"In September 2009, a UN special mission, headed by the South African Justice Richard Goldstone, produced a report accusing both Palestinian militants and the Israeli army of war crimes and possible crimes against humanity, and recommended bringing those responsible to justice.[57] In 2011, Goldstone wrote that he does not believe that Israel intentionally targeted civilians in Gaza as a matter of explicit policy.[58] The other authors of the report, Hina Jilani, Christine Chinkin, and Desmond Travers, stated that no new evidence had been gathered that disputed the report's findings.[59][60] The United Nations Human Rights Council ordered Israel to conduct various repairs of the damage. On 21 September 2012, the United Nations Human Rights Council concluded that 75% of civilian homes destroyed in the attack were not rebuilt."
"Between 2005 and 2007, Palestinian groups in Gaza fired about 2,700 locally made Qassam rockets into Israel, killing four Israeli civilians and injuring 75 others. During the same period, Israel fired more than 14,600 155 mm artillery shells into the Gaza Strip, killing 59 Palestinians and injuring 270.
" According to the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, between 2005 and 2008, 116 Israelis, including civilians and Israeli security forces, which includes Israeli police, Israeli Border Police and members of the armed services, were killed in both Israel and the Palestinian Territories in "direct conflict related incidents" and 1,509 were injured.[90] During this time, 1,735 Palestinians, including civilians and militants from various groups, were killed and 8,308 wounded in "direct conflict related incidents".
"Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire.[108][109] Despite Israel's refusal to comply significantly with the truce agreement to end the siege/blockade, Hamas brought rocket and mortar fire from Gaza to a virtual halt during the summer and fall of 2008.[110] Hamas "tried to enforce the terms of the arrangement" on other Palestinian groups, taking "a number of steps against networks which violated the arrangement", including short-term detention and confiscating their weapons, but it could not completely end the rocket and mortar shell attacks by these rogue factions in Gaza. Hamas had sought support in Gazan public opinion for its policy of maintaining the ceasefire.[111] On 2 August there were massive clashes in Gaza City after Hamas had stepped up its campaign to curb Fatah from attacking Israel[112]"
Operation Cast Lead - Amnesty International 2009 - 1.4K Palestinian civilians killed - targeting of civilians and medical forces.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabra_and_Shatila_massacre 1.3K-3.5K Palestinian civilians killed by Lebanese army with support of IDF.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/9/16/sabra-and-shatila-massacre-40-years-on-explainer
https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/alhaq_files/publications/The_Reply_of_Al_Haq_to_the_US_Report_on_Human_Rights_Practices_in_the_Occupied_Territories_by_Israel_for_1982.pdf
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/1/how-israels-violent-birth-destroyed-palestine
During the Nakba, nearly 500 villages were destroyed, entire Palestinian towns depopulated and approximately 800,000 Palestinians exiled to make room for Jewish immigrants who arrived from all corners of the globe.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/4/9/qa-noam-chomsky-on-palestine-israel-and-the-state-of-the-world
https://www.alhaq.org/cached_uploads/download/alhaq_files/publications/The_Reply_of_Al_Haq_to_the_US_Report_on_Human_Rights_Practices_in_the_Occupied_Territories_by_Israel_for_1982.pdf
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/1/how-israels-violent-birth-destroyed-palestine
During the Nakba, nearly 500 villages were destroyed, entire Palestinian towns depopulated and approximately 800,000 Palestinians exiled to make room for Jewish immigrants who arrived from all corners of the globe.
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2023/4/9/qa-noam-chomsky-on-palestine-israel-and-the-state-of-the-world
https://newrepublic.com/article/179758/palestinian-christians-suffer-american-churches-dont-care
"Antisemitism is pure evil, and as Christians, we must combat it and denounce it. However, contrary to misconceptions in the church and in the media, the Israel-Palestine struggle is not a religious conflict but a complex political dispute rooted in human rights violations and decades of injustice. I believe in Israel’s right to exist and live securely, and I certainly support our Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and a viable state. But we must reject violence, bloodshed, and acts of terrorism from any quarter.
"Antisemitism is pure evil, and as Christians, we must combat it and denounce it. However, contrary to misconceptions in the church and in the media, the Israel-Palestine struggle is not a religious conflict but a complex political dispute rooted in human rights violations and decades of injustice. I believe in Israel’s right to exist and live securely, and I certainly support our Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and a viable state. But we must reject violence, bloodshed, and acts of terrorism from any quarter.
"For these reasons, it is imperative for Christians to unreservedly speak out against all forms of injustice, including the Israeli occupation. Taking a principled stand against oppression and discrimination is the core of the biblical teachings and the Christian message."
"[Jesus] would comfort the relatives of the victims of the devastating Israeli airstrike in October 2023 that claimed the lives of 16 Christians and severely damaged a historic fifth-century church.
"[Jesus] would comfort the relatives of the victims of the devastating Israeli airstrike in October 2023 that claimed the lives of 16 Christians and severely damaged a historic fifth-century church.
"The death and destruction facing Palestinians have not stopped there. On November 12, 2023, Israeli forces fatally shot 84-year-old music teacher and church pianist Elham Farah, leaving her to bleed to death for two agonizing days in front of her Gaza home. Nahid Khalil Anton and her daughter Samar fell victim to an Israeli sniper’s cold-blooded attack on church grounds on December 16. The Gaza Baptist Church, where my wife grew up, was bombed and burned. The nearly 1,000 Christians seeking refuge within the churches find themselves without access to adequate food, medical care, or even basic sanitation."
There are various estimates on how many Palestinian Christians are still living in Palestine today, compared with the period before 1948 when the state of Israel was established atop Palestinian towns and villages. Regardless of the source of the various studies, there is a near-consensus that the number of Christian inhabitants of Palestine has dropped by nearly 10-fold in the last 70 years.
A population census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017 concluded that 47,000 Palestinian Christians are living in Palestine – with reference to the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Ninety-eight percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the West Bank – concentrated mostly in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – while the remainder, a tiny Christian community of merely 1,100 people, live in the besieged Gaza Strip.
A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University in the West Bank town of Beit Jala and published in December 2017 interviewed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, half of them Christian and the other half Muslim. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine.
The study concluded that ‘the pressure of Israeli occupation, ongoing constraints, discriminatory policies, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of lands added to the general sense of hopelessness among Palestinian Christians’, who are finding themselves in ‘a despairing situation where they can no longer perceive a future for their offspring or for themselves’.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/25/why-does-the-christian-west-ignore-palestinian-christians-plight
"The Christian community in Gaza has lost at least 21 members so far. This may sound like a small number, but given they were only 1,000 before the war, these massacres threaten to eliminate the Christian presence in the strip for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Proportionally speaking, the death rate of Palestinian Christians is double that of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza."
A population census carried out by the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics in 2017 concluded that 47,000 Palestinian Christians are living in Palestine – with reference to the Occupied West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Ninety-eight percent of Palestine’s Christians live in the West Bank – concentrated mostly in the cities of Ramallah, Bethlehem and Jerusalem – while the remainder, a tiny Christian community of merely 1,100 people, live in the besieged Gaza Strip.
A study conducted by Dar al-Kalima University in the West Bank town of Beit Jala and published in December 2017 interviewed nearly 1,000 Palestinians, half of them Christian and the other half Muslim. One of the main goals of the research was to understand the reason behind the depleting Christian population in Palestine.
The study concluded that ‘the pressure of Israeli occupation, ongoing constraints, discriminatory policies, arbitrary arrests, confiscation of lands added to the general sense of hopelessness among Palestinian Christians’, who are finding themselves in ‘a despairing situation where they can no longer perceive a future for their offspring or for themselves’.
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/12/25/why-does-the-christian-west-ignore-palestinian-christians-plight
"The Christian community in Gaza has lost at least 21 members so far. This may sound like a small number, but given they were only 1,000 before the war, these massacres threaten to eliminate the Christian presence in the strip for the first time in almost 2,000 years. Proportionally speaking, the death rate of Palestinian Christians is double that of the entire Palestinian population in Gaza."
"Incidents of Jewish extremists harassing and intimidating Palestinian Christians, spitting on them and attacking their processions have spiked. Christian properties, including churches and cemeteries, have been targeted.
Just days before Hamas’s October 7 attacks in southern Israel, a group of Jewish men and boys harassed a Christian procession carrying a cross, viciously spitting on them. A video of the incident went viral and caused international outrage, but clearly not among Western leaders. Repeated appeals from Christian church leaders for action on Jewish Israeli violence have fallen on deaf ears for years."
"On October 17, just days after launching its brutal war on Gaza, Israel bombed the courtyard of the Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza, killing hundreds of people who had sought shelter there from its bombardment. The Israeli propaganda machine tried to blame the attack on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, but subsequent investigations confirmed that the “evidence” it had produced was fabricated.
Two days later, the Israeli army bombed the nearby Church of St Porphyrius, the world’s third oldest church, killing at least 18 people.
Two days later, the Israeli army bombed the nearby Church of St Porphyrius, the world’s third oldest church, killing at least 18 people.
The Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, which runs the church, said many of those inside at the time were women and children. “Targeting churches and their institutions, in addition to the shelters they provide to protect innocent citizens … constitutes a war crime that cannot be ignored,” it said in a statement.
A Palestinian Catholic mother published an appeal to Biden, calling on him to base his policies on his moral beliefs. “We are not children of a lesser God, Mr. President, we are the Palestinian Christians of the holy land where the message of love peace, and justice started, and we call upon you to stop this Genocide.”"
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