Main events on August 10th
- The Israeli military confirmed that it deliberately killed Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif and four other staff after it hit their tent at the entrance of al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.
- The journalists, who had been threatened for months, are now among the more than 230 media workers who have been killed by Israeli weapons since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza.
- The Israeli army also killed more Palestinians in bombings across the besieged enclave, as it allowed more limited airdrops of aid to maintain appearances of delivering food to the starving population.
- The UN Security Council held a meeting on the catastrophic situation in Gaza, where most states rejected Israel’s expanding occupation plans, but the US defended Israel and blamed Hamas.
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told foreign reporters that seizing Gaza City would be the best and fastest way of ending the war, and claimed that Hamas is starving Palestinians.
- Violent Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians across the occupied West Bank, including in a village in Hebron, as Israeli soldiers launched new raids and backed the settlers.
- Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government has until August 24 to inform the families of captives held in Gaza about the conditions for ending the war and releasing the captives.
- Footage recorded by killed Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen, now released by Israeli rights group B’Tselem, showed how Hathaleen was shot and killed by an Israeli settler.
Guyana shuts up US at United Nations for defending Netanyahu on Gaza occupation
The UN Security Council held an emergency session at the request of several European countries including Slovenia, Denmark and the UK to discuss Benjamin Netanyahu’s plans to occupy Gaza. While every most of the Security Council member countries condemned Israel for announcing this illegal plan, the US criticised European countries for condemning Netanyahu and accusing Israel of genocide. The representative from Guyana, who spoke right after the US woman, exposed the American hypocrisy by drawing her attention to the continuous violations of international laws by Netanyahu and his government in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israeli settlers intensify violent campaign to drive out West Bank Palestinians
Since the October 7th attacks by Hamas, Israeli pressure on Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank has risen sharply. Settler attacks on Palestinian communities have increased and Israeli military raids have displaced thousands of people. The Israeli government justifies what is taking place as legitimate security measures to counter what it describes as Palestinian terrorism.
There’s also been an acceleration in the building of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law. Evidence based on statements by Israeli ministers and influential settler leaders suggest a deliberate agenda, to expand Jewish settlements in the occupied territories and extinguish lingering hopes of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Palestinians and human rights groups accuse the Israeli security forces of failing in their legal duty as occupiers to protect Palestinians as well as their own citizens - not just turning a blind eye to settler attacks, but even joining in.
The International Court of Justice has issued an advisory opinion that the entire occupation of Palestinian territory captured in 1967 is illegal. Israel's rejects the ICJ's view and claims that the Geneva Conventions forbidding settlement in occupied territories do not apply. That’s disputed by many of its own allies as well as international lawyers.
