Israel's 100 days of relentless war on Gaza

Kenzi al Madhoun, a four-year-old who was wounded in Israeli bombardment, lies at Al Aqsa Hospital
Kenzi al-Madhoun, age four, is one of thousands upon thousands of children wounded in Israeli bombardment. Here she lies at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on November 1, 2023, by which date more than 3,600 Palestinian children had been killed in Gaza, a number that is nearing 10,000 today, according to Gaza's Health Ministry [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]
Kenzi al-Madhoun, a four-year-old who was wounded in Israeli bombardment, lies at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir el-Balah, the Gaza Strip, November 1, 2023. In just 25 days of war, more than 3,600 Palestinian children have been killed in Gaza, according to Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry. The advocacy group Save The Children says more children were killed in Gaza in October 2023 than in all conflict zones around the world combined in 2022. [Abdel Kareem Hana/AP Photo]

Today marks 100 days since Israel started its assault on Gaza.

In that time, the death toll among Palestinians living in Gaza has risen to nearly 24,000 as Israel unleashed more than 65,000 tonnes of bombs on the besieged enclave and its population of 2.3 million people trapped in less than 400sq kilometres.

Israel’s assault on Gaza began on October 7, in response to an attack by armed fighters from the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas and other Palestinian groups. Some 1,140 people died during the attack and about 240 were taken into Gaza as captives.

In retaliation, Israel began a vicious bombing campaign and tightened what was already a crushing siege that Gaza has been under since 2007.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Killed-1705235791
(Al Jazeera)

“We are fighting human animals,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on October 9, announcing that food, water, fuel, medicines, everything, would not be permitted into Gaza.

Since then, defying condemnations and pleas from international organisations and rights groups, Israel has continued an indiscriminate campaign that has sown terror among the people in Gaza, killed entire multi-generation families, and destroyed huge swaths of urban and rural lands.

Israel now stands accused by South Africa of carrying out genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague in the Netherlands.

Speaking on Saturday, after presentations by both sides were done at the ICJ, Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said “No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else." His "axis" comment referred to Iran and its allied groups.

Alternating between claims that this level of killing and destruction is somehow justified in the name of self-defence and statements that it is doing its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, Israel has often strayed far from its statements about the different aspects of this war on Gaza.

On the killing of civilians

Shati refugee camp
Among the civilian casualties of Israel's war on Gaza is an excruciating number of children. [Abedelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Among the civilian casualties of Israel's war on Gaza is an excruciating number of children. [Abedelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

Israel’s messaging on civilians has confused observers. While claiming on the one hand to not be targeting civilians, it has also pushed a narrative that paints every civilian in Gaza as an armed member of Hamas.

In addition to that, Omer Tishler, the brigadier-general who heads the Israeli Air Force, told the Jerusalem Post as early as October 11 that the bombing campaign was taking out entire inhabited neighbourhoods in order to target one or two “Hamas commanders” its intelligence said were hiding there.

The intelligence in question seems to be an AI system known as the Gospel (Habsora) that was churning out potential targets faster than attacks on those targets could be carried out and certainly faster than any review by a human could happen - which was not the procedure followed.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Injured-1705235780
(Al Jazeera)

By naming the Habsora-generated targets “military”, Tishler was able to conclude, chillingly: "There is always a military target, but we are not being surgical.”

On the ground, this means Israel has dropped bombs on refugee camps, hospitals, schools - and entire neighbourhoods, all of which have been destroyed.

Israel claims that its system of “warning” people it is about to bomb is adequate and absolves it from blame.

The system in question is air-dropping leaflets on neighbourhoods that tell residents their homes are about to be bombed, giving them anything from hours to a day or two to completely abandon their homes and lives and leave - on foot, as fleeing civilians have been banned from using vehicles from the early days of the war on Gaza.

On the killing of journalists

Relatives of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa, who was killed by an Israeli attack, mourn mourn over his body at his funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 16, 2023 [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]
Relatives of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, who was killed by an Israeli attack, mourn over his body at his funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 16, 2023 [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]
Relatives of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa, who was killed by an Israeli attack, mourn over his body at his funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza on December 16, 2023 [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]

Since October 7, Israel has allowed journalists from all over the world to come to Israel and report, conducting guided tours of the areas attacked by the Qassam Brigades and other Palestinian fighters.

It has also allowed, in November, two Western news networks to go on separate occasions into Gaza, where they were accompanied by the Israeli army and taken around and shown various areas that had been prepared for their visit.

However, Israel has not allowed the entry of any foreign or Palestinian journalists present outside Gaza into the Gaza Strip to do their own reporting.

In late October, the Reuters and Agence France Presse agencies wrote to the Israeli army to ask that their journalists in Gaza not be targeted.

The Israeli army responded that it protects civilians but “cannot guarantee the safety of reporters in the Gaza Strip”, claiming that Hamas deliberately operated near journalists, thus putting them in the line of fire.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Journalists Killed-1705215174
(Al Jazeera)

Foreign media appealed the prohibition on entering Gaza, but on January 9, Israel’s Supreme Court refused their petition, claiming that the presence of foreign journalists in Gaza could endanger Israeli troops by giving away their operational locations.

As for those journalists in Gaza, they have found themselves in increasing danger, with little respect being given to the press markings they wear every day.

To date, 100 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed in Gaza, one person each day.

The last two victims, Al Jazeera’s Hamza Dahdouh and freelancer Mustafa Thuraya, were killed in a targeted air strike on their car in Khan Younis on January 7.

Relatives of the Al Jazeera cameraman, Samer Abu Daqqa, who was killed by an Israeli airstrike, mourn his death, during his funeral in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip. Saturday, Dec. 16
Relatives of Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa mourn at his funeral in Khan Younis, Gaza, December 16, 2023 [Mohammed Dahman/AP Photo]

On December 15, the Israeli army targeted a school in Gaza from which Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abudaqa and Gaza bureau head Wael Dahdouh were reporting. There were no reported disturbances nearby that could explain the attack.

Dahdoud was hit in the arm and managed to make his way to a nearby ambulance. Abudaqa was badly injured in the legs and could not get away.

For the next five hours, the Intercept found, he lay bleeding as numerous appeals were made to the Israeli army to allow an ambulance to go save the journalist. The army refused and threatened any vehicles approaching.

After an anguished watch, Abudaqa bled to death.


On endangering medical facilities during war

An injured Palestinian child at Nasser hospital
Israeli attacks have decimated Gaza's healthcare, putting many hospitals out of commission and leaving the few that are working to struggle with a severe lack of everything, from space to sterilisation to pain control. Here an injured child is treated on the floor at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as Israeli attacks continue on December 28, 2023 [Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu Agency]
Israeli attacks have decimated Gaza's healthcare, putting many hospitals out of commission and leaving the few that are working to struggle with a severe lack of everything, from space to sterilisation to pain control. Here an injured child is treated on the floor at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis as Israeli attacks continue on December 28, 2023 [Jehad Alshrafi/Anadolu Agency]

In a continued blurring of the lines between acceptable targets and war crimes, Israel maintained from the early days of its war on Gaza that al-Shifa Hospital was serving as a cover for a massive Qassam Brigades command centre that was in tunnels underneath Gaza’s biggest hospital.

After marking al-Shifa a target - while proclaiming that the tens of thousands of sick, injured, and displaced people huddling there were not targets - Israeli forces surrounded the hospital in early November and the already struggling medical facility was plunged into darkness as it lost power.

The world watched in horror as hospital staff were forced to take 36 premature babies out of their now-useless incubators and do their best to keep them warm and breathing with no equipment.

Eight babies died as Israeli attacks on people moving between buildings heightened the fear of the already terrified people in the hospital.

Israel raided the hospital on November 15 and told people sheltering there to leave, on foot, and head south in Gaza. Israel denied it had issued evacuation orders for the hospital.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Hospitals-1705215162
(Al Jazeera)

Six days later, the surviving babies were finally allowed to be evacuated southwards towards Rafah. They were eventually taken to Egypt for treatment they desperately needed.

One day later, the Israeli Ministry of Defence’s outreach programme, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), said it had delivered large amounts of food to the hospital, including cakes, chocolate spread and pickles.

However, it did not mention how it decided on the amounts of food, how many people were left alive in the hospital, or how long these amounts were supposed to sustain them.

Al-Shifa Hospital was not alone in being attacked. Israel seemed to be systematically targeting hospitals in Gaza. According to the World Health Organization, Israel has hit about 94 medical facilities, including 26 hospitals, since October 7.

Palestinian women mourn as they hold the bodies of children killed in Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, at the Indonesian hospital, in the northern Gaza Strip, November 18
Mothers mourn over the bodies of children killed in Israeli attacks at the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza, on November 18, 2023 [Fadi Alwhidi/Reuters]

Among the hospitals devastated were the Indonesian Hospital, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital, and others.

There have been almost 600 Israeli attacks on hospitals and healthcare within Gaza since October, the United Nations reports.

In these attacks, Israel killed about 606 people and devastated an already struggling healthcare system, preventing medics from providing life-saving care to thousands of victims in the enclave.

Those hospitals that are still standing are working with a shocking lack of supplies, performing surgeries without anaesthetic and only able to provide paracetamol to amputees - like three-year-old Ahmad Shabat, who lost both his legs in an Israeli bombing - for pain control.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - womens health-1705215197
(Al Jazeera)

Doctors have also recounted having to perform Caesarean section deliveries with no pain relief at all, fearing that the mothers’ chances of surviving such physical pain would be slim.

Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Mhawish wrote of being unable to access pain relief or antibiotics after he and his family’s home was destroyed in an Israeli attack.

Mohammed described entire nights deprived of sleep as broken bones and open wounds plagued them.

“Infection is a constant worry,” he wrote, “Every time the first trace of contamination appears, the wounds have to be cleaned with scorching water, fluid so hot that it burns the healthy skin around the wound. It was difficult to get [Mohammed’s two-year-old son] Rafik to understand that we weren’t trying to burn him.”

Yet Israel’s messaging continued to claim that it was doing everything possible to help provide healthcare to the devastated people of Gaza.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), children’s living conditions continue to deteriorate rapidly in Gaza, with cases of diarrhoea and skin diseases increasing and raising the risk of more child deaths.

On starving the civilian population

Palestinians crowded together as they wait for food distribution in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are facing severe hunger in Gaza as a result of Israel's siege tactics and destruction of roads and infrastructure that could aid distribution. Here, people crowd together waiting for food aid in Rafah on November 8, 2023 [Hatem Ali/AP Photo]
Palestinians are facing severe hunger in Gaza as a result of Israel's siege tactics and destruction of roads and infrastructure that could aid distribution. Here, people crowd together waiting for food aid in Rafah on November 8, 2023 [Hatem Ali/AP Photo]

In a move harkening back to medieval siege tactics, Israel has gone from stopping entirely to severely limiting the amount of food, water and fuel that is able to enter the Gaza enclave.

From an approximate 500 trucks of humanitarian aid every working day - in addition to normal commerce and movement of locally grown vegetables, fruits, dairy and livestock - Gaza was cut down to nothing for two weeks. Water-purification and sewage-treatment plants ground to a halt, as they ran out of the fuel they needed to keep running.

Desperate, the people of Gaza started drinking unpotable salty water and bathing and washing their clothes in the sea, resulting in the spread of skin diseases as a result of contact with polluted seawater.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Food insecurity-1705215154
(Al Jazeera)

For the Gaza Strip, where 80 percent of the people were already reliant on humanitarian aid, these weeks with no food supplies were harrowing as hunger became a daily reality and parents feared their children would starve to death in front of their eyes.

The shipments of humanitarian aid that were eventually allowed in have been nowhere near enough to feed an already destitute and beleaguered population. The UN says that about one out of every four people is starving in Gaza and that two-thirds of families in some areas have spent at least one full day and night without food.

Prior to Israel’s war on Gaza, humanitarian aid was also allowed in through several crossings, which were whittled down to one, the Rafah crossing with Egypt, and burdened with a long, circuitous inspection protocol that slowed deliveries down further.

Throughout the fighting, COGAT has been charged with delivering relief to the besieged citizens of the Gaza Strip and has worked double time to highlight any efforts, making extensive use of social media, often in sharp contrast with the experience of the people of Gaza that COGAT is meant to be helping.

According to aid agencies within Gaza, the territory is now experiencing the world’s worst hunger crisis.

Relief agency staff report that families are combing through the rubble and searching for whatever scraps of food they can find.

According to the internationally recognised five-phase scale used to classify food crises, more than half a million people in Gaza – a quarter of the entire population – are now understood to be living through the most severe phase 5 “catastrophic level”.

In other words, they are currently at critical risk of mass starvation and death.

COGAT claims to the contrary, relief and aid entering the Gaza Strip have barely met the urgent needs of a population now left destitute and starving.

According to the UN, in the final week of December, food assistance had only reached 8 percent of the targeted people in need.

On targeting civilian areas

the village of Khuzaa, near Abasan east of Khan Yunis
A Palestinian girl pets a cat she rescued as she sits near her family's only remaining belongings amid the destruction caused by Israeli attacks in the village of Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis on November 27, 2023 [Said Khatib/AFP]
A Palestinian girl pets a cat she rescued as she sits near her family's only remaining belongings amid the destruction caused by Israeli attacks in the village of Khuza'a, east of Khan Younis on November 27, 2023 [Said Khatib/AFP]

From the beginning of the Israeli assault, the suffering in Gaza has been on many levels.

Besides people feeling they are in physical danger, going hungry, not being able to access medical attention, and not being able to contact family who are in other locations, they have been plagued by the constant uncertainty of where they should go to seek some modicum of safety.

Israel instructed people in the north to “head south” constantly in the early days of its assault. Among those people who heeded the call was Dina, a young mother who put her daughters on a truck that was leaving Gaza City on October 13 and heading south in a convoy.

Despite Israeli announcements that the evacuation route was safe, the convoy was bombed and Dina was killed, leaving her two daughters and anguished husband behind.

The destruction moved further and further south in the Gaza Strip, squeezing a desperate population tighter and tighter into an ever-decreasing area near its southern border with Egypt.

Sameh Murad cries as he holds his daughter Mayar after she survived the Israeli targeting on convoys of people leaving for the southern Gaza Strip
Dina's husband Sameh Murad cries as he holds his daughter Mayar after she survived the Israeli bombing of the convoy heading south in the Gaza Strip [File: Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]

In early December, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the UN Security Council that people in Gaza “are being told to move like human pinballs – ricocheting between ever-smaller slivers of the south, without any of the basics for survival”.

The destruction of hundreds of thousands of housing units has also meant that displaced people moving from their own destroyed homes have found nowhere to shelter, and hundreds of thousands have camped as best they can on hospital grounds, on the roads, and in empty fields, which adds a chilling reality to news that Israel has struck rural land here or there.

On January 10, four children were killed by Israeli bombs dropped on agricultural land near Rafah where displaced people were sheltering. The region near the border crossing is a maze of tents as displaced Palestinians seek shelter from Israeli attacks.

INTERACTIVE - 100 days of Israels war on Gaza - Destruction-1705215141
(Al Jazeera)

Hundreds of homes have been hit throughout the war on Gaza, in several locations, many of which were within areas the Israeli army had claimed were “safe”.

When a strike hits, families, neighbours, and volunteer rescuers rush to the scene and begin frantically digging through the rubble, often with their bare hands, to save whoever may still be alive.

Throughout, Israel has claimed that it is operating with the safety of the civilians of Gaza in mind and that it is exerting every effort to avoid any unnecessary deaths.

According to the Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, Israel has been deliberately targeting shelters within Gaza in a bid to force residents to seek ways out of the Gaza Strip, should one become available.

In a statement, the organisation stressed that Israel’s targeted attacks on Gaza’s shelter centres stood in stark violation of international law, particularly international humanitarian law.

As the humanitarian suffering of the people of Gaza continues, it remains to be seen whether international condemnation and pressure on Israel will serve to stop its relentless attacks.

An aerial view of burial of the 80 Palestinians who died in Israeli attacks, to a mass grave at Tel al-Sultan Cemetery in Rafah, Gaza on December 26
An aerial view of the burial of 80 Palestinians who died in Israeli attacks in a mass grave at Tel al-Sultan Cemetery in Rafah, Gaza on December 26, 2023 [Mohammed Fayq/Anadolu Agency]
An aerial view of the burial of 80 Palestinians who died in Israeli attacks in a mass grave at Tel al-Sultan Cemetery in Rafah, Gaza on December 26, 2023 [Mohammed Fayq/Anadolu Agency]
Source: Al Jazeera