By Palestine
Chronicle Staff
May 11, 2024
THE
GAZA GENOCIDE
Killed | Wounded | Missing |
34,971 | 78,541 | 11,000 |
- Israeli authorities issued more
displacement orders to residents of areas east of Rafah, urging them to head to
the Al-Mawasi area.
- Meanwhile, Israeli forces carried out intense strikes
across various areas of the Gaza Strip, killing and wounding scores of
Palestinians.
- US Senator Bernie Sanders said that the
US must stop providing weapons to Benjamin Netanyahu and his far-right
government.
- According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health,
34,971 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,641 wounded in Israel’s ongoing
genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
LATEST UPDATES
Saturday, May
11, 5:00 pm (GMT +2)
GAZA CIVIL
DEFENSE: Our crews are still recovering the bodies of martyrs buried by the
occupation forces in mass graves in the Dar Al Shifa complex.
We renew our
appeal to countries around the world and civil protection institutions to look
at the catastrophic reality of humanitarian service providers in Gaza.
ABU OBEIDA: Abu
Obeida onfirmed the death of prisoner Nadav Bublabil (51 years old), who holds
British citizenship, after an Israeli attack on his place of detention a month
ago, adding that the prisoner’s health deteriorated and he died because he did
not receive medical care due to the occupation’s destruction of hospitals.
HAARETZ: Power
outage in Kiryat Shmona due to a missile from southern Lebanon.
ANN: 50
professors and 2,400 students have been arrested since the start of the
protests in the United States.
HEZBOLLAH: We
targeted the Israeli site of Al-Samaqa in the occupied Lebanese hills of Kafr
Shuba and the site of Ruwaisat Al-Qarn in the occupied Lebanese Shebaa Farms.
Saturday, May
11, 4:00 pm (GMT +2)
YEDIOTH
AHRONOTH: The former head of the Israeli army’s operations divisions said that
entering Rafah has a political goal and that sending soldiers into battle for
political purposes is crossing a red line.
UNRWA: 300,000
Palestinians were displaced as a result of evacuation orders in Rafah and
Jabaliya.
ISRAELI ARMY:
Four missiles were launched from Rafah towards Kerem Shalom in the Gaza Strip.
AL-JAZEERA:
Sirens were sounding in the south of the Gaza Strip, and he reported monitoring
the firing of mortar shells and rockets at Kerem Shalom.
Saturday, May
11, 3:00 pm (GMT +2)
ANADOLU: Nine
Palestinians were martyred and others were injured, most of them women and
children, as a result of an Israeli bombing that targeted a house for a Coptic
family in the town of Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.
PALESTINIAN
MEDIA: Israeli occupation artillery fired heavy smoke bombs at Jabaliya camp in
the northern Gaza Strip.
Saturday, May
11, 2:00 pm (GMT +2)
GAZA HEALTH
MINISTRY: 34,971 Palestinians have been killed, and 78,641 wounded in Israel’s
ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
HAMAS: The
occupation’s continued control over the Rafah crossing portends a humanitarian
catastrophe.
AL-JAZEERA: The
Israeli occupation army’s bombing of the home of the Al-Louh and Al-Khatib
families in the Al-Zawaida neighborhood in the central Gaza Strip had risen to
26 people.
GAZA CIVIL
DEFENSE: More than 10,000 martyrs in Gaza are still under the rubble.
MAARIV: The
mothers of Israeli soldiers fighting in Gaza said that their children feel
growing frustration and do not trust the Israeli leadership.
Saturday, May
11, 1:00 pm (GMT +2)
GAZA HEALTH
MINISTRY: The Ministry of Health in Gaza revealed that it found 80 bodies in 3
mass graves in the courtyards of the Shifa Medical Complex, and dozens of
bodies inside the complex’s sections.
AL-JAZEERA:
Israeli aircraft launched a raid on the east of Jabalia refugee camp, in the
northern Gaza Strip.
South African
PRESIDENCY: South Africa calls on international justice to issue an urgent
order to protect the Palestinians.
ISRAELI ARMY:
The Israeli army decided to return to Jabaliya and deport its residents.
ISRAEL HAYOM
(quoting sources in the Israeli Army): Hamas reorganized its forces in the
Zaytoun neighborhood.
Saturday, May
11, 12:00 pm (GMT +2)
GAZA HEALTH
MINISTRY: the number of journalist martyrs had risen to 143 after the killing
of photographer Bahaa Okasha..
AL-JAZEERA: The
director of the European Hospital warned in statements to Al Jazeera of a
health catastrophe as the crossings continue to be closed and fuel is not
brought in.
YEDIOTH AHRONOTH
(citingg Israeli Army sources): Hamas will remain in Rafah even if military
operations continue in the entire city, and there are no magic solutions.
AL-QUDS
BRIGADES: We bombed with mortar shells Israeli soldiers and their vehicles
penetrating the vicinity of the Al-Zaytoun Clinic in the Al-Zaytoun
neighborhood, south of Gaza City.
AL-JAZEERA: The
Israeli occupation army raided the Al-Sikka area in the Jabaliya refugee camp,
north of the Gaza Strip.
Saturday, May
11, 11:00 am (GMT +2)
AL-QASSAM
BRIGADES: We destroyed an Israeli troop carrier with an “Al-Yassin 105” shell
in the vicinity of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
AL-JAZEERA:
Israeli forces entered the Al-Farahin area, east of Abasan Al-Kabira, in Khan
Yunis, and carried out extensive sweeping operations.
UNRWA: 150,000
people have fled Rafah so far, at a time when Israel has repeated its orders
for further evacuation from Rafah towards the city center.
Saturday, May
11, 10:00 am (GMT +2)
REUTERS: the
Israeli army issued more displacement orders to residents of areas east of
Rafah urging them to head to the Al-Mawasi area.
Saturday, May
11, 09:00 am (GMT +2)
HEZBOLLAH: We
targeted the fortifications and garrison of the “Ramia site” in northern Israel
with direct and guided missile weapons and artillery shells, confirming that it
achieved a direct hit.
AUSTRALIAN FM
PENNY WONG: Australia’s support for Palestine’s full membership in the United
Nations is part of building the momentum to secure peace.
Saturday, May
11, 08:00 am (GMT +2)
AL-JAZEERA: The
bodies of 20 martyrs arrived at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah
following an Israeli night bombardment on several areas in Gaza.
Saturday, May
11, 07:00 am (GMT +2)
PALESTINIAN
MEDIA: A violent airstrike targeted the Al-Salam neighborhood and the vicinity
of the Rafah crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.
QNN: Professors
at Princeton University go on a 24-hour hunger strike in solidarity with their
students
Saturday, May
11, 06:00 am (GMT +2)
AL-JAZEERA: A
massive night demonstration took place in the Moroccan city of Casablanca in
support of Gaza and denouncing the ongoing Israeli war on the Strip for the
eighth month in a row.
PALESTINIAN
MEDIA: LIght bombs were seen in the airspace of the northeastern area of the city of
Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip, and that artillery shelling targeted the center
and east of the city.
Saturday, May
11, 05:00 am (GMT +2)
PALESTINIAN
MEDIA: Aircraft bombed a house belonging to the Qandil family in the Maghazi
camp in the central Gaza Strip.
CIVIL DEFENSE IN
NORTHERN GAZA: the Israeli army committed a number of massacres tonight by
bombing more than 3 homes in Beit Lahia and the Jabalia camp in the northern
Gaza Strip.
Saturday, May
11, 04:00 am (GMT +2)
SANDERS: The
Rafah invasion must end US military aid to Netanyahu.
AL-JAZEERA: An
Israeli raid recently targeted the Al-Geneina neighborhood, east of the city of
Rafah.
Saturday, May
11, 03:00 am (GMT +2)
QUDS NEWS:
Palestinian journalist Bahaa Okasha, his wife and son killed in an Israeli
shelling that targeted their home in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza
Strip.
Ali Harb
Washington, DC – In 214 days, Israel
has killed 142 journalists in Gaza, approximately one every 36 hours. The
staggering death toll makes the war the deadliest conflict for journalists in
modern history.
But activists say the case of
renowned Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a United States citizen,
underscores the fact that Israel has been killing journalists with impunity
long before the current war.
Saturday marks the second
anniversary of her death after she was shot by Israeli forces while reporting
in the occupied West Bank on May 11, 2022.
The lack of accountability in her
killing helped pave the way for the rampant Israeli abuses taking place in
Gaza, said Yousef Munayyer, head of the Palestine/Israel Program at the Arab
Center Washington DC.
“What we have seen Israel do in
terms of killing a record number of journalists in Gaza is directly connected
to the lack of accountability for Shireen,” Munayyer told Al Jazeera.
“If you can kill an American
citizen, who was among the highest profile journalists in the Arab world, on
camera and get away with it, that sends a very clear message about what’s
permissible.”
Dressed in a blue vest marked with
the word “press”, Abu Akleh was killed while covering an Israeli raid in Jenin,
a city in the northern part of the West Bank.
Initially, then-Israeli Prime
Minister Naftali Bennett falsely accused Palestinian fighters of shooting her –
an allegation that was quickly disproven by independent reports.
How the US re-defined accountability
Immediately after Abu Akleh’s
shooting, the administration of US President Joe Biden called for
accountability, saying that “those responsible for Shireen’s killing should be
prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law”.
But Washington shifted its position
after Israel admitted that its soldiers killed Abu Akleh and dismissed the
incident as an accident, refusing to open a criminal investigation.
By September 2022, the US dropped
its demand that the perpetrators be prosecuted.
Accountability, officials said,
could instead be accomplished by Israel changing its rules of engagement — a
demand that was openly rejected by Israeli leaders.
Washington has also rejected calls
for an independent probe into the incident, arguing that Israel has functioning
institutions capable of investigating the case.
But Palestinian rights advocates
have long said that Israel rarely prosecutes its own soldiers for abuses and
should not be trusted to investigate itself.
To Munayyer, the Biden
administration paved the way for Israel to allow the killing to fade into the
background.
“It really sent a very dangerous
message and, I think, contributed to an open season on Palestinian journalists
in Gaza,” Munayyer said.
Even when Al Jazeera referred the
Abu Akleh case to the International Criminal Court for investigation, the US
publicly opposed the court’s involvement, reiterating its stance that Israel
should take up the matter itself.
The Biden administration also failed
to condemn the Israeli assault on Abu Akleh’s funeral in Jerusalem, wherein
armed officers beat her pallbearers with batons.
Israel’s attacks on Al Jazeera
With no meaningful accountability
for the killing of Abu Akleh, Israeli attacks on press freedom — and Al Jazeera
specifically — have worsened with the outbreak of its war in Gaza.
In January, for instance, an Israeli
drone targeted an Al Jazeera crew in Khan Younis, a city in the southern Gaza
Strip. Israeli forces then prevented medics from reaching cameraman Samer
Abudaqa, who was wounded in the strike.
Abudaqa, who was described by his
colleagues as fearless, hard-working and joyful, eventually bled to death. The
network’s Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh was injured in the same attack.
Israel also has killed several
members of Dahdouh’s family, including his son Hamza, a journalist who
contributed to Al Jazeera.
Earlier this month, Israel — which
has blocked foreign journalists from entering Gaza — banned Al Jazeera from
operating and broadcasting within its borders.
That decision prompted an outcry
from some US politicians, for whom Abu Akleh’s death signalled a trend of
attacks against press freedom.
“Two years ago, Israeli forces
assassinated American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and then brutally attacked
her funeral,” US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib told Al Jazeera in an email this
week.
“Since then, the Biden
Administration failed to hold the Israeli government accountable and let them
operate with complete impunity. Now, the Israeli apartheid regime has shut down
Al Jazeera’s coverage to stop the world from seeing their war crimes.
“I will continue to defend the
freedom of the press and demand justice for Shireen and every journalist killed
by the Israeli government.”
On Friday, Reporters Without
Borders, known by its French acronym RSF, called the killing of Abu Akleh a
“chapter in the story of Israel’s relentless attack on the Al Jazeera channel”.
It also decried the persistent “impunity” for killing journalists, including in
the ongoing Gaza war.
“This pattern endangers the lives of
journalists throughout the world and the public’s right to free, independent
and pluralistic information,” Jonathan Dagher, head of RSF’s Middle East desk,
said in a statement.
The Biden administration, meanwhile,
expressed “concern” earlier this month over the Al Jazeera ban. But Munayyer
said toothless criticism is often ignored by Israeli leaders.
“The Israelis do not care that the
United States is concerned. They don’t take those words seriously,” he said.
“And the only time that we’ve seen
any shifts in Israeli behaviour — particularly over the last seven months — was
when serious consequences were threatened.”
Israel receives at least $3.8bn in
US military aid annually, and Biden approved $14bn in additional aid to the
country last month despite a growing outcry about the war in Gaza, which has
killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians.
‘We still don’t have justice’
Abu Akleh’s family has pushed the US
to pursue accountability in her death, by meeting with legislators and
officials and speaking out about the issue.
“The past two years feel like it
went by very fast, but unfortunately two years later and we still don’t have
justice, we still don’t have accountability,” Lina Abu Akleh, the slain
journalist’s niece, said at an event in Washington, DC, this week.
“The US administration has failed
our family, has failed Shireen, an American citizen and journalist, a female
journalist.”
Late in 2022, several news reports
indicated that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had opened its own
probe into the incident. But the Justice Department, which oversees the bureau,
declined to confirm that such an investigation exists.
“The last thing we know is that the
FBI opened an investigation just a few months after Shireen was killed, but we
still don’t know where that investigation is heading towards. We haven’t
received any updates,” the younger Abu Akleh said.
On Friday, the Committee to Protect
Journalists (CPJ) urged transparency from the FBI about the supposed probe.
“It is time to break Israel’s
longstanding impunity in journalist killings, which have only multiplied in the
Israel-Gaza war,” CPJ programme director Carlos Martinez de la Serna said in a
statement.
“The FBI needs to disclose a
timeline for the conclusion of its investigation, and Israel must cooperate
with the FBI probe and any future ICC probe.”
Last year, on the first anniversary
of Abu Akleh’s killing, the CPJ released a report detailing how Israeli forces
killed 20 journalists in the two decades prior, in what it called a “pattern”.
“No one has ever been charged or
held accountable for these deaths,” it said.
That pattern of impunity appears to
have intensified with the war on Gaza. But advocates say they will continue to
push for justice for Abu Akleh, particularly as the number of Israel violations
against press freedom grows.
“We’re not going to forget. And an
important reason we’re not going to forget is because the consequences of these
failures to achieve accountability for the killing of Shireen are on display in
Gaza every day,” Munayyer said.
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