US, UK jets strike Houthi-held Hodeidah for second day
US, UK jets strike Houthi-held Hodeidah for second day/node/2575409/middle-east
US, UK jets strike Houthi-held Hodeidah for second day
US and UK jets launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen’s western Hodeidah on Tuesday, the second wave of strikes against the Yemeni militia in the same city within 24 hours. (X/@CENTCOM)
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Updated 15 October 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
US, UK jets strike Houthi-held Hodeidah for second day
Houthi-run Al-Masirah channel reported US and UK aircraft conducted four strikes against targets in Hodeidah’s Al-Luhayyah area
Updated 15 October 2024
Saeed Al-Batati
AL-MUKALLA: US and UK jets launched airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen’s western Hodeidah on Tuesday, the second wave of strikes against the Yemeni militia in the same city within 24 hours.
The Houthi-run Al-Masirah channel reported that US and UK aircraft conducted four strikes against targets in Hodeidah’s Al-Luhayyah area, but did not provide any additional information about the targeted locations, casualties or property damage.
On Monday, Houthi media reported that US and UK jets had struck the Al-Saleef district in Hodeidah, but provided little information about the targets.
US Central Command, in the campaign against the Houthis, usually reports that its forces target drone and missile launchers, storage facilities, as well as explosive-laden drone boats, missiles, or drones prepared by the Houthis to attack international shipping lanes.
The US military’s largest and most recent wave of airstrikes occurred on Oct. 4, when US Central Command said that its forces had carried out 15 strikes against Houthi targets in various Yemeni locations controlled by the militia.
The Houthis said that the strikes targeted Sanaa, Dhamar, Hodeidah and Al-Bayda, with residents reporting thick smoke and explosions rocking military bases in targeted areas.
In a campaign that began in November, the Houthis have launched hundreds of ballistic missiles, drones, and drone boats at international commercial and naval ships in the Red Sea and other international shipping lanes off Yemen, as well as seized a commercial ship with its crew and sunk two more.
The Houthis claim that the campaign is intended to put pressure on Israel to stop its military operations in the Gaza Strip.
Houthi drone and missile attacks on Israeli cities prompted two waves of airstrikes by Israeli jets, which targeted power plants, fuel storage facilities and ports in Hodeidah in July and September.
The latest attack came as two international human rights organizations condemned the Houthis for abducting Yemenis who celebrated the 1962 revolution, demanding their release.
Human Rights Watch and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights said in a joint statement on Tuesday that since Sept. 21, the Houthis have abducted dozens of people in Sanaa, Taiz, Al-Bayda, Dhale, Hajjah, Dhamar, Ibb, Amran and Hodeidah who wrote about the 62nd anniversary of the 1962 revolution or waved or wore a Yemeni flag.
“The crackdown on protests and any activities that diverge from Houthi beliefs and ideologies is yet another violation in the extensive record of human rights abuses they have committed in Yemen with total impunity,” Amna Guellali, research director at the Cairo Institute for Human Rights, said.
According to the two organizations, the Houthis have not filed charges against the abductees, and Houthi fighters, using several military vehicles, raided the home of a Yemeni social media activist in Sanaa after breaking in, scaring his family after he posted about the revolution on social media. He was abducted and his phones, laptop and old cameras were seized, the organizations said.
“The Houthis continue to call for the international community to respect the rights of Palestinians in Gaza, while simultaneously violating the rights of the people living in the territories they control,” Niku Jafarnia, Yemen and Bahrain researcher at Human Rights Watch, said.
Jafarnia added: “They should show the Yemeni people the same respect that they demand for Palestinians, starting by ending this endless campaign of arbitrary arrests.”
Meanwhile, Rashad Al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, asked the US to lift sanctions against a Yemeni businessman and his companies.
Last week, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Yemeni politician and banking, telecom and media magnate Hamed Abdullah Hussein Al-Ahmer, as well as nine of his companies, for supporting Palestinian Hamas.
Without naming Al-Ahmer, Yemen’s official news agency SABA reported that Al-Alimi met US Ambassador to Yemen Steven Fagin in Riyadh to “review” OFAC’s measures against Yemeni businesses.
Separately, a Yemeni military officer was killed by an explosion while driving in Yemen’s southern province of Shabwa on Monday night, in an attack claimed by Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
According to local media and officials, Col. Ahmed Mohsen Al-Suleimani, a commander with the Shabwa Defence Forces, was killed in an explosion caused by a roadside bomb that ripped through his car in Shabwa’s Al-Musenah.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement released on Tuesday.
Israel army bulldozers plow through homes at West Bank camps
Updated 16 sec ago
TULKAREM: In the West Bank city of Tulkarem, the landscape has been transformed after Israeli army bulldozers plowed through its two refugee camps in what the military called a hunt for Palestinian militants. The army gave thousands of displaced residents just a few hours to retrieve belongings from their homes before demolishing buildings and clearing wide avenues through the rubble. Now residents fear the clearances will erase not just buildings, but their own status as refugees from lands inhabited by generations of their ancestors in what is now Israel. The “right of return” to those lands, claimed by Palestinian refugees ever since the creation of Israel in 1948, remains one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The army said it would demolish 104 more buildings in the Tulkarem camp this week in the latest stage of an operation that it launched in January during a truce in the Gaza war, billing it as an intensive crackdown on several camps that are strongholds of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel. “We came back to the camp and found our house demolished. No one informed us, no one told us anything,” said Abd Al-Rahman Ajaj, 62, who had been hoping to collect his belongings on Wednesday. Born in Tulkarem camp after his parents fled what is now the Israeli city of Netanya, about 12 kilometers (seven miles) to the west, Ajaj said he had not foreseen the scale of the Israeli operation.
It began with a raid on the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a longtime stronghold of Palestinian militants, and quickly spread to other cities, including Tulkarem, displacing at least 40,000 people, according to UN figures. Vacating the camp after a warning of a raid, “we would usually come back two or three days later,” Ajaj told AFP. Now left without a house, he echoed the sentiments of Palestinians of his parents’ generation, who thought their own displacement in 1948 would also be temporary. “The last time, we left and never returned,” he said. In Tulkarem, the Israeli army’s bulldozers plowed through the dense patchwork of narrow alleyways that had grown as Palestinian refugees settled in the area over the years. Three wide arteries of concrete now streak the side of Tulkarem camp, allowing easy access for the army. Piles of cinder blocks and concrete line the roadside like snowbanks after a plow’s passage.
Ajaj said the destruction had been gradual, drawn out over the course of the operation, which the army has dubbed “Iron Wall.” Beyond the military value of wide access roads, many residents believe Israel is seeking to destroy the idea of the camps themselves, turning them into regular neighborhoods of the cities they flank. Residents fear this would threaten their refugee status and their “right of return” to the land they or their forebears fled or were expelled from in 1948. The current Israeli government — and particularly some of its far-right ministers, who demand the outright annexation of the West Bank — are firmly opposed to this demand, which they see as a demographic threat to Israel’s survival as a Jewish state. “The aim is clearly to erase the national symbolism of the refugee camp, to eliminate the refugee issue and the right of return,” said Suleiman Al-Zuheiri, an advocate for residents of nearby Nur Shams, Tulkarem’s other refugee camp, where he also lives. Zuheiri’s brother’s house was destroyed last week by the bulldozers. “The scene was painful and tragic because a house is not just walls and a roof. It holds memories, dreams, hopes and very important belongings that we couldn’t retrieve,” he said. Each demolished building housed at least six families on three floors, he added. The land allocated to the camps was limited, so residents have had little choice but to build upwards to gain space, adding an extra story with each new generation.
Back at Tulkarem camp, 66-year-old Omar Owfi said he had managed to make two trips into the camp now occupied by Israeli soldiers to retrieve belongings on Wednesday. He feared becoming homeless if his home was demolished. “They don’t care what the house is worth. All they care about is demolishing. We’re the ones losing. We’ve lost everything,” he told AFP. “They want to erase the camp — to remove as many buildings as possible and leave just streets.” He said he feared for his children and grandchildren, as they dispersed to live with various relatives. The Israeli supreme court froze the military order for mass demolitions in Tulkarem camp on Thursday, giving the state two months to answer a petition against them, said the Palestinian human rights group Adalah, which filed it. But the physical damage has already been done as the army’s manhunt for militants continues. As residents retrieved mattresses, wardrobes and air conditioning units from the camp on Wednesday under the surveillance of Israeli troops, gunshots rang out through the streets. A loud explosion echoed across the city, followed by a column of dust rising as another building was apparently blown up, sending the smell of gunpowder wafting in the wind.
Israeli military says intercepted missile launched from Yemen/node/2607045/middle-east
Israeli military says intercepted missile launched from Yemen
The attack was in “response to the crimes of the criminal Zionist enemy against civilians” in Gaza
Updated 06 July 2025
Reuters
SANAA: The Israeli military said on Sunday that it has intercepted a missile launched from Yemen toward Israel.
Sirens were activated across several areas in Israel in accordance with protocol, it said.
Israel threatened Yemen’s Houthi movement with a naval and air blockade if it the Iran-aligned group persists with attacks on Israel, in what it says is solidarity with Gaza.
Since the start of the war in Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have been firing at Israel and at shipping in the Red Sea, disrupting global trade.
Most of the dozens of missiles and drones they have launched have been intercepted or fallen short. Israel has carried out a series of retaliatory strikes.
Israel will send ceasefire negotiating team to Qatar a day before Trump and Netanyahu meet
US President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement and will host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to discuss a deal
Hamas earlier said it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit”
Updated 06 July 2025
AP
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: US-led ceasefire efforts in Gaza appeared to gain momentum Saturday after nearly 21 months of war, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s office said Israel on Sunday will send a negotiating team to talks in Qatar.
The statement also asserted that Hamas was seeking “unacceptable” changes to the proposal. US President Donald Trump has pushed for an agreement and will host Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to discuss a deal.
Inside Gaza, Israeli airstrikes killed 14 Palestinians and another 10 were killed while seeking food aid, hospital officials in the embattled enclave told The Associated Press. And two American aid workers with the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation were injured in an attack at a food distribution site, which the organization blamed on Hamas, without providing evidence.
Weary Palestinians expressed cautious hope after Hamas gave a “positive” response late Friday to the latest US proposal for a 60-day truce but said further talks were needed on implementation.
“We are tired. Enough starvation, enough closure of crossing points. We want to sleep in calm where we don’t hear warplanes or drones or shelling,” said Jamalat Wadi, one of Gaza’s hundreds of thousands of displaced people, speaking in Deir Al-Balah. She squinted in the sun during a summer heat wave of over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Hamas has sought guarantees that the initial truce would lead to a total end to the war and withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza. Previous negotiations have stalled over Hamas demands of guarantees that further negotiations would lead to the war’s end, while Netanyahu has insisted Israel would resume fighting to ensure the militant group’s destruction.
“Send a delegation with a full mandate to bring a comprehensive agreement to end the war and bring everyone back. No one must be left behind,” Einav Zangauker, mother of hostage Matan Zangauker, told the weekly rally by relatives and supporters in Tel Aviv. A Palestinian doctor and his 3 children killed
Israeli airstrikes struck tents in the crowded Muwasi area on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast, killing seven people including a Palestinian doctor and his three children, according to Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis.
Four others were killed in the town of Bani Suheila in southern Gaza. Three people were killed in three strikes in Khan Younis. Israel’s army did not immediately comment.
Separately, eight Palestinians were killed near a GHF aid distribution site in the southern city of Rafah, the hospital said. One Palestinian was killed near another GHF point in Rafah. It was not clear how far the Palestinians were from the sites.
GHF denied the killings happened near their sites. The organization has said no one has been shot at its sites, which are guarded by private contractors and can be accessed only by passing Israeli military positions hundreds of meters away.
The army had no immediate comment but has said it fires warning shots as a crowd-control measure and only aims at people when its troops are threatened.
Another Palestinian was killed waiting in crowds for aid trucks in eastern Khan Younis, officials at Nasser Hospital said. The United Nations and other international organizations have been bringing in their own supplies of aid since the war began. The incident did not appear to be connected to GHF operations.
Much of Gaza’s population of over 2 million now relies on international aid after the war has largely devastated agriculture and other food sources and left many people near famine. Crowds of Palestinians often wait for trucks and unload or loot their contents before they reach their destinations. The trucks must pass through areas under Israeli military control. Israel’s military did not immediately comment. American aid workers injured
The GHF said the two American aid workers were injured on Saturday morning when assailants threw grenades at a distribution site in Khan Younis. The foundation said the injuries were not life-threatening. Israel’s military said it evacuated the workers for medical treatment.
The GHF — a US- and Israeli-backed initiative meant to bypass the UN — distributes aid from four sites that are surrounded by Israeli troops. Three sites are in Gaza’s far south.
The UN and other humanitarian groups have rejected the GHF system, saying it allows Israel to use food as a weapon, violates humanitarian principles and is not effective. Israel says Hamas has siphoned off aid delivered by the UN, a claim the UN denies. Hamas has urged Palestinians not to cooperate with the GHF.
GHF, registered in Delaware, began distributing food in May to Palestinians, who say Israeli troops open fire almost every day toward crowds on roads heading to the distribution points.
Several hundred people have been killed and hundreds more wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses. The UN human rights office says it has recorded 613 Palestinians killed within a month in Gaza while trying to obtain aid, most of them while trying to reach GHF sites.
The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 others hostage.
Israel responded with an offensive that has killed over 57,000 Palestinians, more than half of them women and children. according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which is led by medical professionals employed by the Hamas government. It does not differentiate between civilians and combatants, but the UN and other international organizations see its figures as the most reliable statistics on war casualties.
Syrian president, Lebanon’s grand mufti hold ‘frank’ talks in Damascus
Ahmad Al-Sharaa, Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian discuss nations’ shared aspirations
‘Syrians will not be defeated by terrorism,’ Derian says
Updated 05 July 2025
NAJIA HOUSSARI
BEIRUT: Syrian President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and Lebanon’s Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdel Latif Derian had an hour-long meeting at the People’s Palace in Damascus on Saturday.
Derian’s visit was the first by a Lebanese Sunni religious leader to Syria in more than 20 years, signaling a thaw in relations between the two nations that had been strained since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and the start of the Syrian war in 2011.
Described as “frank,” the meeting addressed past estrangements and shared aspirations for renewal.
Derian, accompanied by a delegation of religious leaders, including Sheikh Mohammed Assaf, head of the Sunni Shariah courts, emphasized the importance of reconciliation and cooperation.
“After a long absence we come to reform the present and build a prosperous future,” he said, acknowledging the suffering of millions of Syrians and praising their resilience in the face of extremism and displacement.
He lauded the Syrian Arab Republic’s path toward free elections under Al-Sharaa — the first for more than 60 years — and expressed hope for its revival as a pillar of the Arab world and ability to overcome challenges like the recent Damascus church bombing, which he cited as evidence of ongoing conspiracies.
“Syrians will not be defeated by terrorism,” he said, praising Al-Sharaa’s navigation of a “difficult and arduous” road.
Derian underscored a renewed Lebanese-Syrian partnership founded on mutual support and Arab unity, and highlighted the promise of Lebanon’s own trajectory under a new government committed to the Taif Agreement.
“The hopes of the Lebanese are pinned on what was contained in the ministerial statement and the presidential oath, which are the beginning of the road to rebuilding a strong and just state, striving to serve all the Lebanese,” he said.
“Lebanon’s rise can only be achieved through the efforts of its best and loyal sons, both residents and expatriates, and the support of his Arab brothers and friends.”
He said there could be no salvation for Lebanon except through “sincere and constructive cooperation” with other Arab nations, which he described as the “guarantee of Lebanon’s security, stability, sovereignty, national unity and civilized Arabism which believes in the commitment to the Taif Agreement document … sponsored by .”
As a symbol of the strong ties between Lebanon and Syria, Derian presented Al-Sharaa with the Dar Al-Fatwa Gold Medal.
“We will stand with you in every calamity and joy,” he said.
The visit, coordinated with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam, began with prayers at the Umayyad Mosque and a stop at Mount Qasioun.
In a separate meeting with Syrian Minister of Endowments Mohammed Abu Al-Khair, Derian emphasized Dar Al-Fatwa’s role in promoting moderate Islam, citizenship and coexistence amid regional challenges.
A Lebanese political observer framed the visit as a pivotal shift, not just religious but political, signaling Lebanese Sunnis’ readiness to forge a “new and normal” relationship with Syria’s emerging leadership.
The visit underscores Lebanon’s reaffirmation of its Arab identity and commitment to moderation, moving beyond decades of tension marked by assassinations and conflict.
Hezbollah, through its activists on social media, reacted cautiously to Derian’s visit to Damascus and his meeting with Al-Sharaa, with some accusing him of “stabbing the party in the back.”
What new research reveals about Gaza’s real death toll — and why it’s far higher than official figures
Israel claims Gaza’s health ministry inflates civilian deaths, but a new survey suggests it may be undercounting them
Independent researchers estimate 83,740 people have died in Gaza since Oct. 7, 2023 — far more than official reports
Updated 05 July 2025
Jonathan Gornall
LONDON: Since October 2023, Israel has been waging two parallel wars in Gaza: One, to destroy Hamas and rescue its hostages; the other, a propaganda campaign designed to discredit the tally of civilian fatalities issued by the Gaza Ministry of Health.
However, as new independent research suggests, far from exaggerating the number of deaths since Israel began its retaliation for the Oct. 7, 2023 attack, the Gaza Ministry of Health appears to have been significantly underestimating them.
According to the latest tally from the Ministry of Health, the total number of Palestinians killed since the war began is now approaching 55,000, with a further 126,000 injured.
A Palestinian man carries a child pulled from the rubble of the Shaheen family home that was targetted in an Israeli strike in the Saftawi neighborhood, Jabalia, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 9, 2025. (AFP)
A paper published by a team of researchers in the US, UK, Norway and Belgium, working in collaboration with the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Gaza, shows the death toll is likely far higher.
As of January 5 this year, it found the total number of violent deaths over the course of the conflict had already reached 75,200.
This figure, derived independently of the Ministry of Health, is based on an exhaustive household survey, which revealed another disturbing statistic about the war in Gaza.
In addition to the 75,200 violent deaths, the survey highlighted a further 8,540 non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors, including disease, hunger, and loss of access to medical treatment and medication.
Palestinian men, wounded in gunfire as people were receiving humanitarian aid in Rafah, arrive for treatment at congested Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 3, 2025. (AFP)
That brings the total number of deaths resulting from the war in Gaza since October 2023 to 83,740.
“Our estimate for the number of violent deaths far exceeds the figures from the Ministry of Health,” said Michael Spagat, a professor of economics at Royal Holloway College, University of London, the lead author of the study and chairman of the board of trustees of the UK charity Every Casualty Counts.
“The implication of this is that the ministry has not been exaggerating the number of violent deaths.”
IN NUMBERS
• 75,200 Violent deaths resulting from the war in Gaza.
• 8,540 Non-violent deaths caused by indirect factors.
• 83,740 Total number of deaths since October 2023.
(Source: Gaza Mortality Survey)
The ministry has also been accused of falsifying the number of children killed in Israeli attacks. But “the demographics of the ministry’s figures seem to be about right,” said Spagat.
“The proportion of women, elderly, and children among the dead in its figures is consistent with what we found.”
The new research estimates that 56 percent of those killed between October 2023 and January this year — 42,200 of the total 75,200 victims — were either women, children, or those aged over 65.
Palestinian civil defense first responders and other people inspect the remains of a burnt-down classroom following an Israeli strike at the UNRWA's Osama bin Zaid school in the Saftawi district of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 27, 2025. (AFP)
More than half of these (22,800) were children under the age of 18, meaning that almost one in three of those killed in Gaza up to January this year was a child.
The Gaza Mortality Survey, which in line with standard academic procedure received ethical pre-approval from the University of London and obtained informed consent from each respondent, was conducted between Dec. 30, 2024, and Jan. 5, 2025.
Ten two-person teams from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, tracked by GPS and real-time monitoring, conducted face-to-face questionnaire-based interviews, which were recorded on tablets and phones, and uploaded data instantly to a secure central server.
The survey teams visited a sample of 2,000 households, representative of prewar Gaza, and collected information about the “vital status” of 9,729 household members and their newborn children — including whether they were alive or dead and, if dead, how they had died.
The survey, said Spagat, “would have been impossible without the support of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Economics professor Michael Spagat of Royal Holloway College, University of London. (Supplied)
“First of all, we would not have been let into Gaza, but our partner was already there. They have experienced survey researchers in Gaza, and they were the ones who conducted the interviews.
“Also crucial was that this organization has been tracking population movements since the war began. If we were doing a survey in Gaza under stable conditions, we would have a list of where people are, based on the last census. But there has been so much displacement the census-based list was of limited value.”
Instead, because it has been tracking population movements throughout the war, the PCPSR was able to identify 200 sample sites sheltering internally displaced people which reflected the distribution of pre-2023 populations, including in the now inaccessible areas of northern Gaza, Gaza City, and Rafah.
Palestinian civil defense first responders and other people inspect the remains of a burnt-down classroom following an Israeli strike at the UNRWA's Osama bin Zaid school in the Saftawi district of Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on June 27, 2025. (AFP)
As with all such research, all the numbers come with a cautionary “confidence interval” — a margin of error that shows the possible range of figures, allowing for under- and overestimation. For the total number of violent deaths estimated by the survey, this gives a range of between 63,600 and 86,800.
“Even the lowest figure is a big number, and about 16,000 above the comparable Ministry of Health figure at the time of the survey,” said Spagat.
“We have tried to draw conclusions that we are quite confident won’t get overturned by further research, and one of our conclusions is that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths in Gaza and that there is a substantial degree of undercount there.”
He added: “Our estimate for the number of children killed (22,800) is shockingly high, and well above the Ministry of Health figure.”
A Health Ministry rescue team is seen at work in the Zarqa neighborhood in northern Gaza City following an Israeli strike on October 26, 2024. (AFP/File)
Taking into account the survey’s confidence interval, the number of child deaths could range from a low of 16,700 to as many as 28,800. And at either end of that scale, said Spagat, “that is an awful lot of children.”
It is, he said, “possible that the true number of total violent deaths is even below the bottom of our confidence interval, but it’s extremely unlikely to be so far below it that it would overturn our conclusion that the Ministry of Health is not capturing all of the deaths.”
He is anxious that the survey’s conclusions should in no way be seen as a criticism of the Ministry of Health, “which has had a lot on its plate.”
In fact, although the ministry’s tally is not fully comprehensive — it has, for instance, yet to compile or release figures for non-violent war-related deaths, which this survey has revealed for the first time — Spagat said its work should be highly commended.
A man reacts as others gather to watch the burial of some of the 88 bodies in a mass grave in Khan Yunis on September 26, 2024. The bodies were recovered after Israeli strikes on civilian homes. (AFP/File)
Despite the constant criticism by Israel and its supporters, the work it is doing, under extreme conditions, “is exceptionally transparent,” he said.
“For each person they’re saying is dead, they’re listing a name and they’re listing a national ID number, a sex, and age.”
The first list of the dead was released by the ministry in October last year, in response to accusations that it was making up the numbers killed by Israel.
One factor that has been widely overlooked by critics of the ministry’s figures is the significance of the ID numbers.
Based on 2,000 household interviews, researchers say many deaths in Gaza have gone uncounted due to displacement. (AFP)
“It’s the Israelis who maintain the population register for the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, so at a minimum, they can take that list and they can check to verify that everyone listed on it is a real person,” said Spagat.
“They must have done some checking like this, and I’ve got to believe that if the Ministry of Health was just making up names Israel would have made that known.”
Ultimately, Spagat believes, the lists being compiled by Gaza’s Ministry of Health “will serve as a memorial for the people who are killed in a way that just recording a number can’t. By listing people individually, you are recording some semblance of who they were as human beings.”
The model for this, he said, was the Kosovo Memory Book, an exhaustive record of all those killed, missing, or disappeared in the fighting between 1998 and 2000, compiled by the Humanitarian Law Center in Kosovo.
A view of the wall plaques at a memorial dedicated to the victims of the Racak massacre, in the village of Racak, Kosovo. (AFP)
This record, say its authors, “calls everyone to pause in front of it, to read each name and find out who these people were and how they died. It urges people to remember people.”
In time, it adds, “when the data on the fate of those who are still missing are finally obtained … the Kosovo Memory Book will have become the most reliable witness to our recent past.”
When peace finally comes to Gaza, said Spagat, “I hope there will be funding for research on this scale (based) on the really good foundations being laid by the Ministry of Health.”
