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War death toll and warrants
Human Rights Watch says that in 2024 the Israeli army continued to kill, wound, starve, and forcibly displace thousands of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip and to destroy homes, schools, hospitals, and infrastructure on an unprecedented scale in recent history.
“more than 44,000 people had been killed and 104,000 injured”
The report says the Gaza Health Ministry stated in late November that more than 44,000 people had been killed and 104,000 injured since hostilities intensified on October 7, 2023.
It also says that in November the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza from October 7, 2023, to May 20, 2024.
Human Rights Watch adds that the Prosecutor's request also targeted Hamas’s military wing head Mohammed Deif for attacks carried out in Israel on October 7, 2023, and targeted two Hamas leaders, Ismail Haniyeh and Yahya Sinwar, who were subsequently killed by Israel.
The same Human Rights Watch account says that the number of Palestinian deaths results from Israel’s ongoing use of excessive lethal force, notably airstrikes and drone-launched missiles.
Sperm retrieval amid war
While the war’s casualty figures dominate coverage, the BBC describes a separate, intimate consequence for Israeli families: bereaved parents requesting that the sperm of deceased sons be collected and frozen after Hamas’s October 7 attacks.
The BBC says some rules governing the procedure were loosened in the wake of Hamas's October 7 attacks, and it quotes Avi Harush recalling that officers came to his door after learning his 20-year-old son Reef had been killed in combat on April 6, 2024, in the southern Gaza Strip.
The BBC reports that Israel launched a broad military operation in Gaza in response to October 7, and it says more than 40,000 Palestinians were killed, according to the Health Ministry led by Hamas.
It also says that since October 7, sperm has been collected from nearly 170 young men—civilians and soldiers—according to the Israeli Health Ministry, and that the process involves making an incision in the testicle and taking a small tissue sample.
In the BBC account, Avi Harush says, "Despite this horrible loss, we chose to live," as he describes the decision to preserve Reef’s sperm and the hope for grandchildren.
Al-Azhar condemns death law
As the war continues, Anadolu Ajansı reports that Al-Azhar in Egypt called for halting Israel’s measures it said would legitimize the killing of Palestinians through a law to execute Palestinian prisoners.
“approved, by a majority of 62 MPs to 48, with one abstention”
Anadolu Ajansı says Al-Azhar expressed discontent with what it described as the international legal system’s failure to confront Israel’s move to enact a law that would sentence Palestinian prisoners to death, and it urged the international community to act quickly to halt Tel Aviv’s steps.
The report says the Israeli Knesset approved the execution law by a majority of 62 MPs to 48, with one abstention, and it describes a mood of celebration among right-wing parties.
Anadolu Ajansı also says the Association for Civil Rights in Israel called the law retaliatory legislation designed with legal engineering to apply the penalty in a biased and selective manner, and it adds that there are currently more than 9,300 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, including 350 children and 66 women.
In Al-Azhar’s statement as carried by Anadolu Ajansı, it says, "It does not change its essence at all," as it rejects any measures or decisions by the occupation to legitimize the killing of Palestinians.
