▲ Mourning in Khan Yunis after an Israeli bombardment.Afp Photo

AFP, Reuters, Xinhua and Europa Press

The newspaper La Jornada
Friday, August 16, 2024, p. 26

Geneva. With more than 40,000 Palestinians killed in 10 months of war in the Gaza Strip, the day marks a a grim milestone for the entire worldUN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said yesterday as more than 100 Jewish settlers attacked a village in the reoccupied West Bank with stones and Molotov cocktails.

On average, approximately 130 people have been killed every day in Gaza over the past 10 months. The scale of the destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and places of worship by the Israeli military is deeply shocking.Türk said in a statement.

Today marks a sombre milestone for the entire world. The people of Gaza are mourning 40,000 Palestinian deaths today.he noted.

This unimaginable situation is largely due to the Israeli defense forces’ recurrent failures to comply with the rules of war.he said.

Israel and Hamas have been at odds since the Palestinian militant group’s attack on Israeli territory on October 7, which killed 1,198 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli data.

Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 111 are still held in Gaza, of whom 39 have died, according to the Israeli army.

The retaliatory offensive launched by Tel Aviv left at least 40,000 dead, the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry reported yesterday, although it does not break down the deaths between civilians and combatants.

Türk recalled that international humanitarian law is very clear about the paramount importance of protecting civilians, civilian property and infrastructureand indicated that its services documented Serious violations of this right by both the Israeli army and Palestinian armed groups, including the armed wing of Hamas.

He urged all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire and also called for the release of the hostages as well as the Palestinians arbitrarily detained.

In this context, more than 100 extremist Israeli settlers, many masked, attacked the Palestinian village of Jit, west of Nablus, where they killed one Palestinian, seriously wounded another and set fire to houses and vehicles, reported The Times of Israel.

I strongly condemn tonight’s pogrom in Samariawrote Israeli President Isaac Herzog on the social network X, using the name of the biblical province that corresponds to the north of the West Bank, a territory occupied by Israel since 1967.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the president The disturbances that occurred last night in the town of Jit are taken seriously. and said that Those responsible for any criminal act will be arrested and prosecuted..

But the leader of Likud, Israel’s right-wing party that has been in power since December 2022 with the support of far-right groups, advocates expanding settlements in the West Bank and even the complete annexation of this territory occupied since 1967.

Since the start of the war in Gaza with the Hamas attack, violence has erupted in the West Bank where at least 633 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers, while 18 of this nationality have died in attacks by residents of the Arab nation.

Before the settler attack, two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Balata refugee camp in the northern West Bank, near a disputed site visited by Jewish worshippers, the Palestinian health ministry and the Israeli military said.

New settlement

The United States has condemned Israel’s approval of a new settler settlement at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage site near the historic city of Bethlehem, saying it harms prospects for creating a Palestinian state. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a far-right politician, announced the move yesterday, openly stating that Israel hoped to create new settlements in the country. facts on the ground to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state.

The United States has stepped up criticism of Smotrich and Itamar Ben Gvir, far-right members of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government who oppose a plan by President Joe Biden aimed at ending the war.

All of Israel’s settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967, are considered illegal under international law.

Talks in Doha

Doha was the scene of a new round of talks yesterday aimed at reaching a ceasefire and the release of hostages held by Hamas, and contacts will continue today. Egyptian state news channel Al Qahera News TV quoted informed sources who said that the disagreements between the parties They are still great.

At press time, Hamas was reported to have said that a truce in Gaza must include a withdrawal. complete from Israel.