The Biden administration still adamantly opposes a ceasefire, despite Israeli officials privately telling them that they looked at “how the United States and other allied powers resorted to devastating bombings in Germany and Japan during World War II” as a model for its campaign of extermination in Gaza.
A former UK intelligence chair and national security adviser proposed during an interview with the BBC that “moderate Arab countries could come together and promote some sort of stability” in a post-holocaust Gaza. But, Najm Jarrah asks sarcastically, which Arab state would take the pesky Palestinians?
Under the cover of Israel’s war on Gaza, settlers have intensified their attacks in the West Bank, killing at least 115 Palestinians, including 33 children, since 7 October. Fayha’ Shalash reports from Qusra, south of Nablus, where three Palestinians were killed on 11 October.
“I imagine that my ghost is standing beside the ruins of another house in al-Rimal,” writes Haidar Eid, reflecting from the ruins in Gaza. “Ghosts do not cry. My ghost is an exception.”
In an apparent censorship effort, YouTube has age-restricted a viral video distilling the growing body of evidence that at least some of the Israeli civilians killed during the Palestinian resistance assault launched on 7 October were killed by Israeli forces.
Palestine must thrive, not just survive, writes Ghada Hania from the Gaza Strip: “The stories of people killed during this war should serve as a call for justice and liberation.”
Nour Khalil AbuShammala, writing from Gaza, describes the struggle to document her experience: “I am alive, living under bombardment. But something inside me dies every day.”
Palestinians search for survivors following Israeli airstrikes in Jabaliya refugee camp, northern Gaza, 31 October.
DPA
The UN said that “the 25th day of hostilities witnessed the largest Israeli ground operation to date, primarily in northern Gaza and the outskirts of Gaza City, alongside intense bombardments.” Nearly 60 trucks “carrying water, food and medicines entered Gaza through the Rafah crossing with Egypt,” the UN added. “This is the largest convoy since delivery of aid resumed on 21 October, bringing the total number of trucks that entered to 217,” but Israel continues to ban the transfer of fuel, which is “desperately needed to operate life-saving equipment.”
Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, said their fighters in Gaza have destroyed 22 Israeli military vehicles in the early stages of the ground war, with the focus of the battle taking place in the northwest. He denied that the captive soldier the Israeli military said they rescued was in the Qassam Brigades’ custody and mocked Benjamin Netanyahu for taking undue credit. The Qassam Brigades have informed mediators of their intent to release foreign captives in the coming days, Abu Obeida said in the video message released on social media.
The Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor said that it had “documented severe abuse and torture against Palestinian civilians and detainees at the hands of the Israeli army in the West Bank.” The group had obtained and examined footage showing Palestinians, some of them stripped naked, “being brutally beaten with rifle butts or subjected to other violence during their arrest, such as Israeli soldiers trampling on their heads.”
The government of Bolivia announced that it had broken diplomatic ties with Israel. The South American country’s foreign minister Freddy Mamani said that the decision was made “in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip.” Bolivia previously cut ties with Israel in 2009, “also in protest of Israel’s actions in Gaza,” Reuters reported.
Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Sare’e said in a televised statement that the group launched ballistic missiles and drones from Yemen aimed at Israel. Early-warning systems in Eilat, in southern Israel, identified a “hostile aircraft intrusion” which Israel said it downed as it approached from the Red Sea. Sare’e said it was the third time Houthi fighters have targeted Israel from Yemen since the war in Gaza began.
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza told Al Jazeera that some 400 people were killed and injured in Israeli military strikes targeting Jabaliya refugee camp in the north of the territory. According to Al Mezan, a Palestinian human rights group, the camp is the largest in Palestine and was “established in 1948 to house some 35,000 Palestinians expelled from Yaffa and other villages in southern Palestine.” Today, with more than 116,000 refugees living in an area of around 1.4 square kilometers, Jabaliya refugee camp is one of the most densely populated areas in the world, Al Mezan noted.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that the “Israel-Hamas war is the deadliest period for journalists covering conflict” since it began keeping records in 1992. The press freedom watchdog stated that “31 journalists were confirmed dead: 26 Palestinian, 4 Israeli and 1 Lebanese,” while eight journalists were reported injured and nine reported missing or detained.
The International Committee of the Red Cross stated that it “fears that the alarming levels of violence in the West Bank may lead to irreversible consequences for its communities. Since January of this year, more than 360 people have been killed in the occupied West Bank and over 2,000 wounded, making it the deadliest year in over a decade.”
The Palestinian health ministry reported as of 10:30am local time that 8,485 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and more than 21,000 injured since 7 October. During the same period, 125 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank and around 2,050 injured. The Gaza figures do “not necessarily reflect all casualties given the fact that many victims remain missing under the rubble,” the ministry said.