Al Mayadeen – August 4, 2024
Day 303 of Israeli aggression on Gaza: 39,583 killed, 91,398 injured
Israeli occupation forces have carried out two massacres in Gaza which killed and wounded dozens of civilians.
On day 302 of the Israeli genocide in the Gaza Strip, Israeli occupation forces committed two massacres against the people of Palestine, killing 33 and injuring 118 others in the past 24 hours.
This brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli aggression on Gaza since October 7 to 39,583, in addition to 91,398 injuries, according to the daily report released by the Gaza Ministry of Health.
The Gaza genocide is ongoing
Adding to its long list of crimes in its ongoing genocide in Gaza, the Israeli occupation bombed early Sunday tents sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinian families, which were erected in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza.
The Gaza Government Media Office revealed that the preliminary toll of the heinous aggression is three martyrs and over 18 wounded, including critical cases.
In a statement, the office condemned the Israeli "new massacre, which adds to a series of continuous massacres for more than 300 days of genocidal war against our unarmed Palestinian people."
It held the Israeli occupation and the US administration fully responsible for these ongoing crimes, calling on the world to condemn them.
Footage from the bombing site went viral on social media, showing tents being engulfed in flames as Palestinians attempted to extinguish them and pull out the casualties.
This brutal attack came less than one day after the Israeli occupation army bombed a school also sheltering forcibly displaced Palestinian families, killing and wounding tens of people.
The air attack on the Hamama School, located in the Sheikh Radwan Neighborhood in northernmost Gaza, led to the martyrdom of 15 Palestinians and the wounding of at least 35 others.
In 12 hrs., IOF struck 3 Gaza schools, 1 hospital; committed massacres
The Gaza Government Media Office says 172 shelters for displaced people have been targeted by the Israeli occupation forces since October 7, 2023.
In a new massacre committed by the Israeli occupation forces in the Gaza Strip, 30 Palestinians were killed on Sunday following a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted two schools in Gaza City sheltering thousands of displaced people.
According to Al Mayadeen’s correspondent, the Israeli airstrikes on the Hassan Salama and Al-Nasr schools in western Gaza City killed 30 Palestinians and injured dozens of others, including many in serious condition.
Palestinian news websites also reported that the Israeli bombardment destroyed the northern wing of the Al-Nasr School, which consists of three floors, and damaged the ground floor of Hassan Salama School.
Video footage showed fires breaking out inside the Hassan Salama School, which shelters thousands of displaced individuals whose homes have been destroyed.
Commenting on the latest massacre, Hamas pointed out that the Israeli occupation deliberately commits massacres against civilians, calling on the international community and Arab and Islamic countries to act to stop these crimes and hold the perpetrators accountable.
The movement vowed that the Israeli occupation's objectives of terrorizing, intimidating, and displacing people would be thwarted by the steadfastness of the Palestinian people and their courageous Resistance.
It also warned that Netanyahu and his henchmen's delusions of subjugating and oppressing the Palestinian people will result in the destruction and devastation of their fragile and beleaguered entity and its failing military.
This comes less than 24 hours after a similar Israeli massacre at the al-Hamama School in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood, which killed 16 displaced Palestinians.
Early Sunday, Israeli occupation forces targeted the tents of displaced people within the premises of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, killing three Palestinians and injuring over 18 others and causing a power outage at the health facility.
Gaza Civil Defense's capacity to handle Israeli bombardment is exhausted
In a related context, Gaza's Civil Defense stated that approximately 16 displaced Palestinians are still missing under the rubble of the school building, with teams continuing their search at the site.
The Civil Defense announced that it is now unable to deal with the Israeli bombardment due to deteriorating equipment, pointing out that its personnel are working with the minimum available resources.
It also stressed that the Israeli occupation disregards any conventions or norms in its war on Gaza, adding that the continued targeting of schools housing thousands of displaced people is further evidence of this.
Elsewhere, the Civil Defense noted that most of the injuries arriving at hospitals are children and women, putting the percentage of children casualties at 80%.
'Israel' targeted 172 shelters for displaced people
On its part, the Gaza Government Media Office reported that 172 shelters for displaced people have been targeted by the Israeli occupation forces since the beginning of the aggression on Gaza on October 7, 2023.
The Media Office noted that approximately 1,040 Palestinians have been killed inside schools since the onset of the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Earlier, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the number of Palestinians killed since the start of the ongoing Israeli war has risen to 39,583 and those injured to 91,398.
It noted, however, that several victims remain trapped under the rubble and in the streets, with ambulance and Civil Defense teams unable to reach them due to the dense rubble and continuous Israeli bombardment.
Informed Comment – August 2, 2024
Turkey’s Erdogan denounces killing of Haniyeh, blocks Israel at NATO, Boycotts it, and threatens Intervention
By Juan Cole
Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The only Middle Eastern country that has taken significant political and administrative actions to protest Israeli war crimes is Turkey. President Tayyip Erdogan denounced the assassination of Hamas Politburo head Ismail Haniyeh at “X,” writing, “I vehemently denounce and anathematize (lanetliyorum) the perfidious assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the Hamas Political Bureau, in Tehran. This killing is a vile deed intended to derail the Palestinian Cause, undermine the glorious resistance (şanlı direnişini) in Gaza, and the righteous struggle (haklı mücadelesini) of our Palestinian siblings, undermining their morale and instilling fear among them.” Erdogan called Haniyeh his “dear brother.”
Although Israel has called for Turkey’s expulsion from NATO, the latter is far too valuable to the alliance for that to happen. Ankara’s utility was again shown Thursday when Erdogan helped successfully broker the release of American prisoners and dissidents by Russia.
In fact, it is the other way around. Tuvan Gumrukcu at Reutersﾠgot the scoop that since last October Turkey has blocked the North Atlantic Treaty Organization from cooperating in any way with the Israeli war on Gaza. Israel is not a NATO member and despite its close military and intelligence ties with many European countries and with the US and Canada, it is voiceless when it comes to a strong stance by a NATO member like Turkey. Gumrukcu says “Turkey had vetoed all NATO engagement with Israel since October, including joint meetings and exercises . . .” on the grounds that Israel’s war on civilians and civilian infrastructure directly violated NATO principles.
NATO rules of engagement state that “NATO recognizes that all feasible measures must be taken to avoid, minimize and mitigate harm to civilians. When planning and implementing such measures, NATO should give consideration to those groups most vulnerable to violence within the local context. NATO recognizes that, in general, children constitute a particularly vulnerable group during conflict and women are often disproportionately affected by violence.” You couldn’t honestly say Israel is abiding by these principles. In fact, you might be forced to conclude that it is starkly violating them every day in Gaza.
Erdogan also instituted an economic boycott of Israel on April 9, as an Indian think tank puts it, placing export restrictions “on 54 product groups. The restrictions covered various materials, including raw iron bars, aluminium, copper products, concrete, cement, iron steel, electrical and fibre optic cables, granite, construction materials, marble and jet fuel.” Israel does not, for instance, make much cement of its own, so this boycott hurt. Israel and Turkey used to do $7 billion a year in bilateral trade, and the loss of Turkish products has contributed to skyrocketing inflation in Israel and supply chain disruptions. Under World Trade Organization rules, countries may institute boycotts over wars, so Turkey is within its rights. Israel’s government has contemplated a counter-boycott on Turkey, but some Israeli analysts worry that the WTO could sanction Tel Aviv over the step, since there are no legitimate grounds for it in the WTO charter.
Turkish Air used to be a significant carrier for Israel, but it won’t fly there any more. Israelis traveled to Turkey for tourism in large numbers, but that is now being discouraged by Israeli politicians.
The worst effects of the Turkish boycott, moreover, have yet to be felt, since Erdogan gave companies a three-month buffer in which to wrap up their contractual obligations to Israeli firms.
Some 46,000 Israeli businesses have shut down since October 7 because of the Gaza War, and the toll of shuttered companies in 2024 may amount to 60,000.
All that may be annoying, but Erdogan recently threatened a direct intervention against Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians: “Just as we intervened in Karabakh, just as we intervened in Libya, we will do the same to them.”
Turkish troops were sent to Libya in 2020 and are still there, in support of the internationally-recognized government in Tripoli. They prevented the complete takeover of the country by the Bengazi-based Haftar government backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. Turkey has the second-largest army in NATO, with some 425,000 soldiers.
Other than these (probably groundless) threats and minor inconveniences from Turkey, Israel has been able to pursue its total war on the Palestinian civilians of Gaza with almost complete impunity, given that it is backed to the hilt by the United States, a silent partner in the genocide. The some five hundred 2,000-pound bombs that the Israeli Air Force dropped on residential complexes in the first three months of the war, sometimes in the absence of any obvious military target (according to the UN Human Rights Council), all came from the US Pentagon. The US vetoed three UN Security Council cease-fire demands and called the fourth, from which it abstained, “non-binding,” making a mockery of the UN Charter and international law — and allowing the carnage to continue.
Last week, 45 American doctors who had done volunteer work in Gaza said that at least 92,000 people are dead and that “Virtually every child under the age of five whom we encountered, both inside and outside of the hospital, had both a cough and watery diarrhoea,” and that most mothers are giving birth to underweight babies that they cannot breastfeed because they suffer from malnutrition and dehydration. Some 50,000 babies have been born in Gaza during the war, victims of food and water shortages and repeated displacements even where they are not killed by indiscriminate Israeli fire. The US political establishment is either firmly behind these genocidal actions or declines to do anything practical to obstruct them.
https://www.juancole.com/2024/08/denounces-threatens-intervention.html
The fallout from Israel’s assassination of Ismail Haniyeh demonstrates the Biden administration’s failures
BY MITCHELL PLITNICK
The Biden administration wants a ceasefire deal but is not prepared to put pressure on Israel to make it happen. Netanyahu knows this and is pushing forward with the genocide of the Palestinians, and regional war with the Axis of Resistance.
In the space of mere hours, Israel killed the lead Hamas ceasefire negotiator, Ismail Haniyeh; assassinated one of the most senior figures in Hezbollah, Fuad Shukr; saw its citizens, including Knesset members and at least one government minister riot for their “right” to rape Palestinian prisoners; and announced that it had killed the head of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, Mohammed Deif earlier this month, a claim Hamas neither confirmed nor denied.
That’s a lot of events. In their wake, the world waited to see how the United States would react.
Washington’s silence in response to these actions has been deafening, and it does not speak well of the American position in the region or its own policy decisions.
Neither President Joe Biden nor Vice President and presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris have commented on these events. What we have heard from administration officials offers little insight into their real reactions.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed caught off guard when asked about the assassination of Haniyeh. “This is something we were not aware of or involved in. It’s very hard to speculate,” was Blinkenﾒs response.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin gave a token response about the United States being read to defend Israel, while White House spokesperson John Kirby came the closest to a criticism, saying “These reports over the last 24, 48 hours certainly don’t help with the temperature going down. We’re obviously concerned about escalation.”
On Friday, the United States began moving naval and air force resources closer to Israel, in an effort to contain a major escalation when the response from Iran, Hezbollah, Ansar Allah, and other groups in the region hits Israel, as everyone expects.
Clearly, the more effective way to avoid escalation—by cutting arms shipments to Israel and stopping it once and for all from pursuing its endless course of reckless actions throughout the region—is off the table, which is no less than anyone would have expected.
The U.S. reaction, or lack of one
While Kirby included the strike in Lebanon that killed Fuad Shukr in his critique, it is unlikely that Shukr’s killing and Haniyeh’s elicited the same response in Washington.
Fuad Shukr was a leader in Hezbollah from the first days of that group. As a young man, Shukr was involved in both the planning and execution of the bombing of a barracks in Beirut in 1983 housing foreign soldiers, killing 241 American and 58 French troops. That attack would put Hezbollah on the map, and made Shukr a wanted man for the United States.
His killing, therefore, must have come as welcome news in Washington, even if they might have been concerned that it might escalate the fighting along Israel’s northern border.
The timing of the strike on Beirut and the bombing of Haniyeh’s hotel room in Tehran suggest that these were coordinated actions, although the United States may have been made aware of only one, both, or neither.
This should not suggest, however, that U.S. actions were not indirectly involved in Israel’s decision to carry out these assassinations. On Wednesday, the U.S. launched air attacks on militants with the Kata’ib Hezbollah in Iraq, in response to attacks the previous weekend and the day before on Iraqi bases where U.S. soldiers are stationed.
The exchange marked the first major escalation in nearly six months since the Iraqi government had called for the resistance groups to de-escalate their attacks on American targets in Iraq. Iraq’s prime minister responded to the latest American action by renewing his demand that the U.S. leave Iraqi soil, a demand that has been repeatedly made and repeatedly ignored by Washington.
Given the heightened tension on that front, along with the generally diminished attention to the region, as American eyes turn toward its own presidential elections, Israel may well have decided that, since the U.S. had broken a period of relative quiet with the Iranian-supported militias, it was a good time for a series of strikes. That decision could have come without any consultation with the U.S., at least on the Haniyeh murder.
If the United States truly was kept in the dark, Biden would be even less inclined than usual to take any action against Israel. The last thing he wants to clarify, either to the Israelis, the greater Middle East, or American voters, is how little influence he has over Netanyahu, given his absolute refusal to use the coercive tools at his command.
Killing ceasefire talks by killing the negotiator
While killing Shukr might have seemed an acceptable risk given Hezbollah’s reluctance, which they have repeatedly made clear, to escalate the conflict, the assassination of Haniyeh dealt a significant blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to broker a ceasefire or, failing that, to at least obscure Israel’s exclusive role in thwarting one.
Blinken’s recent quip about “being inside the ten-yad line” indicated that he believed an agreement was very close. The pressure to reach an agreement within Israel has grown considerably, as more people, including Israelﾒs military and intelligence leadership, have realized that the hostages are not going to be freed by the Israeli military. Israeli negotiators have even gone public with their frustration over Netanyahu’s obstruction of a deal.
By killing Haniyeh, Israel eliminates not only the leader of Hamas’ negotiating team but also perhaps the most moderate voice in Hamas. Haniyeh had suggested just three months ago that Hamas would accept a Palestinian state next to Israel and would, in such a circumstance, disband its military wing.
Haniyeh was not only relatively moderate, but he had the cache with Hamas supporters and enough respect from more militant figures like Yahiya Sinwar for his view to have some influence. One might even suspect that this was a major factor in Israel’s desire to eliminate him.
Some analysts have speculated that killing Haniyeh, coupled with the Israeli claim that Deif’s killing has been confirmed allows Israel to weave a victory narrative and opens a path for Netanyahu to agree to a ceasefire.
Although Netanyahu remains unpopular in Israel, he is more popular than he has been at any time since October 7, and analysts speculate that he may be starting to believe he can withstand the end of the Gaza genocide.
This is wishful thinking. Netanyahu remains unpopular and still faces corruption charges. It’s going to be extremely difficult to sell a victory to the Israeli right if it doesn’t include the death or capture of Yahiya Sinwar and the elimination of the military capabilities of Hamas and other groups in Gaza. While Sinwar could, theoretically, be found and assassinated at any moment, the ability of Palestinian fighters to continue fighting remains more potent than the destruction of Gaza might lead some to assume.
What does it mean for Biden and Harris?
On Thursday, President Biden spoke with Netanyahu. The readout of their conversation was terse and brief, and it reflected a position from Biden that has been consistent throughout his presidency.
That readout in full was:
President Biden spoke today with Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel. The President reaffirmed his commitment to Israel’s security against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments. Together with this commitment to Israel’s defense, the President stressed the importance of ongoing efforts to de-escalate broader tensions in the region. Vice President Harris also joined the call.
Biden made it clear that the United States would defend Israel against the consequences of its actions. This was immediately manifested in Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s orders for additional air and sea power to be sent to guard Israel’s borders.
While Biden did mention a need to de-escalate tensions in the region, some things were conspicuously absent.
One was any mention of Israel’s actions that precipitated the heightened tensions. Usually, there is some mention of affirming Israel’s right of “self-defense” (which, it should be noted, does not cover extrajudicial killings), but that was absent here.
There was also no mention at all of ceasefire talks, or even of the Israeli hostages being held in Gaza. That’s a very notable omission, given Haniyeh’s position in those talks. There is a sense that the United States has, at least for the moment, dropped the pretense of those talks being obstructed by anyone other than Netanyahu.
The talks, for obvious reasons, have been paused. On Friday and Saturday, reports leaked out that Biden told Netanyahu to stop ﾓbullshittingﾔ him about Israel engaging seriously in ceasefire talks and to cease escalating. Yet the American ships and planes were speeding to Israel’s defense while he said it.
One reason for the duality is that Vice President Kamala Harris was also on the call, though her role seems to have been largely one of an observer. This would seem to be another sign that Harris will not depart from Biden in terms of policy on Israel, but wants to shed the image Biden projected of complete indifference to the lives of Palestinians.
Despite the rhetoric, though, Netanyahu clearly feels emboldened, and rightly so.
It seems unlikely that Biden was aware of Israel’s plan to take out Haniyeh. There is no good reason for Biden to simply allow Israel to take such an action, undermining efforts to secure a ceasefire, something Biden wants to accomplish before the election. But the state of play for Biden is no different than it has been for at least the past two months: he wants a ceasefire deal that sees the Israeli hostages released but is not prepared to put material pressure on Netanyahu to make it happen. And appearances aside, Harris seems to be on board with that, at least as long as she’s still Biden’s vice president.
Biden is counting on the protests in Israel and the increasing anger among many of Israel’s leaders to push Netanyahu to stop obstructing the deal. But Netanyahu has shown no sign of weakening his resolve to push on with the genocide and with the vision he shares with the far right in Israel of finally striking a blow that will defeat not just the Palestinians, but the Axis of Resistance once and for all.
The very idea is lunacy. It will ignite the region and Israel will be battered as it never has been before. The coalition of countries that helped thwart Iran’s attack in April is not going to help Israel if it starts a regional war. There will be no winners in such a war, very much including Israel.
Netanyahu knows very well that between now and Election Day, the President will do nothing that will be seen as a major shift in policy on Israel, regardless of Biden’s or Harris’ rhetoric. Biden may talk tougher, he may even dress Netanyahu down, but the money, the weapons, and the political cover is not going anywhere.
While Harris has shown some desire to try to win back some of the voters Biden lost with his policy on Gaza, she has not shown herself to be willing to take risks to do so. It will remain to be seen how risky it is to remain more concerned with pro-Israel donors than with those young, Arab, Muslim, and progressive voters. But that seems to be the course she’s taken.
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
