Its been difficult to keep up with how many people the IDF are responsible for killing or injuring in mass casualty events where Palestinians have been trying to get food from primarily the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.” Because they are happening so often. A massacre or two every single day so far. But we have a number now: as of yesterday, it’s 397 dead and 3,031 injuries.
People on the ground describe it as “Squid Games.” They have to walk, often run, for miles, risking getting shot if you raise your head. If you are lucky, you make it through and get greeted by American mercenaries and pepper spray.
It isn’t as if the IDF and the GHF are uniquely bad at humanitarian relief efforts. This is all entirely by design.
Much more at the link.
And these “concentration zones” keep getting smaller. From the latest flash update again:
If you are interested, the Database for Palestine maintain a database of all of the displacement maps. Most of Gaza are no-go zones for Palestinians now.
More news from the ground:
The latest update is worryingly missing information about what is happening in the north. The last update (7 days ago) said “There are no hospitals functional, even partially, in North Gaza.” One assumes this remains to be the case.
IDF soldiers have told Haaretz they were ordered to shoot at unarmed Gazan civilians waiting for humanitarian aid:
This Israeli government, and this IDF, are hopelessly morally compromised, and must end this war. They’re not capable of fighting with any sort of moral decency outside of Israeli territory. The US must stop supporting this Israeli government and this IDF.
The current Israeli-run “aid” agency also appears complicit in these atrocities.
Not wanting to register and get yet more spam, does anyone have access to the full article to confirm it doesn’t say anything further down that contradicts what it says in the news alert?
Although the comments, weirdly, are publicly available. And include stuff like the below, so yeah, this probably says what it looks like:
Why is Haaretz publishing this? It increases the hatred towards Israel, already demonized by the whole world, especially by influential young Americans?
Haaretz should have kept quiet about the horrific actions of the IDF. You also have to remember this could lead to far more antisemitism outside of Israel.
…I mean: I called it a very long time ago. But there have been so many threads on Gaza that I’ve participated, and I think its this one that I’m not allowed to call it that: however every reputable human rights agency are calling it that for a while, and I think I’m okay to say that here.
And it’s frustrating that the Palestinians have been saying that this has been happening for weeks. As I said on June the 19th:
There isn’t just testimony from people on the ground of it happening. There is video. But it isn’t until it’s filtered through a certain lens that people start to believe it. This isn’t a dig at anyone in this thread because it’s much bigger than here. The reality is that people just won’t believe it.
As an aside: the Palestinian reporters on the ground have been heroes.
Ahmad Saad killed 3 hours ago.
There is footage of the aftermath of this killing (not on this link) : it’s as grizzly as you can imagine.
Hanan Eqelan killed with her family a couple of days ago.
Estimates range from 180 to 230 journalists have been killed depending on how “journalist” is defined. Many of them killed not in the field while reporting: but like Hanan Eqelan, targeted in their home with their families. Deliberate assassinations.
And the silence from much of the international journalist has been deafening. One of the notable exceptions is the Chief Foreign Correspondent for Fox News of all places, Trey Yingst. He regularly speaks out in support of journalists in Gaza. It’s shameful that the more “liberal” news outlets don’t do the same.
…from the Gaza Health Ministry, numbers of dead and injured from people trying to get food from the GHF since they started:
(Twitter link sorry)
It matches the Haaretz reporting. 549 dead. 4000 injured. On average 30 people killed a day.
And there is no reason to believe that’s going to stop. On top of that we don’t really know what is happening in Northern Gaza any more. Rafah has been flattened.
The population have been herded into “concentration zones.” Over 80% of Gaza has been declared “combat zones” and are effectively no-go-zones. The UN used to have 400 food distribution points. Now thats down to four operated by the GHF. (Although I’ve heard reports that some UN trucks have been getting in, and the World Central Kitchen have started very limited operations again as well. But it is still nowhere near the levels that are required.
The latest Gaza Flash Update:
This here is important because the GHF are casting doubt on the reports of shootings around aid sites. Here is the website for the ACLED, along with the methodology:
Is it? The article uses very dramatic language, but even Haaretz doesn’t make the claim we have seen repeated over and over and over here on the Dope and elsewhere: that people are being murdered while waiting for food.
If you’re holding a military position, and a huge group of people is coming towards you, and you fire warning shots but they don’t stop, what the fuck are you supposed to do?
I guess they could fall back, fold up the aid distribution site, and leave since they couldn’t secure the site.
That’s not what the article says is happening. It says the army is firing on people approaching the food distribution site, or lining up to get to it when it opens. It explicitly says the soldiers are not at risk.
And it says the soldiers are calling it “red light/green light” (some other name for the Hebrew version of the game) where “it” calls out whether you can go, and anyone who moves too soon or too late is “out”. Only in this version, those people are dead. And a key point of the game is that typically, most of the kids slip up and are called “out”, and the only way to win (to get to the winning point) is to push the limits. The analogy is pretty clear. You’ll starve if you don’t get to the food quickly when it’s available, and if you skip up trying to do that, you’ll be killed.
Perhaps I misunderstood, but I took that as a “let them eat cake” response.
I mean, give up whatever this approach is, which isn’t working and has been roundly condemned by the various groups expert at distributing aid, and let the people who know what they’re doing handle it.
Normal crowd control measures. Non-lethal ones. Rubber bullets, water cannons, barriers etc.
And yeah, this. The combination of few distribution points, short and unpredictable opening times, and an unwillingness to let people wait nearby creates this situation. None of that is necessary. The people in charge put IDF soldiers in this position with no options other than lethal force, and then tell them to use it.
And then there’s this:
Killing people because contractors chose to put themselves in danger in order to make a buck. Again, they create the situation that requires a lethal response.
Because the area surrounding the food site is not open to the public when the site isn’t distributing food. And after soldiers signal that this is a combat zone not open to civilians by firing warning shots, and people keep approaching them anyways, I have no idea how you or the article can determine that the soldiers or aid workers are not under threat in that situation.
The fact that (an anonymous source claims that) some 18 year olds employ some gallows humor when under incredibly damning situations is certainly not unique to Israel. I doubt you can find one army in the world where enlisted troops don’t make those kinds of jokes. It’s hardly evidence of murder.
It’s not something I advocate for; I think they should create more aid distribution sites and expand the program.
It said that a soldier said he didn’t personally come under fire. There are reported injuries from soldiers outside the site, so clearly, his personal experience doesn’t line up with everyone’s.
The article is really pretty damning. I hope they let normal aid distribution groups who have experience distributing aid without routinely killing people back into Gaza. And i hope there’s a fair investigation of this whole sick exercise in Israel, with real consequences.
