The Israeli occupation regime used starvation as weapon of war in Gaza, evidence indicates civilians deliberately denied access to food, water: HRW

JERUSALEM, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) –

The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said today. Israeli forces are deliberately blocking the delivery of water, food, and fuel, while willfully impeding humanitarian assistance, apparently razing agricultural areas, and depriving the civilian population of objects indispensable to their survival.

Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, high-ranking Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and Energy Minister Israel Katz have made public statements expressing their aim to deprive civilians in Gaza of food, water and fuel – statements reflecting a policy being carried out by Israeli forces, said HRW. Other Israeli officials have publicly stated that humanitarian aid to Gaza would be conditioned either on the release of Israelis held in Gaza.

“For over two months, Israel has been depriving Gaza's population of food and water, a policy spurred on or endorsed by high-ranking Israeli officials and reflecting an intent to starve civilians as a method of warfare,” said Omar Shakir, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch. “World leaders should be speaking out against this abhorrent war crime, which has devastating effects on Gaza’s population.”

Human Rights Watch interviewed 11 displaced Palestinians in Gaza between November 24 and December 4. They described their profound hardships in securing basic necessities. “We had no food, no electricity, no internet, nothing at all,” said one man who had left northern Gaza. “We don’t know how we survived.”

In southern Gaza, those interviewed described the scarcity of potable water, the lack of food leading to empty shops and lengthy lines, and exorbitant prices. “You are on a constant search for things needed to survive,” said a father of two. The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) reported on December 6 that 9 out of 10 households in northern Gaza and 2 out of 3 households in southern Gaza had spent at least one full day and night without food.

International humanitarian law, or the laws of war, prohibits the starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court provides that intentionally starving civilians by “depriving them of objects indispensable to their survival, including willfully impeding relief supplies” is a war crime.

M.K.

WHO says it is appalled by destruction of Kamal 'Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza as a result of Israeli aggression

GENEVA, Sunday, December 17, 2023 (WAFA) –

The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was appalled by the effective destruction of Kamal 'Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza over the last several days as a result of the Israeli genocidal war on the Palestinian people, rendering it non-functional and resulting in the killing of at least 8 patients.

Many health workers were reportedly detained by the Israeli occupation army. WHO and its partners are urgently seeking information on their status, said WHO in a statement.

“We learned that many patients had to self-evacuate at great risk to their health and safety, with ambulances unable to reach the facility,” said WHO.  Of the deceased patients, several died due to lack of adequate health care, including a 9-year-old child, it added.

WHO expressed extreme concern for the well-being of the internally displaced people who are reportedly sheltering in the hospital building.

“Gaza’s health system was already on its knees, and the loss of another even minimally functioning hospital is a severe blow,” WHO warned.

“Attacks on hospitals, health personnel and patients must end. Ceasefire NOW,” the statement concluded.

T.R.

World Health Organization: children and women account for 70% of victims in Gaza

GENEVA, Sunday, December 17, 2023 (WAFA) -

Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, called for “a ceasefire now’ in the Gaza Strip, given the disproportionate impact on women and children in Gaza, where they account for 70% of the victims.

He stressed the need for a ceasefire and a pursuit of a political resolution that offers a way out of this "mess/tragedy." “Ceasefire now!” he said in a post on X.

The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, previously warned that Gaza is becoming a graveyard for children, stating that hundreds of girls and boys are being killed and injured every day as a result of the ongoing Israeli aggression.

T.R.  

US-backed Israeli genocide in Gaza enters Day 73

Monday 18-December-2023, GAZA, (PIC)

As the US-backed Israeli genocidal war on the Gaza Strip entered Day 73 on Monday, massive aerial and artillery strikes continued to pound and level whole blocks and homes and massacre more civilians, mostly children and women.

A reporter for the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) said that the Israeli occupation army carried out hundreds of aerial and artillery attacks on different areas of Gaza on Monday, targeting homes, civilian gatherings and shelter centers and massacring dozens of citizens.

According to local sources, a citizen identified as Hasan Abu Yousuf, from 'Abasan Al-Kabeera in eastern Khan Younus, was martyred after an Israeli occupation army drone targeted him as he was riding his donkey-drawn cart in the morning.

A number of citizens were also killed and many others were seriously injured when the Israeli occupation army bombed the surgery center of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

On Sunday, the Israeli genocidal attacks on Jabalya claimed the lives of 110 civilians and injured over 20 others, while at least 100 citizens were still buried under the rubble of buildings.

The Jabalya martyrs were buried later in a mass grave in the compound of the Kamal 'Adwan Hospital.

The Israeli occupation forces reportedly commit horrific crimes and arbitrary detentions in the areas they invade in Gaza and deprive thousands of civilians inside homes from getting food, water and medical care.

Meanwhile, medical and rescue crews cannot reach many martyrs and wounded citizens in destroyed homes and on roads in the bombed areas.

On 73rd day of Israel’s war of genocide in Gaza, dozens of civilians killed, including journalist and her family

GAZA, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) –

As the Israeli occupation forces continue their war of genocide against the Gaza Strip for the 73rd day in a row, dozens of Palestinian civilians, mainly children and women, were killed, including a journalist and her family, in early morning bombings on several areas throughout the Gaza Strip.

Journalist 'Haneen Ali Al-Qatshan was killed along with members of her family, a total of eight people, and dozens were injured after warplanes bombed their house in Al-Nusayrat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, health sources said this morning that more than 100 people were killed in massacres in Jabalya while a similar number of people remain under the rubble, along with at least 20 wounded.

Israeli warplanes launched violent strikes on the northern areas of Khan Younus, south of the Gaza Strip, while heavy artillery shelling targeted all areas of the city, resulting in the death and injury of dozens of civilians.

In addition, explosions shook the central region of the Gaza Strip.

More than 30 people were killed and dozens were injured last night in a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces in Jabalya Al-Balad, north of the Gaza Strip, where a residential square was leveled to the ground.

A woman was killed and others were injured in a bombing that targeted Nasir Medical Complex in Khan Younus.

Several people were also killed and dozens were injured after warplanes bombed a house belonging to the Abu Gharqud family, west of Al-Nusayrat refugee camp.

More than 19,000 people were killed, most of them children and women, in 73 days of Israeli massacres in the Gaza Strip, and more than 52,000 were injured.

M.K.

Elderly female patient killed, others injured in Israeli artillery attack on Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza

GAZA, Sunday, December 17, 2023 (WAFA) –

An elderly female patient was killed and others injured in an Israeli artillery attack that targeted Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younus city, in the southern besieged Gaza Strip.

Local sources said that an elderly woman who was receiving treatment at the Nasser Medical Complex was killed and others, including children and women, were injured in an Israeli artillery attack against the hospital.

The Gaza Strip has been under land, sea, and air attacks by the Israeli occupation since October 7th, which has so far left around 19,000 thousand people killed and over 52 thousand wounded, 70% of whom are children and women.

T.R.

Over 30 civilians killed, dozens injured and missing in Israeli airstrikes targeting a residential block in northern Gaza

GAZA, Sunday, December 17, 2023 (WAFA) –

In a new Israeli massacre, over 30 civilians were killed and dozens of others injured tonight in Israeli airstrikes on Jabalya town, in the northern Gaza Strip, said local and medical sources.

Sources said that at least 30 people were killed and dozens others were injured in Israeli strikes targeting a residential block belonging to the Al-Bursh and 'Alwan families in Jabalya town. Dozens of others were reported missing.

At least eight others were killed, including two children and a woman, and dozens of others wounded in Israeli aerial raids targeting the home of Al-Qatshan family in the Nusayrat refugee camp, in central Gaza.

Several others were also killed and injured in an Israeli bombardment of a house belonging to the Abu Gharqood family, also in the Nusayrat camp.

Israeli warplanes also targeted different locations in the al-Maghzazi refugee camp and a house belonging to the Al-Jadbba family in Al-Tuffa'h neighborhood in northern Gaza.

Israeli military also renewed its artillery shelling of central and eastern Khan Yunis city, in the southern Strip. Israeli artillery shelled the house of Al-Lou'h family in Dair El-Bala'h in the central Strip.

T.R. 

Following revelations in Israeli media, groups fear for the life of Gazans detained in Israel

RAMALLAH, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) -

 The Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission and the Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) today urged international human rights organizations to pressure the Israeli occupation government to reveal the fate of Gaza detainees held in Israel in light of a report in the Hebrew newspaper Haaretz today talking about the death of several Gaza detainees held in Sde Teman camp in the Beersheba area in the south of Israel after October 7 without knowing their exact number and the circumstances of their death.

The Commission and the PPS said that 73 days after the start of the aggression and genocide in Gaza, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to hide any information about the prisoners from Gaza, which constitutes a blatant violation of international law, and refuse to disclose any information regarding their fate, expressing fear that some of them may have been killed.

They said that the occupation forces have published pictures about the arrest of hundreds of Gazans who were stripped naked during the ground invasion and that despite demands to the International Committee of the Red Cross and to several international human rights bodies to pressure the occupation authorities to disclose the fate of the Gaza detainees, these demands were not answered. 

The occupation authorities still refuse to reveal the identity of one of the Gazans who was killed in the Anatot camp in November along with Majed Zaqul, who was killed in 'Ofer prison, they said.

The Commission and the PPS said there are female prisoners from Gaza in Damon prison, including elderly women and children, while men are held in several detention centers and camps in Israel such as the Anatot and Sde Teman.

Israel declared at the end of November that 260 of the Gaza detainees were classified as “unlawful combatants” arrested after October 7.

The Palestinian organizations said that several testimonies obtained from prisoners who were released, specifically from 'Ofer Prison, indicated that horrific torture was carried out by the occupation authorities against the Gaza detainees, noting that two days ago the occupation forces arrested a female resident of the town of 'Huwwara simply because she had an ID card from Gaza while residing in the West Bank even though she is suffering from cancer, and was taken to and held in Anatot camp.

M.K.

Three women among 35 Palestinians detained by Israel in the occupied West Bank

RAMALLAH, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) –

Three women were among 35 Palestinians the Israeli occupation forces detained overnight and this morning in the occupied West Bank, according to prisoners’ advocacy groups.

A woman and her niece were detained during a raid at their home in a Tulkarm neighborhood in the north of the West Bank to force the woman’s brother to turn himself over to the army. A third person, a university student, was also detained in the same neighborhood.

A third woman, 30 years old, was detained during a raid in Jericho, east of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, the army detained 14 people from the Ramallah district, 12 of them were from the village of 'Obwane, west of Ramallah.

Detentions were reported also in the Hebron, Qalqilya, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem governorates, said the groups.

Israel detained at least 4575 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank since the start of its aggression on October 7.

M.K.

PPS: Israel has detained 46 Palestinian journalists since October 7th

RAMALLAH, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) -

The Palestinian Prisoner’s Society (PPS) said that the Israeli occupation forces have detained 46 journalists since October 7th.

The PPS added in a press statement on Monday that the occupation forces are still detaining 32 journalists, including 19 who were taken to administrative detention under the pretext of having a "secret file," while the occupation has charged a number of others related to what it calls "incitement on social media sites."

It pointed out that a number of journalists were subjected to incitement on pages affiliated with the Israeli occupation, and some of them were later detained, as happened with journalist Somaya Jawabra, who was detained while she was seven months pregnant, and was released under harsh conditions targeting her journalistic work, before she was subjected to house arrest, which continues to this day.

The PPS said that the wounded detainee, journalist Mo'adth 'Amarna, 36, from Bethlehem, faces difficult health conditions in the Megiddo prison, as a result of the systematic retaliatory measures and torture imposed by the occupation on prisoners and detainees in unprecedented manner.

It stated that journalist 'Amarna, who has been administratively detained since October 16, was subjected to abuse and torture, like all detainees, and suffers from difficulty in his sight and a blurriness in his right eye.

As part of the medical crimes carried out by the occupation against prisoners and detainees, the Israeli authorities refuse to this day to allow Amarneh to have his glass eye and glasses.

Amarneh lost one of his eyes in 2019 after occupation soldiers shot him while he was doing his journalistic work.

The PPS explained that 'Amarna suffers from chronic diabetes, which has worsened in light of the prison administration's implementation of the starvation policy against prisoners. He also suffers from severe bouts of pain and headaches due to the extreme cold. Since his arrest, he has not been able to change his clothes after the soldiers seized his clothes, and left him with a light jacket that does not protect him from the extreme cold.

K.T. 

Illegal Israeli settlers attack Palestinians on roads north of Ramallah

RAMALLAH, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) –

Illegal Israeli terrorist settlers today attacked Palestinian commuters north of Ramallah and one of them opened fire, Palestinian security sources told WAFA.

They said several illegal Israeli settlers from the illegal Ateret settlement gathered at the Rawabi town roundabout, and one of them opened fire on passing vehicles without hurting anyone, while others threw stones at the vehicles, causing damage to some.

The occupation forces meanwhile set up military checkpoints at different areas north and northwest of Ramallah and closed gates and roads to many areas following a shooting attack at a colonist’s car.

The colonist was moderately injured, said the sources.

M.K.

Occupation forces demolish a house under construction, destroys electricity network south of Nablus

NABLUS, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) -

The Israeli occupation forces today demolished a house under construction and destroyed an electricity network in the village of Majdal Bani Fadhil, south of Nablus.

The head of the Majdal Bani Fadhil Village Council, Rami Nassar, said that the occupation forces stormed the outskirts of the village, accompanied by two military bulldozers, and began demolishing an under-construction house owned by a local resident under the pretext of building in areas classified as C, which is under full Israeli military control.

He added that the occupation forces destroyed a two-kilometer-long electricity network, located between the towns of Majdal Bani Fadhil and 'Aqraba.

M.K.

Israeli occupation forces chase shepherds in the Jordan Valley

JORDAN VALLEY, Monday, December 18, 2023 (WAFA) - 

Israeli occupation forces Monday chased shepherds in the Mufiyya plain in the northern Jordan Valley and arrested two of them.

Human rights activist 'Aarif Daraghma reported that the occupation forces chased the shepherds east of Khirbet Al-Hadidiya in the Mufiyya Plain area and detained two of them.

It is noteworthy that shepherds in various areas of the northern Jordan Valley are subjected to daily persecution and attacks by the occupation forces and settlers.

K.T. 

***