‘Please don’t cry for me’: Gaza family discovers will of child killed in Israeli bombing
The family of 10-year-old Rasha Al-Ar’eer have found her last will written in a note after she and her 11-year-old brother Ahmad were killed in an Israeli air strike in northern Gaza.
“My will if I am martyred … please do not cry for me, because it just hurts to see you in tears. I want my clothes to be given to those in need, and my accessories, bead boxes, allowance, books, notebooks, and toys to be shared with my cousins. Please do not shout at my brother Ahmad. I do hope you honor my will,” she wrote.
The Palestinian foreign ministry said the two siblings had survived an Israeli air strike on their home just three months earlier.
Israeli military keeps hitting schools, blocking aid in Gaza: UNRWA
The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) has released its latest situation report for the Gaza Strip, describing deteriorating conditions.
It said the number of people who did not receive any food rations in September stood at 1.4 million, compared to one million in August. The reasons were “Israeli-imposed bureaucratic hurdles, lack of security guarantees within Gaza, insufficient border crossing points and risk of criminal gangs looting humanitarian convoys in southern Gaza”.
An average of only 52 humanitarian trucks entered Gaza in September, which is way below the about 700 trucks per day the population needs.
The Israeli military has now hit or damaged 86 percent of all UNRWA schools-turned-shelters in the enclave, and destroyed at least 71 schools, it said.
Nearly 70 percent of crop fields have been destroyed, and at least 1.9 million people or about 90 percent of the population is forcibly displaced inside Gaza.
Israeli attacks force 37 healthcare facilities in Lebanon to close
Israeli military attacks on Lebanon have forced the closing of 37 healthcare facilities, including nine supported by the UN Population Fund, the agency aimed at improving reproductive and maternal health worldwide.
According to the organisation, there are about 11,600 pregnant women among the more than one million people who have been forcibly displaced from Lebanon as a result of Israeli assaults.
The agency distributes dignity kits and provides gender-based violence protection, sexual and reproductive health services, and psychological support in various shelters across Lebanon.
US politicians move to revoke tax-exempt status of rights groups criticising Israel
The Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) and a group of 100 rights and legal organisations have sent a letter to US House Speaker Mike Johnson and another official to condemn their pressure on the Internal Revenue Service.
They claim that the authorities have been pushing to illegally revoke the tax-exempt status of 15 US-based Muslim, Arab, Jewish and progressive groups “to punish criticism of the Israeli government”.
“We will continue to fight these politically motivated attacks, and we stand ready to defend any organisation targeted by their McCarthyistic tactics,” the group said.