By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
SvennoJ on 01 March 2024
Edit Thread

And it only gets worse

An ‘incredibly bloody’ 24 hours in Gaza

Over the past few hours, we have seen more Israeli military strikes from the north to the south of Gaza.

A few moments ago, the Israeli military targeted a residential building in Jabalia refugee camp to the far north.

We have also seen more air strikes on the city of Khan Younis, where at least four Palestinians were reported killed when a flat in the Hamad residential neighbourhood was targeted.

Rafah has also been widely attacked, particularly the eastern part of the city. There, a family’s home was struck and reduced to rubble, killing at least one Palestinian and injuring dozens. Civil defence crew are still working to try to recover the injured under the rubble of the destroyed homes.

The past 24 hours have been incredibly bloody.

Hamas: Seven captives killed in Israeli bombing of Gaza

The Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s armed wing, announced that it had confirmed the news after investigations conducted over the past few weeks after it had lost contact with fighters who had been holding the captives. It was not immediately clear when the seven died. Several captives have been killed as a result of Israeli attacks in Gaza, including three who were shot by Israeli forces.

Three more Palestinians found dead from Gaza City attack, death toll at 115

The bodies of three more Palestinians killed while waiting for aid near Gaza City on Thursday morning have been found recovered, Gaza’s Health Ministry spokesperson has announced. This brings the overall death toll from the Israeli attack on aid-seekers to 115, with 760 wounded, the ministry said.


WHO says health system in Gaza ‘on its knees’

The World Health Organisation (WHO) says people in Gaza are risking their lives to find food, water and other supplies – such is the level of hunger and despair during the Israeli assault on the strip. “The system in Gaza is on its knees. It’s more than on its knees,” WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva. “All the lifelines in Gaza have more or less been cut.”

Lindmeier said this has created a “desperate situation”, as seen on Thursday when more than 100 people seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza were killed. “People are so desperate for food, for freshwater, for any supplies that they risk their lives in getting any food, any supplies to support their children, to support themselves,” Lindmeier said.

“The food supplies have been cut off deliberately. Let’s not forget that,” he added.

Jordan airdrops aid into northern Gaza

The Jordanian army says it has carried out three airdrops of food aid in several areas in northern Gaza. Jordan and Egypt have airdropped aid in recent days while the US and Canada said they were considering playing a similar role.

Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) said Jordan airdropped 48 packages of aid.

The president of Refugees International, Jeremy Konyndyk, said on Thursday that the amount of aid delivered in airdrops is so “negligible” that it helps “perpetuate the overall blockade strategy”.

“Facilitating airdrops and driving media coverage around them gives the public appearance that Israel is cooperating with humanitarian efforts,” said Konyndyk, who is also a former USAID official. “The fact that they need be considered is a major policy failure.”


Every bit helps, but indeed, that's just a bit more than the contents of a single truck. Hence deliver by sea, yet the Israeli naval blockade prevents that.
"Jordanian Air Force pilots dropped 33 tons of food and supplies on Gaza on Thursday"
"According to COGAT, 13,834 trucks carrying 254,210 tons of supplies have been transferred. Out of those, 8,021 trucks included 167,080 tons of food."
That comes to 20 tons of food per truck, so not even 1.5 trucks worth of aid.

500 trucks a day are needed, 10,000 tons of aid needs to come in daily to curb the catastrophe. More initially since everything has run out, 500 trucks is really just the pre war level of trucks going in daily while the water, electricity and gas were still on and Gaza could still produce its own food. (Now most agricultural land has been bulldozed, bombed or left stripped of anything edible, livestock killed by Israeli soldiers or eaten out of necessity, including the animal feed)

After 146 days, on a 500 trucks a day basis, they're about 60,000 trucks behind.
Cogat's numbers come out to less than a 100 trucks admitted daily which last month dropped to a daily average of 46.
Starvation by design.

Airdrops deliver ‘much lower’ amounts of aid than trucks: WHO

WHO representative Rik Peeperkorn says the UN’s health agency has not been able to send missions to northern Gaza in months due to the situation on the ground. Peeperkorn, who has just left Gaza, explains to Al Jazeera that while he is not “against” aid airdrops because they can be lifesaving interventions, the amount of supplies they can deliver is “much lower” and they are more expensive.

“It’s absolutely not needed in Gaza. The simplest, safest way and most effective way to deliver aid to people is through crossings. Not just Rafah. It should [also] be Kerem Shalom,” he said, referring to the crossing with Israel known in Arabic as Karem Abu Salem.

He added that the UN has been “more than ready” to supply Gaza with the aid it desperately needs but “a lot of our missions got delayed [and] denied [by Israel]”.


Palestinian Red Crescent teams transport body

The Palestinian Red Crescent ambulance teams transported the body of a killed Palestinian who arrived in the Al-Jaafrawi area in Deir el-Balah. The person was killed in an Israeli drone attack targeting a group of civilians in the al-Kaf area north of Khan Younis city – an area where Israeli forces are carrying out a targeted military operation.


Dozens of bodies remain under the rubble in Zeitoun neighbourhood

In the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza City, dozens of dead bodies remain under the rubble after Israeli forces invaded the densely populated area on two occasions since launching the ground invasion on October 31. Widespread devastation with burned-down buildings could be seen after deadly Israeli bombardments in addition to ground attacks.

“Destruction on a massive scale, beyond any description. Our homes were destroyed. Nothing remained of our property,” one resident told Al Jazeera. “After 10 days of tight siege, my family was still at home. The last time I called them was five days ago, they told me the situation was dangerous. I asked them to leave, they told me snipers and drones were all around and they cannot leave. I do not know where they are, killed and buried underneath or elsewhere.”

The resident urged the Red Cross and world leaders to help with recovery efforts, so families can find each other.

Location of food aid delivery was shared with Israel, says charity

The exact location of where food aid would be delivered in northern Gaza was shared with Israeli forces before the shooting that killed at least 112 Palestinians on Thursday, Muhammad Ahmad, a trustee from the Ummah Welfare Trust, one of the organisations that delivered food aid to Gaza, said.

“Our partners on the ground, who are in the south, liaised with the Israeli ministry that organises convoys in the north, and they had a plan in place. The trucks were moving together, and the location of the distribution was disclosed, and that’s [where] people were waiting all night,” Ahmad told Sky News in an interview on Friday.

“Unfortunately, a moment which would have given us some happiness and relief that aid had reached those in need became a bloodbath.”