OCHA Flash Update #110, just in:
Between the afternoons of 2 + 4 February,
acc to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza,
234 Palestinians were killed
(107 on 3 Feb + 127 on 4 Feb)
+
343 Palestinians were injured
(165 on 3 Feb + 178 on 4 Feb)...
ochaopt.org/content/hostil… OCHA:
"Between 7 Oct 2023 and 13:30 on 4 Feb 2024:
at least 27,365 Palestinians were killed in Gaza
and 66,630 Palestinians were injured,
according to the MoH"...

Ramallah, October 20, 2023
Israeli forces operating a U.S.-sourced Apache
attack helicopter fired a missile toward a group of Palestinian civilians, mostly children, around 1:30 p.m. on Oct 19 in Nour Shams Refugee Camp near Tulkarem..killing ten Palestinians, incl four children

https://twitter.com/DCIPalestine/status/1715441933500232184

"The four Palestinian children killed in the attack
are Yousef Mohammad Omar Zaghdad, 11, Mujahed Mohammad Yousef Sa’aydeh, 15, Udai Ma’moun Khaled Abu Al-Heija, 15, and Sari Udai Ali Al-Sada, 15...
+

Gideon Levy asks | Do Israelis really want to go on living like this?
"Living by the sword, war after war, one more unnecessary than the one before, all of them
wars of choice, Israel’s choice, with no future
+ no purpose? ...
haaretz.com/opinion/2023-0… Gideon Levy: "This is the 17th operation in Gaza
in 19 years. A war almost every year. Sometimes,
like in 2004, even two wars...

Is this what Israeli media has meant, when saying "foreign workers" hit?
"PALEST worker from Gaza killed by rocket
at ISR construction site [Saturday]..
Since the fighting broke out, 6 workers have been wounded or killed in Gaza [envelope] communities"..
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Haaretz: "At no point during the current fighting have there been any communities restricted to only 'essential activity' – meaning a total ban on any workplaces continuing to operate..
BUT Nearly all the dead + injured had no access
to a bomb shelter as mandated by Israeli law"

It’s déjà vu all over again, Alon Pinkas writes:
"The fact that we’ve been here before + know
the plot + ending does not change the tragic + unnerving fact that, politically, this is another exercise in futility, a preamble to the next round"...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Alon Pinkas: "There are two discernible trends
in all these recurrent confrontations in Gaza
over the years. The first is that it clearly highlights Israel’s lack of strategy and creative policy.
Israel is always reactive, living from one event
to the next"...

Amos Harel: "Israel’s strategy has remained
more or less the same
since the end of Op Guardian of the Walls, which began exactly two years ago...Israel prefers
to clash with Islamic Jihad rather than confront Hamas"...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Amos Harel: "Hamas has time +money to invest in building its military force, and is positioning itself as a real rival of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank. The Israeli connection with the PA is minimal, certainly under the present government...

Netanyahu's ongoing trial:
"Former Netanyahu bureau chief [Ari Harow] reveals
how Israeli PM crossed a red line to win an election...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… “Netanyahu was afraid that without
the agreement with [Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon] Mozes, he [Netanyahu]
would lose the election,” summed up
the PM’s former chief of staff, who is now
a state’s witness in Case 2000, the
Yedioth Ahronoth quid-pro-quo affair"...

Uri Misgav:
"Even if we deduct suspicions of a partisan motive... this is an offensive of choice, intended to
'return deterrence', or to exact vengeance,
not to foil an imminent attack on Israelis.

And it claimed the lives of 4 women + 4 children"...

haaretz.com/opinion/2023-0… "After 100 yrs of conflict+56 yrs of occupation,
we must sadly admit Israel has undergone
sweeping moral corruption. The true story is
the consensus, the normalization, the obtuseness.
The fact is that such actions are received among
the public with glee..or at most a shrug"

Israel bombs civilians in Gaza.
But Israelis don’t want to know.
"At least 10 innocent civilians were killed in
Israeli air raids in the early hours of May 9.
They weren't the target of Op Shield & Arrow,
but they were most certainly targeted"...

haaretz.com/israel-news/ha… "No Israeli official has claimed that those planning
the air force mission didn't know that women+children would be killed. On the contrary, the most senior military official in Israel stated flatly that those
briefed on the operation knew that family members and neighbors...

Haaretz Editorial | Israeli recklessness in Gaza

haaretz.com/opinion/editor… "Did the decision makers ensure there was no risk
to civilian lives, or did they rely on the army’s recommendation? Did they calculate the murderous price of the action – killing innocents, including children – and come to the twisted conclusion
that the “price” was fair? ...

Now published in English | Prof Shay Hazkani: "When the Israel State Archives refuses to release material looted from the Palestinians on the pretext that this wld 'undermine national security', it’s clear that this is cover for a completely different fear haaretz.com/opinion/2022-1… "Without burdening Haaretz readers w/ dry academic research, I think it’s worth informing them that in 15 years of searching, during which I read hundreds of propaganda documents from 1947 to 1949, I found only one case in which an Arab leader mentioned 'sea' + 'Jews' in the same

Israeli Gov't audit reveals *gap* of millions of shekels in obligatory deposits for foreign workers in Israel...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… "An internal audit report from Israel's Population and Immigration Authority, a copy of which was obtained
by Haaretz through a freedom of information request filed by the Hatzlaha organization, found that existing arrangements create 'an opening for irregularities, embezzlement

Sentence reduced for Israeli soldier who threatened anti-occupation activists in Hebron -- from 10 days in jail, down to 6 days in jail...

haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Haaretz: The chief of the IDF’s Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Toledano,
approved the reduction of the military prison sentence "after the Givati Brigade soldier,
Yair Levy, accepted responsibility +
expressed regret for his actions"...

A Palestinian "who'd illegally entered Israel from the West Bank..and..crashed a stolen vehicle through a checkpoint at the entrance of Ben Gurion Airport Sunday morning, was shot by guards..police said".
It's the 3rd such incident since late September.
timesofisrael.com/palestinian-ca… "Guards at the airport noticed the car as it approached at high speed before ramming through the checkpoint + driving on the wrong side of the road"...

Yossi Verter: "In general, the government
now taking shape is the most conservative, ultranationalist one ever to be in power here. It reveals an obsession for nationalistic symbols, exactly like similar regimes
in the previous century"... haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Yossi Verter: "Last Friday we heard about the establishment of a National Security Ministry, which will become responsible for, among other things, Border Police activity
in the territories + legalizing the illegal outposts...

Israeli governments approved every arms deal brought to them since 2007 -- when the Defense Export Controls Law went into effect -- Israeli Attorney Eitay Mack learned from information received as the result of his filing a Freedom of Info request ...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… “The fact that Israeli governments have never refused
a Defense Ministry request to approve a large deal should arouse concerns + reinforces the need for public oversight of defense exports and their destinations,”
he (Atty Eitay Mack] said".

Haaretz' Nir Gontarz phones the acting director
& spokesperson of Hadassah University Hospital,
Ein Karem, Dr. Yinon Buda...who replies:
"You are welcome to contact our spokespeople.
That’s what we have spokespeople for".
[Soon: "The line goes dead]...
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Nir Gontarz doesn't give up.
He then phoned Hadar Elbaum, spokesperson for Hadassah University Hospital, Ein Karem, who replies:
"How about you send me all your questions by email.
I’ll answer each one. Okay?" ...

Israel's Hadassah Hospital informed Dr. Ahmed Mahajana, cardiothoracic surgeon, he'll be fired
for giving leftover party food to a detained inpatient Palestinian + "praising" him.
"However, the letter stated that a final decision has not yet been made".
haaretz.com/israel-news/20… Dr Mahajneh insists that "he did not take a picture with the terrorist, and emphasized: 'I never said to the terrorist ‘congratulations’…and certainly not ‘martyr’...”

[The patient was, obviously, alive...therefore
not a martyr]...

Opinion by Gideon Levy | "In an environment in which 'terror' is anything the Palestinians do + 'self-defense' is anything Israelis do; in a place in which the killing
of children + youths...including two brothers only this week, isn't considered terror.. haaretz.com/opinion/2022-1… "...but in which harming violent + land-grabbing settlers or soldiers in the occupation army is illegitimate under any circumstance, there is no point in trying to explain why (journalist Israel) Frey’s position is correct"...

Israeli customs clearance informed me
"that the trophy would be finally released -
once I paid 803 Israeli shekels (around $250).
I was presented with an invoice that included categories such as system fees, security check fees, computer fees + other fees for 5 months storage

https://twitter.com/MahaGaza/status/1390640278923526145

"When I asked for clarification, a customs clearance employee told me in an email that 'all FedEx parcels that pass through Israeli customs + security checks
are charged high costs, especially if the address
is not Israeli'...

Opinion | Dear Ambassador Friedman, farewell,
I’m not shedding a tear: "Who gave you the right
to determine the 'rights' of a sovereign country
such as ours?" haaretz.com/opinion/.premi… "The international Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations specifically forbids ambassadors + members
of the diplomatic staff to interfere in the internal affairs
of the countries where they serve..
Whereas you, from your first day as ambassador,
never ceased taking a stand