More Palestinian civilians are thought to have been killed over the past month in Gaza than civilians reported killed in Ukraine since February 2022. Western officials, particularly those in Washington, have been highly critical of Russia but extremely indulgent of Israel’s actions.
“The destruction of life in Gaza is happening before the eyes and ears of the world,” writes Khalil Abu Shammala, a human rights activist in the territory. “It will remain a stain of disgrace on the forehead of the ‘international community’ and each individual working for that ‘community.’”
Mahmoud Nasser, a Gaza-based photographer and writer, portrays in photos the lives of children who have endured a month of Israeli state terrorism. “Full of love they live, and full of life they die,” he writes.
“My mother wants so badly to believe that Israel has ‘enough’ humanity to not bomb indiscriminately, and I’m too weak to break it to her that Israel doesn’t care,” writes Hend Ghazi Alfarra from Gaza.
Protests in various Irish towns have demanded the expulsion of Dana Erlich, Israel’s ambassador to the country. Rather than expelling her, Fianna Fáil – the largest party in Ireland’s ruling coalition – invited the Israeli diplomat to its annual conference last weekend.
While international attention has been focused on the assault on Gaza, Israel’s military and settlers have been relentless in their violence against Palestinians across the occupied West Bank. Israeli fire has killed 150 Palestinians in the West Bank since 7 October, and an additional eight Palestinians were killed by settlers.
Palestinians flee to the southern Gaza Strip on Salah al-Din Street in central Gaza on 8 November.
APA images
Around 50,000 people evacuated northern Gaza to the south through a “corridor” opened by the Israeli military for the fifth consecutive day, UN OCHA said in its daily report. “Most evacuees are moving on foot and [the] Israeli military reportedly forced those evacuees who use vehicles to leave them at the southern edge of Gaza City,” the UN group said. “The evacuees then walk 4 to 5 kilometers down the corridor, with an estimated distance of up to 20 kilometers for those traveling farthest.”
CNN broadcast footage of people streaming to the south on foot, bringing only what they can carry, and waving white flags. Palestinians told the broadcaster that they saw destruction everywhere and dead bodies and body parts along the road.
The hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the north, including the internally displaced, “are facing a dire humanitarian situation and are struggling to secure the minimum amounts of water and food to survive,” UN OCHA said, adding that “there are indications of negative coping mechanisms due to food scarcity, including skipping or reducing meals and using unsafe and unhealthy methods for making fire.”
The director of surgery at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City reported that “patients who have undergone surgery are at a high risk of infection due to the unhygienic conditions and lack of equipment,” the UN said. “In some cases, wounds have been covered by white flies and their larva, risking tissue damage, bacterial infection, and septicemia.”
Al-Quds Hospital in Gaza City halted key services after its main generator shut down and al-Awda hospital, “the only provider of maternity services in northern Gaza, warned about an imminent closure,” the UN said. Al-Quds Hospital “has been isolated from neighboring areas and is facing a severe shortage of food, baby formula, medicine and disposables,” the UN noted. The Palestine Red Crescent Society, which administers Al-Quds Hospital, said that it has become impossible to obtain fuel within Gaza, especially in the northern half. Meanwhile, “areas in close proximity” to Al-Quds Hospital were hit, injuring patients and displaced people and causing damage, the UN added.
More than 100 organizations in Palestine and around the world called for a two-way arms embargo on Israel to prevent the commission of genocide. In the midst of the attacks on Gaza and the West Bank, “the supply of arms and military support to Israel” from the US, Canada, Germany, Italy and the UK has continued, the organizations said, with some states fast-tracking the supply of equipment “in spite of ample evidence of war crimes being committed in Gaza.”
Volker Türk, the UN human rights chief, visited Rafah Crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border. He called on all parties to “take constant care to spare the civilian population” and said that “the aid getting through [to Gaza] is a trickle.” Türk affirmed that “Israel’s own obligations as an occupying power also continue to apply in full, requiring it to ensure a maximum of basic necessities of life can reach all who need it.”
The UN special rapporteur on housing said that the systematic and widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure in Gaza, including rendering Gaza City uninhabitable, amounts to “crimes against humanity.” Balakrishnan Rajagopal pointed to “the precedent set in the 1970s when measures to end apartheid in South Africa were taken by the General Assembly by unseating the South African delegation owing to widespread and systematic violations of human rights, which are inconsistent with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter.”
The Israeli military took a small group of foreign journalists on a 90-minute tour to what Reuters described as the “fringes” of Gaza City. The journalists were taken by the army in a windowless armored vehicle with screens connected to cameras showing the outside, while footage shot during the tour “was reviewed by the Israeli army as a condition for having a journalist embedded,” Reuters said.
Abu Obeida, spokesperson for the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said that their fighters have struck 136 Israeli military vehicles since ground operations began two weeks ago. The group has continually released videos showing dozens of direct hits against Israeli armored vehicles using predominantly Gaza-made anti-tank weapons. In a video message released on social media, Abu Obeida added that Israel continues to thwart efforts by the Qassam Brigades to unilaterally release 12 foreign captives and reiterated that a prisoner exchange was the only way forward with the Israelis held by the group in Gaza.
Israel’s parliament passed an amendment to its Counter-Terrorism Law that introduces “consumption of terrorist materials” as a new criminal offense. Adalah, a group that advocates for the rights of Palestinians in Israel, called it “one of the most intrusive and draconian legislative measures ever passed by the Israeli Knesset which invades the realm of personal thoughts and beliefs and significantly amplifies state surveillance of social media use.”
The Palestinian health ministry said that 10,678 Palestinians in Gaza, including 4,324 children, have been killed since 7 October. Some 2,550 people, including 1,350 children, remain missing under the rubble of destroyed buildings. The ministry stated that 49 percent of Palestinians killed in recent hours were in southern Gaza, “which negates the Israeli occupation’s claim that they are safe areas.”