Report released as top Israeli official announces permanent occupation of Gaza, Knesset bill introduced to allow illegal settlements
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called a report by British watchdog AirWars showed unprecedented civilian casualties in Gaza in the first 25 days of the war the “latest evidence” of the Israeli government’s genocidal intent.
The AirWars report examined the first 25 days of the war in October 2023. It concluded that, in that time period, “civilian harm in Gaza occurred on a scale unmatched by any conflict” the organization has tracked. The organization said Israel’s campaign in Gaza “is incomparable with any 21st century air campaign” and “by far the most intense, destructive, and fatal conflict” it has tracked.
In October 2023 alone, Airwars reported, 5,139 civilians were killed in Israeli strikes, 1,900 of them children. In the days after Oct. 7th, the Israeli government announced that it would no longer fire “warning shots” at buildings to give civilians a chance to evacuate before destroying them.
SEE: The unique destructiveness of Israel’s war on Gaza
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday that Israel plans to maintain “security control” in Gaza even after a ceasefire in the same way if acts in the occupied West Bank. A bill has also been put forward in the Israeli Knesset allowing new illegal settlements in Gaza.
Israel has slaughtered more 45,000 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to Palestinian health authorities, and as many as 186,000 or more, according to the British medical journal The Lancet. Just today, an Israeli strike in Gaza killed at least eight people in one family, most of them women and children.
In a statement, CAIR said:
“The Airwars report confirms what we already knew: from the very beginning, Israeli leaders have been deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza. This is no surprise. From Benjamin Netanyahu to Yoav Gallant, Israeli leaders openly announced that they planned to engage in genocidal acts early on and have spent a year doing so.
“The Biden administration will forever be stained with the crime of genocide for its failure to stop some of the worst mass killings of civilians we have seen in modern times. The radical Israeli government of indicted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has shocked the world with its brutality and viciousness.
“The radical Netanyahu regime’s onslaught of genocide, ethnic cleansing and illegal occupation must be stopped, and its perpetrators must be held accountable for their crimes.”
Yesterday, CAIR condemned the Israeli regime for murdering Khaled Nabhan, a Palestinian grandfather who became widely known after a video showed him kissing the eyes of his slain granddaughter and calling her “soul of my soul.”
SEE: CAIR Condemns Israeli Regime for Killing Beloved ‘Soul of My Soul’ Grandfather in Gaza
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CONTACT: CAIR National Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell, 404-285-9530, e-Mitchell@cair.com; CAIR Government Affairs Director Robert McCaw, 202-742-6448, rmccaw@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Director Ibrahim Hooper, 202-744-7726, ihooper@cair.com; CAIR National Communications Manager Ismail Allison, 202-770-6280, iallison@cair.com