World roundup: November 8 2024

Stories from Israel-Palestine, India, Sudan, and elsewhere

TODAY IN HISTORY

November 8, 960: An Arab army from Aleppo is returning from a raid into Byzantine territory when it is ambushed and resoundingly defeated by a smaller imperial force at the Battle of Andrassos. The near-destruction of its army was a crippling blow to Aleppo’s ruling dynasty, the Hamdanids, who within the decade would be reduced from bitter Byzantine foe to the status of an imperial vassal.

November 8, 2002: The United Nations Security Council unanimously passes Resolution 1441, calling on Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein to disarm under the terms of previous UN resolutions or face “serious consequences.” Funny story: Hussein had already disarmed, but we got to see what the serious consequences were anyway! It all really worked out just swell.

MIDDLE EAST

ISRAEL-PALESTINE

The Arab Center’s Yara Asi recounts more than a year of Israeli assaults on public health in Gaza:

The scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza is unprecedented, with tens of thousands of tons of bombs being dropped on the small territory and hitting civilian infrastructure once every three hours on average. Unsurprisingly, the scale of the attack has had a cataclysmic impact on Gaza, with 38 humanitarian organizations warning in mid-October 2024 that parts of the territory were being “erased.”

By the end of October 2024, the Ministry of Health in Gaza reported approximately 43,000 fatalities and 101,000 injuries. It is well understood that this reported death toll is a significant undercount, with many dead still unreported, and many bodies still trapped under rubble. Almost all of Gaza’s population—1.9 out of 2.2 million people—are internally displaced, many multiple times and with no homes to return to. Approximately 17,000 children are orphaned in Gaza, and tens of thousands more have been injured, with the Strip becoming the site of the largest cohort of child amputees in modern history. At least 60 percent of the buildings across Gaza are damaged or destroyed, along with almost 70 percent of roads.

These figures convey a society that is under existential threat from a state operating with no guard rails and complete impunity. Yet, when looking at the sector of health, which is the most tied to life and people’s ability to resist subjugation, there are endless more indignities, violations, and tragedies.

A new report from the United Nations human rights office finds that, of the thousands of people verifiably killed in Gaza over the past 13 months, nearly 70 percent have been women and children. It concludes that “civilians in Gaza have borne the brunt” of Israeli violence, which “has caused unprecedented levels of killings, death, injury, starvation, illness and disease.” The Israeli government accused the UN of having an “obsession” with “the demonization of Israel.”