379 Days of Genocide: October 20th Newsletter
379 Days of Genocide: October 20th Newsletter
‘We fear Gaza will be forgotten’: Palestinians despair as focus shifts to Lebanon
As Israeli bombs began to fall across Lebanon, the scenes of bloodshed and chaos were grimly familiar to the people of Gaza. Mai al-Afifa, 24, was teaching a workshop about how to identify unexploded ordnance in a school turned shelter in the central Gaza town of Deir al-Balah on Thursday when an Israeli missile hit the next building in the compound. Twenty-eight people were killed and 54 injured, according to medics at the scene.
Through the smoke and rubble dust Afifa saw the body parts of two women and a male aid worker as she stumbled to safety. The Israeli military said it had used a precise strike to target Hamas fighters using the school as a command centre.
“We are very sad about what is happening now in Lebanon … We have experienced this pain and loss,” Afifa said. “But we also fear that Gaza will be forgotten: the massacres have increased here and no one is talking about it. All the TV channels are talking about the regional war, Iran, Israel and what is happening in Lebanon.”
More from Bethan McKernan for The Guardian.
Palestine’s UN envoy says ‘genocide within genocide’ going on in north Gaza
A senior Palestinian diplomat to the United Nations has sounded alarm over Israel’s ongoing siege of northern Gaza, in which hundreds of Palestinians have been killed over the last week and hundreds of thousands of civilian residents are either trapped or ordered to flee amid intense bombardment.
As the military siege in the Jabalia refugee camp and its vicinity entered its 10th day on Sunday, Palestinian authorities said at least 200 people have been killed since the Israeli operations began earlier this month.
The Palestinian news agency Wafa reported that at least 17 more people were killed on Sunday morning in central and northern Gaza, including eight members of one family in the Nuseirat refugee camp as well as five people in al-Ettesalat area west of the Jabalia refugee camp.
“What is happening in northern Gaza now is a genocide within the genocide,” Palestinian Ambassador Majed Bamya, the deputy permanent observer to the UN, wrote on X.
More at Al Jazeera.
Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Mr Muhannad Hadi
The pressure on over 400,000 people remaining in northern Gaza to leave southwards is mounting.
Since 1 October 2024, Israeli authorities have increasingly cut off northern Gaza from essential supplies. Erez and Erez West crossings have been kept closed, and no essentials have been allowed from the south. Three renewed orders have been issued – on 7, 9 and 12 October – directing people to displace. In parallel, hostilities continue to escalate, resulting in more civilian suffering and casualties.
In the past two weeks, over 50,000 people have been displaced from the Jabalya area, which is cut off, while others remain stranded in their homes amid increased bombardment and fighting. A military siege that deprives civilians of essential means of survival is unacceptable.
The latest military operations in northern Gaza have forced the closure of water wells, bakeries, medical points and shelters, as well as the suspension of protection services, malnutrition treatment, and temporary learning spaces. At the same time, hospitals have seen an influx of trauma injuries.
Civilians must be protected, and their basic needs must be met. Multiple entry routes must open for critical supplies and safe humanitarian response needs to be provided to people in need wherever they are. Civilians must not be forced to choose between displacement and starvation. They must have a safe place to go, with shelter, food, medicine and water. In Gaza, there are no more supplies available to support newly displaced people.
Those who leave must be given the opportunity to return.
I reiterate that international humanitarian law must always be respected by all.
Regulators duck for cover as Australian media fails to correct “40 babies beheaded”
“As recently as last week, in the wake of the anniversary of Hamas’s October 7 attacks, Australia’s media persisted with its narrative of “babies beheaded” and “mass rapes”.
In a story in Rupert Murdoch’s Herald Sun by former Australian treasurer Josh Frydenberg 5 days ago, the claims were repeated again despite a lack of evidence, in fact despite the claims being debunked by a number of independent sources.
Despite the lack of evidence for these claims, and despite the media’s refusal to resile from its claims, Australia’s media regulators, The Australian Communications & Media Authority (ACMA) and the Australian Press Council, have ducked questions as to their responsibility to ensure truthful reporting.
ACMA responded to questions from MWM by saying, “Concerns about press coverage should be raised with the Australian Press Council”. The Press Council, an organ of industry self-regulation, has simply refused to respond.”
More from Michael West for Michael West Media.
Anti-Zionist beliefs ‘worthy of respect’, UK tribunal finds
The belief that Israel’s actions amount to apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide are “worthy of respect in a democratic society”, an employment tribunal has concluded in a landmark decision.
In February the tribunal ruled that Prof David Miller was unfairly discriminated against when he was dismissed by the University of Bristol over allegations of making antisemitic remarks, in a decision the Union of Jewish Students said set a dangerous precedent.
The tribunal has now published its 120-page judgment setting out why Miller’s beliefs warranted protection under antidiscrimination laws.
Passing the ruling, the employment judge Rohan Pirani said: “Although many would vehemently and cogently disagree with [Miller]’s analysis of politics and history, others have the same or similar beliefs.
“We find that he has established that [the criteria] have been met and that his belief amounted to a philosophical belief.”
Miller, who lectured at the university on political sociology, told the panel he thought Zionism was “inherently racist, imperialist and colonial”.
He added that Zionism was “ideologically bound to lead to the practices of apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide in pursuit of territorial control and expansion”. But he told the panel that his anti-Zionism did not equate to opposition towards Jews.
The panel’s judgment noted Miller’s expertise on Zionism.”
More at The Guardian.
Zionist ‘safety patrols’ on campus have little concern for Jewish safety
“Campuses this academic year are facing a new threat: intimidation from so-called Zionist “self-defence” groups with far-right links.
At the University of Toronto, Magen Herut Canada (Defender of Freedom Canada), a volunteer-based Zionist vigilante group affiliated with Herut Canada – an organisation tied to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right, revisionist Likud Party, which advocates for the “Greater Israel” settler-colonial vision – was mobilised to ostensibly “defend” Jewish students from what they claim to be protesters’ anti-Semitism.
Magen Herut plans to expand its “volunteer safety patrols” across Canada and into the United States. Membership requires ideological alignment with Zionism and experience in policing, security, or the military. With more than 50 members, Magen Herut coordinates through WhatsApp groups to patrol up to 15 zones, including university campuses, and to appear at Gaza solidarity protests, where they intimidate attendees. They go on patrol in sizeable groups, wearing black T-shirts that identify them as members of the Magen Herut “Surveillance team”. The group’s leader, Aaron Hadida, a security expert, teaches “Jewish self-defence,” including the use of firearms. Magen Herut works closely with J-Force, a private security firm that provides “protest security” for Israel supporters. J-Force deploys volunteers to pro-Palestine events in tactical gear. Both groups are expected to remain active on campus throughout the academic year.
Zionist activists with the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a Southern Poverty Law Center designated hate group whose stated goal is to “protect Jews from anti-Semitism by any means necessary”, have also been spotted at pro-Palestinian events at the university. The group, which was largely inactive prior to October 7, was deemed a “right-wing terrorist group” by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2001”
More from Yoav Litvin for Al Jazeera.
Israeli academics lead way in advocating 'process of extermination' of Palestinians
“Uzy Raby, a history professor, has been one of the most sought-after Middle East experts in Israeli media. The senior lecturer at the department of Middle Eastern and African history at Tel Aviv University has unapologetically advocated the starvation of civilians in northern Gaza who do not follow the Israeli army’s order to evacuate south.
"Anyone who stays there will be judged by law as a terrorist and will go through either a process of starvation or a process of extermination," he said during a TV interview last month.”
“Dr Harel Chorev is another Middle Eastern lecturer at Tel Aviv University who advocated the Eilan plan. He told Channel 13 that he would "sign with both hands" on the plan, as it is consistent with his own plan for Gaza.
In March, Chorev called for a military operation in Rafah despite US objections. "Rafah must be conquered," he told Maariv newspaper.
Professor Eyal Zisser, Tel-Aviv University vice rector and member of the Middle East department, has called on the Israeli military to "occupy Gaza now."
In June, Professor Benny Morris, one of the leading scholars of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and member at the Middle East department at Ben-Gurion University, shockingly called for Israel to drop a nuclear bomb on Iran.”
More from Nadav Rapaport for Middle East Eye.
In the early hours of Monday Israeli forces targeted the tents of displaced Gazans on the premises of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza. An explosion from the airstrike set the compound on fire that burned down more than 50 tents. Initial reports state that at least four were killed and 70 wounded, including women and children, in the surprise attack.
The images of people being burned alive posted on social media and broadcast on news channels sparked a wave of shock and horror among those watching the devastation.
More at World Socialist Website.
Palestinians in Gaza face asbestos danger from war rubble
Asbestos in the vast piles of rubble left by Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza is a threat to Palestinians living there. Inhaled, it can cause cancers. Al Jazeera’s Nils Adler explains the threat.
President Miguel Diaz-Canel led thousands of Cubans in a march through Havana to express solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
"Israel has adopted a totally irrational, imperialist and genocidal behaviour that forces us to continue to express our rejection and condemnation of what is happening in the Palestinian territories," said a protester.
The demonstrators, including around 250 Palestinian medical students living in Cuba, carried a large banner that read "Long live free Palestine". President Diaz-Canel was also among those wearing the Palestinian keffiyeh.
Via Middle East Eye.
Israeli forces targeted ambulances and civil defence teams in two separate areas of Gaza on Monday.
Ambulances and civil defence teams came under Israeli bombardment in al-Mawasi while attempting to evacuate injured Palestinians. Meanwhile, in another attack, a bomb struck the route of an ambulance transferring injured people from Jabalia to a hospital.
Via Middle East Eye.
My sister was the 166th doctor to be murdered in Gaza
“Your lives will continue. With new events and new faces. They are the faces of your children, who will fill your homes with noise and laughter.”
These were the last words written by my sister in a text message to one of her daughters.
Dr Soma Baroud was murdered on 9 October when Israeli warplanes bombed the taxi that carried her and other tired Gazans somewhere near the Bani Suhaila roundabout near Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip.
I still don’t know whether she was on her way to the hospital where she worked, or leaving the hospital to go home. Does it even matter?
The news of her assassination — which was a political murder; Israel has deliberately targeted and killed 986 medical workers, including 166 doctors — arrived through a screenshot copied from a Facebook page: “Update: these are the names of the martyrs of the latest Israeli bombing of two taxis in the Khan Yunis area…” It was followed by a list of names. “Soma Mohammed Mohammed Baroud” was the fifth name on the list, number 42,010 on Gaza’s ever-growing list of martyrs.
Dr Ramzy Baroud for Middle East Monitor.
Video shows aftermath of Israeli military strike on Lebanese town
Israeli air attacks on homes and a health centre have killed at least 10 people in Qana, a Lebanese town that suffered Israeli massacres in 1996 and 2006.
Via Al Jazeera.
“Had there been YouTube and Instagram and TikTok around Auschwitz, this is what we would have seen, people burning alive. And it’s beyond horrendous, it’s beyond comprehension.”
In an online meeting with French activist and film producer Frank Barat on Monday, Canadian physician Gabor Mate explored the psychological complexities of witnessing atrocities in Gaza and Palestine, saying: “It’s like we’re watching Auschwitz on TikTok.”
Via Middle East Eye.
War on Gaza: Israel is ‘erasing northern Gaza’, aid groups warn.
Dozens of aid groups have warned that “northern Gaza is being wiped off the map” by Israeli forces amid an ongoing campaign to ethnically cleanse the area of its Palestinian population.
Israel has ordered the remaining 400,000 Palestinians in the north to leave and imposed a renewed siege on civilians until they comply.
On 6 October, Israel launched a major offensive on northern Gaza and ordered residents to flee south.
Israeli officers and analysts have suggested that the military is implementing a controversial plan, known as "the Generals' Plan", to ethnically cleanse northern Gaza or otherwise starve and kill those who remain behind.
This is despite Israel's claims that Hamas has already been defeated in the north.
Via Middle East Eye.
What is the ‘Generals’ Plan’? Israel’s ongoing ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza, explained
“Israel’s current offensive on northern Gaza is being reported in the media as the apparent implementation of what has come to be known as “the Generals’ Plan.” The plan is based on a vision laid out in two separate articles by retired Israeli general Giora Eiland in the early months of the war. Eiland’s vision is that Israel should impose unlivable conditions on the inhabitants of northern Gaza by starving them out and forcing them to leave the south. Whoever remains, Eiland said, would be considered a Hamas member or sympathizer, and thus a legitimate target. The idea is to drain northern Gaza of its population and thus isolate Hamas from its social base, forcing it to capitulate or die.”
More from Qassam Muaddi for Mondoweiss.
Genocide rages on, but it’s business as usual at the neoliberal university
“Once again, student protesters are calling for a ceasefire and an end to occupation, and to achieve these goals, they are asking their institutions to urgently divest from Israel.
In the spring, university leaders made it clear that they would not negotiate with Palestine solidarity activists. Rather than listening to their students, they invited the police on campus to violently dismantle their encampments. Dozens of students faced censure, suspension and even criminal charges for demanding that their institutions end their complicity in Israel’s war crimes and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory.
When protests returned to campus in September, it became apparent that there has not been a change in the position of university leaders over the summer.
Rather than reflecting on their actions that objectively harmed students and stifled their right to free speech and assembly, most of them seem to have spent the summer devising new strategies and campus policies to better suppress protests and minimise their impact on the everyday function of their institutions.”
More from Sondeep Sem for Al Jazeera.
West Bank woman shot in the back by Israeli soldiers while harvesting olives
A 59-year-old Palestinian woman has been shot dead by Israeli forces while attending to her family’s olive grove in the village of Faqqua, east of Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank.
Hanan Abu Salami was shot in the back on Thursday morning as she was picking olives with other members of her family when soldiers stationed on the nearby separation wall opened fire, her son told Middle East Eye.
Faris Abu Salami, who was with his mother when she was shot, said the local council had negotiated permission from the Israeli army for the family and other villagers to pick olives on their lands providing they stayed at least 100 metres from the wall.
Abu Salami said: “We were much further than that from the wall. All of a sudden they started shooting randomly. We started collecting our things to leave and moved away. My father waved his white hat in the air hoping they would stop. They shot her in the back as we were fleeing the shooting.”
The Palestinian Red Crescent confirmed that the woman was shot in the back and said medical teams had tried to resuscitate her as she was being transferred to hospital.
More at Middle East Eye.
‘No one else is going to deliver the truth from Gaza’: An interview with the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate
On October 2, the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate (PJS) published a report titled Silencing Voices: The Plight of Palestinian Journalists Detained by Israeli Occupation During Ongoing Israeli Aggression. The document’s 26 pages include testimonies from more than a dozen Palestinian journalists from Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem who were kidnapped by the Israeli occupation and held without due process after October 7, 2023 while on the job.
“They speak of beatings with sharp objects, prolonged hanging, forced stripping, attempted rape of both male and female prisoners, and death threats,” said PJS President Nasser Abu Bakr of the testimonies. “It is slow torture, carried out over hours, days, and sometimes months…We ask the conscience of humanity—where are you in all of this?”
Israel’s mass slaughter of media workers constitutes the largest and most systemic attack on the press in world history. Authors of the PJS report counted over 165 Palestinian journalist martyrs in Gaza since the start of the genocide and 107 media worker detentions throughout Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Some remain behind bars; others are unaccounted for.
We sat down with Shuruq As’ad of the PJS to discuss the findings of the report and conditions that Palestinian reporters continue to face while reporting on the Israeli occupation.
Interview from New York War Crimes for Mondoweiss.
What is life like for Palestinians with disabilities during Israel’s genocide?
Before the outbreak of the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, adults with disabilities accounted for about 2.6 per cent of the total population, which exceeds two million. This percentage has increased with the documentation of 10,000 new disability cases since 7 October last year, amid expectations that this figure will rise.
UN data indicates that at least a quarter of the Palestinians wounded in Gaza suffer from life-changing injuries and will require rehabilitation for years.
Ahmad Abu Shaaban is one of the thousands whose lives have been changed forever by Israel’s genocide. The ambitious young man was studying architecture at Palestine University, but has faced unexpected challenges since July 2024. He and his family were forced to flee their home, heading south in response to mandatory evacuation orders, eventually finding refuge in Khan Yunis, like thousands of other families escaping the bombing of homes and residential areas. Life in the camp was difficult, crowded and harsh, but Ahmad tried to maintain hope in his family’s hearts.
While returning one day from a long trip to fetch water, the area was hit by a barrage of rockets. After days of unconsciousness, he woke up.
Both of his legs had been amputated, and his right hand was gone.
The shock was indescribable. Ahmad refused to acknowledge his new situation and was consumed by questions about his future and how he would continue his life as before. In his new daily routine, he became completely reliant on his wheelchair and the assistance of family members.
More from Palestinian Information Centre for Middle East Monitor.
As Israel's invasion of Lebanon escalates, some Israelis are pushing the idea of expanding Israel's territory yet again with the goal of a so-called ‘Greater Israel’ in mind. But is this just some fringe fantasy? Al Jazeera's @soraya.lennie looks at how this all came about.
Hospitals in northern Gaza under Israeli fire as Jabalia attack kills 33
At least three partially functioning hospitals treating severely wounded patients and sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza are currently under intense Israeli fire, as the siege on Jabalia enters its third week, with at least 33 more people killed in the latest strikes on several homes.
Israeli forces bombed al-Awda Hospital in Jabalia early on Saturday, and have also shelled Kamal Adwan and the Indonesian hospitals in Beit Lahiya over the past few hours, Al Jazeera correspondents have reported.
At least one person has been killed and several others were wounded in the strike at the entrance of the laboratory of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Gaza’s Health Ministry said.
In another Israeli attack on central Gaza’s Maghazi refugee camp, at least 11 people were killed, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA said on Saturday, adding that there are still missing people under the rubble. In all, at least 67 Palestinians have been reported killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza in the last 24 hours, according to authorities in the enclave.
More at Al Jazeera.
Israel bans at least six medical aid missions from entering Gaza
At least six medical aid missions currently operating inside the Gaza Strip received orders this week from the Israeli government that they would no longer be allowed access to their patients in the enclave.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) made the announcement on Thursday and informed the medical groups after Israel told the UN agency about their decision through text messages.
Among those groups are Fajr Scientific, Glia, and the Palestinian American Medical Association (Pama).
The Washington Post reported that WHO said it was concerned about the impact the order would have on Gaza's strained medical system, adding that the emergency medical teams in Gaza are essential to keeping the system running, as only 17 of the 36 hospitals in Gaza remain in operation.
Israel’s coordinator of government activities in the territories (Cogat) appeared to give no reason for the decision to ban the missions from Gaza.
WHO pressed for “urgent and sustained facilitation of entry for EMTs into Gaza”, and said there has been widespread malnutrition and rampant disease across the Strip.
No food or aid of any kind has entered northern Gaza since 1 October amid a massive ground operation launched by the Israeli army.
More at Middle East Eye.
On October 7, the Tahrir Coalition, a union of pro-Palestinian organisations at the University of Michigan, posted on social media what it said was a recording of the university’s president, Santa Ono.
In the audio file, a man’s voice can be heard talking about pressure from “powerful groups” and the threat of withholding federal funding if the university administration does not focus almost exclusively on combating anti-Semitism.
He states: “The government could call me tomorrow and say, in a very unbalanced way, the university is not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism. And I could say it’s not doing enough to combat Islamophobia, and that’s not what they want to hear.”
Although the Tahrir Coalition did not explain how they obtained the recording or when and where it was made, neither Ono, nor the university disputed its authenticity. Instead, the university administration issued a statement to the local newspaper Metro Times, saying: “The University of Michigan is steadfastly committed to ensuring our community remains a safe and supportive environment, where all students – regardless of race, religion, ethnicity or other identities – have the opportunity to learn and thrive.”
The problem is that the university is not committed to the safety and support of Muslim and Arab students. Of course, we did not need the leaked recording to know that, but it does provide the general public with an explanation of the university’s utter failure to support marginalised students.
More from Ahmad Ibsais for Al Jazeera.
Israeli occupation forces provided protection for settlers as they attacked Palestinian olive pickers and international activists in the occupied West Bank. Israel has limited Palestinian access to their olive groves hindering the harvest which is a vital source of income for scores of families. Via Middle East Monitor.
Gaza: Israeli drone hits child, second strike kills rescuers
An Israeli drone targets a child in Jabalia refugee camp, northern Gaza. As people rushed to help, Israel carried out a second attack with an air strike hitting those trying to save him. This calculated tactic is designed to trap rescuers and ensure maximum casualties.
Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, reacted to the video on X: ‘These events represent a part of the systematic and widespread actions being carried out by Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The rationale? The opportunity to target (and destroy) the Palestinians.’
Australia is dismantling academic freedom in defense of Zionism
Over the last year, Australian universities have been subject to a Zionist political pressure campaign for their varied responses to ongoing university student protests against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. This culminated recently in the Australian Senate with calls to investigate universities for antisemitism.
On October 2, 2024, the Australian Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs released a set of recommendations as part of a review of a billcalling for a judicial inquiry into antisemitism at universities. The Committee recommended that the Attorney General refer an inquiry into antisemitism at Australian universities to the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights. In addition, it recommended that the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) will work together with the newly appointed Special Envoy to Combat Antisemitism to ensure that universities review their complaints processes to a “real and meaningful outcomes for complainants.”
These recommendations, which the government supports, will put the University sector under constant, ongoing, political scrutiny, serving as a reminder that they need to keep their staff and students on a leash. They are part of an ongoing political attack on academic freedom that predates October 7, which seeks to silence critical discussions about Israel and to label any academic activity, including teaching and scholarship, that criticizes Israel as antisemitic and therefore illegitimate, and illegal.
More from Noam Peleg for Mondoweiss.
Yahya Sinwar Killed
Khalil Hayya, the head of Hamas in Gaza, said in a televised address on Friday that Yahya Sinwar was “steadfast, brave and intrepid” and “sacrificed his life to the cause of our liberation.”
“He met his end standing brave, with his head held high, holding his firearm, firing until the last breath, until the last moment of his life,” he told the Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV.
“Since his early days, he was engaged in his struggle as a resistant fighter. He stood defiant behind Israeli bars and after his release in a swapped deal, he continued with his struggle and his dedication to the cause.”
Hayya added that Sinwar’s “martyrdom” and leaders who preceded him “will only increase the strength and resilience of our movement.”
Full story at Al Jazeera.
How did Israel kill Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar?
Full Story at Al Jazeera.