Andre Damon | The Lancet, the prestigious peer-reviewed British medical journal, has warned that the true death toll in the Gaza genocide could be 186,000 or more. | This staggering figure amounts to 8 percent of the population of Gaza. ■ A similar percentage of the US population would be 26 million people. It stands as an indictment of the United States and its imperialist allies, who have funded, armed and politically defended Israel’s genocide in Gaza. ■ The official death toll since the onset of the Israeli attack, according to Gazan government sources, is 37,396. But The Lancet noted that this figure reflects neither the thousands of people buried under the rubble nor the countless deaths caused by the deliberate destruction of Gaza’s food distribution, healthcare and sanitation systems.

Multiple Palestinian factions have released statements criticizing the US for hosting Netanyahu in the Congress on Wednesday. | Izzat Al-Risheq, a member of the political bureau of Hamas, blasted Netanyahu's speech before the United States Congress, describing it as "a criminal's speech filled with lies and a mockery of the [peoples'] intelligence."Another senior Hamas official, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that Netanyahu's speech addressing the US Congress is evidence that he does not want to conclude a ceasefire deal.

💬 "Netanyahu's speech was full of lies and it will not succeed in covering up for the failure and defeat in the face of the Resistance to cover up for the crimes of the war of genocide his army is committing against the people of Gaza," Abu Zuhri said in an interview.

■ Netanyahu's lies in Congress speech debunked amid huge boycott (The New Arab)
■ Iran Condemns US For Welcoming Israeli PM (Asharq Al-Awsat)
■ Türkiye: Netanyahu's speech to US Congress great stain on legislative body (TRT World)
■ Democrats to Netanyahu: 'Liar with promotion campaign', 'war criminal' (Al Mayadeen)
■ Key takeaways from Netanyahu’s speech and the protests outside US Congress (Al Jazeera)
👉 Netanyahu Commands, US Obeys (Joe Lauria)

 ● At least 89 Palestinians have been killed and 250 others wounded in Khan Younis in “one of the bloodiest” Israeli attacks in the past eight months. Israeli forces are facing fierce resistance from Palestinian fighters.
 ● About 150,000 Khan Younis residents were forced to flee in one day, with residents saying they barely got a couple of minutes to escape to areas with little or no infrastructure.
 ● Hundreds of protesters were arrested in Washington, DC, before the Israeli PM’s scheduled address to the US Congress. Netanyahu, who faces a potential ICC arrest warrant for war crimes, likely to meet President Biden, as well as presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.
 ● At least 39,090 people have been killed and 90,147 injured in Israel’s war on Gaza. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is estimated at 1,139 with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

In another spine-chilling incident, 24-year-old Palestinian man Muhammad Bhar, who was suffering from Down syndrome and autism, was killed by an Israeli army dog in broad daylight. | Bhar’s diabolic murder earlier this month sent shock waves across the globe and once again brought to focus the genocidal war crimes of the Israeli regime against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip. ● Bhar family, which had been displaced at least five times during the war, sought refuge in their home in eastern Gaza City’s Shujaiya neighborhood when Israeli troops stormed their house on June 27. ● The regime forces first unleashed their sniffer dogs into the house. The dogs instantly attacked Bhar who was made to sit in the safest corner of the living room by his family.

Eva Bartlett | Israeli attacks have likely killed many more than the nearly 40,000 people reported, and even more will yet perish | Earlier this month, the Lancet published an article estimating that the total number of Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks since October 2023 could be nearly five times higher than the official death toll, and could reach “up to 186 000 or even more.” It noted that “this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.” According to the piece, the latest available count of Palestinians killed – 37,396 – is far too low, based on the fact that it is still unknown how many more lie under the rubble, how many are missing but not accounted for among the dead, and how many will perish due to starvation, dehydration, or diseases.

Royal Air Force has surveillance tape of Gaza from the day Israel killed British aid workers – but refuses to publish it. | Britain’s Ministry of Defence holds video surveillance footage of Gaza from the day that Israel killed seven international aid workers but is refusing to publish the tape. Among those killed in the World Central Kitchen convoy on 1 April were three British military veterans: John Chapman, James Kirby and James ‘Jim’ Henderson. The footage was taken by a Royal Air Force (RAF) surveillance plane which spent approximately five hours above Gaza that day.

■ UK approved arms for Israel days after it killed British aid workers (Declassified)

🔴 LIVE DAY 289 #Israel #Palestine

- Gaza death toll approaches 39,000
- Houthis to continue attacking Israel
- Meeting between Biden and Netanyahu to go ahead

Follow our live coverage ⤵️https://t.co/D8dd1uBb9w

— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) July 22, 2024

■ Israel murders 45 Palestinians as Gaza death toll surpasses 39,000 (PressTV)
■ Israel’s killing spree in Gaza leaves dozens dead in under 24 hours (The Cradle)
■ Israel’s war on Gaza live: Israel kills 27 in new attack on Khan Younis (Al Jazeera)
■ Israel’s latest airstrikes in Gaza kill at least 15 including children (Associated Press)

For most of us, the night typically means dinner with family, a movie, and preparing for bed. For those living—or more accurately, trying to live—in Gaza, the night signifies something entirely different: terror. “The night is long. The night is terrifying. The night means fear. The night means remembering Hind,” says the mother of Hind Rajab, a young girl who was shot dozens of times by the IDF in Gaza. This documentary echoes the sentiments of many who endure the relentless bombing campaign in one of the most densely populated areas worldwide. ● “My mother, my brother, my sister, and my two children—they’re my only children and they’re gone...” This heart-wrenching account is just one of the many that highlight the horrors Gazans face under Israel’s brutal siege and bombing. Emily Tripp, Director of Airwars, emphasizes the severity, stating, “This is the conflict where we have counted more children killed in a single strike than we have in any other conflict… multiple times.” (Odysee here + BitChute here)

“Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” said the president of the court. | The United Nations’ highest court said on Friday that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and settlements there are illegal and should be withdrawn as soon as possible, in its strongest findings to date on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. ● The advisory opinion by judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), known as the World Court, was not binding but carries weight under international law and is likely to fuel more criticism of Israel’s settlement expansion policies. The court ruling will impact any future Palestinian-Israeli settlement negotiations. ● “Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and the regime associated with them, have been established and are being maintained in violation of international law,” President Nawaf Salam said, reading the findings of a 15-judge panel. The court said Israel’s obligations include paying restitution for harm and “the evacuation of all settlers from existing settlements”. ● The ICJ opinion also found that the UN Security Council, the General Assembly, and all states have an obligation not to recognize the occupation as legal nor “render aid or assistance” toward maintaining Israel’s presence in the occupied territories.

■ Landmark ICJ ruling says world must act to end Israel’s illegal occupation (Maureen Clare Murphy)
👉 Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem | The Court gives its Advisory Opinion and responds to the questions posed by the General Assembly (ICJ)(.pdf)

Israel's settlement policy in occupied Palestinian territories is in breach of international law, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has ruled. | The "transfer by Israel of settlers to the West Bank and Jerusalem as well as Israel's maintenance of their presence" is "contrary to article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention", a panel of 15 judges from around the world said. The court said Israel must end the construction of settlements immediately - acts which render "Israel's presence in the occupied Palestinian territory unlawful". Israel's continued presence is "illegal" and should be ended as "rapidly as possible", the ICJ added. It also found that Israel's use of natural resources was "inconsistent" with its obligations under international law as an occupying power. ● Israel did not send a legal team to the hearings. In written comments, however, it said questions put to the court were prejudiced and failed to address its security concerns.

■ ICJ says Israel violates international law in West Bank and must end the occupation (Ynet News)
■ Top UN court declares Israeli settlements illegal (RT.com)
👉 Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem | The Court gives its Advisory Opinion and responds to the questions posed by the General Assembly (ICJ)(.pdf)

■ “All rules of war have been broken in Gaza”, with at least eight schools housing displaced Palestinians attacked by Israel in last 10 days, says UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini.
■ Al Jazeera’s correspondent reports at least 81 killed in day of attacks targeting homes and UN facilities in Gaza.
■ Riyad Mansour, Palestine’s envoy to the UN, tells the UN Security Council that Israel’s war on Gaza is the “most documented genocide in history”.
■ Washington’s envoy to the UNSC says there is progress in talks to adopt an immediate ceasefire in Gaza nearly four months after the council demanded one.
■ At least 38,794 people have been killed and 89,364 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza. The death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks on October 7 is estimated at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

Rasha Reslan | In its latest reports, the HRW perpetuates a longstanding Western narrative that serves to whitewash the current Israeli atrocities being committed in Gaza by the Israeli occupation. | Over the past nine months, a well-documented genocidal carnage in Gaza has been unfolding daily, live and unabated in front of the world's eyes. ■ Today, the Human Rights Watch published a comprehensive 280-page report. And no, it's not about the Gaza genocide. The report does not focus on the unbearable civilian death toll, the numerous massacres committed within a few hours of each other daily, the decayed bodies scattered in the streets, the children dying from man-made famine, the beheaded children due to the use of heavy bombs, the bodies cut into pieces, the more than 9,000 abductees, or the disturbing reports of torture and rape from Sde Teiman and other Israeli prisons. ■ Unsurprisingly, the HRW report perpetuates a longstanding Western narrative that serves to whitewash the current Israeli atrocities being committed in Gaza by the Israeli occupation. Nothing new as the report turns a blind eye to the fact that these actions have been ongoing since 1948.

Horror-story-after-horror-story in Shifa hospital: this tiny Palestinian baby injured by shrapnel burns by the israeli bombing of Gaza, shivers pic.twitter.com/aixJB49dxO

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) November 15, 2023

With at least 44 Palestinians killed in Gaza within an hour of Israeli strikes, the US has criticised it ally for the high death toll. | Authorities in Gaza said dozens of Palestinians were killed Tuesday in three separate strikes, as Israel pounded the territory despite renewed US criticism of the high civilian toll. ● Gaza civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said the three air strikes killed at least 44 people and wounded dozens within an hour across the war-torn Palestinian territory. ● The health ministry said a strike on a fuel station in Al-Mawasi in southern Gaza killed 17 people, and the Palestinian Red Crescent said a separate strike at almost simultaneously hit the UN-run Al-Razi School in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing five people.

■ Gaza live: Israeli strikes across Gaza leave dozens dead and wounded (MEE)

When you have to exit the hospital with your children in plastic bags, humanity is dead, values are dead, the UN is dead | #GazaHolocaust pic.twitter.com/S7oT7iIrJP

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) November 10, 2023

More than anything, he’s relieved to be found, but more importantly, letting the israelis continue this insanity is a stain on our planet @UN https://t.co/99TGzPJObe

— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) February 16, 2024

■ Gaza death toll nears 38,600 as Israel kills 141 more Palestinians (Anadolu)

At any other time in Palestinian history, the West Bank’s resistance to Israel’s lethal military raids and colonial encroachments would earn the title of a third intifada. | Since 7 October, Israel’s military has intensified its raids into occupied West Bank cities, towns and refugee camps. These military operations, which often involve special units and an array of armored vehicles and bulldozers, have wrought widespread devastation, severely damaging electricity networks, water and sewage infrastructure, uprooting roads and destroying homes. ● In the West Bank, Israel has been killing Palestinians by various means. Israeli forces shoot Palestinians at protests, during military incursions or even by carrying out extrajudicial executions. ● Now, even aerial attacks in the occupied West Bank is not an unusual occurrence, after the practice was dormant since the second intifada until last summer. Since 7 October, Israel has conducted dozens of airstrikes in the occupied West Bank, killing at least 86 Palestinians, including 14 children, according to records kept by UN monitoring group OCHA.

■ As the world [the media] focuses on Gaza, Israel is annexing the West Bank (Arab News)

Israel’s war on Gaza live: 300,000 Palestinians flee Gaza City invasion | Civilians fleeing Gaza City say people were shot dead during evacuations after the entire population of Gaza City – 300,000 people – was ordered to leave by Israel’s military. ● A trail of destruction is left as Israeli forces partially pull out of Gaza City’s Shujayea district after a bloody two-week incursion, with bodies “filling the streets” of their next target, the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood, residents say.

■ IDF Soldiers Detail Policies of Shooting Civilians, Destroying Homes - Report (07/09/24)

On Monday, Independent media outlet +972 Magazine released a report detailing interviews the outlet did with Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers, which describe a policy that allowed soldiers to virtually fire at will and required soldiers to burn the homes of Palestinians that they occupied. | The interviewees also alleged that the bodies of Palestinian civilians were allowed to rot in the street and were only hidden by the IDF before international organizations traveled through the area. One soldier testified that soldiers often would fire indiscriminately to blow off steam during the operation. “They report it as ‘normal fire,’ which is a codename for ‘I’m bored, so I shoot.” Another soldier said there was “total freedom of action,” for the IDF in Gaza.

💬 “If there is [even] a feeling of threat, there is no need to explain – you just shoot,” the soldier described. “It is permissible to shoot at their center mass, not into the air. It’s permissible to shoot everyone, a young girl, an old woman.”

■ ‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza (+972 Magazine)
■ Three Gazans found dead after release from Israeli custody (aNews)
■ Involvement in, and Incitement to Genocide — Report to The Hague (10/31/23)
👉 Israeli Defense Minister: "We have abolished all the rules of war. Our soldiers will not be held responsible for anything. There will be no military courts” (10/12/23)

Israel's war on Gaza, now in its 276th day, has killed at least 38,098 Palestinians — majority of them women and children –– and wounded 87,705, with 10,000+ estimated to be buried under the debris and 9,500+ abducted by Tel Aviv. | 0723 GMT — Thousands of Palestinians have fled large areas of southwest Gaza City after Israeli forces unexpectedly intruded for the first time in over three months and opened heavy fire targeting roads, homes, and residential buildings, resulting in dozens of casualties. ● The Israeli forces' incursion prompted a mass exodus of thousands of Palestinians to the city's northwestern neighborhoods.  ● An Anadolu Agency correspondent reported that Israeli military vehicles entered the Tel al-Hawa neighborhood, the industrial area, the university zones, and the southern outskirts of the Rimal under heavy fire from fighter jets and artillery. Massive explosions and continuous air and heavy artillery bombardment targeted eastern, central, and western Gaza City overnight and into Monday morning, witnesses said. This was the first large-scale military offensive since the Israeli army's attack near al-Shifa Hospital and its surroundings at the end of March.

■ Death toll in Gaza could exceed 186,000: The Lancet (TRT World)
■ Report Confirms Israel Ordered ‘Hannibal Directive’ During October 7 Response (antiwar.com)

Israel's war on Gaza, now in its 275th day, has killed at least 38,098 Palestinians — majority of them women and children –– and wounded 87,705, with 10,000+ estimated to be buried under the debris of bombed homes and 9,500+ abducted by Tel Aviv. | 1042 GMT — At least 55 more Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks in Gaza, taking the overall death toll to 38,153 people since last Oct. 7, the Health Ministry in the enclave has said. A ministry statement added that 87,828 people have also been injured in the onslaught. “Israeli attacks killed 55 people and injured 123 others in the last 24 hours,” the statement said. “Many people are still trapped under rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.

Israel’s continued war on the Gaza Strip is causing much escalation in the occupied West Bank, with Israeli losses mounting in both Palestinian regions. | On June 27, an Israeli soldier who served as a sniper squad commander in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) Kfir Brigade’s Haruv reconnaissance unit was killed and 16 other troops were wounded while conducting an operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern West Bank. ● The troops were targeted by two large explosive devices, which were buried deep under a road. A Panther armored personnel carrier (APC) was also badly damaged in the well-planned attack, which was claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. ● On the same day, a soldier from the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion was killed in a Hamas sniper attack in the area of Rafah in southern Gaza. ● And on June 28, two other IDF soldiers, one from the Paratroopers Brigade’s 890th Battalion and another from the 7th Armored Brigade’s 77th Battalion, were killed in separate attacks in Gaza City’s Shejaiya area in the northern part of the Strip. ● On July 1, another Israeli soldier from the Nahal Brigade’s 931st Battalion was killed as a result of an attack in Rafah. ● Two other soldiers from the 8th Reserve Armored Brigade’s 121st Battalion were killed as a result of an attack in central Gaza on the same day.

■ 200+ rockets, swarm of drones: Hezbollah avenges cmdr. assassination (Al Mayadeen)
■ Two Israeli Soldiers Killed Fighting In Gaza, Another In Karmiel Stabbing Attack (18+ Videos) (South Front)
■ ‘Hamas has never been stronger’: Israel is stuck in a war it can’t win (RT.com)
■ Israel war on Gaza live: Hamas shares ceasefire plan, Israeli attacks surge (Al Jazeera)

Chris Hedges | The Gaza Health Ministry has so far recorded some 38,000 deaths and 85,000 injuries. This is a vast undercount. The Health Ministry only counts the names of deceased recorded by hospitals and morgues. | Given that Israel has bombed most hospitals, clinics and morgues into disuse and blocked medical supplies and fuel, given that there are tens of thousands of missing, most likely buried under the rubble, it is certain that the number of dead is in the tens of thousands, perhaps as high as 200,000. ■ The Chair of Global Public Health at the University of Edinburgh, Devi Sridhar, estimates half a million Palestinians in Gaza will die in 2024. (It’s not just bullets and bombs. I have never seen health organisations as worried as they are about disease in Gaza | Devi Sridhar). This is a far more realistic body count. As Israel continues its saturation bombing and shelling of Gaza, as Palestinians continue to succumb to the Israeli orchestrated famine as well as the spread of infectious diseases caused by a lack of clean water, food, sanitation and health facilities, the numbers of dead will skyrocket. ■ Hamas fighters, able to take refuge in the vast tunnel system in Gaza, have little interest in publicizing the huge numbers of civilians left above ground to die. The Israeli government is not anxious to make public the actual scale of the killing. But even the official undercount is too onerous for the mandarins in the two ruling parties, as the House recently passed a an amendment to the Department of State appropriations bill that “prohibits funds appropriated by this act to be made available for the State Department to cite statistics obtained from the Gaza Health Ministry.” ■ And so we blot out all numbers, as if the most heinous genocide in modern history, one that by the time it is over will take hundreds of thousands of lives, is not happening.

■ Day 239: Over 70 Bodies Found, including 20 Children, After Israeli Military Withdraws from Jabalia Camp (06/01/24)

A political row has broken out in Israel after about 50 Palestinian detainees from Gaza were released, including Muhammad Abu Salamiya, director of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City. | Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s far-right internal security minister described it as “security recklessness”. Haaretz reports that sources close to defense minister Yoav Gallant have said he was not aware that the release was planned, and that he was not involved. Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that he had ordered an immediate inquiry, but noted that “the decision to release the prisoners follows High Court hearings,” and that releases were determined “independently by security officials.” [...] Upon his release, speaking from Nasser hospital in Gaza’s Khan Younis, Abu Salmiya said:

💬 All the Palestinian detainees are suffering. I left them in a very dire condition. My message is that their issue must be part of any negotiations until all the Palestinian detainees are released. Al-Shifa Hospital will be rebuilt and it will be once again a beacon of healthcare for all the Palestinians, not only Gazans. I will resume my duties as soon as it is feasible. ● Israel arrests everyone, including medical teams. There are prisoners who died from torture, and there are physicians and medical staff members who are still being held and in need of treatment. We are happy about the release but we left behind thousands who are enduring indescribable suffering.

Ilana Mercer | |Israel is engaged in the mother of all performative contradictions: denying genocide, while committing genocide, all the while demanding the right to genocide. | The Jewish State is genocidal not because it has been denounced as “genocidal” by ostensible “antisemites” and “terrorist sympathizers,” but by virtue of its actions. Israel is genocidal by virtue of what it has done to Gaza, the people and their land. [...] Thus, the labels “antisemite” and “terrorist sympathizer” amount to a blood libel leveled at millions, perhaps billions, in the Global South, in particular—although the wholesale slaughter carried out by Israel in Gaza has stirred hearts across the world.

■ US to unblock bomb shipments to Israel – Axios (RT.com) | The US has decided to release a shipment of 1,800 bombs to Israel that was suspended several months ago amid concerns over destruction in the Gazan city of Rafah, Axios reported on Thursday. According to unnamed US and Israeli officials who spoke with the news site, the administration of US President Joe Biden is willing to send a batch of 500-pound (226kg) bombs that were put on hold in April.

Day 262 | During the past 24 hours:

• 3 massacres committed by the Israeli occupation

• 47 people killed

• 52 injured pic.twitter.com/RktKuNF1Zw

— TIMES OF GAZA (@Timesofgaza) June 27, 2024

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s plan to annex the West Bank would see over 60% of the territory becoming a part of Israel. But Palestinian experts say it is “already happening.” | The issue of Israel’s creeping annexation of the West Bank has resurfaced in recent days after a leaked recording of Israel’s finance minister Bezalel Smotrich revealed a “dramatic” plan to impose permanent Israeli control over the West Bank “without the government being accused of annexing it,” as Smotrich was recorded saying. ● Smotrich’s statements, recorded by the Peace Now Israeli NGO and published by CNN and the New York Times, were made during a speech he gave to settler leaders earlier in June. Smotrich was recorded saying that he had elaborated a plan in the past year and a half and exposed it to Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu, who was “fully onboard.” ● The plan centers around transferring administrative authorities in the West Bank from the Israeli army to the civil authorities of the Israeli government. Smotrich said that he oversaw the creation of an entire administrative body directly linked to the government and that members of this body were already embedded in the Israeli army’s Civil Administration.

 ■  Israel’s warplanes, artillery strike densely-populated civilian areas in Gaza’s north, centre and south over previous 24 hours, killing dozens, with Israeli ground troops “systematically demolishing residential homes” in southern city of Rafah: Al Jazeera’s correspondent in Gaza.
 ■  “The bodies of thousands of the missing children remain buried under the rubble,” UNICEF deputy chief tells the UN Security Council in a briefing on Gaza.
 ■  Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant says “significant progress” was made on US support for Israel’s “force build-up” and weapons supply during trip to Washington, DC.
 ■  “It’s unbearable,” says Khaled Shakshir, a volunteer hospital technician at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza’s Deir el-Balah as equipment, including anaesthesia machines, break down.
 ■  At least 37,718 people have been killed and 86,377 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7. The revised death toll in Israel from the Hamas-led attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza.

■ Palestinian Resistance IEDs [Improvised explosive device] leave 17 Israeli soldiers wounded in Jenin (Al Mayadeen)

Israel is covertly funding a massive propaganda campaign to target the US public, including through the passage of legislation to restrict US citizens’ right to free speech when criticizing Israel and its ongoing war on Gaza, The Guardian reported on 24 June. | The UK newspaper reported that there are 80 programs already underway as part of the massive propaganda campaign known as the “Voices of Israel.” The program is funded and run by the Israeli Ministry of Diaspora Affairs, led by MK Amichai Chikli. The program was designed to carry out what Israel calls “mass consciousness activities” targeting the US and European public.

The IDF’s “brute force” strategy makes no sense from a counterinsurgency perspective, Col. Jacques Baud has claimed | Israel’s tactics in Gaza go against all the rules of counterinsurgency and can only be explained as a deliberate effort to “eliminate the Palestinians,” former NATO analyst and Swiss intelligence officer Col. Jacques Baud has said. ● Speaking to ‘Going Underground’ host Afshin Rattansi on Monday, Baud said that Israel is “not trying to solve the problem [of Hamas violence] on the political side, as we normally should for a counterinsurgency.” ● “They are doing it by brute force, meaning that they destroy people and that’s the name of the game,” he added. ● In nearly nine months of warfare against Hamas, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has killed almost 38,000 people in Gaza, the majority of them women and children, according to the latest figures from the territory’s health ministry.

■ Israeli’s military again strikes an aid distribution site in southern Gaza (Al Jazeera)