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The military operations carried out by the Palestinian resistance groups have been described as “attacks” by the Western media, giving the impression that they are the aggressors and that Israel is merely defending itself. By accepting this idea, Israel’s actions have been wrongly described as a “disproportionate response” or “collective punishment” - which give the false impression that Israel is merely responding to aggression rather than being the aggressor itself. In reality, Palestinians have constantly faced terrorist attacks by settlers.

• In March 2023, a Human Rights Council session “heard the presentation of a report by the High Commissioner” which stated “that 700,000 Israeli settlers are living illegally in the occupied West Bank.” In just 10 years, “the population of Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, had grown from 520,000 to over 700,000. These settlers lived illegally in 279 Israeli settlements across the occupied West Bank, including 14 settlements in the occupied East Jerusalem, with a total population of more than 229,000 people. At least 147 of these settlements were outposts, illegal even under Israeli domestic law. The report documented a correlation between the expansion of outposts and settler attacks against Palestinians. During the past decade, the United Nations had verified 3,372 violent incidents by settlers, injuring 1,222 Palestinians.” In 2022, “settler violence reached the highest levels ever recorded by the United Nations. Israel had failed to investigate and prosecute crimes against Palestinians committed by settlers and Israeli forces.”
  - UN

• There has been constant Israeli aggression against Palestinian people for decades, including in 2023. In late September 2023, less than 2 weeks before October 7, a meeting of the UN Security Council acknowledged the “ongoing expansion of Israeli settlements, demolition of Palestinian structures, daily violence and continued inflammatory rhetoric by” Israeli government officials.
  - UN

• The Secretary General of Amnesty International said that “Israel has also continued its vicious land grab policies relentlessly expanding illegal settlements in violation of international law with devastating consequences for Palestinians’ human rights and security. Violent Israeli settlers have been attacking Palestinians for decades with virtually total impunity.” The organisation reported that “Even before the latest hostilities, Palestinians in Gaza had been subjected to numerous Israeli military offensives – at least six between 2008 and 2023 – in addition to an enduring land, air, and sea blockade, which has helped maintain Israel’s effective control and occupation of Gaza. During those offensives, Amnesty International documented a recurrent pattern of unlawful attacks, amounting to war crimes and even crimes against humanity”.
  - Amnesty International

• Even during the October 7 incidents, Israeli settlers in the South were hoping that “the army and police would come to their rescue within minutes. But no one came.” This was because “most of the army was stationed far away in the West Bank, securing settlers’ provocations at the heart of Palestinian villages.” An Israeli writer said that “Whether it comes with a new understanding of the futility of the occupation and the blockade of Gaza is another question. Israelis often say that Arabs only understand the language of force, but this is, more often than not, a sad reflection of our own nature.” In short, the slow Israeli response to the Palestinian militants’ operations on October 7, were due to them being too busy with aiding gangs of settlers to terrorise Palestinians.
  - Guardian

Israeli armed forces regularly abduct Palestinians; this includes kidnapping teenagers and children. Many Palestinian minors are thrown in Israeli military facilities, where they do not face any trial or judicial process.

• A Human Rights Council meeting in 2006 noted Israel’s “indiscriminate killing of civilians and the kidnapping of over 60 Palestinians” at the time.
  - UN

• In 2013, the UN accused Israel “of mistreating Palestinian children, including by torturing those in custody and using others as human shields.”
  - Reuters

• In 2021, Al Jazeera reported that Israel has been “intentionally targeting minors”. Hundreds of Palestinian minors are kidnapped and taken to Israeli prisons, not to mention the thousands of adults.
  - Al Jazeera

• Even Israeli media reports that Israeli soldiers will invade Palestinian homes to harass children. Haaretz reported on a raid where “As usual, the soldiers entered the house without knocking or asking permission,” then woke one boy out of his sleep and stormed into the bathroom while another little boy was showering.
  - Haaretz

• UNICEF has been documenting Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children for decades, where the “pattern of ill-treatment includes the arrests of children at their homes between midnight and 5:00 am by heavily armed soldiers; the practice of blindfolding children and tying their hands with plastic ties; physical and verbal abuse during transfer to an interrogation site, including the use of painful restraints; lack of access to water, food, toilet facilities and medical care; interrogation using physical violence and threats; coerced confessions; and lack of access to lawyers or family members during interrogation.”
  - UN

• Human Rights Watch reported that “As of November 1, Israeli authorities held nearly 7,000 Palestinians from the occupied territory in detention for alleged security offenses” and that “The majority have never been convicted of a crime, including more than 2,000 of them being held in administrative detention, in which the Israeli military detains a person without charge or trial. Such detention can be renewed indefinitely based on secret information, which the detainee is not allowed to see. Administrative detainees are held on the presumption that they might commit an offense at some point in the future. Israeli authorities have held children, human rights defenders and Palestinian political activists, among others, in administrative detention, often for prolonged periods.”
  - HRW

• “Palestinians routinely face excessive use of force, unlawful killings, arbitrary arrest, administrative detention, forced displacement,” among other things that cause Palestinians to disappear, as armed Israelis enter Palestinian territory freely.
  - Amnesty International

On October 7, 2023, the Al-Qassam Brigades and several other resistance groups embarked on a military operation in the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government claimed that over 1400 Israelis were killed by Palestinian resistance groups. Not only has this death toll been revised downwards more than once, but there is damning evidence showing that the Israeli soldiers killed many of their own settlers.

• "For weeks, Israeli officials said that more than 1,400 people had been killed" in the operations launched by Palestinian militants but later "revised its official estimated death toll" down "to about 1,200 people".
  - NYT

• Israeli media reported that the government revised its death toll from "communities and military bases in southern Israel down from around 1,400 to roughly 1,200 people."
  - Times of Israel

• In early November, the Israeli government revised the Israeli October 7 death toll “to approximately 1,200 people against a previous government estimate of 1,400.” By this time, Israeli attacks on Gaza had "levelled entire neighbourhoods, displaced more than 70 percent of Gaza’s inhabitants, and killed 11,078 people".
  - Al Jazeera

• In December, the Israel-reported October 7 death toll was again revised to be less than 1200 persons. They believed that the final death count was "695 Israeli civilians" and they claimed that this included "36 children" where nearly one third of them were reportedly "killed by rockets." Between October 7 and the time of this update, Israel had "killed more than 18,700 people, mostly women and children" in Palestine.
  - France24

• The Israeli security establishment admitted that Hamas "didn’t have advance knowledge about the Nova music festival held next to Kibbutz Re’im”. Additionally, their investigations showed “that an IDF combat helicopter that arrived to the scene" had "apparently also hit some festival participants."
  - Haaretz

• The Hannibal Directive is an Israeli military policy in which maximum force is used to prevent the capture of soldiers, even at the risk of harming them. Israeli soldiers understand the directive as a license to kill captive soldiers. In an interview for a Haaretz podcast, Colonel Nof Erez of the IDF told Haaretz that “the military implemented the Hannibal Protocol, which involves the killing of enemy-held captives” on October 7 in a “mass Hannibal” event and that “there were many gaps in the fences. There were thousands of people in many different vehicles, both with and without hostages.”
  - Haaretz

• According to Yedioth Ahronoth, a major Israeli newspaper, Israeli "pilots realized that there was tremendous difficulty in distinguishing within the occupied outposts and settlements who was a terrorist and who was a soldier or civilian" and "a decision was made that the first mission of the combat helicopters and the armed Zik drones was to stop the flow of terrorists". They used "hundreds of 30 mm cannon shells (the effect of a spray grenade for each shell) as well as the Hellfire missiles" and reported that the "rate of fire" had been "tremendous at first, and only at a certain point did the pilots begin to slow down the attacks and carefully select the targets." This implies that there was indiscriminate fire which could have been responsible for many of the deaths at the festival.
  - Ynet

• Israeli media reported that military “helicopters strafed cars attempting to cross the border; there are unconfirmed indications that captive Israeli civilians were hit.”
  - Haaretz

• Israelis “were killed during an exchange of fire with IDF tanks” as that involved “the army firing a tank at a house where the civilians were”. Over a dozen Israeli non-combatants were said to be in the house that was shelled by the Israeli military.
  - Haaretz

• Among Israeli soldiers, “it was understood that the forces would fire in those given scenarios with the goal of killing” their enemy targets “even when clearly understanding that their fellow Israelis would inevitably also be killed.” This is consistent with the idea of “Better a dead soldier than a captured soldier” meaning that the military may “even fire directly at the soldier if no other means are possible to save him.” Killing its own citizens and soldiers allowed Israel to have less hostages to worry about. One explicit goal of the Hannibal Directive is to avoid ”the heated public debate regarding the extent to which the government must go to” bring hostages home.
  - Jerusalem Post

In the aftermath of October 7, there were sensational claims of atrocities committed by Palestinian militants which have since been proven to be false or without evidence.

• “Publishing unsubstantiated claims, telling only one side of the story, and painting Palestinians as nothing more than objects in Hamas’s hands are all unprofessional mistakes Western media makes while covering the conflict”.
  - Al Jazeera

• Reuters reported that “Israeli forensic teams describe signs of torture, abuse” and shared details of their claims but admitted that “The military personnel overseeing the identification process didn't present any forensic evidence in the form of pictures or medical records.”
  - Reuters

• “There were many strong claims made about sexual assaults carried out by Hamas. Rape is a recognized and all-too-common weapon of war, and it should always be seen as a possibility during conflict. Yet, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told The Forward that it has no evidence that rape occurred during the raid or in its aftermath. Many journalistic outlets have walked back these claims as a result, though politicians in the United States and Israel have continued to repeat them.”
  - The Nation

• The rape allegations were popularised by an NYT article, but doubts emerged “both on account of the unacknowledged biases of the reporters (in particular Anat Schwartz) and also the shaky nature of the evidence presented. Key sources for the article had a history of false claims. The family of one allegedly raped murder victim spoke out against the article, claiming it presented an impossible story. A fierce internal debate emerged inside the Times itself as reporters not part of the original team found it difficult to verify many of the claims of the article. The reporting behind the Times article has been questioned both by the Times podcast The Daily and The Intercept.” One of the sources for the article was Zaka, an Israeli NGO, which is notorious for false claims as it reportedly “mishandled evidence and spread multiple false stories about the events of October 7, including debunked allegations of Hamas operatives beheading babies and cutting the fetus from a pregnant woman’s body.” Even besides Zaka, “Another major source, Shari Mendes, has repeatedly made demonstrably false claims.” NYT has responded to the situation by trying to find and punish the staffers who were responsible for leaking “internal details about the podcast’s editorial process” rather than coming clean about their story.
  - The Nation

• Israeli media reported that an Israeli journalist “talked about babies who had been hung on clotheslines; his remarks were cited by a host of Twitter personalities around the world.” Since then, he “wrote that he was later informed that the story was inaccurate and deleted the post, adding “Why would an army officer invent such a horrifying story? I was wrong”. Even the Israeli military “not deny that Lt. Col. Buskila's remarks about babies strung up on clotheslines do not jibe with reality.”
  - Haaretz

• In May, the Associate Press reported on the debunking of major stories that spread around the world. A man named Otmazgin said that he found a body of a woman whose pants “were pulled down. He assumed that meant she had been sexually assaulted.” After cross-checking with the Israeli military, it was discovered that Israeli “soldiers had dragged the girl’s body across the room to make sure it wasn’t booby-trapped. During the procedure, her pants had come down.” Another man named Landau fabricated a story about “a pregnant woman lying on the floor, her fetus still attached to the umbilical cord wrenched from her body” and “also told journalists he had seen beheaded children and babies. No convincing evidence had been publicized to back up that claim, and it was debunked by Haaretz and other major media outlets.” Still, he went on to tell his lies “to journalists and was cited in outlets around the world” who carelessly repeated them.
  - AP

A lot of sensationalist misinformation comes from first responders, including from an organisation called Zaka which focuses on search and rescue operations for settlers.

• As of mid-October, “Zaka began to be paid by the Defense Ministry,” but “An investigation reveals cases of negligence, misinformation and a fundraising campaign that used the dead as props”. Israeli media reported that “As part of the effort to get media exposure, Zaka spread accounts of atrocities that never happened, released sensitive and graphic photos, and acted unprofessionally on the ground.” Zaka fabricated entire incidents, including a claim about a pregnant woman whose “stomach was swollen, and the baby was still attached by the umbilical cord when it was stabbed, and she was shot in the back of the head.” Israeli media reported that “This horrific incident, which the Zaka volunteer alleged occurred in Be'eri, simply didn't happen, and was one of several stories that have been circulated without any basis. There is no evidence for this incident, and no one in the kibbutz has heard of this woman. A Zaka senior official admitted in a conversation with Haaretz that the organization knows the incident didn't occur.” Zaka “has been accused of spreading false information before” including up to December 2022.
  - Haaretz

• “Some of the incorrect descriptions were made by Zaka personnel; one repeatedly talked about 20 bound and burned bodies of children at a kibbutz” but this never happened. Israeli media reported that “There is no evidence that children from several families were murdered together” disputing Netanyahu’s claim that Palestinian militants “took dozens of children, tied them up, burned them and executed them.”
  - Haaretz

A rumour was spread about Hamas beheading 40 babies. These rumours were carelessly spread as confirmed fact by mainstream media outlets, government officials, and celebrities. No evidence has come out in support of this claim and reports have since been walked back.

• “One of the most horrifying allegations that have gone viral on social media and the mainstream press was that Hamas beheaded 40 babies while carrying out a massacre at a kibbutz. However, when Sky News tried to get confirmation of this atrocity, the IDF said it was unable to confirm the claims (other outlets were subsequently given similar responses). Unfortunately, many other media organizations had already reported this incident as a fact based on unverified claims from a known political extremist. Some have subsequently issued retractions and clarifications or added editor’s notes. However, this diligence arrived too late to limit the spread of this uncorroborated claim because, on October 11, President Biden seemed to confirm the story.”
  - The Nation

• "President Joe Biden said that he had seen photographic evidence of terrorists beheading children. The White House later clarified that Biden was referring to news reports about beheadings, which have not included or referred to photographic evidence." NBC News admitted that "Unverified information spreads quickly on social media, particularly around breaking news events, reaching even larger audiences when it is shared by mainstream news outlets, politicians and people with large followings. Follow-ups that retract or add context are less likely to be repeated or reach the same audience."
  - NBC

• In a speech, Joe Biden was quoted as saying "It is important for Americans to see what is happening. I have been doing this for a long time. I never thought that I would see, have confirmed pictures of terrorists beheading children." Following this, "A White House spokesperson" said that Biden "based his comments on claims from Netanyahu’s spokesman and media reports from Israel." The White House clarified "that President Joe Biden and other US officials have not seen or independently confirmed that Hamas terrorists beheaded Israeli children."
  - Times of Israel

• Biden had “described seeing images of mutilated children” and “Biden’s claims were featured on the front pages of Western newspapers, and reports of beheaded babies have been cited in some quarters as justification for” Israeli atrocities against Palestinians. “The Israeli army has said that it cannot confirm the claims, which were repeated on Wednesday by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s spokesperson Tal Heinrich.” The White House “walked back President Joe Biden’s claim that he saw pictures of beheaded children”.
  - Al Jazeera

• "The Israeli government has not confirmed the specific claim that Hamas attackers cut off the heads of babies during their shock attack on Saturday, an Israeli official told CNN, contradicting a previous public statement by the Prime Minister’s office." A statement by "US President Joe Biden appeared to confirm that information" but "A US administration official later clarified Biden’s remarks, telling CNN that neither Biden nor his aides had seen pictures or had received confirmed reports of children or infants having been beheaded by Hamas."
  - CNN

• According to the Washington Post, Biden dismissed “the recommendation of some staffers that he cut a line about Hamas beheading babies because those reports were unverified.”
  - WaPo

• In May, the Associated Press finally reported on the debunked stories and some of the damage that they have done. They spoke about a man named Landau who “told journalists he had seen beheaded children and babies. No convincing evidence had been publicized to back up that claim, and it was debunked by Haaretz and other major media outlets.” He also fabricated a story about “a pregnant woman lying on the floor, her fetus still attached to the umbilical cord wrenched from her body” and “went on to tell the story to journalists and was cited in outlets around the world.”
  - AP

Misinformation has been a major tool in demonising Palestinian resistance and gaining sympathy for Zionism.

• In early October, a video was posted on Twitter with the caption "Hamas terrorist with kidnapped Jewish baby girl in Gaza." NPR reported that "many users quickly pointed out the video was originally posted on TikTok in August and bears no indication that it depicts a kidnapped child and a terrorist. The X post has been labeled with a user-generated fact check pointing this out, but has been viewed a million times and remains on the platform despite replies urging the poster to delete or correct it." NPR implied that misinformation is done by “both sides” and that a “surge in unverified information online is fodder for state actors - including those backed by Iran and Russia - and other groups eager to take advantage of the chaos to fuel division, spread propaganda, attack enemies and sow further confusion.” However, they were only able to provide evidence of Israeli disinformation.
  - NPR

The resistance groups in Gaza stated that they would release the hostages that they captured on October 7 in exchange for the Palestinians held within Israeli jails and prisons.

• “Hamas is demanding the release of 5,200 prisoners it says are held behind bars in Israel in exchange for the hostages.”
  - NBC

• An article published exactly 3 weeks after October 7 said that “Hamas said Israel would have to release all Palestinian prisoners from its jails to secure freedom for the hostages seized by Hamas fighters on October 7.”
  - Al Jazeera

Although Hamas has repeatedly called for prisoner exchanges, multiple prisoners have been released, without any form of deal or exchange, for humanitarian reasons since the start of the conflict.

• “On October 20, Hamas released the first captives – US citizens Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17” for “humanitarian reasons”. Three days later, “two Israeli women – Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85 – were also released.”
  - Al Jazeera

• “Hamas said it had released Lifshitz, 85, along with 79-year-old Nurit Cooper, on health grounds”. Yocheved Lifshitz “shook the hand of a Hamas militant as she was returned because she was treated well in captivity.” She “sharply criticized the Israeli military” and blamed them for the attack.
  - CBS

On November 20, Israel and the Palestinian resistance groups agreed to a truce during which prisoners would be exchanged and no fighting would occur.

• Under the original deal, “the two sides agreed to a four-day truce so that 50 women and children under the age of 19 taken hostage could be freed in return for 150 Palestinian women and teenagers in Israeli detention.” These captives were “expected to be released in batches, probably about a dozen a day, during the four-day ceasefire.”
  - Reuters

• On November 30, Hamas “released eight Israeli hostages in Gaza under a last-minute extension of a truce deal and Israel freed 30 Palestinian prisoners as negotiators sought to renew the pause in fighting again.”
  - Reuters

Hamas has successfully used hostages to negotiate the release of Palestinians held captive by Israel.

• “In November, Israel agreed to release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails, many of them held without criminal charges, in exchange for Hamas freeing some of the hostages taken during the Oct. 7 attack. To many Palestinians, that deal represented another victory for Hamas, another sign of strength.”
  - NPR

Even before October 7, Israel had been abducting many people from Palestine to throw them in Israeli cells. Most abductees were from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and many were children. After October 7, Israel accelerated its mass abduction campaign in the aforementioned areas.

Additionally, since the beginning of the ground invasion in Gaza, multiple reports have indicated that people there have been rounded up. There has been much uproar about the 200 Israelis who were captured by Palestinian militant groups, without a similar level of outrage directed towards Israel kidnapping thousands of Palestinian civilians.

• According to Al Jazeera, “there were about 5,200 Palestinians in Israeli prisons prior to October 7”. By October 21, that number had “risen to more than 10,000 people”. Many of these new prisoners were “labourers from Gaza who were working in Israel”, and some are being held in military bases. The Palestinians who were imprisoned before October 7 “are largely residents of the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.”
  - Al Jazeera

• During the November truce in Gaza, “Israel arrested at least 133 Palestinians from East Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to Palestinian prisoner associations.”
  - Al Jazeera

• On December 7, photos and a video of over 200 Palestinian men surfaced. The detainees were “tied up outdoors and stripped to their underwear”. The IDF claimed they were all military age in order to justify this act but one US-based Palestinian said that “two of his relatives who were detained, ages 13 and 72, were not of military age.” Furthermore, “many of the men in the photos and video have not been heard from since their detention, families and rights groups said.”
  - NYT

• Israeli media reported that Palestinian Prisoners' Club leader Qadura Fares said that “since the war began, Israel has arrested 153 women in Gaza, including pregnant women and those who are being detained with their babies.”
  - Haaretz

• Israeli soldiers rounded up dozens of Palestinian men and made videos of them in their underwear. One video involved a man “held at gunpoint and issued directions from off-screen” where he supposedly performed a surrender of weapons. The same man walked back and forth and placed down different guns in the same spot. BBC noted that “already in his underwear and he cannot have been concealing them on his person, it's unlikely Israeli troops did not know about these weapons, suggesting this may be performed for the camera, rather than as an act of authentic surrender.”
  - BBC

• Between October 7 and January 10, “nearly 6,000 people in the occupied West Bank” were arrested by Israeli authorities.
  - Al Jazeera

Palestinians have stated after their release that they were treated poorly and, in many cases, brutally by their Israeli captors. This is in contrast to many former Israeli detainees who said they were not exposed to ill treatment by Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Israel is notorious for its ill-treatment of Palestinian prisoners.

• UN “experts expressed serious concern about the arbitrary detention of hundreds of Palestinian women and girls, including human rights defenders, journalists and humanitarian workers, in Gaza and the West Bank since 7 October. Many have reportedly been subjected to inhuman and degrading treatment, denied menstruation pads, food and medicine, and severely beaten. On at least one occasion, Palestinian women detained in Gaza were allegedly kept in a cage in the rain and cold, without food.”
  - UN

• Videos on social media show “show Israeli troops abusing bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainees.” In a graphic video, “soldiers stand around a group of blindfolded Palestinian men whose hands are tied behind their backs. Most of the detainees are shirtless or completely naked. An Israeli soldier can be seen stomping on the head of one Palestinian man who is on his back, his bound hands covering his face. The man cries out for his mother in Arabic. He is then dragged away, screaming.”
  - NBC

• Israeli media reported that “soldiers film themselves abusing, humiliating” Palestinians
  - Times of Israel

• According to Ghannam Abu Ghannam, a Palestinian released during the prisoner exchange, "Prison was humiliating. They came in and beat us ever since the war began and we were treated like dogs." Another former detainee said that “conditions in the jail had worsened after 7 October and claimed male guards had hit and persecuted female prisoners.”
  - Sky News

• One former detainee released during the prisoner exchange said his Israeli captors “treated us less than the animals. Beating, abusing, torturing, everything you could imagine.” He went on to state that he “was sexually harassed” and “he also witnessed guards sodomize his cellmates with truncheons.”
  - NBC

• “Palestinians in Israeli prisons face dwindling rights, escalating violence, say human rights groups”.
  - CBC

On the other hand, Palestinian militants have demonstrably treated their captives well.

• A former Israeli detainee said that “she was initially fed well in captivity until conditions worsened and people became hungry.” Additionally, most captives were “returned in good physical condition”.
  - AP

• An Israeli who was released, after being taken hostage, reported that Palestinian “Guards fed the prisoners the same type of food they ate. A doctor visited daily and provided medication and treatment, including for a hostage injured in a motorbike crash” and she was quoted as saying “They were very concerned with hygiene and were worried about an outbreak of something. We had toilets which they cleaned every day.”
  - Guardian

• As she was being released, Yocheved Lifshitz “shook the hand of a Hamas militant as she was returned because she was treated well in captivity.”
  - CBS

• “Ms. Lifshitz said that she and others were relatively well taken care of, given medicine and the same food as their captors. Fearing disease, her captors worked to sanitize the area, she said, and doctors would visit sporadically to check on them.” She was quoted as saying that “They treated us gently and fulfilled all of our needs”.
  - NYT

• Israeli media reported that Yocheved Lifshitz, one of the persons taken hostage, “met Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar during her time held in Gaza — and was not afraid to tell him what she thought.” She was quoted as saying that “Sinwar was with us three-four days after we got there,” and said that she openly expressed her criticisms towards him.
  - Times of Israel

• “Two Israeli TV stations, Channels 12 and 13, reported that Hamas’ top leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, visited the hostages in a tunnel and assured them they would not be harmed.”
  - AP

Western media popularised unverified stories of Israeli settlers being raped by Palestinian militants who deny and disapprove of sexual violence, while under-reporting documented cases of sexual violence by Israelis against Palestinians.

There have been documented cases of Palestinians being sexually violated by Israelis, including agents of the state, who kidnapped them.

• “UN experts speak out about sexual assault and mistreatment of Palestinian women and girls by IDF”
  - The Independent

• UN experts “are particularly distressed by reports that Palestinian women and girls in detention have also been subjected to multiple forms of sexual assault, such as being stripped naked and searched by male Israeli army officers. At least two female Palestinian detainees were reportedly raped while others were reportedly threatened with rape and sexual violence” and have “also noted that photos of female detainees in degrading circumstances were also reportedly taken by the Israeli army and uploaded online.” The further “expressed concern that an unknown number of Palestinian women and children, including girls, have reportedly gone missing after contact with the Israeli army in Gaza.”
  - UN

• - A Palestinian man who was held captive by Israel had “witnessed guards sodomize his cellmates with truncheons” and reported that “Prisoners were regularly stripped naked and piled on top of each other for the guards’ amusement”. While Israel is notorious for torture, “ none of the abuse seemed aimed at extracting information or a confession.” An Israeli NGO confirmed that it “had received reports from prisoners about sexual assault, humiliation and degradation while they were behind bars.”
  - NBC

Unverified claims of sexual violence were hastily reported and popularised by Western media. Israeli authorities and Zionist sympathisers accused the UN of being slow to condemn Palestinian militants for sexual violence, after Israeli authorities refused to share information and evidence with the UN.

• In December 2023, it was reported that “The UN expert working to end rape during wartime remains gravely concerned for the safety and well-being of hostages still being held by Hamas militants, especially the 15 women captives”. The Secretary-General’s Special Representative on Sexual Violence in Conflict said that “All horrific reports of sexual violence allegedly committed by Hamas on 7 October must be promptly and rigorously investigated,” and highlighted “the UN’s readiness to independently investigate any such violations.”
  - UN

• There has been “mounting criticism of the UN” because of supposedly “lacklustre response to the alleged rapes and other sexual violence committed during” the October 7 operations. However, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights stressed “that he had repeatedly asked Israel for access to investigate the claims, with no response.”
  - France24

• CNN interviewed an Israeli settler named Raz Cohen, who they claim is “a survivor of Hamas’ murderous rampage”. CNN admitted that it “cannot independently verify Cohen’s account” and that “Hamas has denied its fighters committed sexual violence during the coordinated” operations but nevertheless claimed that “United Nations and human rights organizations were slow to denounce the reports of rape and mutilation against Israelis”.
  - CNN

• LA Times published an article in early October, and had to retract parts of it because it “mentioned rape in the attacks, but such reports have not been substantiated.”
  - LA Times

• “There were many strong claims made about sexual assaults carried out by Hamas. Rape is a recognized and all-too-common weapon of war, and it should always be seen as a possibility during conflict. Yet, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) told The Forward that it has no evidence that rape occurred during the raid or in its aftermath. Many journalistic outlets have walked back these claims as a result, though politicians in the United States and Israel have continued to repeat them.”
  - The Nation

• By the beginning of March 2024, cracks began to show in the NYT’s story about mass sexual violence. Heavy doubts “emerged about the article, both on account of the unacknowledged biases of the reporters (in particular Anat Schwartz) and also the shaky nature of the evidence presented. Key sources for the article had a history of false claims. The family of one allegedly raped murder victim spoke out against the article, claiming it presented an impossible story. A fierce internal debate emerged inside the Times itself as reporters not part of the original team found it difficult to verify many of the claims of the article. The reporting behind the Times article has been questioned both by the Times podcast The Daily and The Intercept.” Rather than taking an interest in correcting the record, NYT focused on finding out “how internal details about the podcast’s editorial process got out” in a leak investigation process that an NYT staffer described as a “witch hunt.” One of the authors of the story about sexual violence had “relied heavily on Zaka” which is a Zionist organisation that is notorious for false information; they reportedly “mishandled evidence and spread multiple false stories about the events of October 7, including debunked allegations of Hamas operatives beheading babies and cutting the fetus from a pregnant woman’s body.” Even besides Zaka, “Another major source, Shari Mendes, has repeatedly made demonstrably false claims.”
  - The Nation

Western media gave sensational publicity to a story about a settler who was not raped or otherwise sexually violated.

• An ex-hostage “described how she feared being raped” but was not actually raped. In an interview with Israeli media, she originally “said she had been well-treated” but later changed her story.
  - Reuters

• Israeli media reported that Mia Schem “recounted moments of her abduction and the horrors of captivity.” She reportedly “described how she feared being raped” but was not actually raped. She said she “felt that something was going to happen” but nothing happened. She spoke about how the Palestinian militant responsible for watching over her had “freaked out and started crying” one day and that she was “sure he was going to” kill her; she admitted that he was simply upset because “two of his friends died in IDF bombings.” She said that she felt happy to hear his friends were murdered, but that she outwardly “pretended to share his pain.” She said that she agreed to be interviewed so that she could “show the real situation of the people who live in Gaza” including “Who they are and” what she experienced there. She said she “went through a Holocaust and everyone there is terrorist.”
  - Jerusalem Post

Western media only began to come clean months after the damage was already done.

• Towards the end of May, 2024, the Associated Press finally reported on the fact that well-known stories of rape were debunked. Western media relied on information from ZAKA, a Zionist NGO that is notorious for its lack of credibility. They now blame their shoddy reporting on the fact that “it took ZAKA months to acknowledge the accounts were wrong, allowing them to proliferate. And the fallout from the debunked accounts shows how the topic of sexual violence has been used to further political agendas.” The story they fall back on now is that ZAKA “volunteers weren’t there to do forensic work” and that it was expected that the Israeli military was “were handling that process. But the Israeli military told the AP that the army did not do any forensic work in the wake of Oct. 7.” A group that calls itself “The Association of Rape Crisis Centers in Israel” reportedly “spent months gathering evidence of sexual violence that occurred that day, sifting through many accounts emerging from the chaotic early days just after the attack” and defends the misreporting by saying that “Some of those stories that turned out not to be true were not lies,” because they were “mistakes.” A man named Otmazgin “was the origin of one of two debunked stories by ZAKA volunteers about sexual assault.” He reportedly “recognized that such accounts can cause damage, but he believes he rectified it by correcting his account months later” after the claims have helped to justify a mass slaughter where “more than 35,000 Palestinians have been killed, many of them women and children”. His story revolved around examination of a body whose pants “were pulled down. He assumed that meant she had been sexually assaulted.” Later, after checking with the Israeli military, it was confirmed that “her pants had come down” because “a group of soldiers had dragged the girl’s body across the room to make sure it wasn’t booby-trapped.” Another liar with an even more gruesome story “went on to tell the story to journalists and was cited in outlets around the world.” He claimed to see “a pregnant woman lying on the floor, her fetus still attached to the umbilical cord wrenched from her body” but it was a total fabrication. He is not interested in setting the record straight; “journalists attempted to reach Landau multiple times. While he answered initial inquiries, he was ultimately unreachable.”
  - AP

Despite claims from the Israeli Government that one of their objectives is to retrieve their citizens from Gaza, the IDF has continually acted in a manner that jeopardizes the lives of their own citizens.

• One former captive stated that, due to the Israeli airstrikes, she was “terrified that it would not be Hamas but Israel that would kill us, and then they would say Hamas killed you”. Another former captive said, “I was in a hideout that was bombed and we became wounded refugees.”
  - USA Today

• Israeli soldier murdered 3 Israeli hostages in Gaza. “Hostages were holding white cloth on stick when Israeli forces shot them dead,” according to the Israeli military. An official said that one of the hostages “was wounded and retreated into a nearby building where he called for help in Hebrew” but they shot him anyways.
  - Sky News

Israel’s disregard for the lives and well-being of its own citizens taken hostage is consistent with the Hannibal Directive.

• An Israeli cabinet minister reportedly said that “We have to be cruel now and not consider the captives over much.” The Hannibal Directive “compels Israeli army units to do whatever is necessary to recover an abducted soldier, dead or alive.”
  - Guardian

• In reference to the Hannibal Directive, international lawyer Annyssa Bellal said that “in some way, the directive has already been put into practice in the war on Gaza” and that the directive was mirrored by the fact that at the time, Israel had “largely refused to negotiate with Hamas to release its captives, instead choosing to employ the use of force against the Gaza Strip”. Research agency director Eyal Weizman said, “With the current indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, the government seems not only to be bringing unprecedented destruction on the people of Gaza but to be returning to the principle of preferring dead captives to a deal.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Supporters of the Hannibal Directive believe in the idea of “Better a dead soldier than a captured soldier” and want to act against “the heated public debate regarding the extent to which the government must go to” rescue hostages. Among Israeli soldiers, it is “understood that the forces would fire in those given scenarios with the goal of killing terrorists, even when clearly understanding that their fellow Israelis would inevitably also be killed.”
  - Jerusalem Post

• Israeli media reported that Israeli families are demanding an explanation of an incident where “Israelis held by Hamas inside a house in Be'eri were killed during an exchange of fire with IDF tanks” involving “the army firing a tank at a house where the civilians were held hostage”.
  - Haaretz

• In a discussion with an International Relations professor, Briahna Joy Gray discussed the Hannibal Directive and the question of “Is Israel killing hostages?”
  - The Hill

Israeli and Western officials have pushed the idea that Health authorities in Gaza are inflating their casualty figures. However, there is evidence to show that this is not the case and that the total casualty figures may be even higher than what is being reported.

• In November 2023, officials in the Biden administration said “that the casualty figures could be greater than reported.” The Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs admitted that “In these extraordinarily dense confines, it just stands to reason that there are very high casualties.”
  - WaPo

• In early December 2023, the Lancet published an analysis of Palestinian-reported death tolls. “Amidst the ongoing conflict in Gaza, some political parties have indicated scepticism about the reporting of fatalities by the Gaza Ministry of Health” and this has lead to rumours that Gaza’s authorities are inflating figures. “The Gaza MoH has historically reported accurate mortality data, with discrepancies between MoH reporting and independent United Nations analyses ranging from 1.5% to 3.8% in previous conflicts. A comparison between the Gaza MoH and Israeli Foreign Ministry mortality figures for the 2014 war yielded an 8.0% discrepancy.” Casting doubt on the reports by Gaza’s Ministry of Health serves to “undermine the efforts to reduce civilian harm and provide life-saving assistance.” In reality, “mortality might have been under-reported by” Health authorities in Gaza “due to decreased capacity.”
  - The Lancet

• In early December, 2023, the Israeli military claimed that roughly two-thirds of deaths in Gaza are civilians. “Israel believes that it has killed two Palestinian civilians for every Hamas militant in its intense campaign to eliminate the armed group from the Gaza Strip” and an Israeli military official reportedly described this ratio as “tremendously positive.”
  - CNN

• “On average, nearly 300 people have been killed each day since” October 7, 2023. “The World Health Organization's regional emergency director Richard Brennan says he considers these casualty figures trustworthy.” Notably, “Women and children make up about 70% of those who have been killed in Gaza during the current conflict”.
  - BBC

• By January 8, 2024, “at least 22,835 people have been killed in the besieged enclave since” October 7, 2023. “That staggering death toll means that 1% of the enclave’s total pre-war population of 2.27 million people has now has been wiped out.” Furthermore, “an additional 58,416 people have been injured, which means more than one in 40 Gazans have now been wounded in the conflict.” A majority of these deaths are women and children: “more than 5,300 of the dead are women and more than 9,000 were children. With the pre-war child population of Gaza at about 1.1 million, according to UNICEF, this means that one out of every approximately 120 children living in the enclave has been killed. A separate statistic released by the international organization Save the Children said more than 10 children on average have lost one or both of their legs every day in Gaza since October.”
  - CNN

• In late January 2024, it was reported that “The Palestinian death toll in Israel’s assault on Gaza has surpassed 25,000”.
  - Al Jazeera

• By February 10, 2024, “At least 28,064 Palestinians have been killed and 67,611 others injured in Israeli strikes on Gaza since Oct. 7”.
  - Reuters

• As of March 1, 2024, “The death toll from Israeli attacks on Gaza has now passed 30,000. With more than 70,000 others injured, and thousands more uncounted victims buried under the rubble of collapsed buildings, nearly one in 20 of the prewar population of Gaza are now casualties of attacks.” The US Secretary of Defense admitted “that more than 25,000 women and children had been killed by Israel since 7 October 2023”.
  - Guardian

Israel claims that its war is against Hamas and not the general population of Palestine. The supposed goal of its escalated aggression against Gaza is to eliminate Hamas. Many Western progressives, who claim to sympathise with Palestinian civilians, have accepted Israel’s narrative and rationale that Hamas needs to be eliminated for there to be peace; such a plan would see Gaza occupied by Israel or placed under the control of the Palestinian Authority based in the West Bank. However, this is far removed from the sentiments of the Palestinian people themselves. Hamas is a political movement that enjoys significant public support from the Palestinian population, more Western-friendly politicians who take softer stances on Israel are notoriously unpopular.

• “As the death toll from Israel's military offensive in Gaza rises and settler violence increases, Palestinian opinion polls show increased support for the militant Hamas group in the occupied West Bank. At the same time, the Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank, is losing popularity.” Polls “also shows that Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the Palestinian Authority - which officially governs the West Bank - is extremely unpopular. Only 11 percent approve of him. Meanwhile, the war has also brought an increase in tensions and violence between Israeli security forces, settlers and Palestinians in the West Bank, further radicalizing the population there, many of whom see Gazans as heroes and say Hamas was right to attack Israel. The US has said it envisions a post-war future where the Palestinian Authority governs Gaza. But as Hamas gains popularity, the idea of a Gaza run by the P.A. seems less and less viable.”
  - DW

• “Abbas and the PA are, according to opinion polls, viewed extremely unfavourably by the Palestinian public” as they have failed to make Palestinian people secure from “increased Israeli settlement construction” and lead “a viable path to statehood.”
  - FT

• The US "has called for the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, currently led by Abbas, to eventually assume control of Gaza and run both territories" but polling reports published in December 2023 show "an overwhelming rejection of Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas, with nearly 90% saying he must resign." The polls "also signaled widespread frustration with the international community, particularly the United States, key European countries and even the United Nations". On the other hand, the same polls show "a rise in support for Hamas, which appears to have ticked up even in the devastated Gaza Strip". Polls showed that "44% in the West Bank said they supported Hamas, up from just 12% in September. In Gaza, the militants enjoyed 42% support, up slightly from 38%" before the Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7. Support for the Al-Aqsa flood extends beyond Hamas' own base of political support, meaning that people support Hamas' recent actions in particular even if they don't support Hamas in general, with polls showing that "57% of respondents in Gaza and 82% in the West Bank believe Hamas was correct in launching" the operation on October 7.
  - AP

• “As Israel fights to destroy Hamas, the group's popularity surges among Palestinians” as “many Palestinians now see Hamas as a symbol of strength and defiance against Israel's occupation.” Results of polls published in December 2023 showed that “less than half of Palestinians support Hamas as an organization” but the same respondents demonstrated “wide public support for Hamas' offensive”. It was noted that “Many Palestinians now share the long-standing conviction of Hamas and its leadership that the time for peace talks and a negotiated settlement with Israel has ended,” and that this view was shared “by shopkeepers, laborers, taxi drivers, farmers and government officials” as “years of negotiations between Palestinians, Israeli leaders and diplomats from the U.S. and other countries toward a two-state solution have brought Palestinians nothing - no independence and no relief from Israeli occupation.”
  - NPR

• The West is panicking at the surging popularity of Hamas. “A flurry of new analysis by US intelligence agencies has warned that Hamas’ credibility and influence has grown dramatically in the two months since the October 7” operations. A former US intelligence official said that Hamas is “viewed as the one group actually doing something about Israeli occupation”. In the eyes of the Palestinian public, Hamas has received credit “for negotiating the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees held by Israel, in exchange for some of the hostages”.
  - CNN

• Israel’s Intelligence Minister admitted that there are “around two million people in Gaza, many of whom voted for Hamas” and used this to try to justify a proposal to depopulate Gaza.
  - Jerusalem Post

Despite the framing of “Israel-Hamas War” and “Israel-Gaza War”, Israel’s aggression is not only against Hamas or against Gaza in general. There have also been escalations in the West Bank. Since October 7, Israeli forces have brutally cracked down on Palestinians in the West Bank by launching tear gas at demonstrators, destroying civilian infrastructure, raiding the various refugee camps, restricting civilian movement, abducting people, and even shooting and murdering them.

• In October 2023, “The Israeli military carried out a rare airstrike on a mosque in the occupied West Bank” and killed “at least two people”. Claims from the IDF that they were targeting a terror compound beneath the mosque “had not been independently verified.”
  - NYT

• In October 2023, “Israeli security forces restricted young Palestinians from entering the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for prayers”. Reports said that “large numbers of Israeli police kept guard around Al-Aqsa” as Palestinians gathered for prayers and “the police fired tear gas at the Palestinians”.
  - Al Jazeera

• Israeli soldiers attacked a refugee camp in Jenin in early November 2023: “a large number of Israeli troops entered the camp, accompanied by a bulldozer. Snipers positioned themselves on rooftops as the bulldozer proceeded to destroy roads and infrastructure. Palestinian news outlet Quds Network posted footage of the moments after Israeli forces bombed a house in the Jenin camp.”
  - Al Jazeera

• By November 26, 2023, “at least 237 Palestinians have been killed and about 2,850 others injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank since October 7.” One Palestinian farmer in the West Bank said that “his children are no longer going to school because even if they were to brave the route there, the Israeli army is blocking many of the roads in the area.”
  - Al Jazeera

The situation in Gaza has emboldened Israeli settlers to attack and terrorise the West Bank as well.

• On October 11, 2023, Qusra village was struck by “a group of masked and armed Israeli settlers”. Investigations including a “review of exclusive visuals of the attack, medical records and interviews with witnesses and first responders reveals that one of the Palestinians killed, 17-year-old Obada Saed Abu Srour, was shot in the back by settlers, probably as he was running from gunfire. Israeli troops, meanwhile, did not forcefully intervene, despite their obligation under international and Israeli law to protect all residents of the West Bank, including Palestinians.”
  - WaPo

• “Ibrahim Wadi, 62, and his son Ahmad, 24, were on their way to a funeral for four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli settlers in their occupied West Bank community, when their car came under attack.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Israeli media reported that “Two Palestinians were shot and injured, and a pair of vehicles and a home were torched during violent settler attacks in the northern West Bank”. Also, “In a later incident in the nearby village of Huwara, a truck belonging to a Palestinian was also set alight by settlers.”
  - Times of Israel

• On December 2, “a 38-year-old man in the town of Qarawat Bani Hassan, in the northern West Bank, was shot in the chest and died as residents confronted settlers and Israeli soldiers.” In another incident, “a group of about 15 settlers had burned a car and broke the windows of a house with stones.”
  - Guardian

The Israeli government openly stated that they armed settlers in the West Bank.

• National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir announced that his ministry purchased “10,000 rifles to arm civilian security teams, specifically those in towns close to Israel’s borders around the country, as well as mixed Jewish-Arab cities and West Bank settlements.” Ben Gvir also said “4,000 assault rifles had already been acquired from an Israeli manufacturer and will be distributed immediately.”
  - Times of Israel

• The Samaria Regional Council distributed “300 assault rifles to civilian security squads in settlements in the northern West Bank, in coordination with the National Security Ministry and the IDF.” Israeli media also reported that “In one incident caught on video on October 13, a settler who had entered the outskirts of the village of At-Tuwani in the South Hebron Hills armed with an assault rifle shot at point-blank range and badly wounded an unarmed Palestinian man who together with several other men was protesting the settler’s presence,” affirming the idea that these weapons will be used to terrorize Palestinians in the region.
  - Times of Israel

The Israeli military applies the “Dahiya Doctrine” which involves attacks on civilian communities.

• Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine says that it “will apply disproportionate force … and cause great damage and destruction”.
  - Guardian

• The Dahiya Doctrine is named after Israel’s approach to a war with Lebanon, where a UN-commissioned report accused Israel of conducting “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.” Israel used a similar approach in Gaza where “Israeli military correspondents and security analysts repeatedly reported that the Dahiya doctrine was Israel’s strategy throughout the war in Gaza” in 2014. Israel’s actions in Gaza in 2014 had “left more than 1,460 civilians dead, including almost 500 children.”
  - WaPo

• Israel has been attacking Lebanon even in 2024. “Israel’s history of behaviour in conflict shows efforts to make southern Lebanon uninhabitable for civilians” and a representative of Human Rights Watch said that “civilians in Lebanon have been reportedly killed in at least four separate Israeli strikes in south Lebanon” in the second week of February 2024.
  - Al Jazeera

• Israel’s Dahiya Doctrine “dictates the use of disproportionate force that targets civilian and military infrastructure.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Gadi Eizenkot, an Israeli general and politician, was quoted as saying that “We will wield disproportionate power against every village from which shots are fired on Israel, and cause immense damage and destruction. From our perspective, these are military bases,” making it clear that Israel treats civilian communities as legitimate military targets.
  - MSN

Israel has been subjecting Gaza to a blockade since 2006, which worsened in late 2007. This restricts the movement of goods and people in and out of the region. Under normal circumstances, most people in Gaza face chronic food insecurity, lack of access to clean water, shortages of basic medical equipment and services, and live in poverty.

• Gaza “has been under economic blockade since 2006.”
  - AP

• In 2007, the blockade was intensified; “Israeli authorities significantly intensified existing movement restrictions, virtually isolating the Gaza Strip from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt), and the world. This land, sea and air blockade has significantly exacerbated previous restrictions, limiting the number and specified categories of people and goods allowed in and out through the Israeli-controlled crossings.” In 2022, UNICEF reported on the effects of the blockade on Gaza. “78% of piped water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption” and “1.3 million out of 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza (62%) require food assistance.” Even as a coastal territory, they should be able to use fishing to increase food supply but “Israeli forces restrict access off the Gaza coast, currently only allowing fishermen to access 50% of the fishing waters allocated for this purpose under the Oslo Accords.” Even farming is difficult because “Israeli forces have largely restricted access to areas within 300 metres of the Gaza side of the perimeter fence with Israel; areas several hundred metres beyond are deemed not safe, preventing, or discouraging, agricultural activities.” Even if Gaza was able to be more self-reliant in producing food, the blockade hinders trade. “After the blockade, the number of truckloads of commercial goods exiting Gaza dropped significantly to only two truckloads on average per month in 2009.” Commercial transfers between Gaza and the West Bank only resumed after “the 2014 escalation of hostilities”. Despite slight easing of restrictions, the blockade remains in place, and was affecting life in Gaza up to 2022 and 2023. “The volume of truckloads entering Gaza in the first five months of 2022, around 8,000 per month, was about 30% below the monthly average for the first half of 2007, before the blockade.”
  - UN

• “Even before the latest hostilities, Palestinians in Gaza had been subjected to numerous Israeli military offensives – at least six between 2008 and 2023 – in addition to an enduring land, air, and sea blockade, which has helped maintain Israel’s effective control and occupation of Gaza.”
  - Amnesty International

• The October 7 operations were directly “in response to continued Israeli blockade of Gaza”.
  - Al Jazeera

On October 9, Israel placed Gaza under a total siege, greatly worsening the residents’ unconscionable living conditions by blocking food, water, equipment, medicine, electricity, and fuel for all residents.

• “For 16 years, a blockade has throttled the Gaza Strip, worsening a humanitarian crisis” then, after Palestinian resistance groups rose up on October 7, “Israel announced this blockade would become what they call a full-scale “siege” — allowing no food, water, electricity or fuel to its 2.3 million residents, half of them children. Israel has also started intensively bombing Gaza.” The Gaza Strip “twice the size of Washington, D.C., and is one of the most densely populated places in the world. Some 80% of its people are refugees; half are children. Meanwhile, less than 4% of its water is drinkable, and its unemployment rate of 46% is the worst in the world, according to UNICEF.” Israel controls Gaza’s borders and restricts “building materials, agricultural equipment and medicine that Gazans say would be essential to rebuilding their lives.”
  - NBC

• Ever since Israel placed Gaza under a total siege, “the only source of water has been an aquifer that is contaminated by sewage, chemicals and seawater. Many people are reliant on neighbourhood desalination facilities for their fresh water.” Furthermore, “Gaza’s two main sources for electricity – power lines from Israel and the Gaza power plant – have stopped functioning,” leaving households and hospitals to rely on generators that use the same fuel that Israel refuses to let into Gaza.
  - Guardian

• “As Gaza spirals toward full-scale famine, displaced civilians and health workers told CNN they go hungry so their children can eat what little is available. If Palestinians find water, it is likely undrinkable. When relief trucks trickle into the strip, people clamber over each other to grab aid. Children living on the streets, after being forced from their homes by Israel’s bombardment, cry and fight over stale bread. Others reportedly walk for hours in the cold searching for food, risking exposure to Israeli strikes.”
  - CNN

• “People living in the isolated north of Gaza have told the BBC that children are going without food for days, as aid convoys are increasingly denied permits to enter. Some residents have resorted to grinding animal feed into flour to survive, but even stocks of those grains are now dwindling, they say. People have also described digging down into the soil to access water pipes, for drinking and washing. The UN has warned that acute malnutrition among young children in the north has risen sharply, and is now above the critical threshold of 15%. The UN's humanitarian coordination agency, Ocha, says more than half the aid missions to the north of Gaza were denied access last month, and that there is increasing interference from Israeli forces in how and where aid is delivered.”
  - BBC

• HRW notes “Israeli government’s blockade of Gaza, preventing civilians’ access to items essential for their survival, such as water, food, and medicine” and labels it as “a war crime.” It also reports that “Israel’s blockade has severely constrained hospitals, which have run out of essential medicines and basic equipment. While Israeli authorities have allowed minimal humanitarian aid into Gaza, they have continued to block the entry of fuel, which hospitals need for their generators.”
  - HRW

• In late February, the UN “warned that famine is imminent for over half a million of Gaza’s residents, and that one in six children under the age of 2 in northern Gaza was suffering from acute malnutrition.” However, “Humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza has dwindled as the United Nations and other relief agencies have struggled to deliver even small amounts of food and supplies amid Israeli entry restrictions, airstrikes and its ground invasion. Aid delivery has also been hampered by the breakdown of civil order as increasingly desperate civilians converge on aid convoys before the trucks can get to distribution centers.”
  - NYT

• As of late February 2024, “The UN says a quarter of Gaza’s 2.3 million Palestinians face starvation; around 80% have fled their homes.”
  - Times of Israel

• Up to the end of February 2024, “Humanitarian conditions across Gaza, but particularly in central and southern parts of the enclave where hundreds of thousands of people have sought shelter, have been deteriorating steadily, with aid organizations accusing Israel of constraining the delivery of aid materials.”
  - CBS

Israel has been destroying residential blocks in urban areas in the Gaza Strip. Entire residential districts have been turned to rubble, leaving hundreds of thousands of people homeless.

• As early as November 2023, “across Gaza, over 234,000 homes have been damaged and 46,000 completely destroyed, amounting to around 60% of the territory’s housing stock” according to a UN-led aid body. “Israel’s bombardment and ground offensive have displaced more than 1.8 million people, nearly 80% of Gaza’s population, and most have sought refuge in the south, according to the U.N. Hundreds of thousands of people have packed into U.N.-run schools and other facilities, with many forced to sleep on the streets outside because of overcrowding. Rain and cold winds sweeping across Gaza have made conditions even more miserable.”
  - AP

• “Gaza is among the most densely populated places in the world - more than 500 people per 100 square meters in many sections, according to the European Commission. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) reports that at least 60% of Gaza’s housing has been destroyed or damaged as of November 24. More than 1.8 million people in Gaza - about 80% - are displaced, UN officials report. Northern Gaza has had no electricity since October 11.”
  - CNN

• “By mid-December, Israel had dropped 29,000 bombs, munitions and shells on the strip. Nearly 70% of Gaza’s 439,000 homes and about half of its buildings have been damaged or destroyed.”
  - WSJ

• At the end of 2023, Israeli media echoed Western reporting that “Almost 70% of Gaza homes damaged or destroyed” and that other “buildings hit include factories, houses of prayer, schools, shopping malls and hotels.” However, it noted a claim by Israel that these civilian buildings were “hit after being used for military purposes”.
  - Times of Israel

• In January 2024, an investigation published by the Guardian “found damage to more than 250 residential buildings, 17 schools and universities, 16 mosques, three hospitals, three cemeteries and 150 agricultural greenhouses.” Additionally, “entire buildings have been levelled, fields flattened and places of worship wiped off the map” in Gaza and “the destruction has not only forced 1.9 million people to leave their homes but also made it impossible for many to return.” Experts have concluded that this represents “the widespread, deliberate destruction of the home to make it uninhabitable, preventing the return of displaced people.” In Syria, over the course of 3 years, “UN data shows that 40% of Aleppo’s structures were damaged during the Syrian civil war.” In comparison, “60% of all structures have been damaged or destroyed in Gaza” in less than 3 months.
  - Guardian

• NPR reported that “many Palestinians can't even find tents” after “War in Gaza drove them from their homes.” Displaced Palestinians have to sleep “on the streets, in the courtyards of hospitals and schools, on once-empty patches of desert that are now full.”
  - NPR

Israel has targeted and attacked hospitals and ambulances in Gaza, obstructing medical care for its civilian population.

• After speaking to displaced people sheltering in hospitals, hospital workers and healthcare officials, along with analysing and verifying data including videos, satellite imagery and WHO databases, Human Rights Watch confirmed that the IDF repeatedly struck hospitals across Gaza. They note that “Israeli forces have on several occasions struck ambulances marked with the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem, often near hospitals. Ambulances, like medical facilities, have special protections under the laws of war” and that “the Israeli military claimed that armed groups were unlawfully using the ambulance that had been attacked, but did not provide more information”. Despite Zionist claims, HRW “did not find evidence that the ambulance was being used for military purposes.”
  - HRW

• Doctors Without Borders (also called “Medecins Sans Frontieres” or “MSF” for short) said that “the Israeli military’s attack on one of its convoys” in November “that left two dead was deliberate”. They also said that the IDF “intentionally damaged and destroyed MSF vehicles in the days following the convoy attack”.
  - The Hill

• In December 2023, the WHO said that “There are no more functioning hospitals in northern Gaza” and “that just nine out of 36 health facilities in Gaza are operating, all partially and all in the south.”
  - ABC

• There was some improvement in Northern Gaza in January 2024, but the situation has still been dire. The WHO reported that “Seven out of 24 hospitals remain open in northern Gaza. These are only partially functioning, without enough specialized medical staff to manage the volume and range of injuries, nor sufficient medicines and medical supplies, fuel, clean water, or food for patients or staff. Additionally, two Ministry of Health primary healthcare centers in northern Gaza are partially functional but lack essential supplies, including syringes and vaccines needed for routine immunization. Intensified military presence and hostilities in southern Gaza are also placing patients and health workers at risk, and compromising access to health care. They are severely obstructing the movement of health workers, ambulances, and health partners' ability to resupply hospitals, eroding their functionality.”
  - WHO

• At the start of 2024, the WHO said that there had been “Nearly 600 attacks on healthcare in Gaza and West Bank since” October 7. These numbers include “304 attacks in the Gaza Strip” and near 300 in the West Bank as well where “24 health facilities were affected along with 212 ambulances.” The WHO also reports that “Thousands of children have already died from the violence, while living conditions for children continue to rapidly deteriorate, with increasing cases of diarrhoea and rising food poverty among children, raising the risk of mounting child deaths.”
  - UN

• “Israeli shells have battered Khan Younis, cutting off two hospitals as the city in southern Gaza saw the bloodiest fighting since the New Year” began in 2024. Furthermore, “The Israeli occupation is preventing ambulance vehicles from moving to recover bodies of martyrs and the wounded from western Khan Younis.”
  - Al Jazeera

• “As of February 13, only 11 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functioning – five in the north and six in the south. According to the WHO, hospital bed capacity across all of Gaza has now been reduced from 3,500 to just 1,400. In many cases, the Israeli authorities tried to justify these attacks by claiming, without providing any independent, conclusive evidence, that hospitals are being used by Hamas” and “At this point in the conflict, the few partially functioning hospitals are only able to deliver desperately needed trauma care and there is no treatment for other critical primary care needs, such as chronic illnesses.”
  - Al Jazeera

• In mid-February, “Israeli special forces raided Nasser Hospital in Gaza, the largest functioning hospital in the enclave, after laying siege to the facility for days.” It was reported that “Israeli forces shelled the hospital” and, according to Doctors without Borders, an “undetermined number of people” were murdered by Israeli soldiers.
  - CNN

Israel has attacked schools, including universities, across the Gaza Strip. All universities in Gaza have been destroyed, and all other schools in Gaza have been forced to stop operating. Israeli soldiers used Gaza’s last university as a military base, then demolished it when they were done.

• According to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, “Israel systematically destroyed every university in the Gaza Strip in stages over the course of the more than 100-day attack.” Additionally, “ninety per cent of state-run schools have been subjected to direct or indirect damage and about 29% of school buildings remain out of service as a result of their being completely demolished or severely damaged.” It also said that “The Israeli army has killed 94 university professors, along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, as part of its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”.
  - UN

• “There is absolutely no form of education or schooling in the Gaza Strip at the moment,” according to a UNICEF official who added that “There were approximately 625,000 [school-age] students in the Gaza Strip before the escalation of hostilities and none of them are attending schools now. The level of violence and the ongoing hostilities, the intense bombing which is taking place, doesn’t allow for education.” Most of this destruction happened before 2024 even started. “By mid-December, 352 school buildings had been damaged, more than 70% of the enclave’s education infrastructure, UN figures show. Many of those still standing have become shelters, including more than 150 UNWRA schools and about 130 schools run by local authorities.” In a post-war future, “Even if classrooms are rebuilt, textbooks brought in and new teachers trained,” there are “worries that children will see their schools differently, after so many have spent time crammed into them, enduring cold, hunger, filth and terror.”
  - Guardian

• In mid-January, “Al Israa University became the latest major public building in Gaza to disappear from the map, blown up and destroyed by Israeli forces who had reportedly used it as a military base for several weeks.”
  - BBC

• Israeli media reported that “On January 17, the last university that remained intact in the Gaza Strip was bombed and completely destroyed.” Israeli soldiers “used large quantities of explosives and didn't leave a trace of Israa University, south of Gaza City.”
  - Haaretz

• A journalist questioned “the US State Department about Israeli justification for destroying Israa University in Gaza City in what appears to be a controlled demolition.”
  - Al Jazeera

• “The Israeli military said Gaza's Islamic University was being used by Hamas as a training camp and for the development and production of weapons. NBC News cannot independently confirm the IDF's claims.”
  - NBC

• As of January 2024, “Israel has destroyed more than 390 educational institutions in Gaza since” October 7, 2023.
  - NPR

• “Hundreds of schools, including those run by the UN, in the besieged Palestinian enclave have been bombed, and students and teachers killed, in more than 100 days of Israeli bombardment that has ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students. January 24 marks the sixth International Day of Education as proclaimed by the UN General Assembly, but tens of thousands of Gaza students cannot go to schools, which are lying in ruins” as “All schools in Gaza have been shut and no university has survived Israel military’s more than 100 days of onslaught.” Before this, it was known that “Palestinians have one of the highest literacy rates in the world”.
  - Al Jazeera

Many civilians are killed by Israeli snipers, which cannot be explained by the same ‘collateral damage’ argument that comes with bombing campaigns.

• “Many civilians have been shot by snipers”.
  - Guardian

• In October 2023, “Israeli soldiers stormed more than 40 residential homes, destroying personal belongings and drilling holes in the walls for sniper outposts.”
  - Amnesty International

• In mid-February 2024, “doctors and medical officials in southern Gaza said Israeli snipers had shot dead a number of people as they tried to flee the Nasser hospital. An eyewitness to the shootings, who is a trauma surgeon at the hospital, said at least two people were killed by snipers on Tuesday, with more shot and injured.”
  - CNN

Israeli soldiers have repeatedly shot and murdered civilians who showed clear signs of surrender.

• Some Palestinians “were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces”.
  - UN

• Ramzi Abu Sahloul “was among a group of five males standing still, their hands up, one of them brandishing a white flag.” He told a cameraman that “they were trying to reach his mother and brother to escort them out of harm’s way.” After the interview, “there was a sharp loud volley of shots” and Abu Sahloul had been “been shot in the chest”.
  - ITV

• “Social media videos show Palestinians in Gaza being shot while waving white flags and trying to flee. One grandmother named Hala Khreis was shot and killed while holding her grandson's hand. The killings have sparked outrage and raised questions about the IDF's tactics in Gaza.”
  - CNN

Mass graves have been found in Gaza, and massacres and mass executions have been documented over the course of the conflict. To date, evidence points towards these atrocities being carried out by Israeli soldiers.

• “In a primary report submitted to UN special rapporteurs and the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has documented dozens of cases of field executions carried out by the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip.”
  - UN

• Displaced persons sheltering at the Shadia Abu Ghazala School said that Israeli soldiers stormed the school and killed several people execution style. A father of one of the victims said, “They entered the classroom we were in and fired directly at those present without uttering a word.”
  - Al Jazeera

• More than 30 black plastic bags were found containing “the decomposing bodies of Palestinian detainees who were blindfolded and handcuffed.” This follows several videos filmed by members of the IDF since the beginning of the ground invasion showing “hundreds of Palestinian men stripped to their underwear, sitting outdoors in the cold, sometimes blindfolded.”
  - Al Jazeera

Civilians have been shot while trying to deliver or access critical aid like food.

• The “UNRWA has said its ability to help people in Gaza has been completely stretched by air strikes that have killed dozens of its staff and restricted the movement of supplies.”
  - Reuters

• “Once relief enters Gaza, Israeli bombardment, damage to roads from airstrikes, communications blackouts and mass displacement impede distribution within the enclave.” The UNRWA said that “Humanitarian workers cannot move safely across the strip. UN trucks carrying aid have repeatedly come under Israeli fire”.
  - CNN

• Following an incident at the end of February, Israeli media reported that “Dozens of Palestinians were killed Thursday in Gaza City as they swarmed aid trucks that entered the city.” The Israeli military “published drone video showing thousands of people swarming around the aid trucks as they reached the area in northern Gaza. In some cases, the vehicles continued to try and push past the crowds.” Israeli officials admitted that some civilians died “after being run over by the trucks” that were being driven by Israeli-hired contractors. The Israeli military claims that it only murdered “fewer than 10 of the” Palestinian civilians, blaming the crowding for the rest of the deaths. “Aid groups say it has become nearly impossible to deliver humanitarian assistance in most of Gaza because of the difficulty of coordinating with the Israeli military”. The scarcity and infrequency of deliveries have led to “crowds of desperate people overwhelming aid convoys.”
  - Times of Israel

• “Israeli officials said thousands of Palestinians surrounded some 30 trucks carrying aid into northern Gaza” where journalists report that “Israeli troops opened fire on Palestinian civilians” near the trucks. The Zionists first claimed that Palestinians were “fatally trampled or injured” due to the crowding around the trucks, but later admitted that “Israeli troops a short distance down the road from the aid convoy opened fire” and that this “could have caused deaths and injuries.” Multiple “witnesses said Israeli soldiers and tanks fired at people waiting for aid deliveries near the Nabulsi roundabout in northern Gaza. They said the shooting started before they saw the trucks arrive.” Israeli officials admitted that “the aid convoy was coordinated by the Israeli military for distribution by private contractors” and that many Palestinian civilians “were run over by the trucks” driven by the Israeli-hired contractors. Multiple attempts “to provide essentials for the population of Gaza have been paralyzed by curbs on aid flowing into the enclave, Israeli strikes on aid trucks and” desperately hungry Palestinians rushing towards the trucks due to scarcity. “Aid trucks that enter Gaza have to pass through Israeli military checkpoints to receive approval, and while they wait, often for lengthy periods, crowds of people gather.” The situation in Northern Gaza is dire in particular, as the “Israeli military has denied access to most humanitarian missions”.
  - WSJ

• “More than a hundred Palestinians were killed” as “desperate crowds gathered around aid trucks and Israeli troops opened fire” on them. “Witnesses and survivors described bullets hitting crowds around the aid trucks, and Mohammed Salha, acting director of the al-Awda hospital, which treated 161 casualties, said most appeared to have been shot.”
  - Guardian

• At the end of February, “more than 100 people were killed and hundreds more injured in a chaotic scene early Thursday morning in Gaza City, where a crowd gathered around a convoy of trucks carrying desperately needed aid and the Israeli military opened fire. Drone footage released by the Israeli military shows hundreds of people circling around the trucks along the Al-Rashid coast road, and a video posted on social media includes audio of shots fired near civilians.” A doctor “said he saw dozens of dead and injured with gunshot wounds lying in the street, as well as bodies of people who appeared to have been trampled or hit by aid trucks. The Israeli military claimed that the drone video they released shows a mass stampede where Gazans are trampled, but the quality and length of the clips makes it difficult to confirm these claims, adding confusion to the sequence of events that led to the many deaths. The video, which does not include audio, was edited by the Israeli military with multiple clips spliced together, leaving out a key moment before many in the crowd start running away from the trucks, with some people crawling behind walls, appearing to take cover.”
  - NYT

• “The Israeli military released a heavily edited video to deflect blame, but the footage did little to clear up what led to mass casualties as people crowded around food aid trucks in northern Gaza.”
  - NYT

• “Witnesses and medics said Israeli forces opened fire Thursday on thousands of Palestinians who had gathered in an open area of Gaza City hoping to receive food and other desperately needed humanitarian aid.”
  - CBS

• “At least 112 people were killed and 760 injured in an incident where” Israeli soldiers “used live fire as hungry and desperate Palestinian civilians were gathering around food aid trucks”. Witnesses say that “Civilians swarmed around the newly arrived aid trucks in the hope of getting food, and Israeli forces soon started shooting”. A journalist claims that “The majority of the casualties occurred as a result of people being rammed by aid trucks trying to escape Israeli fire”. Israeli officials deny responsibility for the massacre, offering narrative which “directly contradicts the eyewitness accounts”.
  - CNN

• “At least 115 Palestinians were killed and more than 750 others were injured” in an incident at the end of February, where “witnesses said nearby Israeli troops opened fire as huge crowds raced to pull goods off an aid convoy. Israel said many of the dead were trampled in a stampede linked to the chaos” but hospital stats show otherwise. Separate from those who died, “176 wounded were brought to the facility, of whom 142 had suffered gunshot wounds. The other 34 showed injuries from a stampede.” Of the wounded, “more than 80% had been struck by gunfire, suggesting there had been heavy shooting by Israeli troops.” Israel’s account of the incident downplays Israel’s use of gunfire.
  - AP

Israel has engaged in indiscriminate bombing of Gaza, using unguided explosives and chemical weapons.

• The US President publicly acknowledged that Israel was engaging in “indiscriminate bombing” which affects its international reputation.
  - CNN

• “Israel has relied heavily on these lower-accuracy unguided munitions, which weapons experts say has undercut claims by the IDF that it is trying to minimise civilian casualties. Israel has not denied its use of unguided munitions, which can pose significant risks to civilians when used in densely populated areas. Its air force repeatedly shared images on social media at the beginning of the offensive of dumb bombs, such as M117s, attached to its fighter jets.” Israel is using weapons and munitions that come from “warehouses that contain billions of dollars’ worth of weapons owned by the US government.” Israel “appears to be receiving munitions from the stockpile in significant quantities for use in its war on Gaza, yet there has been little transparency about transfers from the arsenal. In interviews with the Guardian, multiple former US officials familiar with American security assistance to Israel have described how the stockpile enables expedited arms transfers to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It can also shield movements of US weapons from public and congressional oversight, they said.”
  - Guardian

• “Nearly half of the air-to-ground munitions that Israel has used in Gaza in its war with Hamas since October 7 have been unguided” which “are typically less precise and can pose a greater threat to civilians, especially in such a densely populated area like Gaza. The rate at which Israel is using the dumb bombs may be contributing to the soaring civilian death toll.” This “undercuts the Israeli claim that they are trying to minimize civilian casualties.”
  - CNN

• “Almost half of the munitions Israel has used in Gaza since the war began have been unguided bombs, a U.S. intelligence assessment has found, a ratio that some arms experts say helps explain the conflict’s enormous civilian death toll.”
  - WaPo

• “The Israeli military campaign in Gaza, experts say, now sits among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history.” Bunker busters “have killed hundreds in densely populated areas.” Bombs have even hit refugee camps; “In an Oct. 31 strike on the urban refugee camp of Jabaliya, experts say a 2,000-pound bomb killed over 100 civilians.” Israel’s bombing campaign “has likely either damaged or destroyed over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza” as of January 2024. “Gaza is now a different color from space. It’s a different texture,” according to an expert. Another expert said that “Gaza is one of the most intense civilian punishment campaigns in history,” and that “It now sits comfortably in the top quartile of the most devastating bombing campaigns ever.” A former Pentagon defense official said that one of the types of bombs used by Israel “turns earth to liquid” and “pancakes entire buildings.”
  - AP

• “Israel hasn't exactly hidden its use of the controversial weapons.”
  - BI

• “According to the Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has dropped more than 25,000 tonnes of explosives on the Gaza Strip since October 7, equivalent to two nuclear bombs. In comparison, the Little Boy nuclear bomb dropped by the United States on Hiroshima during World War II yielded 15,000 tonnes of high explosives and destroyed everything within a one-mile (1.6km) radius.”
  - Al Jazeera

White phosphorus is a chemical substance typically used by militaries to produce light and create smokescreens. However, due to its highly incendiary nature, white phosphorus causes severe burns when it comes into contact with skin, often down to the bone. The use of this substance in civilian areas is considered a violation of international humanitarian law and, even though Israel claims that accusations of their use of the substance in this conflict is false, there is an abundance of evidence showing that white phosphorus has frequently been used in Gaza and in southern Lebanon over the course of this conflict.

• “White phosphorus causes severe burns, often down to the bone, that are slow to heal and likely to develop infections. If not all fragments of white phosphorus are removed, they can exacerbate wounds after treatment and reignite when exposed to oxygen. White phosphorus burns on only 10 percent of a human body are often fatal. It can also cause respiratory damage and organ failure. Those who survive their initial injuries often experience a lifetime of suffering.” HRW “determined based on verified video and witness accounts that Israeli forces used white phosphorus in military operations in Lebanon and Gaza on October 10 and 11, 2023, respectively. The videos show multiple airbursts of artillery-fired white phosphorus over the Gaza City port and two rural locations along the Israel-Lebanon border.” Airbursting “spreads the incendiary effects over a wider area, and in densely populated areas like Gaza it increases the risks to civilians.”
  - HRW

• “The Israeli army fired artillery shells containing white phosphorus, an incendiary weapon, in military operations along Lebanon’s southern border between 10 and 16 October 2023”. Amnesty International said that “One attack on the town of Dhayra on 16 October must be investigated as a war crime because it was an indiscriminate attack”.
  - Amnesty International

• “Israel used U.S.-supplied white phosphorus munitions in an October attack in southern Lebanon that injured at least nine civilians in what a rights group says should be investigated as a war crime, according to a Washington Post analysis of shell fragments found in a small village.”
  - WaPo

Israel has told Palestinians in Gaza to evacuate their homes and flee to specific areas that would be safe, but then attacked those same areas where people were told they would be safe if they fled to.

• “Using videos and images shared online, satellite imagery and local news reports, CNN has verified three Israeli strikes on areas where citizens were told to flee.”
  - CNN

• “A video investigation showed that “During the first six weeks of the war in Gaza, Israel routinely used one of its biggest and most destructive bombs in areas it designated safe for civilians”.
  - NYT

• Deir al-Balah, a city designated to be a safe zone by the IDF, “had not been spared from the Israeli bombing campaign according to the United Nations and international human rights organizations like Amnesty International.” Videos and satellite imagery were used to identify “at least 91 individual instances of destruction in Deir al-Balah since Oct. 7.” These findings “appear to support U.N. and human rights organizations' statements and indicate that while Israel's military directed civilians to Deir al-Balah, they continued to strike there.”
  - ABC

• “Israel has told civilians in the northern Gaza Strip, including residents of Gaza City, to move to the south of the enclave, saying it will be safer there” but then Israeli bombers “continued to hit sites in southern Gaza, spreading fear among the evacuees that they are just as vulnerable there as they were in their homes in the north.” Reuters reported that “Since telling Gazans to head south, the Israeli military (IDF) has continued to pound targets across the area, killing an unknown number of civilians.”
  - Reuters

• Filmed in October, a CBS News “video shows children among those being pulled from the rubble of the airstrike on the southern half of the Gaza Strip — to which Israel's military told Palestinian civilians to evacuate”.
  - CBS

• “They tell us to go south, then they bomb south. They tell us to go to hospitals, then they bomb hospitals. They tell us to go to shelters, then they bomb shelters”.
  - PBS

• “Thousands of people sought refuge at the Rafah crossing as Israeli retaliatory airstrikes pummeled Gaza, intensifying the humanitarian crisis there. Tons of aid awaited entry on the other side. Egypt was preparing for an opening of the Rafah border crossing when the gate was hit at least four times by Israeli airstrikes”.
  - ABC

Not only has Israel attacked designated safe areas, it has also murdered Palestinian civilians while they were evacuating along the routes that Israel instructed them to.

• “When Palestinians in north Gaza heeded the warnings issued in the Israeli military’s phone calls, text messages, and fliers advising them to head south, they thought they were fleeing to potential safety” but then “Palestinians who followed the evacuation warnings and fled their homes in search of safety suffered the very fate they were running from: Israeli airstrikes killed them outside of the evacuation zone. The killings underscore the reality that evacuation zones and warning alerts from the Israeli military haven’t guaranteed safety for civilians in the densely populated Gaza Strip, where Palestinians have no safe place to escape Israeli bombs.”
  - CNN

• “Israel has ordered the entire population of northern Gaza to evacuate south, a warning that leaves more than 1 million people to decide whether to abandon their homes. Hamas urged Gazans to ignore it. Following the order, 70 people - mostly women and children - were killed after Israeli airstrikes hit convoys of Palestinian evacuees heading south in Gaza.”
  - NBC

• “70 people were killed on the road, which was filled with traffic as Palestinians tried to adhere to Israeli orders” where they were told “to evacuate the northern half of Gaza.” While “Salah al-Din Road and the strip’s coastal highway have both since been identified by the IDF as safe routes for people to move to locations south”, Israel’s attacks “which killed a reported 70 people, including children, occurred on Salah-al-Din Road”.
  - Guardian

• UN experts “are shocked by reports of the deliberate targeting and extrajudicial killing of Palestinian women and children in places where they sought refuge, or while fleeing. Some of them were reportedly holding white pieces of cloth when they were killed by the Israeli army or affiliated forces”.
  - UN

Mounting evidence suggests that the IDF has deliberately and systematically targeted individuals from various professional fields, namely healthcare workers, academics, and journalists.

It is evident that Israel has targeted healthcare workers, including during their performance of their duties. These include doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, paramedics, and others.

• “Israeli forces have on several occasions struck ambulances marked with the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem, often near hospitals.” HRW notes multiple incidents. On October 7, “Hosni Salha, a security guard, was killed while sitting in one of the hospital’s vehicles along with the driver and a paramedic” and there was a separate attack on the same day “which hit two ambulances in Jabalia, killed two paramedics and injured others.” Less than a week later, “Israeli strikes hit three ambulances, injuring 10 paramedics.”
  - HRW

• In mid-October 2023, “UN experts called for the protection of all humanitarian workers, after the World Health Organization (WHO) documented more than 136 attacks on health care services in the occupied Palestinian territory, including 59 attacks on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of at least 16 health workers since the beginning of hostilities on 7 October. Israeli bombardment on Gaza has also killed 15 staff of the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) and four Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in an ambulance. An ambulance driver of Magen David Adom in Israel lost his life while driving to treat injured people.”
  - UN

• In November 2023, the WHO reiterated “its call for an immediate ceasefire, emphasizing the urgent need to protect all health workers, patients, health transport, and health facilities.”
  - WHO

• In early November, Doctors Without Borders mourned the death of one of their team members, a lab technician who “was at his home in Al Shati refugee camp when the area was bombed and his building collapsed, reportedly killing dozens of people.”
  - MSF

• “A convoy of ambulances was transporting critically wounded patients from the Al-Shifa Hospital to the Rafah border crossing with Egypt when it was targeted in an Israeli attack” in early November. Zionists claim “that Hamas uses ambulances to transport fighters and weapons – without providing evidence to support the claims”.
  - Al Jazeera

• In late November, Doctors Without Borders announced that it was “horrified by the killing of two of our doctors, Dr. Mahmoud Abu Nujaila and Dr. Ahmad Al Sahar, and another doctor, Dr. Ziad Al-Tatari”. They said that “MSF staff have been subject to multiple dangerous incidents in the last few days alone, including an attack on an MSF convoy trying to evacuate 137 staff and their families near Al-Shifa Hospital and a separate attack on an outpatient burn clinic in Gaza City. Our colleagues who are assisting hundreds of patients in Gaza are facing extreme difficulties in providing the little medical care they can. Seeing doctors killed next to hospital beds is beyond tragic, and this must stop now.”
  - MSF

Israel’s attacks on Gaza have murdered many teachers and academics.

• Israel “killed prominent Palestinian scientist Sufyan Tayeh and his family”. He”was president of the Islamic University of Gaza” as well as “a leading researcher in physics and applied mathematics.”
  - Reuters

• “There are hundreds of staff who, like their students, will never come back to classrooms. At least 200 teachers have been killed and more than 500 injured” as of mid-December 2023. “Aid groups can send in tents and equipment, but teaching staff will be much harder to replace. University students and colleagues mourning Refaat Alareer, a poet who was killed by an Israeli airstrike, said they would miss his classes as much as his writing.” Notably, “Alareer was not in the university when he died, but the campus has also been bombed, and other casualties from the faculty include the university’s president, Sufyan Tayeh, killed with his family by another Israeli airstrike.”
  - Guardian

• Israel assassinated Refaat Alareer, an eminent Palestinian writer, and murdered his family which included multiple children. The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is “accusing Israel of targeting him”, noting that “The apartment where Refaat and his family were sheltering was surgically bombed out of the entire building where it’s located” which means “that the apartment was itself the target and not possible collateral damage.” The murder of Refaat and his family “came after weeks of death threats that Refaat received online and by phone from Israeli accounts.” It is noted that Israel is not only targeting resistance, but also “that they are specifically going after the talents in Gaza that could help Gaza rebuild the future later”.
  - Le Monde

• As of January 20, 2024, “the Israeli army has killed 94 university professors, along with hundreds of teachers and thousands of students, as part of its genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip”. These “academic, scientific, and intellectual figures” in Gaza were targeted in “deliberate and specific air raids on their homes without prior notice. Those targeted have been crushed to death beneath the rubble, along with members of their families and other displaced families.”
  - UN

• A Jewish academic wrote that “A few key Palestinian academics have been assassination targets, while others have been arrested and imprisoned.” She says that this is a “part of Israel's policy of erasing not only the physical infrastructure but also the spiritual.”
  - Haaretz

• “Hundreds of schools, including those run by the UN, in the besieged Palestinian enclave have been bombed, and students and teachers killed, in more than 100 days of Israeli bombardment that has ravaged educational infrastructure and caused mental trauma to thousands of beleaguered students.” In 2024, “Up to 4,327 students have been killed and 7,819 others have been injured as of January 16, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Education, which added that 231 teachers and administrators were also killed.”
  - Al Jazeera

Israel has killed many journalists and their families. This prevents those journalists from covering Israel’s genocidal rampages and intimidates surviving journalists to deter them from their work.

• After Reuters and AFP “had sought assurances that their journalists in Gaza would not be targeted by Israeli strikes”, the Israeli military told them “that it cannot guarantee the safety of their journalists operating in the Gaza Strip, under Israeli bombardment and siege”.
  - Reuters

• On October 10, 2023, Al Jazeera reported that “At least six Palestinian journalists have been killed in a matter of days, amid Israel’s ongoing shelling of the besieged Gaza strip”. In a single day, three members of the press were murdered “as they went to film a building that Israel would soon bomb in Gaza City.”
  - Al Jazeera

• As of November 4, “At least 33 journalists have been killed since October”. In the first weekend of November, CNN reported that “A Palestine TV correspondent and 11 members of his family were killed Thursday in southern Gaza”.
  - CNN

• In early December 2023, Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh “bid a final farewell to his wife, son, daughter and grandson who had just been killed in an Israeli air raid that hit the house they were sheltering in.” It was reported that “Wael thought they would be safe there because it was within the zone to which Israel had asked Palestinians in Gaza to move.”
  - Al Jazeera

• “At least nine relatives” of CNN producer Ibrahim Dahman were “killed in a strike on his aunt’s house” in early December 2023. On that same day, “his childhood home in Gaza City was obliterated in a separate strike on an adjacent building”.
  - CNN

• In early January 2024, Hamza Dahdouh “became the latest Palestinian journalist killed in an Israeli airstrike”. He was reportedly “killed alongside a colleague, Mustafa Thuraya, in a strike on their car in the southern city of Rafah”. Israel’s military claimed that it was targeting a “terrorist” in the vehicle but when asked if they “had evidence to support its allegation that an individual in the vehicle was a terrorist”, they merely said that “an investigation was still ongoing.” Hamza Dahdouh is the son of another Palestinian journalists, Wael Dahdouh who “learned during a live broadcast in October that his wife, 15-year old son, 7-year old daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli airstrike on Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.” He himself had “sustained injuries and his cameraman was killed in a drone strike as the pair were covering the aftermath of an airstrike on a school in southern Gaza.”
  - NBC

• From early October 2023 to the beginning of February 2024, “over 122 journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, and many have been injured.”
  - UN

Israel also murders journalists outside of Palestine.

• “At least one journalist was killed and six others injured on Friday in southern Lebanon when Israel fired artillery into the area they were gathered. The incident - which impacted journalists from Reuters, the Agence France-Presse wire service and Al Jazeera - marks one of the worst press catastrophes yet to emerge from Israel’s war against Hamas. The journalists were wearing press-labeled jackets at the time of the attack.”
  - CNN

• “An Israeli tank crew killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six reporters in Lebanon on Oct. 13 by firing two shells in quick succession from Israel” according to “a Reuters investigation” that was published nearly 2 months later. The journalists “chose the location because it was on a hilltop in an open area with no tree cover or other buildings to obscure the reporters from nearby Israeli military outposts” and “they were clearly identified as journalists and in plain sight of the Israeli military - on the ground and in the air.” A separate investigation, by “an international organisation that investigates potential human rights abuses and war crimes, also concluded that they were from a 120 mm tank round manufactured by Elbit Systems.” In a separate incident in November 2023, “Two journalists from Lebanese broadcaster Al Mayadeen were killed by a strike on Nov. 21”.
  - Reuters

Many Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly touted dehumanising and genocidal rhetoric against Palestinians throughout the course of Israel’s genocidal campaign in the Gaza Strip.

• In a Christmas message, Benjamin Netanyahu said “This is a battle, not only of Israel against these barbarians, it's a battle of civilization against barbarism.”
  - Government of Israel

• In a televised address, Netanyahu said, “We will turn Gaza into a deserted island. To the citizens of Gaza, I say. You must leave now. We will target each and every corner of the strip.”
  - Al Jazeera

• “Leaks from inside the Israeli government, including the intelligence ministry, show officials have been examining ways to force Palestinians to leave Gaza, either voluntarily or forcibly. A former head of the Israeli national security council, wrote in a popular Israeli newspaper: “The state of Israel has no choice but to turn Gaza into a place that is temporarily or permanently impossible to live in. Creating a severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza is a necessary means to achieve the goal… Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist.”
  - Guardian

• Israeli media reported that Amichai Eliyahu, the Israeli Heritage Minister, said “One of the options is to drop an atomic bomb on Gaza. I pray & hope for their [hostages] return, but there is also a price in war.”
  - Walla!

• Israeli media reported that Nissim Vaturi, a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) stated that “it is better to burn down buildings rather than have soldiers harmed. There are no innocents there.”
  - Times of Israel

• In a tweet, former Minister of Finance Avigdor Lieberman said, “There are no innocents in Gaza.”
  - Avigor Liberman on Twitter

Beyond inflammatory rhetoric, there are specific ideas and plans for ethnic cleansing in Gaza. By making Gaza unlivable for Palestinians, Israel is trying to justify deporting them to other countries.

• In November 2023, the Israeli Intelligence Minister wrote an article promoting an idea of “resettlement of Palestinians in Gaza” in other places “outside of the Strip.” She claimed that “Some world leaders are already discussing a worldwide refugee resettlement scheme and saying they would welcome Gazans to their countries.” She wrote that “Gaza has long been thought of as a problem without an answer. We have tried many different solutions - Disengagement, enrichment, conflict management, and building high walls in the hope of keeping the monsters of Hamas out of Israel. These have all failed.” She claimed that “Members of Knesset from across the political spectrum, including both the coalition and opposition” have “declared their support for” her proposal.
  - Jerusalem Post

• Israeli media reported that Israel’s Finance Minister wants Palestinians to be “encouraged to leave” Gaza. He promotes depopulation of Palestinians from Gaza, saying that “We need to encourage immigration from there. If there were 100,000-200,000 Arabs in the Strip and not two million, the whole conversation about the day after [the war] would be completely different”. Beyond just wanting Palestinians to leave, he has promoted the idea of Israelis building new settlements in Gaza to replace the Palestinian communities that Israel is currently destroying. He wants “a conversation about settlements in the Gaza Strip… We’ll need to rule there for a long time… If we want to be there militarily, we need to be there in a civilian fashion.” He said that he doesn’t “think there’s anyone in Israel who doesn’t want to see Jewish settlements everywhere.”
  - Times of Israel

• Israeli politicians in the governing coalition have been “forthcoming about their visions for Gaza after the war, expressing support for encouraging Palestinians to emigrate from Gaza and reestablishing settlements there.” Israel’s National Security Minister was quoted by Israeli media as saying that “We cannot withdraw from any territory we are in in the Gaza Strip. Not only do I not rule out Jewish settlement there, I believe it is also an important thing,” and that the current destruction of Gaza is an “opportunity to concentrate on encouraging the migration of the residents of Gaza”. The Israeli government, “which the Biden administration has continued to support diplomatically and militarily in the war” has attracted concerns around “far-right Israeli ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir for advocating the resettlement of Palestinians outside of Gaza.” The head of the largest Jewish denomination in the US reportedly posted on social media that members of his religious community “condemn Israeli Minister Smotrich’s call for ethnic cleansing”.
  - Times of Israel

• In parliament, the Israeli Intelligence Minister was quoted as saying that “At the end of the war Hamas rule will collapse, there are no municipal authorities, the civilian population will be entirely dependent on humanitarian aid. There will be no work, and 60% of Gaza’s agricultural land will become security buffer zones.” Israeli media “reports that Israeli officials have held clandestine talks with the African nation of Congo and several others for the potential acceptance of Gaza emigrants.”
  - Times of Israel

• Israeli media admitted that “Any suggestion of Palestinian dispersal is highly controversial in the Arab world, and” until recently, “Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, has steadfastly refused to entertain even the temporary resettlement of Gazan refugees in its territory during the war, saying they must stay in the Strip.”
  - Times of Israel

• 18 seconds into a video posted by the Israel Foreign Ministry’s Twitter account in February 2024, an illustration depicts Israel annexing the Gaza Strip, the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), and the Golan Heights.
  - Israel Foreign Ministry on Twitter

Many Israeli settlers are opposed to Palestinian self-determination and support the genocidal war effort against Palestinians.

• Only “One in four Israeli adults currently support the existence of an independent Palestinian state, while most (65%) oppose it.”
  - Gallup

• Polls show that Israelis view Netanyahu negatively but still support the Israeli war effort. "Only 15% of Israelis want Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to stay in office after the war on Hamas in Gaza ends, though many more still support his strategy of crushing the militants in the Palestinian enclave, according to a poll published" in early January 2024. Regarding the approach to the hostage situation, "56% of those questioned said continuing the military offensive was the best way to recover the hostages, while 24% thought a swap deal including the release of thousands more Palestinian prisoners from Israel's jails would be best." A poll published in December 2023 showed "that 69% of Israelis thought that elections should be held as soon as the war ends." Careful attention to the language of the results show that people want to replace Netanyahu after the war, but still support the government's war effort until then.
  - Reuters

• “Israeli protesters have more than once blocked trucks carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza via Israeli crossings.”
  - CNN

Several countries, mainly in the Global South, have downgraded their ties with Israel in one way or another. Some have even completely cut diplomatic ties and closed their embassies.

• NYT reports that “the war’s mounting death toll has spurred more nations to speak out against Israel’s offensive.”
  - NYT

• Belize has effectively cut diplomatic relations with the Zionist entity. The Belizean government issued a press release where it stated that it was taking “Measures against Israel”. It accused Israel of “unceasing indiscriminate bombing in Gaza, which has killed more than 11,000 innocent civilians, mostly women and children” and said that “The bombing has destroyed many buildings and infrastructure including hospitals, schools and other infrastructure.” As a result, it withdrew the accreditation of Israel’s ambassador designate, announced that “All activities conducted by the Israeli Honorary Consulate in Belize and the appointment of the Honorary Consul are suspended” and also that it would be “further suspending all activities of Belize’s Honorary Consulate in Tel Aviv, Israel and withdrawing the appointment of its Honorary Consul”.
  - Government of Belize

• Bolivian Foreign Minister, Freddy Mamani, announced that Bolivia “decided to break diplomatic relations with the Israeli state in repudiation and condemnation of the aggressive and disproportionate Israeli military offensive taking place in the Gaza Strip”. Al Jazeera reported that Bolivian “Minister of the Presidency Maria Nela Prada also announced the country would send humanitarian aid to Gaza”, saying that Israel’s attacks “have so far caused thousands of civilian deaths and the forced displacement of Palestinians”. Hamas “welcomed Bolivia’s decision and urged Arab countries that have normalised their relations with Tel Aviv to do the same.” Al Jazeera reported that “Bolivia previously cut diplomatic ties with Israel in 2009, also in protest against Israel’s actions in Gaza” but “Relations were only restored in 2020” under the US-backed dictatorship which took power in a coup. Since the return of Democracy to Bolivia, Israel admits that “relations between the countries had been devoid of content”.
  - Al Jazeera

• Israeli media reported that Colombia recalled its ambassador “for consultations” and had previously “demanded that the Israeli ambassador leave Bogota” following Israel’s protest of the Colombian president’s “comparison of Israeli actions in Gaza to Nazi Germany’s genocide of Jews during World War II.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Colombian President Gustavo Petro openly accused Israel of attempting “to remove the Palestinian people from Gaza and take it over”, saying that “it’s called genocide” and that Israel’s “allies cannot talk about democracy.”
  - Gustavo Petro on Twitter

• “Israel criticized Bolivia, Chile and Colombia” in early November “after the South American countries undertook a series of diplomatic moves to protest Israel’s military operations against Hamas in Gaza. Other Latin American countries, including Argentina and Brazil, have also increased their criticism of the impact that Israel’s military operations are having on civilians.”
  - AP

• Brazilian President Lula openly accusing Israel of “committing genocide against Palestinians” and aptly equating it to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” He sai that “What the Israeli government is doing is not war, it is genocide,” and that “Children and women are being murdered.” Israeli media reported that “Israel responded with outrage” and “summoned Brazil’s ambassador for a rebuke and demanded an apology. In response, Brazil recalled its ambassador for talks, and Israeli Ambassador Daniel Zonshine was himself summoned for a reprimand.” Despite reporting this, Israeli media went on to downplay the obvious and intentional Israeli violence towards Palestinian civilians.
  - Times of Israel

• In November, Chad recalled “the Chargé d'Affaires to Israel for consultations.” In the same press release, the Foreign Ministry condemned “the loss of human lives of many innocent civilians” due to “the waves of unprecedented deadly violence in the Gaza Strip.”
  - Government of Chad

• Bahrain’s parliament announced that Bahrain’s “ambassador to Israel has returned home and economic ties have been suspended because of the conflict in Gaza” and also announced that “the Israeli ambassador in Bahrain was also sent home”.
  - WSJ

Several nations and corporations have expressed their desire to stop trading with Israel and any companies based in Israel.

• Bahrain’s parliament announced that Bahrain’s “ambassador to Israel has returned home and economic ties have been suspended because of the conflict in Gaza” and also announced that “the Israeli ambassador in Bahrain was also sent home”.
  - WSJ

• The Malaysian government announced that “it was imposing a ban on all Israeli owned and flagged ships, as well as any vessels headed to Israel, from docking at its ports.” A statement from the Prime Minister’s office said “This sanction is a response to Israel’s actions that disregard the basic humanitarian principles and violate international law through the ongoing massacre and continuous cruelty against the Palestinian people.” This followed “mass rallies in Malaysia” due to “ongoing bombardment of Gaza by Israel’s military”.
  - CNN

• “Chinese state-owned shipping giant Cosco suspended shipping to Israel through the Red Sea as tensions in the strategic shipping lane continue to rise, Israeli state media reported.” The company “is China’s largest shipping firm and holds almost 11% of the trade market share. Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL), which is a part of Cosco Shipping Group, has also suspended sailing to the Red Sea and stopped accepting Israel-bound cargo since December” 2023.
  - CNBC

• As of February 2024, “One of Japan’s biggest trading firms, Itochu, has decided to end its partnership with a major Israeli defense company due to the war in Gaza. The sprawling conglomerate, best known outside Japan for its Family Mart chain of convenience stores, said its aviation unit will cut ties with Elbit Systems, which bills itself as Israel’s largest defense contractor, by the end of February.” The move reportedly follows “ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) — the top court of the United Nations — and guidance given by Japan’s Foreign Ministry to observe the court’s findings” as well as “student-led protests in Tokyo against its partnership with Elbit”. The company, along with “Elbit Systems and Nippon Aircraft Supply signed a cooperation agreement in March 2023”.
  - CNN

Some countries openly support the Zionist occupation and genocide by arming Israel and using force to deter other countries from supporting Palestine.

• In October 2023, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak took a trip to Occupied Palestine to “express solidarity with the Israeli people”. Speaking in support of Israel, he said, “I am proud to stand here with you in Israel’s darkest hour,” and he continued, “We will stand with you in solidarity. We will stand with you and your people. And we also want you to win.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Britain committed to “send surveillance aircraft, two Royal Navy support ships and about 100 Royal Marines to the eastern Mediterranean” in early October “to support Israel”. British “military units and fighter aircraft” in Cyprus were already “also on alert” to support Israel’s “expected ground assault on Gaza”. British media reported that “Britain already has two warships in the region, HMS Duncan, tasked to Nato, in the eastern Mediterranean, and HMS Lancaster, part of the UK’s permanent naval presence in the Persian Gulf.” Before Britain made its new deployment, “a US aircraft carrier, the Gerald R Ford, arrived in the eastern Mediterranean, with a cruiser and four destroyers in support”.
  - Guardian

• “The US has given Israel more military assistance than any other country since World War II, providing aid worth more than $124bn.” In November 2023, the US House of Representatives passed a “plan providing $14.5bn in military aid for Israel” but Democrats protested the ”lack of aid for Ukraine” in the plan. Democrats “instead asked Congress to pass a $106bn emergency spending package that includes funding for Israel, Taiwan and Ukraine.”
  - Al Jazeera

• Israel has “multiple closely guarded warehouses that contain billions of dollars’ worth of weapons owned by the US government. Long shrouded in secrecy, the warehouses are part of an extensive but previously little-known stockpile now facing scrutiny as pressure mounts on the Biden administration over its support for Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. The stockpile was first established in the 1980s to rapidly supply US forces for any future Middle East conflicts. However, over time, Israel has been permitted in certain situations to draw from its extensive supplies. Israel now appears to be receiving munitions from the stockpile in significant quantities for use in its war on Gaza, yet there has been little transparency about transfers from the arsenal. In interviews with the Guardian, multiple former US officials familiar with American security assistance to Israel have described how the stockpile enables expedited arms transfers to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It can also shield movements of US weapons from public and congressional oversight, they said.”
  - Guardian

• “The U.S. has provided Israel with large bunker buster bombs, among tens of thousands of other weapons and artillery shells”. As of early December 2023, this included “roughly 15,000 bombs and 57,000 artillery shells” which Israel has been using to destroy entire districts and mass murder people in Gaza.
  - WSJ

• “The Biden administration has used an emergency authority to allow the sale of about 14,000 tank shells to Israel without congressional review” according to the Pentagon. The US State Department “used an Arms Export Control Act emergency declaration for the tank rounds worth $106.5 million for immediate delivery to Israel, the Pentagon said in a statement.” Reuters reported that this was a part of a bigger deal “that the Biden administration is asking the U.S. Congress to approve. The larger package is worth more than $500 million and includes 45,000 shells for Israel's Merkava tanks, regularly deployed in its offensive in Gaza, which has killed thousands of civilians. As the war intensified, how and where exactly the U.S. weapons are used in the conflict has come under more scrutiny,” but US support for Israel remains unconditional as “U.S. officials say there are no plans to put conditions on military aid to Israel or to consider withholding some of it.”
  - Reuters

• After unilaterally “blocking a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza,” despite the resolution having “near-unanimous support from” other countries, the US State Department announced that it would be “selling $107 million of tank supplies to Israel and subverting congressional approval to do so.”
  - WaPo

• “A $95 billion foreign aid package passed by the Senate” in mid-February 2024 “includes $14.1 billion for Israel’s war” that has murdered tens of thousands of civilians. The Biden administration has paid lip service to concerns about the rising civilian death toll, but “has nonetheless continued to press for military support for the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In October, he requested the foreign aid package, including the $14 billion for Israel’s war effort.”
  - NYT

• As of February 2024, “France, Germany and the UK continue to supply Israel whereas Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium have moved to suspend arms sales.”
  - France24

The countries in the UN Security Council have debated resolutions related to the escalations. While an overwhelming majority of countries support an immediate ceasefire, the US has used its veto power to block these demands.

• “The United States vetoed a United Nations Security Council resolution” in mid-October 2023, that “called for humanitarian pauses in the conflict between Israel and Palestinian Hamas militants to allow humanitarian aid access to the Gaza Strip.” The US representative whined that “the United States was disappointed the draft resolution made no mention of Israel's rights of self defense and she blamed Hamas for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.” However, the US did not raise any issue with the resolution when it was being discussed; the US did not propose any amendments. China’s representative “accused the United States of leading council members to believe the resolution could be adopted after it did not express opposition during negotiations.” As a result of US obstruction, Russia reportedly “asked for the 193-member U.N. General Assembly to be convened for an emergency special session on the conflict. It could decide to put a draft resolution to a vote there, where no countries hold a veto power. General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, but carry political weight.”
  - Reuters

• “The US vetoed a United Nations resolution calling for a ceasefire” on December 8, 2023. This was the second time this happened. “The vote in the 15-member council was 13-1 with the UK abstaining.”
  - Guardian

• “The United States drew criticism from rights and aids groups for blocking a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that called for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, as well as the unconditional release of all hostages,” in early December. “The resolution had near-unanimous support from member states. The State Department is selling $107 million of tank supplies to Israel and subverting congressional approval to do so.”
  - WaPo

• The matter of a ceasefire was brought to the UN General Assembly and voted on by December 2023. “It passed with a large majority of 153 in favour and 10 against, with 23 abstentions”. Attempts to explicitly name and condemn Hamas and the Palestinian resistance “were voted down by members”.
  - UN

• Countries in the UN General Assembly “voted overwhelmingly” in support of a resolution “to demand a humanitarian cease-fire in Gaza in a strong demonstration of global support for ending the” war. AP says that the vote “showed the growing isolation of the United States and Israel. The vote in the 193-member world body was 153 in favor, 10 against and 23 abstentions, and ambassadors and other diplomats burst into applause as the final numbers were displayed.” Only 8 countries joined the US and Israel “in opposing the resolution”, namely “Austria, Czechia, Guatemala, Liberia, Micronesia, Nauru, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay.” Notably, “The resolution makes no mention of Hamas, and the assembly defeated two proposed amendments mentioning the militant group.” The US proposed to add a statement that “unequivocally rejects and condemns the heinous terrorist attacks by Hamas” and Austria proposed to add a statement calling “for the immediate release of hostages still held by Hamas” but the majority of countries in the world voted against both. The US representative said that “how Israel defends itself matters,” and emphasised “that the U.S. remains committed to Israel’s right to defend itself.” She whiningly asked “asked assembly members why it was so difficult for U.N. nations to condemn” the Palestinian resistance.
  - AP

• In February 2024, the US “again vetoed a draft United Nations Security Council resolution” thereby effectively “blocking a demand for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire”. 13 countries “voted in favor of the Algerian-drafted text, while Britain abstained” similar to the second vote that took place in December 2023. Reuters reports that “Washington traditionally shields Israel from U.N. action.”
  - Reuters

The US has tried to present its own rival proposals which call for a temporary ceasefire, but without any guarantees for relief for Palestinian civilians.

• A resolution proposed by the US “shocked many diplomats with its bluntness in stating Israel has a right to defend itself and demanding Iran stop exporting arms to militant groups. It did not include a call for humanitarian pauses for aid access.” Rather than taking a humanitarian angle, the focus of the resolution was sympathy with Israel. While the US continues to arm Israel, it hypocritically demanded that the Security Council condemned any hypothetical arming of Palestinian resistance groups. The US “made the move just days after it vetoed a humanitarian focused” resolution.
  - Reuters

On December 29, South Africa filed an application instituting proceedings against Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) stating that Israel has committed and continues to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in violation of the Genocide Convention. The application contained a request for provisional measures calling for Israel to immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.

• South Africa’s ICJ submission stated that the “acts and omissions by Israel […] are genocidal in character, as they are committed with the requisite specific intent […] to destroy Palestinians in Gaza as a part of the broader Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group.” A request was made for provisional measures to “protect against further, severe and irreparable harm to the rights of the Palestinian people under the Genocide Convention” and “to ensure Israel’s compliance with its obligations under the Genocide Convention not to engage in genocide, and to prevent and to punish genocide”.
  - UN

• The document presented by South Africa stated that genocidal intent has been shown by Israeli officials including “at the highest levels, by the Israeli president, prime minister and minister of defence”. Reference was made to quotes such as Yoav Gallant referring to Palestinians as “human animals” and the document states that Israel is violating the Genocide Convention by failing to “prevent or punish the direct and public incitement to genocide by senior Israeli officials.”
  - Le Monde

On January 26, the ICJ gave a preliminary ruling for South Africa’s case against Israel. The ICJ accepted the plausibility of at least some of the Palestinians’ rights being violated, and provisional measures were put in place ordering Israel to take measures to prevent acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip. However, an immediate ceasefire was not ordered by the Court.

• The ICJ ordered Israel “to prevent acts of genocide against Palestinians and do more to help civilians, although it stopped short of ordering a ceasefire as requested by the plaintiff South Africa.” Additionally, the ICJ “found there was a case to be heard about whether Palestinian rights were being denied in a war it said was causing grievous humanitarian harm.”
  - Reuters

• “The ruling required Israel to prevent and punish any public incitements to commit genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and to preserve evidence related to any allegations of genocide there. Israel must also take measures to improve the humanitarian situation for Palestinian civilians in the enclave.” Also, “Israel is required to submit a report to the court on the steps it has taken to comply with the orders within one month of the ruling.” 15 of the 17 judges voted in favour of imposing the provisional measures. “Judge Julia Sebutinde of Uganda was the only one to vote against all six measures adopted by the court. Israel's ad hoc judge, Aharon Barak, voted against four measures.”
  - Reuters

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) has provided social services (food, education, healthcare) to Palestinians refugees in Palestine and surrounding countries since the mass displacement caused by the Nakba in the 1940s. In late January 2024, Israeli officials alleged that 13 employees of the UNRWA were involved in the events of October 7, leading to the US and other Israeli allies cutting funding to the agency. Israel’s accusations are inconsistent, and it has failed to provide evidence for them.

• “UNRWA was established in 1949 to provide assistance and protection for Palestinian refugees. It is funded almost entirely by voluntary donations. In practice, the agency runs schools, health services and refugee camps - but not just in Gaza. It also operates in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, as well as parts of Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. It provides education to more than 544,000 children across 706 schools, hundreds of millions of dollars in loans for small businesses and job creation, and healthcare support for more than seven million visits by patients every year.” In January 2024, Sky News received Israeli intelligence documents alleging that 6 employees of the UNRWA were involved in the events of October 7, with 4 of them “allegedly involved in kidnapping Israelis”. Furthermore, “the Israeli intelligence documents make several claims that Sky News has not seen proof of and many of the claims, even if true, do not directly implicate UNRWA.” Regardless, “the number of staff allegedly involved is a tiny percentage of the agency's overall workforce” as there are over 12,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza.
  - Sky News

• In January 2024, an Israeli official told CNN that 13 members of the UNRWA were involved in the events of October 7. However, “CNN has not seen the intelligence that underlies the summary of allegations and cannot corroborate Israel’s claims about individual staffers or about the agency’s dynamic with Hamas and other groups operating in Gaza. The summary does not provide evidence to support its claims.” Additionally, “when asked about the allegations, the spokesperson for UN Secretary General, Stephane Dujarric, said the UN had not received the intelligence shared with news outlets”. Nevertheless, “seen several of the agency’s top donor countries, including the US, Germany and the UK, pull funding from UNRWA.”
  - CNN

• In early February, the head of the UNRWA “said Israel had not presented evidence of its allegations to UNRWA, adding that the UN agency had been forced to respond to leaks in the media of an Israeli intelligence assessment that at least 12 of its Palestinian employees had taken part in the Hamas raid. These included one accused of kidnapping a woman and another said to have seized the body of a slain soldier.” Israel’s “intelligence assessment” was shared with journalists from the Financial Times who say that it “provides no evidence for the claims” by Israel against the UNRWA.
  - FT

• “Lengthy inspections, rejected humanitarian aid and Israeli bombs raining down. Those are some of the hurdles to relief reaching the 2.2 million Palestinians in war-torn Gaza.” Palestinians are facing “facing mass displacement and starvation. Some 2 million Gazans are dependent on UN aid” as of mid-February 2024. However, the “UNRWA has warned it may be forced to halt its operations by the end of the month due to lack of funds” as “donors pulled their funding over allegations by Israel” that have not been backed up by evidence.
  - CNN

• The UNRWA “is almost as old as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Created by the UN General Assembly in 1949, UNRWA was set up to provide critical social support for Palestinian refugees throughout the Mideast. Its mandate was renewed for another three years by the UN General Assembly in 2023.” In January, the UNRWA announced “that it had terminated the contracts of several employees pending an investigation into Israeli allegations that they had been involved in Hamas's October 7 attacks in” the 1948 occupied territory. Israel’s claims “prompted several nations to suspend vital funding to UNRWA while the inquiry proceeds, deepening Gaza’s already acute humanitarian crisis.” As of early February, Israel still had “not yet shared its full intelligence dossier with either UNRWA or the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), the UN legal body tasked with carrying out the internal investigation.” A “summary of the Israeli dossier leaked to a handful of media outlets and seen by FRANCE 24 provides the names of the 12 UNRWA staff members accused of participating in the” October 7 operations. Importantly, “the accused account for just 0.09 percent of UNRWA employees in Gaza” but this has not stopped countries from cutting funding. The former head of the UNRWA highlighted the timing of the whole thing, nothing that “these allegations surfaced around the time of the ICJ judgment that, amongst other things, articulated the need for immediate and massive delivery of humanitarian aid, which cannot be done without UNRWA”.
  - France24

The US Department of State has been inconsistent with how it has portrayed the UNRWA, going from high praises to vicious accusations in the span of less than two weeks.

• Less than two weeks before Israel’s accusations against the UNRWA, Spokesperson for the US Department of State Matthew Miller gave the organisation glowing praise, saying that “UNRWA has done and continues to do invaluable work to address the humanitarian situation in Gaza at great personal risk to UNRWA members. I believe it’s over 100 UNRWA staff members have been killed doing this lifesaving work, and we continue to not only support it but we continue to commend them for the really heroic efforts that they make oftentimes while making the greatest sacrifice.”
  - US Government

• US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said that the allegations against the UNRWA “are highly, highly credible,” even though in that same quote he said, “We haven’t had the ability to investigate [the allegations] ourselves.”
  - Times of Israel

• At the beginning of March, it was reported that “Israel has not yet provided evidence” to support its claims. “The allegations against the 12 employees of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) led 16 major donors to suspend contributions totalling $450m at a time when more than two million Gazans are facing famine. UNRWA says it is approaching ‘breaking point’ and only has sufficient funds to continue functioning for the next month at most.” An internal UN body “launched an investigation on 29 January in the wake of the Israeli allegations” but, up to the beginning of March, “UN investigators have yet to receive any evidence from Israel”. Notably, “Israel has long called for UNRWA, established in 1949, to be dismantled”.
  - Guardian

Despite cutting funding to the UNRWA over Israel’s claims which lack evidence, the West has not cut its support to Israel as it has endangered UN facilities and personnel.

• Months before Israel made unproven claims against UNRWA employees, the “UNRWA had been forced to reduce the scale of its humanitarian operation in the densely populated enclave because it could not distribute fuel to some medical facilities.” It reported that “its ability to help people in Gaza has been completely stretched by air strikes that have killed dozens of its staff and restricted the movement of supplies.”
  - Reuters

• In mid-October, “UN experts called for the protection of all humanitarian workers, after the World Health Organization (WHO) documented more than 136 attacks on health care services in the occupied Palestinian territory, including 59 attacks on the Gaza Strip, which resulted in the death of at least 16 health workers since the beginning of hostilities on 7 October. Israeli bombardment on Gaza has also killed 15 staff of the United Nations Refugee Works Agency (UNRWA) and four Palestine Red Crescent paramedics in an ambulance.”
  - UN

• In mid-October, “a United Nations refugee school was bombed during Israeli airstrikes”. The facility “was hit despite the UNRWA providing coordinates of its facilities to” the Israeli military.
  - BI

• “At least 12 Palestinians were killed and dozens injured in an Israeli attack on a school belonging to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) in the Al-Bureij camp in central Gaza” in late November.
  - Xinhua

• In early December, the UN “accused the Israeli army of directly targeting a UN school-converted shelter in the Gaza Strip. In a press statement to Xinhua, the UN agency said that its school in the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza was directly targeted by the Israeli army. Three other schools serving as shelters in Gaza City and central Gaza were indirectly impacted by Israeli attacks on nearby areas, it noted. The UNRWA also said its two employees were killed by the Israeli army in Gaza, bringing to 132 the total death toll of its employees killed since the start of the conflict in early October.”
  - Xinhua

• Shortly before Israel mad its claims against the UNRWA, several people had “been killed after a United Nations shelter in Gaza‘s southern city of Khan Younis was shelled by Israeli forces”.
  - Al Jazeera

• “At least 12 people were killed and 75 injured when a UN facility sheltering civilians was struck in Khan Younis in southern Gaza”.
  - BBC

• “Humanitarian workers cannot move safely across the strip. UN trucks carrying aid have repeatedly come under Israeli fire, according to UNRWA.” As a result, “UN agencies have struggled to reach displaced civilians facing starvation, dehydration and deadly disease.”
  - CNN