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Statement by the Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, on the hostilities between Palestinian armed groups in the Gaza Strip and Israel
Palestinian armed groups infiltrated Israel on 7 October, killing and capturing hundreds of Israeli civilians and members of the Israeli forces while indiscriminately firing thousands of rockets into Israel.
On 8 October, the Government of Israel declared war, launching intensive air strikes into the densely populated Gaza Strip over the past three days. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed and over two thousand now injured. The magnitude of the ongoing hostilities has led to grave humanitarian consequences. Homes, schools, medical facilities, and other infrastructure have been damaged and destroyed.
Palestinian human rights organizations call on the international community to intervene to stop Israeli massacres in Gaza and provide protection to Palestinian civilians
Over the past two days, the Israeli army has conducted a relentless series of attacks by air, sea, and land against the civilian population in Gaza, destroying dozens of houses with their residents still inside, residential and commercial buildings—often without issuing precautionary warnings—and wiping out entire Palestinian families. Mosques and medical facilities have also come under attack.
Arriving Again at the Cycle of Vengeance
In a few days Israelis went through what Palestinians have experienced as a matter of routine for decades, and are still experiencing – military incursions, death, cruelty, slain children, bodies piled up in the road, siege, fear, anxiety over loved ones, captivity, being targets of vengeance, indiscriminate lethal fire at both those involved in the fighting (soldiers) and the uninvolved (civilians), a position of inferiority, destruction of buildings, ruined holidays or celebrations, weakness and helplessness in the face of all-powerful armed men, and searing humiliation.
Abandoning the basic moral principle that all human beings were created equal (“b’tselem elohim”) is a loss of humanity.
On Saturday, Hamas committed a shocking crime whose horrifying dimensions are slowly becoming clear. Hundreds of Palestinian militants entered Israeli territory and opened fire indiscriminately, killing hundreds of civilians and injuring thousands. They burned down homes with the occupants inside and kidnapped more than 100 people – including children, women and elderly people – to be used as bargaining chips. Many others are still missing, their fate unknown.
Israeli forces shoot and kill four Palestinian boys in West Bank
Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinian children across the occupied West Bank on October 8 and 9: Yousef Nader Sulieman Idris, 16, (left) Imad Jareh Majed Adaily, 16 (center left), Yaser Thaer Sami Kasba, 17, (center right) and Adam Amjad Fathi Al-Juliani, 17, (right), according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. (Photos: Courtesy of the families).
91 Palestinian children in Gaza killed in Israeli assault
The Shaban family was killed by an Israeli airstrike on their home in the Al-Nasr neighborhood north of Gaza City on October 8, according to documentation collected by Defense for Children International – Palestine. From left to right: Omar, 11, Batoul, 7, Ghada, 10, and Ahmad Nazir Shawqi Shaban. (Photos: Courtesy of the Shaban family)
Gaza shatters the facade of ‘calm’
Palestinians have long warned that Israel’s blockade and repeated aggressions would eventually lead to an explosion. But few of us in Gaza expected this.
Israel/OPT: Civilians on both sides paying the price of unprecedented escalation in hostilities between Israel and Gaza as death toll mounts
Israeli security forces and Palestinian armed groups must make every effort to protect the lives of civilians in today’s outbreak of fighting in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, said Amnesty International amid a mounting civilian death toll.
Israeli forces shoot dead 12-year-old Palestinian boy in Qalqilya
Israeli forces shot and killed Ahmad Abdulnaser Adnan Rabi, 12, on October 7, 2023, near the occupied Palestinian city of Qalqilya. (Photo courtesy of Rabi family)