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Lawmaker criticises US silence on thousands killed in Gaza

Lawmaker criticises US silence on thousands killed in Gaza
By Usaid Siddiqui and Farah Najjar
Published On 20 Sep 2024

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20 Sep 2024 - 23:59
 (23:59 GMT)

Thank you for joining us

For more on what unfolded in Gaza with Israeli tanks advancing deeper into Rafah, read our story here.

A ceasefire deal in Gaza is unlikely before President Biden leaves office in January, for more read this story.

As Israel bombs Lebanon, the UN warns, “We risk seeing a conflagration that could dwarf even the devastation and suffering witnessed so far”.

And you can always find all our latest coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza here.

20 Sep 2024 - 23:55
 (23:55 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon. Here is a recap of today’s events:

  • At least 14 people have been killed and 66 others wounded – including children – in an Israeli attack on southern Beirut that killed Hezbollah commander Ibrahim Aqil.
  • Hamas fighters attacked Israeli soldiers and inflicted casualties after firing a rocket-propelled grenade into a home they occupied in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
  • At least 13 Palestinians, including three children who are all siblings, have been killed in Israeli air strikes on two homes in Rafah.
  • Israel says the International Criminal Court lacks jurisdiction to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
  • The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Palestinians, including a woman and two children, were injured as Israelis from illegal settlements attacked them with pepper spray in the occupied West Bank.

 

20 Sep 2024 - 23:45
 (23:45 GMT)

Hamas condemns killing of senior Hezbollah commander

Hamas denounced Israeli air strikes that killed Hezbollah’s Ibrahim Aqil along with 13 other people in the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

The Palestinian armed group described the assassination as a “crime” and “folly that Israel will pay the price for”.

Hezbollah began firing rockets and drones into northern Israel on October 8, 2023, in support of its ally Hamas in Gaza, after Israel launched its deadly bombing campaign following the attack on southern Israel.

20 Sep 2024 - 23:30
 (23:30 GMT)

More violent Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank

Palestinian media outlets shared footage of Israeli forces storming the town of Anabta, located east of Tulkarem. The videos have been verified by Al Jazeera.

In other footage posted on social media, a Palestinian was injured by Israeli gunfire near the “Rachel’s Tomb” camp, north of Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.

Israeli raids into Palestinian towns have increased in scale and intensity since October 7. More than 700 Palestinians have been killed and thousands detained – many without charge or trial.

20 Sep 2024 - 23:15
 (23:15 GMT)

Editor’s Choice: What to read and watch right now

Here are a few highlights of the pieces we’ve published about the war over the past day:

  • News: Israeli forces kill dozens across Gaza as tanks advance deeper into Rafah
  • Analysis: For Lebanon, war is coming, but not this second
  • Explainer: Ibrahim Aqil, the Hezbollah commander killed by Israel
  • Feature: In Israel, some want war with Hezbollah, others are worried
  • Watch: More strikes on Hezbollah escalate decades-long conflict

And there’s plenty more here.

20 Sep 2024 - 23:00
 (23:00 GMT)

Israeli troops stole bodies after throwing them off a rooftop: Witness

The fallout from the video that emerged of Israeli soldiers abusing the bodies of dead Palestinians continues.

Residents said military bulldozers lifted the remains and troops then took the four bodies with them when they left after the deadly raid in Qabatiya in the occupied West Bank on Thursday.

“The bulldozer carried them and they took them without letting us say goodbye to them or to do a funeral for them,” said Amjad Abu al-Roub, a resident of Qabatiya, who witnessed the incursion that killed at least seven Palestinians.

Al-Roub said Israeli forces stormed the town around 11:30am, prompting a gunfight between Palestinians and the troops that killed the four. He said the soldiers threw the four bodies from rooftops in the evening.

20 Sep 2024 - 22:45
 (22:45 GMT)

Women and girls ‘disproportionately affected’ by health crisis

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says women and girls have been “disproportionately affected” by Gaza’s healthcare crisis.

In its latest report, OCHA said more than 5,000 female cancer patients are unable to access treatment. It added 25 percent of women have reported skin infections, and they also account for most hepatitis A and gastrointestinal diseases.

Other key highlights included:

  • 70 percent of medication and 83 percent of medical supplies have been exhausted from stockpiles.
  • Families are at risk of further displacement as the rainy season approaches, increasing seasonal flooding and high tides as hundreds of thousands of displaced shelter by the sea.
20 Sep 2024 - 22:30
 (22:30 GMT)

Israeli settlers pepper-spray Palestinian woman, children

The Palestine Red Crescent Society says Palestinians, including a woman and two children, were injured as Israelis from illegal settlements attacked them with pepper spray in the village of Deir Nidham near Ramallah.

The wounded were taken to a hospital in the occupied West Bank after they suffered burns to their faces from the pepper spray, according to witnesses. Settlers also attacked vehicles with stones along a road near Deir Nidham and the village of Umm Safa.

Israeli forces and settlers have killed at least 716 Palestinians, including 160 children, and injured 5,750 since last October.

Israeli settlers walk with weapons in the town of Huwara, occupied West Bank [File: Oren Ziv/AFP]
20 Sep 2024 - 22:15
 (22:15 GMT)

LISTEN: What’s behind the massive protests in Israel?

For weeks now, huge numbers of protesters have called for Prime Minister Netanyahu to sign a deal to return the remaining captives from Gaza.

An estimated 750,000 hit the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere in one demonstration. Yet, the Israeli government continues to thwart ongoing negotiations with mediators and Hamas.

What do these protests signify about the growing calls and pressure for a ceasefire agreement in Israel?

20 Sep 2024 - 22:05
 (22:05 GMT)

Israeli forces raid occupied West Bank town

Israeli soldiers stormed the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus, according to Wafa news agency.

Citing Mayor Mohammed Azem, Wafa reported that Israeli forces entered the town with “heavy gunfire and tear gas bombs” leading to confrontations.

There has been a surge in Israeli military and settler violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, which has unfolded in the shadow of Israel’s war on Gaza.

More than 700 people have been killed in the occupied territory either by the Israeli military or Israelis from illegal settlements since October 2023.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:50
 (21:50 GMT)

Six Palestinians confirmed dead in Israeli strike on Khan Younis

Earlier, we reported three Palestinians were killed after a family home was bombed in Gaza’s southern city.

The civil defence agency now says at least six people are confirmed dead in the Israeli attack.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed – mostly children and women – in the besieged territory since October 2023.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:35
 (21:35 GMT)

One killed in Israeli attack on Nuseirat refugee camp

Gaza’s civil defence says one other person has been seriously wounded.

The attack, it said, targeted “a crowd of residents” in the camp in central Gaza.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:29
 (21:29 GMT)

Elite Radwan Force commander killed, Hezbollah confirms

Hezbollah confirmed the death of senior military official Ibrahim Aqil in an Israeli air strike in Beirut.

In a statement, Hezbollah described Aqil as “a great jihadist leader” and said he “joined the procession of his brothers, the great martyr leaders, after a blessed life full of jihad [struggle], work, wounds, sacrifices, dangers, challenges, achievements, and victories”.

Israeli officials earlier said the rare strike on Beirut’s southern suburbs killed Aqil, a commander of the Lebanese group’s elite Radwan Force. The strike killed at least 14 people and wounded dozens more, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:15
 (21:15 GMT)

Three Palestinians killed in Khan Younis attack

Gaza’s civil defence says its teams pulled out the bodies of three Palestinians after a residential home that belonged to the al-Qaoud family was targeted in an Israeli air strike in Gaza’s southernmost city.

This brings the total number of Palestinians killed across the enclave today to at least 44, medical sources tell Al Jazeera.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:05
 (21:05 GMT)

One killed in northern Gaza air strike on family home

Earlier we reported an attack on a home south of Gaza City with dozens wounded.

The civil defence agency now confirms one person was killed in the Israeli strike and five people remain missing.

“Our crews face difficulties in reaching them because of the lack of bulldozers and heavy equipment,” the agency added.

20 Sep 2024 - 21:00
 (21:00 GMT)
Developing

Israeli strike on northern Gaza home wounds dozens

Israeli forces targeted the Hajji family home in the Zeitoun area south of Gaza City, the civil defence agency says.

Dozens were injured and rescue efforts are ongoing to find people missing under the rubble.

20 Sep 2024 - 20:45
 (20:45 GMT)

Palestinian shot, in serious condition, in occupied West Bank

Israeli forces in a watchtower shot the man with live rounds near the entrance of Bethlehem as raids and violence continue against Palestinians in the occupied territory.

The wounded man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported, citing local medical sources.

20 Sep 2024 - 20:30
 (20:30 GMT)

Gaza ceasefire ‘absolute and urgent priority’

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, addressed the Security Council on the “tragic situation” unfolding in the Middle East.

“It is bound up with the war in Gaza, the spiralling violence in the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinian territories,” Turk said.

He noted the “catastrophic” humanitarian situation in Gaza, adding he is “outraged by the inconceivable toll of human suffering”.

Ending the war on Gaza and avoiding a regional conflict is an “absolute and urgent priority”, he added.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk [File: Marwan Ali/AP]
20 Sep 2024 - 20:15
 (20:15 GMT)

UN official says ‘devastating war on Gaza’ must end

Rosemary Anne DiCarlo, the UN’s under-secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, addressed the UN Security Council on Israel’s expanding war on Gaza, which she called “devastating”.

“The number of fatalities tragically keeps increasing. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed … many of them children,” DiCarlo said.

She reiterated the need for an urgent ceasefire and called for a “massive scale-up” of humanitarian aid to Gaza, where acute malnutrition and disease are spreading after nearly one year of attacks.

A Palestinian boy suffering from malnutrition at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis [File: Mohammed Salem/Reuters]
20 Sep 2024 - 20:00
 (20:00 GMT)

UN calls for ‘transparent’ probe into Israeli troops abusing bodies

Asked about footage showing Israeli troops throwing bodies of Palestinians off a roof in the occupied West Bank, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric says the video was “frankly grotesque and inhumane”.

“From what we’ve seen this morning, we’re obviously very concerned about the deteriorating situation in the occupied West Bank, including the latest Israeli military operation,” Dujarric said at a news conference.

Dujarric stressed the importance of a “transparent” investigation and called for those responsible to be held accountable.