‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 195: Israeli army withdraws from Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp, says Rafah is next

Casualties 

• 33,970 + killed* and at least 76,770 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
• 468+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
• Israel revises its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,139.
• 604 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 6,800 injured.***

*Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on April 18, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.

** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on April 5, this is the latest figure.

*** This figure is released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded is according to Israeli media reports.

Key Developments 

• Israel kills 71 Palestinians, wounds 106 in the past 24 hours across Gaza, raising the death toll since October 7 to 33,970 and the number of wounded to 76,664, according to the Gaza health ministry.
• Palestinian Red Crescent Society says Israeli forces prevent its teams from reaching the wounded in the Gaza Strip
• UNRWA chief demands investigation into Israeli crimes in Gaza
• Israeli army commander says Israeli troops will head to Rafah after finishing its raid in Nuseirat refugee camp.
• Lebanon: Israel announces 19 soldiers wounded in Hezbollah attack in northern Galilee. 
• Hezbollah says one of its commanders was killed in an Israeli strike on a town in southern Lebanon.
• Human Rights Watch says Israeli soldiers are participating in the wave of settler attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Gaza: Israel kills 56 Palestinians in the past 24 hours

The Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry announced that 56 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, while 89 others were wounded.

Meanwhile, in the northern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed four Palestinians in a strike on a school in the Shati’ refugee camp, west of Gaza City, that was housing displaced Palestinians. Israeli strikes also killed 12 Palestinians who had gathered to access internet service in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood in Gaza City.

In the central Gaza Strip, Israeli forces withdrew from the Nuseirat refugee camp and the village of Mighraqa after seven days of siege and raids. During the siege, Israeli forces intensively bombed Nuseirat, especially in its northern part. On Tuesday, Israeli forces forcibly expelled displaced families who had taken refuge in the Mahdiyeh al-Shawa school in the area.

Local sources reported that Israeli forces destroyed six residential towers on Wednesday in the surrounding area of Nuseirat before withdrawing.

In the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli forces killed a family of eight in a strike on a room in which the family had taken shelter east of Rafah. The slain family members included the two parents, their five children, and the father’s mother.

In Khan Younis, Palestinian medical teams recovered the bodies of 11 Palestinians who had been killed in previous Israeli bombings.

The Red Crescent says Israeli forces prevent teams from reaching the wounded in Gaza

Israeli forces continue to prevent medical teams from reaching the wounded in the Gaza Strip, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.

The PRCS spokesperson, Raed al-Nims, said on Thursday that Israeli forces blocked the organization’s ambulance crews’ access to wounded Palestinians in several parts of the Gaza Strip, and continue to block the access of the wounded to the remaining hospitals.

Al-Nims noted that the PRCS and Palestinian medical staff in Gaza work under a critical lack of medical supplies, due to the restrictions imposed by the Israeli army on the entry of medical material to the remaining hospitals and medical centers in the Strip.

According to the PCRS, wounded Palestinians are “piled up” in hospitals due to the lack of supplies, adding that displaced families are taking refuge in all Gaza’s hospitals.

Earlier last week, the PCRS said in a statement that 27 of its medical workers had been killed by Israeli strikes since October 7. Israeli forces released seven PCRS workers last week, after 50 days of detention in the Gaza Strip. Six PCRS members continue to be held in Israeli detention.

Israel and Hezbollah ramp up cross-border attack

The Israeli army announced on Wednesday that 19 of its soldiers were wounded, with six in critical condition, in a drone and missile strike by Hezbollah in the northern Galilee.

The strike targeted a building used as a military station by Israeli soldiers in the Palestinian town of Arab al-Aramsheh in the northern Galilee, located in northern occupied Palestine. The building was hit by a “kamikaze” drone and several anti-fortification missiles, according to the Israeli army.

Hezbollah, for its part, claimed responsibility for the attack, saying in a statement that it came in response to previous Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon.

The Israeli army later declared that it had bombed positions in southern Lebanon, which it claimed were used by Hezbollah. The Lebanese group later mourned two of its fighters, whom it said were killed in an Israeli strike on the town of Kafr Kalla in southern Lebanon. Lebanese media reported that Israeli bombs, including phosphorus bombs, were dropped on the towns of Kafr Kalla, al-Khyam, and Naqoura.

Israel and Hezbollah have been engaged in daily cross-border fighting since October 8, when Hezbollah began to attack Israeli positions shortly after Israel launched its assault on the Gaza Strip following the October 7 attacks.

Lebanese authorities have reported that over 313 Lebanese citizens have been killed, including at least 66 civilians, while Hezbollah announced that 280 of its fighters have been killed. Meanwhile, some 100,000 Lebanese have moved away from their homes in southern Lebanon.

On the Israeli side, some 120,000 people have fled the border region in the north. The Israeli army hasn’t disclosed its casualty numbers on its northern front.

Human Rights Watch: Israeli soldiers are taking part in settler rampages  in the West Bank

The Israeli army has taken part in ongoing attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, said Human Rights Watch on Wednesday.

The human rights group noted in a report that it had investigated settler attacks on five Palestinian rural communities since October 7, and collected the testimonies of 27 Palestinian survivors. According to HRW, Israeli soldiers took part in these attacks, wearing Israeli army uniforms and holding firearms. The group added that in other cases, the Israeli army failed to protect Palestinians from settler attacks.

According to the report, Israel called to military service some 5,500 Israeli settlers, some with criminal records of anti-Palestinian attacks, after October 7. The settlers were mainly recruited to the “Regional Defense” force. HRW indicated that the Israeli government distributed some 7,000 firearms to these and other paramilitary settler groups.

HRW also pointed to reports by the UN and Israeli human rights groups that Israeli settlers distributed threatening flyers in Palestinian villages following the October 7 attacks, urging Palestinians to “run to Jordan” and warning that “the day of vengeance is coming.”

The report recalled that since October 7, Israeli settlers have attacked some 20 Palestinian rural communities, completely expelling seven of them from their land, which has resulted in the killing of 17 Palestinians by settlers and the displacement of around 1,200 people. Meanwhile, seven Israeli settlers have been killed in attacks by Palestinians since October.

In March, the U.S. imposed sanctions on four Israeli individual settlers for participation in violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. Later, Israeli media reported that one of the four sanctioned individuals had built his illegal settler outpost in the southern Hebron hills with the help of a construction company, largely owned by the official local government of the Har Hebron settlement.

Meanwhile, key Israeli key cabinet, mainly Israel’s security and finance ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have continued to openly voice their support for empowering settlers in the West Bank.

Since last weekend, Israeli settlers killed four Palestinians in a series of attacks against Palestinian villages east of Ramallah and Nablus. Residents told Mondoweiss that the attacks included burning dozens of houses, cars, and livestock barracks.