Statement by Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, and UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory

“I am very concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Gaza. Civilians are paying the price of the continuing exchange of fire between the parties.

In recent days, multiple strikes across the Gaza Strip have resulted in scores of reported fatalities, and numerous injuries. Women and children continue to be among the casualties. Such incidents are further reminders of the unbearable human cost of the conflict.

I am equally concerned by the unacceptably insecure environment in Gaza that continues to negatively impact United Nations aid convoys. On 11 December, a 70-truck convoy from Kerem Shalom crossing was violently attacked by looters, leading to the loss of nearly all food and aid supplies. Around the same time, a WFP convoy leaving the Kissufim crossing came under fire, faced extensive delays, and had four out of five trucks violently looted. Attacks undermining humanitarian operations are unacceptable. They threaten the survival of those in desperate need of assistance.

Attacks on humanitarian operations can be avoided: earlier this week, through an Israeli agreement for us to use the Philadelphi corridor, a joint UN convoy delivered urgently needed food, reaching nearly 200,000 people in southern and central Gaza.

We remain committed to supporting the people of Gaza, working around the clock to get critical aid to families who lack everything after 14 months of war.

The principles of distinction, proportionality and precautions in attacks must be respected at all times. I call on all parties to ensure the protection of civilians and the safe and unimpeded passage of humanitarian aid.

The United Nations remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting efforts for an immediate ceasefire and the unconditional release of all hostages.

Israel & Syria

“Let's leave aside the unbelievable arrogance and insolence of trampling the sovereignty of another country without any pretext while mocking international law. The damage to Israel resulting from seizing this territory is certain to come. These territorial swipes will be the pretext for another war. Just like the Shebaa Farms on the Golan Heights, Israel's questionable conquests are never temporary. Nothing is more everlasting. 

They end up as a sore that never heals.” 

—Gideon Levy; Israeli Journalist, Haaretz ________________________________

Excerpts: Israel's air force is bombing and destroying the Syrian army, with Israel's land army seizing chunks of its territory. Like water seeking the lowest place, Israel has found another opportunity in the multitude of options appearing on its path lately, destroying Syria's army and taking territory as this beaten and bruised country awakens from the nightmare of the previous regime, facing an unknown future. …

New hope is now breaking through in Syria. It may be false hope, most likely it is, but the first days of the regime now taking shape give some basis to this hope. The rebel leader seems judicious and wise, so far. In contrast to the coup in Iraq, the coup in Syria does not include destruction of the old order; there is no wholesale bloodshed and destruction of infrastructure. Abu Mohammed al-Golani is for now doing everything to stabilize the situation and build a framework for ruling. Israel is for now the last of his worries. His past doesn't bode well, but he may have changed. The Syrian people deserve that. …

Instead of threatening Syria, nothing would have been lost if it had called for the opening of a new chapter. Cynics will say that this is madness, but the real madness lies in not even trying, precisely at this time. The Syrian people will not forget who exploited its weakness and destroyed its country. In a demonstration supporting the coup in the Israeli Druze town of Majdal Shams on the Golan Heights this week, one of the residents told me: "If Syria's fate were left only in the hands of its people, hope would stand a chance. But Israel is already intervening and stirring the pot, leaving the Syrian army with only Kalashnikov rifles and bullets." …

West Bank Monthly Snapshot

West Bank Monthly Snapshot
Casualties, Property Damage and Displacement

November 2024

*Disclaimer: 

• This report reflects information available as of the time of publication. The most updated data and more breakdowns are available at ochaopt.org/data.

• In Israel, 19 Israelis were killed by Palestinians from the West Bank in attacks that also resulted in the killing of 12 Palestinians between January 2023 and November 2024. These are counted separately, as this report covers incidents that took place in the West Bank.

• Palestinians or Israelis whose immediate cause of death or the perpetrator’s identity remain disputed, unclear, or unknown, are counted separately, so are casualties as a result of “friendly fire” and Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank who have died in Israeli custody. Figures also do not include UXOs, mishandling of weapons, hit-and-run incidents, and incidents where the perpetrator's nationality is disputed.

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Bi-Weekly Brief - December 9, 2024

With the region in ferment, Israel with US help pursues the erasure of Gaza

Having given lip service for decades to the  ‘two-state solution,’  the US on Dec. 3 opposed three UN General Assembly resolutions that attempted to advance that goal.   In opposing a resolution demanding Israel immediately cease its new illegal settler activity, evacuate its settlers and recognize the right of Palestinians to self-determination in their own independent state, the US was joined by Israel, Argentina, Hungary, Micronesia, Nauru, Palau, and Papua New Guinea.  One hundred and fifty-seven countries supported the resolution.   

The following day, Amnesty International issued a harrowing 296-page report, ‘You Feel Like You Are Subhuman’: Israel’s Genocide Against Palestinians in Gaza.  Amnesty joins a growing number of organizations, states and genocide scholars in reaching the conclusion that, in Amnesty’s words,  “sufficient evidence exists to find that Israel’s purpose and goal in Gaza is the destruction of Palestinians in Gaza, and there is no reasonable alternative explanation.”   The terms ‘purpose’ and ‘goal’ are critical here, as acts listed under the Genocide Convention must be committed “with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” in order to be classified as genocidal.  Seventy-six pages of the Amnesty report are devoted to “Israel’s intent in Gaza.”  Numerous examples are given of statements by government officials, military commanders and soldiers, calling for the destruction of all of Gaza and the elimination of the ‘Amalekites,’ the Biblical enemies of the Israelites.  Nevertheless, most - but not all - of the members of Amnesty Israel claimed the report had not proved “intent in an unambiguous manner” and that its findings were biased.  Israel’s Foreign Ministry denounced Amnesty International as “deplorable and fanatical” and asserted that “Israel is defending itself…acting fully in accordance with international law.”  The US State Department, predictably, called the report’s findings “unfounded.”

Genocide has proved to be a record-breaking money maker for the Israeli arms industry and a huge boon for the American one.  A mere six days after the US Senate voted on Nov. 21 to underwrite $20 billion of American armaments for Israel,  it was revealed that the US was transferring to Israel thousands of additional weapons worth $680 million.

After killing over 3,700 Lebanese, displacing 1.2 million people and destroying some 100,000 homes in so-called ‘cleansing’ operations, Israel in late November agreed to a two-month truce during which time Hezbollah is supposed to withdraw north of the Litani River and Israeli troops are required to go home.   Lebanese who returned to the south to see if their homes were still standing found widespread destruction, with “no water, electricity or mobile phone service south of the Litani River,” according to the Nov. 30 Guardian.  The UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL claimed that by Dec. 2 the ceasefire had been violated by Israel  “approximately one hundred times” with Israeli Army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi declaring “we will maintain the ceasefire with fire.”  The US Army’s  CENTCOM is involved in monitoring the ceasefire.

On Nov. 27, the same day the ceasefire was declared,  Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), accompanied by smaller anti al-Assad militias, many of them Türkiye-backed, left Idlib in northwest Syria.  Formerly part of the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhal al-Nusra, HTS broke ties with al-Qaeda in 2016, and was put on the US terrorism list in 2018.  The insurgents soon captured Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, and then took over Hama and Homs, and swept on to Damascus.  By Dec. 8,  the Bashar al-Assad regime had fallen, the President himself had gone into exile in Russia and the US was bombing what it said were ISIS locations.  Israel meanwhile bombed Syrian air bases, weapons factories, arms depots, and routes it said were used by Iran to arm Hezbollah, and seized the Syrian side of Mt. Herman and ‘buffer zone’ on the Golan Heights.  Netanyahu claimed some credit for the regime’s collapse as he proclaimed from the Syrian border that "this is a historic day for the Middle East. The collapse of the Assad regime, the tyranny in Damascus, offers great opportunity but also is fraught with significant dangers.”  The Palestinian American historian Ussama Makdisi stated about Syria: “Hard to know what future they will face given divisions… and the fact that it is not the people per se who will rule in Syria but armed militias, each backed by one or another regional or great power and each of which will demand its slice of Syria’s future.” Vijay Prashad commented, “There is no Syrian revolution.  Syria will face a Libyan future.” Investigative journalist Ben Norton’s penetrating look at US involvement and global implications is here.  

With the Syrian civil war suddenly re-ignited and al-Assad’s rule overthrown, the ongoing genocide in Gaza has received scant attention.  The known death count from military strikes approaches 45,000, with thousands of bodies lost under rubble.  Deaths from starvation remain unaccounted for.  Ha’aretz reportedon Dec. 5 that 1,410 families in Gaza had been entirely wiped out by Nov. 1, 2024 and an additional 3,463 families had only one surviving member.  Buried with erased families under destroyed residential buildings are the belongings, official documents and photo albums attesting to their former existence.  According to OCHA, more than 75 Palestinians were killed on Nov. 28 when Israel struck two residential buildings in the northern town of Beit Lahiya, bringing to 2,700 the number killed in the north since Israel put it under total siege on Oct. 6, 2024.  Eyewitnesses report corpses littering the ground being eaten by dogs.   On Dec. 1, former Minister of Defense Moshe Ya’alon  accused Israel of committing ethnic cleansing and war crimes (which have been extensively documented by Israeli historian Lee Mordechai).  Three days later, the last shelters in Beit Lahiya were reportedly emptied “under threat of arms.” 

There are chilling accounts of how Israel has engineered the societal collapse of northern Gaza, trapping 70,000 people with no access to food or clean water to drink.  It has used drones and snipers to target civilians when they leave their homes in search of food and water.  According to Euro-Med Monitor, Israel demolished Jabaliya refugee camp “using robots and booby-trapped barrels, in addition to dropping powerful American bombs.”  Kamal Adwan Hospital in the north has been repeatedly attacked since Oct. 6, with its courageous director, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, reporting on Dec. 4 that drones were dropping shrapnel-filled bombs on anyone who dares to move. 

It is not just the north of Gaza that is being subjected to barbaric treatment.  All over Gaza, “alarming levels of food scarcity, lack of water and signs of starvation in the population are being reported,” according to OCHA.  Israel has barred the entry of at least eight medical organizations,  and of trucks carrying food,  blankets, clothes and shoes that are urgently needed in the winter.  On Nov. 30, an Israeli airstrike hit a  World Central Kitchen vehicle, murdering three staff members as they were transporting food in Khan Younis.  Unlike the April 1, 2024 attack on a World Central Kitchen convoy that slaughtered seven people, this one has been largely ignored by the media.  A Save the Children staff member was killed in another air strike in Khan Younis, bringing to at least 343 the number of humanitarian workers killed during the war.  Late on Dec. 4, the day Amnesty International issued its genocide report, Israel bombed the densely-crowded al-Mawasi tented encampment located in what Israel terms the  ‘humanitarian zone,’  killing at least 20 people and kindling a fire that devoured tents providing the displaced with their only shelter from winter cold and rain.  When tents in al-Mawasi are not being bombed, they are in danger of being swept out to sea.   Some 10,000 tents were reportedly destroyed by the sea in a recent storm.

Even as ceasefire talks resume in Egypt there is no sign that Israel is ready to stop its genocidal assaults and there are plenty of signs that Israeli soldiers intend to stay for a long time in at least the northern third of the Gaza Strip.  Satellite images reveal that in the Netzarim Corridor  just south of Gaza City, Israel has constructed substantial roads cutting off the north from the south, demolished farm land and greenhouses, destroyed over 600 adjacent buildings and erected more than a dozen bases since September.  Israel is now hiring private contractors to help with demolitions, including a settlement construction company, Libi Construction.  Meanwhile,  Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich aspires to “halve Gaza’s population in 2 years.”

In a recent post on X Gaza analyst Muhammad Shehada wrote that  “Israeli experts estimate Gaza’s reconstruction will cost  $100-200 BILLION to restore buildings to ‘the lowest standard’.  That’s 575%-1150% the size of the entire Palestinian economy.  This is what we mean by genocide:  Israel ensured it’d be impossible for Gaza to sustain life for decades to come.”

Nancy Murray, Alliance for Water Justice in Palestine