Gaza live: Several dead including Hezbollah commander after Israeli strike on southern Beirut

There are many reasons Gaza has been mostly off the radar of the western establishment media for months now, even as the enclave turns into an ever-bigger killing zone.

One is that, nearly a year into what the World Court has termed a “plausible genocide”, where Israel has kept out western journalists and killed off most Palestinian journalists, as well as driving out international aid organisations and the United Nations, there is almost no one left to tell us what is happening.

We have only snapshots of individual suffering, but not the big picture. How many Palestinians are dead? We know there are at least 40,000 killed by Israel - the deaths recorded by Palestinian officials before the health system collapsed. But how many more? Double that figure? Quadruple it? Times it by 10? The truth is, no one knows.

What about the famine in Gaza that has been raging for many, many months as Israel has systematically blocked aid into the enclave, in line with its promise last October to deny the Palestinians there food, water and power?

The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor, Karim Khan, has requested arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, because the pair’s starvation of Gaza is a crime against humanity.

But the prolonged famine is presented as a near-victimless crime. Where are the dead from this famine? They are certainly not on our TV screens or on our front pages.

The true death toll will probably never be reported, just as it wasn’t after the West’s Middle East bloodbaths in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. Western politicians have no interest in knowing the truth, and the western establishment media has no interest in discovering it.

Read more: You can’t arm a genocidal state into moderation. So why does the West keep trying? By Jonathan Cook

Israeli forces have killed at least 42 Palestinians and wounded 107 in the past 24 hours, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

This brings the death toll since 7 October 2023 to 40,861, with more than 94,398 wounded and an estimated 10,000 still missing, likely dead and buried under rubble.

Health officials report that over 50 percent of the victims are children and women.

Eighteen charities are calling on the UK to end all arms transfers to Israel after the government suspended 30 out of 250 export licences to Israel on Monday. 

The charities said in a joint press release on Wednesday that the government's decision was a "welcome step forward" but "insufficient". 

"For eleven months, humanitarian organisations have raised the alarm about Israel's potential violations of international law, including the use of starvation and denial of water as weapons of war, attacks on civilian and so-called 'safe' areas, and targeting of aid operations," the statement, signed by groups including Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP), Oxfam GB and Save the Children UK, said. 

"Meanwhile, Israel's denial of access for UN mechanisms, human rights experts and journalists, and its rampant disinformation against UN agencies, has dramatically undermined efforts to document its violations. 

"In that vein, we are deeply concerned that, in the two months since the new UK Government was elected, it has failed to engage with UK-based humanitarian organisations working in Gaza at a Ministerial level to seek their input on these issues."

The groups added that it was "beyond time" for London to recognise Israel's "disregard for international humanitarian law".

"As a collective group of humanitarian, development, human rights and faith charities working for Palestinian human rights, wellbeing and dignity, we reiterate our collective call on the Government to immediately end ALL arms transfers to Israel to prevent their use in violations of international law."

Ending the war on Gaza is in the best interest of Israel politically, economically and from a security perspective, said opposition leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday. 

However, Lapid added that as long as the current government exists, the war will continue. 

"They don't know how to bring peace, and they don't want to bring peace," he said on social media platform X.

"This government prefers war because it frees it from having to deal with the challenges. It's time to change the government and end the war," he added. 

כל עוד הממשלה הזו קיימת, המלחמה תמשך. הם לא יודעים להביא שקט, והם לא רוצים להביא שקט. אסור לקבל את זה.

מדינת ישראל צריכה לסגור את המלחמה הזו, בתנאים שלה. לעשות עסקת חטופים ולסגור עניין. סיום המלחמה הוא אינטרס ישראלי. אינטרס בטחוני, אינטרס כלכלי, אינטרס מדיני.

— יאיר לפיד - Yair Lapid (@yairlapid) September 4, 2024

Israeli air strikes in Gaza City have killed Palestinian doctor Nihad al-Madhoun, the Palestinian civil defence said on Wednesday. 

Meanwhile, heavy bombing was reported south of Gaza City, along with artillery shelling north of the Nuseirat refugee camp, and Israeli drones opened fire on makeshift camps for displaced people in Rafah, according to Palestinian media reports. 

Former UK Foreign Secretary David Cameron sat on advice given by officials from the Foreign Office that Israel was breaching international humanitarian law (IHL) in Gaza, the Guardian reported on Tuesday. 

A former Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) adviser told the newspaper that British officials in Israel and London sent drafts to the government from at least February onwards stating there was clear evidence of breaches of international humanitarian law in Gaza and that the UK risked being complicit. 

The source, who contributed to drafting the advice, said: "The advice being sent to the Foreign Office was clear that the breaches of IHL by Israel as the occupying power were so obvious that there was a danger of UK complicity if the licences were not withdrawn."

The UK on Monday suspended 30 arms export licences to Israel following a review under the new Labour government which found that British-made weapons may have been used in the violation of international humanitarian law in Gaza.

The FCDO adviser said: "The tragedy has to be considered: how many lives might have been saved if the arms export licences had been stopped then and not in September, and what the potential ripple effect might have been on how other countries would have reacted in ceasing trade."

Danish police on Wednesday apprehended activist Greta Thunberg at a demonstration at the University of Copenhagen against the war in Gaza, daily Ekstra Bladet reported.

Så er der gang i gaden. Greta Thunberg anholdt i København. @AnthonUnger på pletten. https://t.co/4H0a76XfXA

— James Kristoffer Miles (@KristofferMiles) September 4, 2024

Reporting by Reuters 

Israeli protesters gathered on Wednesday morning outside Netanyahu's Likud party headquarters as they continued to demonstrate, calling for a Gaza ceasefire deal with Hamas. 

"The death cabinet kills the captives. The public demands life," read one sign held at the protest.

משפחות חטופים ופעילות מחאת הנשים בקריאה כעת מול מצודת זאב בתל אביב: "קבינט המוות הורג את החטופים. הציבור דורש חיים"@OrRavid pic.twitter.com/b0IDz0GNMU

— החדשות - N12 (@N12News) September 4, 2024

The Israeli military has decided to extend its offensive in the occupied West Bank eight days after it was launched in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, according to Israeli media. 

Citing military sources, Walla news outlet reported the military was set to prolong the invasion of Jenin, although it was reportedly meant to last only up to Tuesday. 

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said on Wednesday he is working to end the indirect talks with Hamas to reach a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal. 

He advocated for the cutting off of fuel and electricity supplies to Gaza completely instead, so that Palestinians are "crushed until they collapse". 

"Working to stop the negotiations with Hamas," Ben Gvir said on social media platform X.

"A country where they murder six hostages in cold blood does not conduct negotiations with the killers but stops the negotiations, stops supplying them with fuel and electricity, and crushes them until they collapse.

"Continuing the negotiations only spurs them to produce more and more terror, including in Judea and Samaria," he said, referring to the occupied West Bank. 

פועל כדי להפסיק המו"מ עם החמאס. מדינה שרוצחים לה שישה חטופים בדם קר לא מנהלת משא ומתן עם הרוצחים אלא עוצרת את המשא ומתן, מפסיקה להעביר להם דלק וחשמל, וכותשת אותם עד הכרעתם. המשך המו"מ רק מדרבן אותם לייצר עוד ועוד טרור גם מיהודה ושומרון. pic.twitter.com/L0T1E8No9T

— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) September 4, 2024

Good morning Middle East Eye readers, 

Here are the latest updates from the Israeli war on Gaza, now in its 333rd day: 

• Israel's assault on the occupied West Bank has entered its eighth day, with ongoing raids in Jenin, Tulkarm and Nablus. At least 33 Palestinians have been killed so far, including a girl shot dead by Israeli forces on Tuesday, according to the Palestinian health ministry. 

• The Egyptian foreign ministry said it rejects the latest statements by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding they "fuel tension in the region" and holding him responsible for their consequences. 

• The United States Justice Department announced criminal charges on Tuesday against six leaders of Hamas, including three deceased and three living, over their role in the 7 October attacks in southern Israel. 

• Norway's $1.7 trillion wealth fund may have to divest companies that aid Israel in the war on Gaza and the occupied territories, according to Reuters.

Our live coverage from Gaza will shortly be closing until tomorrow morning.

Here are some of the day's key developments:

• Gaza death toll reached 40,819

• Israeli forces killed at least 35 Palestinians across Gaza on Tuesday, Palestinian officials said, amid brief pauses in fighting to conduct a third day of polio vaccinations for children

• In its latest humanitarian situation update, the UN’s humanitarian affairs office (Ocha) said that 184 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip between Thursday and Monday, with 369 injured

• Israeli settlers have stormed occupied East Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque complex with police protection

• A senior Israeli air force told Haaretz that US supplies of weapons, especially to the air force, are the main reason Israel has been able to keep the war on Gaza going

• A polio eradication scheme in Gaza is "going quite well", a senior World Health Organisation (WHO) official told Al-Jazeera

• The United States will continue to engage with mediators Egypt and Qatar in the coming days “to push for a final agreement” for a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal, US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Tuesday

• Thousands of people in Israel took to the streets today to protest against the government and call for a hostage release deal

The US has a “biblical” duty to support Israel’s annexation of the occupied West Bank, former US President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Israel argues in a new book, unveiling a plan for “one Jewish state" that he said he would share with Trump.

“President Trump has often said that he was indifferent to one state or two states - whatever the parties might agree to,” former US ambassador David Friedman writes in the book, One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. 

“His goals always were practical and targeted toward tangible improvements in the quality of life. I believe that if Israel will support this plan, he will as well,” according to a copy of the book obtained by The Forward.

Friedman argues the US should support Israel’s annexation “based first and foremost on biblical prophecies and values”, saying that such a policy “hearkens back to basic Judeo-Christian values of kindness, human dignity, humility and prosperity”.

Friedman told The Forward he will share his annexation plan with Trump “at the appropriate time”.

In a post on the social media platform X promoting his book, Friedman said the book contains “a common sense perspective” on why the US should abandon its 70-year policy of advocating for a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict that would appeal to readers “Whether you are religious or secular, right or left”.

Read more: US has 'biblical' duty to support 'one Jewish state', Trump's former ambassador says: Report

It should have been a quiet public holiday in New York City, but anti-war activists and pro-Palestinian protesters had other plans.

Thousands of people roared through Manhattan on Monday afternoon, chanting and screaming, blocking traffic and blaring vuvuzelas as they reminded the city that a devastating war continues to unfold in Gaza. 

And as has been the case since protests against Israel's war on Gaza began - following the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October on southern Israel - demonstrators called for an arms embargo against Israel, a ceasefire, ending the siege in Gaza, and an end to the occupation of Palestine.  

On Monday, protesters said they wanted to emphasise one more thing: they would not be distracted by election fever while Palestinians were being bombed in Gaza. 

"Both the Republicans and the Democrats are bipartisan when it comes to genocide, and we won't vote for people who have blood on their hands," Nerdeen Kiswani, chair of Within Our Lifetime, told Middle East Eye.

"We're boycotting the Democratic Party. We are calling for people to understand that Killer Kamala and Genocide Joe are just one in the same."

Kiswani said they oppose tax dollars going toward the killing of their family members and are united in opposition to those universities invested in facilitating the occupation of Palestinians and profiting off the war in Gaza.

"And so we are doing just the same when it comes to the Democratic Party, and really, any party, an institution that supports genocide and calls for a ceasefire, not enough. We are not stupid," Kiswani added.

Protesters - many of whom said they had been coming for months to express their outrage - said they wanted local and federal government officials, business leaders, and university administrators to know that they would not stop making them feel uncomfortable, no matter how long the war on Gaza continued.

Read more: Pro-Palestinian protesters roar through New York City in giant Labour Day march

Thousands of people in Israel took to the streets today to protest against the government and call for a hostage release deal.

On Saturday, the bodies of six hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza were recovered by soldiers, causing national outrage.