms part of the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution that Israeli authorities are committing against Palestinians.
News media reported on October 17 that Israel had refused to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, while Egypt was refusing to allow Palestinians to cross into the Sinai. Egypt and Israel should permit civilians to pass through their respective crossings to seek at least temporary protection or life-saving medical care, while also ensuring that anyone who flees is entitled to voluntary return in safety and dignity.
Lack of Medical Care
Shortages of medical equipment, supplies, and medication in the face of overwhelming casualties are causing avoidable deaths in hospitals in the Gaza Strip. More than 60 percent of patients are children, Dr. Midhat Abbas, director general of health in Gaza, told Human Rights Watch. An intern emergency room doctor at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital wept while speaking to Human Rights Watch by phone on October 15:
Yesterday, in the intensive care unit, it was full, and all ventilators were in use. A child came in with head trauma who needed a ventilator. They had to choose between two children, who would die. He [the doctor] made a decision that one child was more promising to treat, so we were forced to switch the ventilator, and the other child died.
A doctor at the Northern Medical Complex said that on the night of October 14, intensive-care unit medics had to disconnect an adult patient from a ventilator to use it for a 10-year-old. He said a lack of medical supplies had obliged him to stitch a woman’s head wound without gloves or sterile equipment.
In a voice message on October 14, a doctor at al-Shifa hospital described a group of patients with “back wounds, including compound fractures, that can be really painful.” He said that the hospital had run out of painkillers to administer to them.
Ghassan Abu Sitta, a British surgeon volunteering at al-Shifa hospital, posted on social media on October 10, that “the hospitals, because of the siege, are so short of supplies that we had to clean a teenage girl with 70 percent body surface burns with regular soap because the hospital is out of chlorhexidine (antiseptic).” On October 14, he said in a voice note shared with Human Rights Watch: “We are no longer able to do anything but the most life-saving surgeries” because medical supplies were exhausted, and deaths and injuries had caused staff shortages.
More than 5,500 pregnant women in the Gaza Strip are expected to deliver within the next month, but face “compromised functionality of health facilities” and lack of “lifesaving supplies,” the United Nations Population Fund said on October 13.
“We need insulin [for diabetics],” said the head of a UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) shelter on October 15. “People are dying.” The shelter was overwhelmed with 15,000 internally displaced people.
The UN World Health Organization stated on October 14 that it had flown medical and basic health supplies for 300,000 patients to Egypt, near the Gaza Strip’s southern border, and more than 1,000 tons of other humanitarian aid had been shipped to the area. As of October 17, though, humanitarian workers and aid remain blocked via the Rafah border crossing. Israeli attacks have reportedly hit the crossing repeatedly, rendering it unsafe. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said four Egyptian aid workers were injured in the Israeli strikes and that “there is not yet any sort of authorization for a safe passage from the other side of the crossing.”
Israel’s order on October 13 to all civilians located in the north of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the south exacerbated the medical crisis: 21 hospitals currently holding more than 2,000 patients are located in this region. The World Health Organization said the evacuations “could be tantamount to a death sentence” for the sick and injured and said hospitals were already beyond capacity in the southern Gaza Strip. A pediatric doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital said evacuating would likely cause the deaths of seven newborns in the ICU who were connected to ventilators.
Dr. Abu Sitta said that Israel’s evacuation order forced the Mohammed al-Durra Pediatric Hospital east of Gaza City to close, including a neonatal intensive care unit supported by the charity he volunteers with, Medical Aid for Palestinians.
The sick and wounded, including children and pregnant women, have not been allowed to cross Rafah into Egypt or the Erez crossing into Israel to receive treatment. Dr. Abbas, the director general of health, said, “We are in desperate need of a safe humanitarian passage for patients immediately, [and] we need field hospitals immediately.”
Electricity
On October 7, Israeli authorities cut the electricity it delivers to Gaza, the main source of electricity there. Israeli authorities also cut fuel necessary to run Gaza’s only power plant. The power plant has since run out of fuel and shut down. On October 17, Dr. Abbas told Human Rights Watch by phone that hospitals’ emergency generators will run out of fuel “within hours.”
The International Committee of the Red Cross regional director warned on October 11 that the power cuts are “putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken. Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
Water and Sewage
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that 97 percent of the groundwater in Gaza is “unfit for human consumption,” leaving people dependent on the supply of water from Israel and on the territory’s desalination plants. Israel cut off all water on October 11, and most desalination also stopped that day due to the cutoff in electricity, leaving about 600,000 people without clean water, Omar Shatat, deputy director general of Gaza’s Coastal Municipalities Water Utility, told Human Rights Watch.
The last functioning desalination plant stopped operating on October 15. Israel partially resumed water delivery that day, but only to the eastern Khan Younis area, and it amounted to less than 4 percent of the water consumed in Gaza prior to October 7, according to OCHA.
UNRWA warned that “people will start dying of severe dehydration” unless access to water is resumed. The Associated Press reported on October 15 that a doctor had treated 15 cases of children with bacterial dysentery due to lack of clean water, which can also cause diseases like cholera, particularly in children under 5.
“Israel has cut off the most basic goods necessary for survival in Gaza, where there are more than a million children at risk,” Van Esveld said. “Every hour that this blockade continues costs lives.”
END OF HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH STATEMENT
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
ISRAEL/OPT: ISRAEL MUST LIFT ILLEGAL
AND INHUMANE BLOCKADE ON GAZA AS
POWER PLANT RUNS OUT OF FUEL
12 OCTOBER 2023
The shutdown of Gaza’s only power plant will exacerbate an already desperate humanitarian crisis for more than 2.2 million people trapped in the Gaza Strip, amid a massive bombing campaign by Israel that has killed at least 1,350 people and injured more than 6,000 people.
The airstrikes were launched in retaliation to the attack on 7 October by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups from Gaza who fired indiscriminate rockets and sent fighters into southern Israel, killing more than 1,200 people and injuring more than 2,700 and taking hostages, including many civilians.
“The Israeli authorities must immediately restore Gaza’s electricity supply and suspend the increased restrictions imposed as a result of the Minister of Defence’s order of 9 October 2023 and lift its illegal 16-year blockade on the Gaza Strip. The collective punishment of Gaza’s civilian population amounts to a war crime – it is cruel and inhumane. As the occupying power, Israel has a clear obligation under international law to ensure the basic needs of Gaza’s civilian population are met,” said Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard.
The blackout has plunged the Gaza strip into darkness and will exacerbate an ongoing humanitarian catastrophe. It will further limit communications and access to the internet. The power cuts will have a severe impact on essential services, access to clean water and will cause a public health disaster leaving Gaza’s already depleted hospitals without vital medical equipment at a time when medics are struggling to treat thousands gravely wounded in Israeli attacks. It will also endanger the lives of hospital patients, including people with chronic conditions or those in intensive care, including newborn babies on life support.
An Israeli minister said today that the authorities will not restore power or allow water or fuel to enter until Hamas releases hostages. This is an explicit confirmation that these acts have been taken to punish civilians in Gaza for the actions of Palestinian armed groups. Amnesty reiterates that Palestinian civilians are not responsible for the crimes of Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups and Israel must not, under international law, make them suffer for acts they play no role in and cannot control.
“Palestinian armed groups’ horrific mass killing of Israeli civilians and other serious violations do not absolve Israel from upholding its obligations to respect international humanitarian law and to protect civilians. The collective punishment of civilians in Gaza will not bring justice to the victims of war crimes by Hamas and other armed groups or security to civilians in Israel,” said Agnes Callamard.
Amnesty International is also concerned by the repeated attacks on the Rafah border crossing. It calls on Israel to facilitate the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza, and to allow safe passage for those in need of medical care outside the Gaza Strip. It urges the international community to work towards an agreement over humanitarian corridors.
Israeli authorities must refrain from committing unlawful attacks that kill or injure civilians and destroy civilian homes and infrastructure. Israeli officials must refrain from incitement to violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem and ensure the safety of all civilians living under its control. All Palestinian armed groups in Gaza must release all civilian hostages unconditionally and immediately.
Amnesty International is currently investigating Israeli air strikes in Gaza, including the air strike on a residential building in al-Zeitoun neighbourhood, which killed 15 members of the same family, including seven children – five siblings and their two cousins, in addition to their elderly grandparents; the destruction of Burj Palestine, a high-rise building in al-Rimal neighbourhood in Gaza; and the bombing of a crowded market street in Jabalia refugee camp, which killed at least 69 people, including at least 15 Children.
Amnesty International is calling on Israel and Palestinian armed groups to take all feasible precautions to spare civilians, in line with their obligations under international humanitarian law.
This output is part of a series of articles by Amnesty International into the escalating violence and human rights violations in Israel, Gaza and elsewhere in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Amnesty International has published its initial findings on war crimes committed by Hamas and Palestinian armed groups including mass summary executions, hostage-taking, and the firing of inherently indiscriminate rockets. With evidence still emerging of the violations committed in southern Israel, Amnesty International will continue its investigations to determine the full range of crimes committed under international law.
Background
Since 2007, Israel has imposed an air, land and sea blockade on the Gaza Strip collectively punishing its entire population. The current fighting is the sixth major military operation Israel and Gaza-based armed groups since then. On 9 October Israel’s minister of defence Yoav Gallant announced a “complete siege on Gaza… No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” as part of the Israeli retaliatory attack following the attack by Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups that killed 1,200 people.
In June, Amnesty International published its investigation into the May 2023 offensive on the Gaza strip, finding that Israel had unlawfully destroyed Palestinian homes, often without military necessity in what amounts to a form of collective punishment against the civilian population.
In its February 2022 report, Amnesty International set out how Israeli forces have committed in Gaza (as well as in the West Bank and Israel) acts prohibited by the Statute of the International Criminal Court and the Apartheid Convention, as part of a widespread and systemic attack against the civilian population with the aim of maintaining a system of oppression and domination over Palestinians, thereby constituting the crime against humanity of apartheid.
Previous reports by Amnesty International on violations and crimes committed in the context of fighting between Israel and Palestinian armed groups can be found here.
Amnesty International is an impartial human rights organization and seeks to ensure that all parties to an armed conflict comply with international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Accordingly, in future briefings, Amnesty International will be investigating Israel’s military action in the Gaza Strip to determine whether it is complying with the rules of international humanitarian law, including by taking necessary precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian objects and refraining from unlawful attacks and from collective punishment of the civilian population, as required under international law. Amnesty International will also continue to monitor the activities of Hamas and Palestinian armed groups.
END OF AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL STATEMENT
[4]
DUTCH LETTER TO THE EDITOR:
HAMAS AANVAL OP ISRAEL OCTOBER 2023/RECHT OP
VERZET TEGEN DE ISRAELISCHE BEZETTING/INGEZONDEN STUK
[TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH:
HAMAS ATTACK ON ISRAEL OCTOBER 2023/RIGHT TO RISE UP
AGAINST THE ISRAELI OCCUPATION/LETTER TO THE EDITOR]
ASTRID ESSED
[5]
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO CHINA AND SOUTH-AFRICA ABOUT
THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO ISRAEL ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE NATIONAL SCOT [NEWSPAPER]
ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE HUFFINGTON POST
ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE GHANAIAN TIMES ABOUT
THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE DAILY POST [NEWSPAPER
NIGERIA] ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE INDIAN EXPRESS ABOUT THE
2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE NEW YORK TIMES ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
[AUSTRALIAN NEWSPAPER] ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO THE RIO TIMES [BRAZILIAN NEWSPAPER] ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
[6]
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO CHINA AND SOUTH-AFRICA ABOUT
THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED
[7]
MAIL/LETTER TO THE EDITOR TO ISRAEL ABOUT THE 2023 ISRAEL-HAMAS WAR
ASTRID ESSED