Israel’s Forced Displacement Campaign Is Underway in Northern Gaza | Palestine Policy Roundup 10.25.24
Welcome to the Palestine Policy Roundup, a weekly publication of the IMEU Policy Project.
👀 ICYMI: MEMBERS OF CONGRESS SPEAK OUT
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “With Israel restricting media access in Gaza, Palestinians have been forced to document their own destruction. We're urging @SecBlinken to ensure unimpeded access for U.S. & international journalists in Gaza. This is about transparency, accountability & freedom of the press.”
Sen. Bernie Sanders: “More than a year ago, an Israeli tank fired on a group of clearly marked journalists, killing one and wounding six others, including an American from Vermont. There have been no steps toward accountability. Today, my colleagues and I are demanding an independent investigation.”
Rep. Rashida Tlaib in response to Israeli attacks on UNIFIL peacekeepers: “The rogue Israeli apartheid regime is now burning UN peacekeepers with white phosphorus and our government is doing nothing to stop them. This is a war crime.”
DC DEVELOPMENTS
✏️ 65 MEMBERS OF CONGRESS CALL ON BIDEN ADMINISTRATION TO PUSH FOR MEDIA ACCESS TO GAZA
Rep. Jim McGovern led 64 additional members of Congress in a letter pushing the Biden administration to advocate for Israel to allow unimpeded access for foreign journalists into Gaza. The letter, sent to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, highlights the dangers faced by Palestinian journalists who remain in Gaza and how foreign journalists’ access to Gaza so far has been tightly controlled by the Israeli military. At least 175 journalists have been killed by Israel so far, according to the Palestinian government media office in Gaza.
As this letter was released, Israel is continuing to threaten journalists who remain in Gaza, and especially those who remain in the northern part of the occupied territory. Israel named 6 Al Jazeera journalists in a public list containing unsubstantiated claims about them, laying the groundwork to target and kill them with impunity. In response to these accusations, the Committee to Protect Journalists highlighted that Israel has repeatedly made unproven claims, and specifically noted the absurdity of claims that Israeli forces made about journalist Ismail al-Ghoul after they killed him in July.
While Israel targets remaining Palestinian journalists in Gaza, it has also clamped down on independent foreign reporting. Israel has shut down Al Jazeera’s operations within Israel and in the West Bank, and it has barred foreign reporters from independent access since last October. While some foreign journalists have been able to report from Gaza, they have done so while escorted by Israeli forces with no opportunity for independent reporting.
🔍 US INVESTIGATES TORTURE OF PALESTINIANS AT ISRAELI DETENTION CAMP AS PRESSURE FOR ACCOUNTABILITY BUILDS
The State Department is reportedly reviewing the Israeli military’s Force 100 for human rights abuses after 9 of its members were arrested earlier this year on charges related to sexual abuse and torture of Palestinians detained at the Sde Teiman detention facility. If the department finds that the unit has been credibly accused of gross violations of human rights and that Israel has not adequately addressed these violations, the unit would be ineligible for US weapons and training under the Leahy Law.
While the review could be understood as a step toward accountability, it should be noted that many reports have documented the different rules and exceptional policies that the State Department has used to circumvent application of the Leahy Law to Israel. Former State Department official Charles Blaha revealed earlier this year how the State Department fails to hold Israel accountable under the law. Former Senator Patrick Leahy, for whom the law is named, also outlined how the State Department has failed to adequately apply the law to Israeli forces. Additionally, in August, State Department officials failed to apply the Leahy Law to Israel’s Netzah Yehuda battalion–which killed Palestinian-American citizen Omar Asad–in a decision that Blaha called “directly contrary” to the law.
Horrifying testimonies from Palestinians who were held at the facility, human rights groups, and Israeli whistleblowers all have documented widespread allegations of abuse and torture committed by Israeli forces at the facility. However, the focus on the Sde Teiman facility as an exceptionally abusive site is myopic; in August, the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem released a report documenting how Israeli prisons and detention facilities have turned into a network of torture camps for Palestinians who are detained there and how Israeli Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have supported the policy.
In addition to widespread arbitrary detention that was a part of Israeli policy before its assault on Gaza, the report also detailed a systemic, institutional policy of torture and abuse of all Palestinians prisoners held by Israel. When the report was released, B’Tselem Executive Director Yuli Novak commented that “The Sde Teiman detention camp is just the tip of the iceberg.”
The State Department must seriously consider these gross violations of human rights and must fairly apply the Leahy Law to all Israeli units that have been accused of such violations. The Biden administration must also recognize the institutional support for the systemic abuse and torture suffered by Palestinians at the hands of Israeli authorities and immediately halt all weapons to Israel in compliance with multiple US laws and policies. Members of Congress must pressure the State Department to fairly apply the Leahy Law to Israel and exercise its oversight authority to halt weapons shipments to Israel.
📜 REPORT: DOJ LAWYERS PRESS ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND TO INVESTIGATE KILLINGS OF AMERICANS BY ISRAEL
Attorneys at the Department of Justice reportedly have sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland pressing him to investigate Israeli violations of US and international law and Israel’s killing of American citizens both before and during Israel’s assault on Gaza. The letter reportedly cites the cases of seven Americans killed by Israeli forces: Ayşenur Eygi, Tawfiq Abdel Jabbar, and Mohammad Khdour, who were killed this year in the West Bank by Israel; Kamel Ahmad Jawad, who was killed by an Israeli strike in Lebanon; Jacob Flickinger, a humanitarian worker who was killed in Israel’s strike on World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza; and Omar Assad and Shireen Abu Akleh, who were killed by Israeli forces in 2022. Akleh was a journalist working for Al Jazeera, and was on assignment in Jenin when she was shot by Israeli forces.
The letter also notes the DoJ’s inaction and “stark omission” regarding violations of international and US law committed by Israel even as it charges other entities for violations of those laws. The letter also highlights illegal settlement activity in the West Bank and apparent war crimes committed by Israeli forces as other areas of potential violations of US law, and reminds the Attorney General that US courts have jurisdiction over US citizens serving in the Israeli military and Israeli officials traveling in the US.
Attorney General Merrick Garland must heed the call of the attorneys who sent this letter and fairly apply US law to Israel and investigate any violations of the law. Members of Congress must continue to pressure AG Garland to investigate violations of the law outlined in the letter, especially the killings of Americans by Israeli forces. The Biden administration must also heed the call of these attorneys and fairly apply US law to Israel and end all weapons transfers to its forces.
IN THE NEWS
🏥 ISRAEL CONTINUES BOMBING BEIRUT, THREATENS HOSPITAL WITH DESTRUCTION
Israeli forces continued their bombing campaign of Lebanon this week, striking several buildings in Beirut’s southern suburbs and the Bekaa valley. Ma’an Khalil, the mayor of Ghobeiry municipality, a southern suburb of Beirut, reported to The Guardian: “They struck empty buildings in residential neighbourhoods, and destroyed those surrounding neighbourhoods. These weren’t military centres or weapons caches”. Israeli forces also killed 18 Lebanese in a strike near the Rafik Hariri Hospital, the main public hospital in Beirut. Separately, Israeli forces have threatened to attack the Sahel hospital in Dahiyeh, raising even more concerns of Israeli attacks on medical infrastructure in Beirut.
PALESTINE/ISRAEL DEVELOPMENTS
🛑 NEARLY 700 PALESTINIANS KILLED IN NORTHERN GAZA IN OCTOBER AS ISRAEL CONTINUES BLOCKADE
At the beginning of this week, medical sources reported to Al Jazeera that Israel killed more than 600 Palestinians in Jabalia and northern Gaza in the 17 days of siege that had already transpired. Since Monday, Israeli forces have carried out massacres across northern Gaza, increasing the number of Palestinians killed to nearly 700 while injuring countless others. On Sunday, Israeli forces struck and leveled a multistory residential building and several houses in the northern city of Beit Lahiya, killing nearly 100 Palestinians. Rescue efforts were complicated by Israel’s cutting off of telecommunications in the northern part of Gaza, and by rubble and damage caused by the strike. Al Jazeera reporter Hani Mahmoud reported that more than half of those killed in the strike were forcibly displaced from other areas of northern Gaza that have come under Israeli attack amid its ongoing siege.
Last Thursday, 28 Palestinians were killed in an Israeli strike on the Abu Hussein School in Jabalia. The school was being used as a shelter for Palestinians displaced by Israel’s attacks and siege on northern Gaza. These strikes follow a horrifying pattern of Israeli forces attacking schools and other sites being used as shelters for displaced Palestinians. 85% of Gaza’s schools have been bombed over the last year, and fragments of US weapons repeatedly have been found at the schools in the aftermath of these strikes. Attacks on schools are considered grave violations against children, and are war crimes.
Israeli forces also attacked all three hospitals in northern Gaza on Saturday and rendered them out of service as their attacks killed 33 Palestinians across the area. Israeli forces struck the al-Awda Hospital and shelled the Kamal Adwan and Indonesian Hospitals. The director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, described an increasingly dire situation for the hospital as it struggles to care for patients with dwindling resources. No aid has entered northern Gaza since the beginning of Israel’s siege, according to UNRWA. When Israel began its invasion of northern Gaza, hospitals received so-called evacuation orders which threatened medical personnel to either leave the premises or face “the same fate as al-Shifa hospital, with destruction, killing and arrest.” Israeli forces raided Al-Shifa hospital for the second time earlier this year, and mass graves were found on the premises of the hospital following the attack.
Horrific and heartbreaking accounts of apparent war crimes have continued to come out of northern Gaza. Israeli forces are reportedly marching displaced Palestinians out of the area at gunpoint, and are separating men from their families as they do it. Al Jazeera reporter Anas al-Sharif shared a video showing an Israeli drone targeting a Palestinian child with live ammunition, and then as people gathered to help him they were bombed. Palestinian journalist Motasem A Dalloul also recounted a report from a mother in Jabalia that Palestinian mothers were separated from their children and placed in a hole, and then their children were killed by Israeli forces.
🚨 ISRAEL CONSIDERS DEPLOYING MERCENARIES TO SUPPLANT UNRWA AND OPERATE IN GAZA
The Israeli security cabinet is reportedly considering and is expected to approve a proposal to hire operatives from private security companies to deliver aid in Gaza. This report comes as the Israeli Knesset is set to vote on bills that would effectively cease UNRWA’s operations in the occupied territories of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, cutting off countless Palestinians from crucial aid, resources, and services. This proposal is a clear effort to undercut UNRWA as Israeli forces continue to attack UNRWA schools and shelters and restrict aid from entering Gaza. According to a September report from the agency, 7 in 10 UNRWA schools have been hit by Israeli attacks since the beginning of Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Israeli-American businessman Mordechai “Moti” Kahana, the CEO of Global Delivery Company, is reportedly behind this effort. Kahana has stated that among his goals is to create a dystopian version of a “gated community” where “Palestinians would be subjected to biometric screenings in order to receive humanitarian aid” in so-called “humanitarian bubbles” in northern Gaza. The report notes that Kahana’s vision includes conditioning humanitarian aid on passing biometric tests to determine whether a Palestinian is a “terrorist”. Kahana has said that “terrorists will get the bullet”, and has joked about ethnic cleansing in Gaza. GDC’s proposal also includes a plan to partner with Constellis, which is a successor to the mercenary organization Blackwater, which was infamous for its killings of civilians during the Iraq war.
This plan would be disastrous for Palestinians in Gaza, and would likely contribute to Israel’s campaign to starve Gaza. As Israeli officials have considered this plan, UNRWA Chief Phillipe Lazzarini reported that no aid has entered northern Gaza despite Israel’s assurances to the contrary. Additionally, 6 medical aid NGOs remain banned from entering Gaza to provide desperately needed medical services for Palestinians injured by Israeli attacks, and the intensity of Israeli bombing and mass displacement has forced the WHO to postpone its polio vaccination campaign.
Members of Congress must pressure the State Department not to approve any license for GDC to operate in Gaza to implement this nefarious plan.
Image: Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported