Photo // David Saleh
FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA. On Aug. 21, Student Body Vice President David Saleh attended a pro-Palestine rally in Chicago.
By: Mira Costello
Editor-in-Chief
IU South Bend seniors graduated on May 7. One day before that, the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of more than 1 million Palestinians in Rafah, Gaza as they advanced a campaign on the city to target Hamas.
Since last semester, Israel’s attacks and occupation of the Gaza strip have continued to escalate, with casualties mounting every day. As we enter a new term, Palestinians and other inhabitants of the region are entering their twelfth month of daily violent conflict. As of Aug. 26, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs conservatively estimates that 40,435 Palestinians have been killed and 93,534 injured. According to the Times of Israel, 1,478 Iraelis have been killed.
Below, find a timeline of relevant events that you may have missed this summer.
May 7-24: After ordering the invasion of Rafah, the Israeli military took control of the Rafah-Egypt border crossing. By mid-May, the United Nations estimated that over 700,000 Palestinians had fled Rafah, and President Joe Biden claimed that the U.S. would halt the provision of weapons to the Israeli military if their invasion of Rafah continued.
The International Court of Justice released a ruling ordering that “Israel must immediately halt its military offensive … in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
May 26-31: On May 26, Hamas fired rockets toward central Israel, the first noted attack by Hamas since Oct. 7. In the following days, the Israeli military allegedly bombed Tel al-Sultan and Al-Mawasi, a displacement camp and a refugee camp, killing at least 66 people; they denied involvement in the attack.
June 6-8: Israel launched attacks on the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, killing an estimated 274 Palestinian people and resulting in the rescue of four Israeli hostages.
June 23: Israel and Hamas again failed to agree to a ceasefire when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed a partial ceasefire in exchange for the return of some hostages, but Hamas retained the position that their agreement should call for a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of military occupation.
July 4-Aug. 24: Israeli bombardment of Gaza continued, with hundreds of fatalities caused by bombings of 21 schools in the Gaza strip; refugee camps, including Al-Mawasi and Al-Shati; the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital; cities and towns including Khan Younis, Az-Zawayda and Hamad City; and shelters, including warehouses and former schools converted into shelters for displaced people.
Aug. 30: Israel and Hamas agreed to a temporary, tri-zonal ceasefire – in central, southern and then northern Gaza – to allow for a polio vaccination program by the United Nations and World Health Organization that will aim to vaccinate over 600,000 children for polio. Polio has returned to the Gaza strip after a quarter century due to a lack of healthcare infrastructure and clean water. Other health concerns also proliferate, including skin infections, Hepatitis A and dysentery.
Although ceasefire discussions among the U.S., Israel and Hamas continue, no specific, clear resolutions to end the conflict have been reached at the time of publication.
A variety of organizations continue to solicit urgent donations to send aid to Palestinians in Gaza, including:
Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund (pcrf.net)
American Near East Refugee Aid (anera.org)
Palestine Red Crescent Society (palestinercs.org)
Save the Children (support.savethechildren.org)
Islamic Relief USA (irusa.org)
World Food Program USA (secure.wfpusa.org)
Doctors Without Borders (donate.doctorswithoutborders.org)
United Nations organizations:
UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (unrwa.org)
UN Crisis Relief – Occupied Palestinian Territory Humanitarian Fund (crisisrelief.un..org)
UN Population Fund (unfpa.org)
UN Children Educational Fund (unicef.org)