Yedioth Ahronoth: 10,000 Soldiers Killed, Injured, Conscripts Angry

At least 10,000 Israeli soldiers have either been killed and/or injured the Yedioth Ahronoth pointed out Sunday.

The figure is trending on the social media with many news websites quoting the number stating that the total deaths and injured took an upward swing since 7 October, 2023 when Israel waged a war on Gaza.

The Israeli daily newspaper said some 1,000 soldiers are transferred every month to the Defense Ministry’s rehabilitation department due to injuries sustained in the Gaza war as reported by Anadolu.

“The army is suffering from a shortage of at least 10,000 soldiers killed or wounded during the long months of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” the daily said.

 The newspaper explained that the Israeli Knesset began its summer vacation without legislating a law to extend compulsory military service, leaving Israeli soldiers who have been fighting in Gaza for 10 months in a state of shock and confusion.

Yedioth Ahronoth stated that this has caused “significant frustration among regular soldiers” who “are increasingly angry, especially those due for discharge next month after nearly 10 months of continuous combat.”

The daily quoted the father of a Nahal Brigade fighter in Rafah, Gaza Strip, saying: “Never before in Israeli history have soldiers fought in enemy territory under such harsh conditions for 10 months straight. Our children are deeply committed but feel ashamed to report the situation.”

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17 Killed in School Massacre Israeli Style

At least 17 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians in central Gaza, Saturday.

The Government Media Office in Gaza said many others were injured in the attack on the Al Hamama School in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.

Sources on the ground reported at least three bombs were dropped on the school whilst rescuers and volunteers inside the facility were trying to help people escape the rubble as it was destroyed completely.

Al Jazeera’s Anas al-Sharif was reporting on the Israeli attack on the school.

“While we were documenting the massacre inside this school, the displaced people received calls from the Israeli military ordering them to evacuate the building immediately, because it was going to be targeted again,” he said.

“Bodies are everywhere and the medics are retrieving them and body parts everywhere … it’s a big massacre,” according to the Quds News Network.

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After 300 Days: Gaza’s Killing Fields Continue

Dedication

This report is dedicated to the memory of Mohammad Bhar and over 117 other young people and children once cared for by the Islamic Relief Orphan Sponsorship Programme, who have been killed in 300 deadly days in Gaza.

An unprecedented crisis in Gaza

In early October 2023, the population of Gaza was around 2.3 million, some 50 per cent of whom were children. Despite the difficulties they endured living in what has been called the ‘world’s largest open-air prison’, the people of Gaza went about their daily lives, dreaming of a better future where their human rights would be recognised and upheld.

Since October 7, these dreams have been shattered. Palestinian families have been forced to endure Israeli bombardment and siege on a previously unimaginable scale during 300 days of unprecedented destruction and displacement. We have seen complete disregard for international humanitarian law, with relentless attacks on civilians, health facilities, homes, shelters and markets, and severe restrictions on humanitarian aid.

More than 39,400 people have been killed. At least one third of those killed are children – including over 118 children and young people cared for by Islamic Relief’s Orphan Sponsorship Programme – and even more have become orphaned. Prior to October, Islamic Relief supported 8,750 children in Gaza through our Orphan Sponsorship Programme. We now support 15,300.

Others have sustained life-changing injuries or simply disappeared, likely lost under the rubble of destroyed homes and shelters. Children have missed almost an entire year of schooling and face a future full of uncertainty and fear. Entire families have been scattered as they flee repeatedly in search of safety, which cannot be found as bombs continue to rain down on Gaza.

People have been ordered to leave one area, only to be bombed in the place they were told to shelter.

The international community has been unable to provide sufficient aid due to Israeli restrictions on supplies into Gaza. Few hospitals remain functional due to shortages of electricity, fuel and medicine. Trapped in one of the most densely populated areas on Earth, families have minimal access to food, water and healthcare. People are starving to death, and famine looms.

Islamic Relief’s long-term development programmes in Gaza have largely been suspended as it quickly became one of the most difficult and dangerous places to deliver aid. Instead, we have scaled up our emergency response, distributing essentials such as ready-to-eat meals, clean water, and soap to displaced people.

Our work has had to continually adapt to meet changing needs and varying availability of items. Our staff and partners in Gaza are enduring many of the same challenges as the communities they support, including displacement, with one colleague saying she feels Palestinians have been ‘forgotten by the world’. Despite these enormous challenges, they remain committed to providing aid to vulnerable communities.

In 2012, a United Nations report questioned if Gaza would be a liveable place by 2020, pointing to population growth and the Israeli blockade. Now, in 2024, there remains little doubt that conditions inside Gaza have become truly unliveable.

Reliefweb

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Palestinian Prisoners: Torture, Sodomy And Dog Attacks

Palestinian prisoners released by the Israeli army after being detained in Gaza described the severe physical and psychological torture they experienced in prisons.

A group of prisoners who were detained and tortured by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip and later released were brought to Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza by Palestinian Red Crescent Society teams.

The Palestinians, who showed signs of torture on various parts of their bodies and were exhausted, told Anadolu about the torture they endured according to Anadolu.

Mahmoud Basim Mahmoud Ahmed, one of the released prisoners, said the Israeli army forced prisoners to lie face down, set dogs on them and administered electric shocks.

Hunger strikers forced to eat feces

“You had to keep your hands tied above your head from 4 a.m. to midnight. If you turned right or left, they would set the dogs on you,” Ahmed said.

“They brought two pieces of bread a day. After eating the bread, you had to lie on your stomach for 24 hours. If you went on a hunger strike, they forced you to eat feces,” he said.

Ahmed said that some prisoners whom Israeli soldiers suspected of having connections with resistance fighters were taken to the 12th floor of the building for torture and then brought back down to the ground floor while being tortured.

“What we experienced there in 40-60 days felt like 12 years,” he added.

Forced to bark like dogs to use toilet

Said Abu Watfa, who was detained at the Kerem Abu Salem border crossing, said Israeli soldiers detained a group of young Palestinians at the border crossing for four hours, tied to a wall.

Watfa said the soldiers stripped the detained young Palestinians, administered electric shocks to their sensitive areas, broke their teeth and did not provide them with any medicine.

Watfa, who was subjected to various forms of psychological and physical torture during his detention, said: “At night, when we needed to go to the toilet, they would say ‘bark.’ We had to bark to go to the toilet. They forced me to bark, and similarly, they forced me to curse my government, my relatives, my sister and my wife.”

Detained with hands, feet shackled for 35 Days

Muin Muhammad Abdussatir Muhammad, who was detained in the Jabalia refugee camp and held in an Israeli prison for about four months, said: “We went through very tough days. They set dogs on us at night and tortured us a lot. We have never seen such torture.”

Marwan Mesad Shaar, a 20-year-old who was detained by Israeli soldiers while distributing aid and spent 31 days as a prisoner, said they experienced various types of torture such as electric shocks, beatings and humiliation.

Asked about the conditions in the Israeli prison, Shaar responded: “We weren’t living.”

Khalid Abulkerim, who was detained during a raid in the Shuja’iyya neighborhood in Gaza City and released after 35 days, said their hands and feet were always shackled during their imprisonment and that they experienced both physical and psychological torture as reported by the Turkish news agency.

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