“We Just Do What the Israelis Want Us to Do”
The Scourging of Gaza: Diary of a Genocidal War
+ On December 15, an Israeli missile struck the third floor of a UNRWA school in al Mawasi camp outside Khan Younis, killing more than a dozen Palestinians on site and severely injuring many more who were taken to the emergency room at Nasser Hospital. At least 18 Palestinians injured in the blast died in the emergency room, including a dozen kids under the age of 12 years old.
+ An emergency care worker from the International Rescue Committee later reported that the first patient to arrive at the hospital was “a three-year-old girl who had the left side of her forehead torn open by shrapnel fragments which had penetrated her skull.” Because of shortages of anesthetics and painkillers, the young girl was treated “with very little medication.”
+ A plastic surgeon working in the ER that day recalled that his first patient was “a 12 to 14-year-old boy” whose face was entirely burned. The boy also suffered open wounds to his chest and both legs.
+ According to UNICEF, more than 160 Palestinian children, an average of four every day, have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the first of November, 2024.
+ Catherine Russell, executive director of UNICEF:
Children didn’t start this conflict and they have no power to stop it, yet they are paying the highest price with their lives and futures. In the last 14 months, more than 14,500 children have reportedly been killed, and virtually all 1.1 million children in Gaza are in urgent need of protection and mental health support. Famine continues to loom in the north and humanitarian access remains severely restricted.
Children and families throughout Gaza face constant displacement, which has pushed 1.9 million people away from their homes, including hundreds of thousands of children. There is no safe space in Gaza, nor any sense of stability for children, who lack essentials such as food, safe water, medical supplies, and warm clothes as winter temperatures drop. Preventable diseases continue to spread rapidly, including more than 800 cases of hepatitis and more than 300 cases of chickenpox. Thousands of children are suffering from skin rashes and acute respiratory infections. Winter weather is adding to children’s suffering.
The world cannot look away when so many children are exposed to daily bloodshed, hunger, disease, and cold. We urgently call on all parties to the conflict, and on those with influence over them, to take decisive action to end the suffering of children, to release all hostages, to ensure children’s rights are upheld, and to adhere to obligations under international humanitarian law.
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+ A new report (Gaza: Life in a Death Trap) issued by Médecins Sans Frontières calls Israel’s assault on Gaza a “campaign of total destruction,” featuring:
+Repeated military attacks on Palestinian civilians
+ Dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system
+ Suffocating siege of north Gaza, which shows clear signs of ethnic cleansing
+ Systematic denial of humanitarian aid
+ The report concludes that Israel’s actions are “destroying the conditions of life” in Gaza.
“People in Gaza are struggling to survive apocalyptic conditions, but nowhere is safe, no one is spared, and there is no exit from this shattered enclave,” said Christopher Lockyear, MSF secretary general, who visited Gaza earlier this year. “The recent military offensive in the north is a stark illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are seeing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinians are forcibly displaced, trapped, and bombed, What our medical teams have witnessed on the ground throughout this conflict is consistent with the descriptions provided by an increasing number of legal experts and organizations concluding that genocide is taking place in Gaza. For more than a year, our medical staff in Gaza have witnessed a relentless campaign by the Israeli forces marked by massive destruction, devastation, and dehumanization. Palestinians have been killed in their homes and in hospital beds. They have been forcibly displaced time and time again to areas that are not safe or healthy. People cannot find even the most basic necessities like food, clean water, medicines, and soap amid a punishing siege and blockade.”
A seriously wounded young Palestinian boy was rescued from the rubble of an Israeli airstrike. (Still from a video posted to X.)
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+ In a 179-page report, “Extermination and Acts of Genocide: Israel Deliberately Depriving Palestinians in Gaza of Water,” Human Rights Watch documents how Israel has been using water as a weapon to accelerate the ethnic cleansing of Gaza: “Israeli authorities have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the Gaza population by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”
+ The HRW investigation, based on interviews, satellite imagery, photographs, and videos between October 2023 and September 2024, details how “Israeli authorities have intentionally created conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians in Gaza in whole or in part” including the blocking the entry of “nearly all water-related aid from entering Gaza.” The banned aid included water filtration systems, water tanks, and materials needed to repair water infrastructure.” The HRW reports that people in northern Gaza were forced to go without potable water for more than five months.
+ Palestinians in Gaza have only been receiving two to nine liters of water per person per day, well below the 15 liters required in emergencies.
+ Asma Taha, a nurse from the US who volunteered in Gaza: “We saw kids die daily due to lack of water. There is no safe water to mix formula for infants. And mothers who have just given birth often cannot hydrate themselves to sustain breastfeedings.”
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+ On December 12, Dr. Saeed Judeh, the last orthopedic doctor in North Gaza, was killed by Israeli forces while he was on his way from Kamal Adwan to the nearby Al Awda Hospital to treat patients. On the same day, a nurse was killed in an Israeli attack while traveling to Kamal Adwan Hospital.
+ Israel has now killed nearly as many doctors and nurses (1000+) who were treating the Palestinians they’ve maimed, wounded and sickened as Israelis who were killed on October 7…
+ Two days later, after four attempts by the WHO to deliver urgently needed life-saving supplies to the hospital, the WHO workers finally reached Kamal Adwan. They described conditions in the hospital as “appalling.”
+ However, the Israelis later denied WHO’s request to re-deploy the Indonesian Emergency Medical Team (EMT) to the hospital despite the need for immediate surgical interventions for injured patients. In December, the hospital’s Director told the WHO that the intensive care department was targeted by snipers, with all windows shot out, forcing medical staff to treat some of the injured in the corridors.
+ As of December 4, 2024, the WHO had recorded 591 health attacks across the Gaza Strip, including 23 since 20 November.
+ Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, on the latest Israeli attack: “The firing on the hospital is crazy and using all types of weapons. We evacuated the patients from there with great difficulty and the ICU caught fire. It’s the only intensive care unity remaining in the north of Gaza.”
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Image from video shot by Yousef Fares.
+ Palestinian journalist Yousef Fares reporting on the conditions in North Gaza:
Northern Gaza now looks as if it was struck by a nuclear bomb. Not a single house remains intact.
This morning, Israeli forces planted four barrels of explosives in a residential area near Al-Awda Hospital in Tel Al-Zaatar and detonated them simultaneously.
The blast obliterated dozens of homes and caused massive internal damage to Al-Awda Hospital, injuring medical staff, patients, and many civilians.
Numerous citizens have been killed or wounded in the attack. In the vicinity of Kamal Adwan Hospital, an entire family of 14 was burned to death after the use of unconventional bombs.
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+ More than a year into the war, Israeli forces continue to relentlessly attack schools in Gaza that shelter Palestinian refugees, many of whom have had to flee previous shelters three or four times. In the last two months, Israel has launched 95 attacks on schools in Gaza; 61 of these attacks took place in northern Gaza. In the last week, Israel battered four schools in north Gaza in the span of two days.
+ On December 14, two schools were hit by Israeli airstrikes in north Gaza, killing seven Palestinian refugees, including three children. More than 20 others were injured.
+ On December 15, Israeli troops surrounded and raided the Khalil Owaidah School in Beit Hanun. Dozens of people were killed, including 10 to 15 Palestinians who were burned to death. The IDF detained all of the men who survived, while the women and children were forced at gunpoint to evacuate to the south. The school was then destroyed.
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+ This week, Haaretz published an explosive investigative report based on the accounts of Israeli army officers and soldiers, who described the intentional killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, especially in north Gaza, where Israel is conducting a campaign of ethnic cleansing along what one officer called “the line of corpses.”
A commander in the IDF’s 252nd Division:
“There is a line north of the Netzarim axis known as the ‘line of corpses,’ and the residents of Gaza are fully aware of its meaning. In this area, Palestinians are indiscriminately shot, and their bodies are left to be devoured by dogs…We have classified the Netzarim axis as a killing zone, where anyone entering it is immediately shot. There is also a race and competition among military units to kill as many Palestinians as possible. We kill civilians near Netzarim and then execute them under the pretext that they were armed….The orders are clear: anyone crossing the boundary at Netzarim must receive a bullet to the head. We are instructed to send pictures of the corpses, and we have sent photos of 200 killed individuals, only 10 of whom were confirmed to be from Hamas.”
+ A reservist officer who served in Netzarim said: “We, along with the soldiers, bear part of the responsibility for this horror taking place in Gaza. It is a lawless area where human lives have no value. Israelis must know what this war looks like and be aware of the grave actions committed by some officers and soldiers in Gaza.”
+ An Israeli soldier: “A whole group of soldiers runs to kill a single person passing near the Netzarim axis in Gaza, showering him with bullets until he is dead, while all the soldiers laugh. There is also unlimited authority granted to commanders in Gaza.”
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Body retrieval after an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. (Still from a video posted to X.)
+ With little scrutiny from the Western press, Israel’s daily killings and maimings of Palestinians in Gaza continue without let-up…
+ Shortly before midnight on December 10, 22 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured from an Israeli airstrike on a three-story apartment building near Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in North Gaza.
+ A few minutes after midnight on December 12, seven Palestinians, including women and children and women. were killed and several others injured when Israeli missiles struck two apartments in a residential tower in northwestern Gaza City. At almost the same time, 22 Palestinians were killed and many others injured by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis and Rafah. The fatalities included 15 people working to secure the movement of aid trucks. At least 720 Palestinians have now been killed by Israeli forces while securing aid trucks, according to a tally by the Government Media Office.
+ Two hours later, 15 Palestinians, including at least one woman and seven children, were killed, and several others wounded, when a house sheltering IDPs was hit in western An Nuseirat refugee camp in northern Deir al Balah.
+ At 10:30 that night, at least 34 Palestinians were killed and 40 others maimed when the Israelis targeted two residential buildings in central An Nuseirat refugee camp in Deir al Balah with airstrikes. According to UNICEF, at least eight children were among the fatalities, and most of the entire residential block was either destroyed or badly damaged.
+ On December 14, an Israeli airstrike in central Deir al-Balah killed 12 Palestinians, including at least two girls, one woman and the mayor.
+ Later that night, at least ten Palestinians were killed and many others injured when a house was hit in the Ash Shuja’iyeh neighborhood in eastern Gaza City.
+ On December 15, Israeli airstrikes targeted a Palestinian Civil Defense center in the Nuseirat refugee camp in northern Deir al Balah, killing six people and injuring several others. The fatalities included a cameraperson and four PCD staff and volunteers. The cameraman is among at least four journalists killed in Gaza between 11 and 15 December, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). As of December 17, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate reported that 188 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza since last October.
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+ Since the fall of the Assad regime, Israel’s military has occupied nearly 500 square kilometers in Syria, including a strategic position on top of Mount Al-Sheikh, the highest summit in the region.
+ As Israel continued to bomb Syrian military positions, Netanyahu announced an $11 million plan to increase the number of Israeli settlers in the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
+ John Mearsheimer: “Israel’s goal is to wreck Syria. If the Israelis had their way, they would do this to every Arab and Islamic country in the Middle East.”
+ Reporter: Is $10,000,000 for Jolani still valid?
+ Matthew Miller, State Department: It is.
+ Reporter: So if someone arrested him and brought him to the US, would he or she take home $10 million?
Miller: I’m not going to deal with hypotheticals.
Reporter: The reward can’t be claimed by a government official?
Miller: Correct
Reporter: So if you send someone in, they won’t get the 10 million?
Miller: At this point, his whereabouts are well-known.
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Ruins of north Gaza. Photo: UNRWA.
+ According to a report in Israel Hayom, more than 500 Israeli army officers with the rank of lieutenant colonel or higher have resigned their commissions in the last year, deepening the IDF’s manpower crisis. The paper quoted one officer as saying, “I felt as if a bulldozer was crushing my body over the past year.”
+ The new rightwing government of Sweden announced this week its decision to stop funding UNRWA (only a day after it voted in the UN general assembly to support UNRWA)…Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA:
The decision by the Government of Sweden to stop funding UNRWA in 2025 is disappointing and comes at the worst time for Palestine Refugees.
The decision comes one day after the UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution supporting UNRWA.
Sweden has been a reliable, longstanding partner to UNRWA, providing both political and financial support for decades.
This is a sad day for Palestine Refugees and the multilateral system which Sweden has spearheaded.
It comes at a time when UNRWA is under unprecedented politically-driven attacks, including through the use of disinformation. The attacks aimed at stripping the Palestinians from their refugee status.
Defunding UNRWA now will undermine decades of Sweden’s investment in human development, including by denying access to education for hundreds of thousands of girls and boys across the region.
For the people of Gaza, this decision will double the suffering endured over the past 14 months since the horrendous Hamas attack on 7 October and the ongoing war.
I hope the Government of Sweden will reconsider its decision and pursue its longstanding solidarity by investing in both a political solution and the human development of Palestine Refugees through UNRWA.
+ Amichai Chikli, Minister of Diaspora Affairs, lashed out at Pope Francis this week in an open letter published by the Italian newspaper Il Foglio. Chikli denounced the pope’s call for an international investigation into whether Israel’s assault on Gaza amounts genocide against the Palestinian people as a “trivialization” of the term genocide: “As a people who lost six million of its sons and daughters in the Holocaust, we are particularly sensitive to the trivialization of the term ‘genocide’ – a trivialization that comes dangerously close to Holocaust denial.” Chikli demanded that the Pope: “clarify your position regarding the new accusation of genocide against the Jewish state.”
+ Ireland’s Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Simon Harris on Israel closing its embassy in Dublin: “I suspect it possibly works as a distraction. You’re all here today asking about Ireland’s position. What about Israel’s actions? What about what Netanyahu is doing to the innocent children of Gaza? This is the diplomacy of distraction. And I think it’s deeply regrettable that they made that decision. They have every right to close the embassy. I’d rather it didn’t happen. When will we continue to engage, but nobody is going to silence Ireland? I believe in freedom of speech. They are entitled to their own views. But they’re not entitled to their own set of facts. What’s happening in the Middle East, and what’s happening in Gaza, is extraordinarily serious. Ireland’s position on this has been clear from day one. We want to see the release of all hostages. We condemned the horrific terrorist attacks by Hamas of Israel. 100%. An absolutely horrific attack. But we also know that there are innocent children who are dying, who are being maimed, who are suffering in a way that I’m not sure the whole world can even fully comprehend until we see and get into Gaza. There is humanitarian that is just not flowing. It’s actually getting worse. I mean, there are reports from UN agencies that should that not only did it not improve in recent times, it significantly disimproved.”
+A coalition of over 1,200 Spanish jurists, lawyers, judges and prosecutors have demanded that Spain’s Parliament impose an arms embargo against the Israeli government.
+ During a Christmas tree lighting ceremony at the Palestinian Club in Santiago, Chilean President Gabriel Boric denounced Netanyahu as a war criminal and called for a ceasefire and the creation of a Palestinian state: “Christmas invites us to renew our commitment to the fundamental values of solidarity and respect for human dignity everywhere in the world. We will not be passive spectators. We have not been, and we will not be, passive spectators in the face of so much injustice and pain, consciously inflicted on children, women, the elderly and innocent people of all ages. “In the defense of humanity, there is no room for half-measures. It is in the defense of humanity that we are meeting here today. We are deeply hurt and shocked by what is happening in Gaza – and not only in Gaza but also in the West Bank. It seems that we have to choose between types of barbarism, but we do not have to choose; I choose humanity, and what Benjamin Netanyahu is doing is a war crime, a crime against humanity. From Chile, we call on the entire world to reflect on this suffering during a time of year that symbolizes family unity, togetherness, joy, and reflection. We urge the international community, particularly the most powerful nations, to go beyond mere words and take concrete action to end this massacre.”
+ Thousands of documents obtained by Jewish Currents from the Yale Police Department show how the campus police collaborated with the FBI and counter-terrorism forces to surveil pro-Palestine student protestors on campus closely.
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Photo: Mike Casey.
Let’s give the last word this week to former State Department official Mike Casey on why he resigned from his post as a career diplomat working on Gaza in July: “I got so tired of writing about dead kids. Just constantly having to prove to Washington that these children actually died and then watching nothing happen….In Malaysia, if you don’t cooperate, you could get sanctioned [by the US]. With Pakistan, we could pull training programs, stop certain aid…But with the Israelis, it’s completely different. They just have to drag out negotiations, and we’ll eventually agree to whatever they want…I remember two children killed in a ramming attack at a bus stop in Jerusalem who were the same age as my kids. You see the effect the conflict has on people in Israel as well. Israelis deserve better, not just Palestinians….We don’t have a policy on Palestine. We just do what the Israelis want us to do.”
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