Israeli reserve officer killed in Gaza
An Israeli reserve officer was killed in the central Gaza Strip earlier today, the military said. Major Yotam Itzhak Peled, 34, was killed by roadside bombs planted by Hamas in the Netzarim Corridor area, the military added.
Second soldier killed by roadside bomb in Gaza
The Israeli military has said that a second soldier was killed in the same attack in the central Gaza Strip that we reported on earlier. The military identified the soldier as Sergeant Major Mordechai Yosef Ben Shoam, 34, a settler from the colony of Geva Binyamin, near Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Earlier, Hamas issued a statement saying it had planted the bomb and that its fighters also opened fire at the troops in the convoy. His killing brings the military death toll since October 7 to 692 and to 334 in the ground invasion.
‘Gaza is a place with the highest amount of eyes lost’
Canadian ophthalmologist Yasser Khan describes losing track of the number of eye amputations he performed to children in Gaza, which he visited in December and March on medical missions.
“I’ve lost track of how many eye amputations, as an ophthalmologist, I did myself. Eye amputations or eviscerations are not a normal occurrence. They’re relatively rare,” he said in a video he shared on X.
“The patients I saw whose eyes were removed were ages 2, 6, 9, 10, 13, 16 – all children. Gaza is now a place with the highest amount of eyes lost, in ten months, in modern history.”
Ophthalmologist @yakeyes describes losing track of the number of eye amputations he performed in children in Gaza - innocent victims of the genocide. Testimony shared as part of the #EyeWitnessGaza campaign. @canada needs to act now.
https://t.co/lz0PWSad2m
— Dallas Duncan (@DallasDuncanMD) August 17, 2024
Human rights group documents extrajudicial killings by Israeli soldiers
Israeli soldiers took 53-year-old Ahmad Abu Helal from his family in Khan Younis because he speaks Hebrew and he can translate for them.
Then they executed him using a quadcopter, according to the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR), which has documented numerous incidents of extrajudicial killings committed by Israeli forces against Palestinian civilians across the Gaza Strip.
The group said Abu Helal, a father of five, was executed after he was forced to translate soldiers’ instructions to residents of Khan Younis.
📝The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has documented numerous incidents of extrajudicial killings committed by the Israeli occupation forces (IOF) against #Palestinian civilians across the #gaza Strip, including the case of Ahmed Mohammed Abu Helal, 53, who is a… pic.twitter.com/ZDatBxPKn4
— Palestinian Centre for Human Rights - PCHR (@pchrgaza) August 17, 2024
Scenes of destruction in northern Gaza
Here is footage shared by UN officials after their visit to northern Gaza:
A delegation from the UN finally made it into North Gaza. The video footage from the car shows a harrowing level of destruction. pic.twitter.com/wDRljMh8MR
— AHMED | أحمد (@ASE) August 17, 2024
Number of Palestinians killed in northern and southern Gaza
We’re getting reports from our colleagues on the ground that an Israeli attack targeting a house in Abasan al-Kabira, east of Khan Younis, has killed four people and wounded at least six people.
Several Palestinians have also been killed and wounded in an Israeli bombing targeting an apartment in the Jabalia camp, in northern Gaza.
