Source: Mondoweiss.net
Following the Lebanon pager explosion attacks, Nasrallah said an Israeli invasion would be a “historic opportunity” to target Israeli forces. Earlier in the week, Israel razed an entire residential block in central Gaza, killing at least 40 people.
Casualties
- 41,272 + killed* and at least 95,551 wounded in the Gaza Strip. 32,280 of the slain have been identified, including 10,627 children and 5,956 women, representing 60% of the casualties, and 2,770 elderly as of August 6, 2024. Some 10,000 more are estimated to be under the rubble*
- 708+ Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. This includes 146 children.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- The Israeli army recognizes the death of 714 Israeli soldiers and the injury of at least 4,100 others since October 7.***
* Gaza’s branch of the Palestinian Ministry of Health confirmed this figure in its daily report, published through its WhatsApp channel on September 18, 2024. Rights groups and public health experts estimate the death toll to be much higher.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. This is the latest figure according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health as of September 19, 2024.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot reported on August 4, 2024, that some 10,000 Israeli soldiers and officers have been either killed or wounded since October 7. The head of the Israeli army’s wounded association told Israel’s Channel 12 that the number of wounded Israeli soldiers exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 who have been permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7 and as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Gaza branch of the Palestinian Health Ministry says death toll surpasses 41,272, with 95,551 wounded since October 7, including 33% children, 18.4% women, and 8.6% elderly; at least 115 Palestinian children born and killed by Israeli forces since October 7.
- Russia, the EU, and the UN condemn the Lebanon pager explosion attacks.
- Nasrallah vows “just punishment” for Israel after pager explosion attacks, calls it “a massacre” and a “terrorist attack.”
- Nasrallah says Israel will no be able to separate the Lebanese front from the front in Gaza or return Israelis to the north through military action.
- The Israeli army admits one soldier killed, 11 wounded in Hezbollah rocket attack on Israeli military base in the upper Galilee on Thursday.
- Israeli media says Israeli war minister Gallant told U.S. Defense Secretary Austin that Israel was about to conduct “a difficult operation” in Lebanon in a phone conversation hours before the pager explosions.
- Israeli media says Israeli army pulled forces from the occupied West Bank to move them to the Lebanese front in the north.
- Israeli forces killed at least 40 Palestinians in the bombing of a residential block in the central Gaza Strip last Tuesday, opened fire on rescue teams in the aftermath according to the Gaza-based Civil Defense.
- WHO says 22,500 Palestinians in Gaza, a quarter of the wounded since last October, have suffered life-changing injuries, including limb injuries, amputations, spinal cord trauma, traumatic brain injuries, and major burns.
- Israel admits to the killing of four soldiers in Rafah, including a military staff medic, and the wounding of five other soldiers during the fighting in southern Gaza.
- The armed wing of Hamas, the Qassam Brigades, says it ambushed an Israeli armored force in Rafah and targeted Israeli soldiers inside a building.
- Israel’s public broadcaster says Israel will present a new ceasefire proposal to mediators, which would include an end to the war, a prisoner exchange, and a safe route out of Gaza for Sinwar and other Hamas leaders.
- Israeli forces kill three Palestinians after firing a missile into a house in Qabatiya, west of Jenin, following a gunfight with Palestinian resistance fighters inside. Eight schools in Qabatiya were forced to evacuate, while 1,000 students remained trapped for hours in two other schools due to Israeli forces’ raid into the town.
- The UN General Assembly passed a resolution on September 17 demanding Israel end the illegal occupation of the Palestinian Territories within 12 months. The resolution also urged countries to stop importing Israeli settlement products, and to halt arms transfers to Israel.
Nasrallah vows ‘just punishment’ after pager explosions
The Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, vowed “just punishment” against Israel in retaliation for the pager explosion attacks on Lebanon on Tuesday and Wednesday, which left 32 people killed and thousands injured.
“The punishment will come,” Nasrallah declared. “But when, where, or how, is something that we will keep to ourselves, and even to the closest circle within ourselves.”
Nasrallah’s declarations came in a live speech on Thursday, stating that Israel’s goal from the pager explosion attack was to “put a stop to the Lebanese front and separate it from Gaza.”
“We received messages on Tuesday evening [following the explosions] saying that the aim of the explosions is to stop the [Lebanese] front, and was a threat that if we don’t stop, there will be more attacks,” Nasrallah indicated. “In the name of the martyrs and the wounded, we tell Netanyahu that the northern front will not stop except with the end of the war on Gaza. We will not stop supporting Gaza and the West Bank and all the oppressed in that sacred land,” he declared, adding, “This is the beginning of our response.”…