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Here's a summary of some of the latest developments in Gaza and the West Bank, and we'll also share some reportage highlights from the electronic intifada's contributors there.
Israel attacked Gaza City in the north and Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central area on Tuesday, as people rushed their loved ones who were killed and injured in the bombing to the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah. Al Jazeera's Haneen Mahmoud reported that medical supplies are lacking; bandages and pain medications are unavailable, and the hospital, quote, "has turned into a stage for funerals."
The attacks on Deir al-Balah followed an attack on the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp on Monday, where at least 10 Palestinians were killed. At least 25 others were killed around Gaza on Monday, including in Gaza City, Deir al-Balah, Khan Younis, and Rafah. Journalists reported that the Israeli military has been attacking and demolishing homes in Nuseirat in order to widen the area around the Netzarim corridor, where the army is stationed and has bisected the Gaza Strip.
Earlier in the week, Israel attacked homes and residential buildings in Khan Younis, Rafah, Gaza City, and Jabalia refugee camp, where Israeli forces bombed a kindergarten that was being used as a shelter for forcibly displaced families. The attack killed at least 10 and injured dozens more as they slept.
Here's Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif reporting over the weekend: "I'm here in Jabalia refugee camp, near the Yemeni hospital, where Israeli warplanes have fired a missile directly and without warning at the al-Sufi family home. Medical teams and civil defense units are recovering the dead and injured. They're also searching the rubble for a number of missing people. Israeli warplanes targeted the house, completely destroying it and killing several people. Others are missing. Our teams are trying to find them and recover the bodies of the dead. The problem is that we cannot reach all of the victims. It's difficult to work in this area, which is completely destroyed. This man was just rescued from under the rubble. He is one of the survivors of the Israeli attack on this house, which was full of people. Scenes like this are repeated every night as the genocide and war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip continues. Every Israeli strike kills people, wounds people, and leaves others missing."
That was Al Jazeera's Anas al-Sharif reporting from Jabalia on Saturday.
Israel bombed a fuel refinery in northern Gaza used to transform plastic into gasoline that is required to operate civil defense vehicles and electricity generators. Homes were destroyed and workers were killed in the attack, according to reporter Abdul Qader Sabah.
The Gaza government media office stated on Sunday that a journalist was killed. Abdullah Shaker, who worked for several local and regional Arabic-language media outlets, was targeted by an Israeli quadcopter drone in Rafah on Saturday. More than 170 journalists have been killed by Israel since the genocide began in October 2023.
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza has released a 6,149-page document listing the names, ages, genders, and ID numbers of every Palestinian recorded killed in Israeli attacks in the last 11 and a half months of this genocide. The number of Palestinians killed is estimated to be much higher than the recorded death count of 40,000, since thousands more are missing or buried under the rubble. The first 226 pages list the names of children 18 years old and younger, including 14 pages of newborns and babies under a year old. And the last 11 pages list the names of Palestinian elders from the ages of 77 to 101 years old, all older than the state of Israel itself.
A coalition of 15 international aid organizations have announced that, as a consequence of Israel's ongoing obstruction of aid, 83% of required food does not make it past the crossing points at the Gaza-Israel boundaries, accelerating the humanitarian and health disaster for the entire population of Gaza and placing almost half a million people at risk of starvation. The aid groups add that a record low average of 69 aid trucks per day entered Gaza in August, compared to 500 per working day last year, which was already not enough to meet people's needs. In August, more than 1 million people did not receive any food rations in southern and central Gaza.
The United Nations Health Cluster reported this week that this denial of aid into Gaza is also expanding the hygiene and health safety crisis, with Israel denying soap, shampoo, and detergents into Gaza. The cluster says that, quote, "community kitchens and healthcare facilities lack the minimum cleaning materials, worsening the unsanitary conditions in shelters and clinics."
The UN also warned that the upcoming rainy season will exacerbate the already fragile shelter conditions, quote, "with the magnitude of destruction to urban areas, roads, and critical infrastructure this year, flooding patterns can be expected to be unpredictable and disastrous for those seeking shelter." Most displaced people are sheltering in small, overcrowded makeshift shelters on self-settled sites, typically having deteriorated plastic sheeting for roofing, while the remaining live in tents, many of which are overcrowded. Others are sheltering in damaged or unfinished buildings, which are unsafe.
With an average of only two truckloads of shelter-related items per week entering South Gaza in August, the UN's Shelter Cluster estimates that partners would need two years to deliver the equivalent of the most basic winterization support needed now. At least 25,000 seal-off kits, or 25 truckloads, need to be delivered per week to South Gaza for people to be supported before more significant rainfall and lower temperatures arrive in November.
This week, we're highlighting a feature by our contributor Fida Al-Kedra in Gaza about a 10-year-old girl who was killed earlier this month while she was playing in the street wearing her pink roller skates. She writes: "I reached Hussam Abu Ayyad on his phone. What do you ask a man who has lost a child? What does a bereaved father say?" Abu Ayyad, whose daughter Tala, 10, was killed on September 5, reached for the words of Mahmoud Darwish, a reply the late poet, while ailing and waiting to die, gave to a reporter's question about how he felt: "Bruised feelings and broken thoughts and some scratched-up memories."
The doctor says, "Nothing is fatal, just a little loss to the soul." Tala had been playing with her friends when a bomb struck a downstairs apartment in Gaza City, killing her on the spot and adding her name to the list of the nearly 17,000 children Israel has killed in Gaza since October last year. A photograph of Tala, under a white shroud, wearing her pink roller skates, subsequently went viral on social media.
"Not more than five minutes had gone by after Tala left with her pink skates when Abu Ayyad said he heard a loud explosion. I ran quickly from the third floor to the street," he said. Abu Ayyad found Tala's body face down, covered in rubble and dust, only her roller skates visible. He picked up her battered body and rushed to a hospital. It was too late. The medical staff could not save Tala's life.
"Tala aspired to be a dentist," her father said. The day before she was killed, Abu Ayyad said, a bomb struck near their building and sent Tala running to the safety of his own arms. "I am sad because over the last year, my daughter had to experience so much fear and so many things children shouldn't know, like starvation and displacement," Abu Ayyad said. "And then she was killed while skating, trying to make herself happy."
For more, read Fida Al-Kedra's feature, "Pink Skates and Deadly Bombs," on electronicintifada.net.
Turning to the occupied West Bank, Israeli settlers attacked children and teachers at an elementary school northwest of Jericho on Monday. The Palestinian news agency Wafa said that armed Israelis stormed the Arab al-Jalazun school and assaulted students and teachers. The United Nations Education Cluster added that the settlers were armed with clubs and tied up the school's principal. Footage from the attack shows a group of male settlers marching into the school, and one can hear the screams of children and teachers during the attack. The school employs 30 teachers who serve around 100 students, the UN said. When Israeli forces arrived, it was reported that they arrested the school principal. The Israeli police also confiscated the school's digital video recorder, which the police claimed was in order to review the incident. Video footage shows the identities of most of the assailants.
One student, Tawfiq, told the Reuters news agency that, quote, "We were studying as usual in class, then they started saying that settlers attacked the school. I was able to gather my siblings so that nothing happens to them. I was able to gather them in a classroom, and the settlers started banging on the class, trying to open it against our will."
On Tuesday, Israeli settlers attacked the village of Khirbet al-Fakih in the northern Jordan Valley. Wafa said that at least four settlers tried to steal livestock from one Palestinian resident of the village, quote, "but he bravely confronted them and prevented them from doing so."
And finally, we wanted to bring you some images and videos from journalists and others in Gaza that highlight the resilience, joy, and determination of the Palestinian people. Palestinian teacher Israa Abu Mustafa created a classroom in a tent on the ruins of her destroyed house at the beginning of what would usually be the new school year. Journalist Hassan Islay filmed this video of the young students eager to learn.
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And that's it for the news roundup. As always, go to electronicintifada.net for much more, especially to read our new features by our brave writers in Gaza. [Music]