An Israeli air-strike hit a convoy carrying fuel and medical supplies to a hospital in Gaza on the night of Aug. 29, reportedly killing several employees of a transportation company associated with the US-based NGO American Near East Refugee Aid (Anera). Israel says it was attacking “armed assailants” who were trying to hijack the truck, but Anera said the only people killed worked for the transport company and they had confirmed their route as part of a “humanitarian deconfliction” program intended to stop hits on aid. The hit on the convoy, which eventually arrived at the Emirates Red Crescent Hospital in Rafah, came days after Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint shot at a vehicle marked as belonging to the World Food Program, which said it was pausing staff operations in Gaza until further notice. WFP head Cindy McCain said, “This is totally unacceptable and the latest in a series of unnecessary security incidents that have endangered the lives of WFP’s team in Gaza… The current deconfliction system is failing and this cannot go on any longer.” Israel’s assault in Gaza has made 2024 the deadliest year on record for humanitarian workers.
From The New Humanitarian, Aug. 30
Famine has already been declared in the Gaza Strip, and Israel has repeatedly struck hospitals and aid convoys, as well as schools. Aid deliveries have been restricted and interrupted, contributing to accusations that Israel is guilty of genocide.
Photo: Maan News Agency
Israel explodes into protest
Tens of thousands of people rallied across Israel Sept. 1 after the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip were recovered by soldiers, causing national outrage. The protests were largely peaceful, but crowds broke through police lines, blocking a major highway in Tel Aviv.
Ongoing protests by the kin of hostages are now escalating to general protests nationwide. Israel’s major labor union, the Histadrut, has called for a nationwide general strike to press for a hostage deal. (BBC News, JP, CBS)
Among the six hostages, one, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, was a US citizen. Two were women, leaving 10 Israeli women still as hostages inside Gaza. All six were found with close-range bullet wounds to the back of their heads, indicating that they had been executed. (Jurist)
Israel: general strike called off after court order
A nationwide general strike called to demand a deal to free the hostages held in Gaza ended after eight hours following an order by Israel’s Labor Court declaring it illegal. (The Guardian, NPR)
US charges Hamas leader Sinwar with terrorism offenses
The US Department of Justice has unsealed criminal charges against Hamas political leader Yahya Sinwar over his participation in the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel. The criminal complaint charges Sinwar, as well as the deceased Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Mohemmed Deif, with a variety of terrorism offenses. (Jurist)
Israeli strike in Gaza ‘safe zone’ kills 19
At least 19 people have been killed in an overnight Israeli strike in the designated humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, the Strip’s health ministry says. Witnesses said the strike obliterated an area crowded with tents for displaced Palestinians in al-Mawasi, southwest of Khan Younis, leaving huge craters in the sand. (BBC News)
Another deadly Israeli air-strike on Gaza school
At least 18 people, including UNRWA staffers, were killed in an Israeli air-strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza on Sept. 11, according to the Gaza Civil Defense and hospital officials. At least 44 others were injured in the strike on al-Jaouni school.
UNRWA said that six of its employees were killed “when two airstrikes hit a school and its surroundings in Nuseirat,” in what is “the highest death toll among our staff in a single incident.” (CNN, NPR, BBC News)
Canada suspends 30 permits for arms sales to Israel
Canada Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly announced Sept. 10 the suspension of 30 permits for arms sales to Israel and the unprecedented blocking of a contract with the US Government to send Quebec-made ammunition to the Israeli Defense Forces, according to local, media. The Canadian arm of General Dynamics, a US-based corporation, had produced the ammunition in question.
This ban is in addition to the freeze on permits for new arms export to Israel, which had been introduced in January in a non-binding motion and had been met with a sharp reaction from the country. The sale of these arms by General Dynamics was being facilitated through the use of the US as a go-between country for the export deal. The latest announcement makes such a transaction unlawful. (Jurist)