Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza and West Bank/East Jerusalem- June 22, 2024
Israeli bombardment from the air, land, & sea, as well as ground incursions & heavy fighting, continue to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip with a focus on Rafah & area around Deir al Balah, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement, & destruction of houses & other civilian infrastructure. Israeli army said it will observe a limited daily “tactical pause” along one of the main roads in Gaza to allow delivery of increased quantities of humanitarian aid, as UN agencies have suspended deliveries from a US-built pier. Israeli military added that pause should not be seen as a “cessation of hostilities in the southern Gaza Strip.” Netanyahu & Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said they were unaware of the decision, a claim which the military rejected.
check out our events page:
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 10 AM PDT / 1 PM EDT. The destruction of healthcare in Gaza: A scientific assessment of settler-colonial violence
Saturday, June 29, 2024, 10 AM PDT/1 PM EDT. Join JVP HAC for our next webinar with:
Dr. Sawsan Abdulrahim
Dr. A. Kayum Ahmed
Dennis Kunichoff
Dr. Bram Wispelwey
Register here.
JOURNAL ARTICLES (these recently came to my attention)
Psychological and Social Suffering of Another Generation of Palestinian Children Living Under Occupation: An Urgent Call to Advocate
Tania Bosqui, Sawsan Abdulrahim, Rima A. Afifi, et al., 24 May 2024
Palestine Health and Settler Colonialism: A Call to Action
Raquel Selcer and Sanjna L. Surya, 20 December 2023
Navigating Public Health in the Israel-Palestine Conflict: Charting a Path Forward
William C. Lieber, Faraan O. Rahim, Bhav Jain, Devesh Shah, and Mohammad Z. Sahloul, 19 December 2023
REPORTS
Indisriminate and disproportionate attack during the conflict in Gaza Israel’s use of 2,000-pound bombs & other heavy weapons in densely populated areas of Gaza may have consistently violated international law & could constitute war crimes, per UN human rights office. In a report that focused on 6 attacks last year, office said Israeli forces “took an expansive approach to targeting” that apparently considered members of Gaza’s civilian administration & Hamas political structures, who were not directly involved in hostilities, as military targets, possibly violating the laws of war.
States and companies must end arms transfers to Israel immediately or risk responsibility for human rights violations: A group of UN experts warned arms manufacturers, including Boeing, Caterpillar & Lockheed Martin, that transferring any weapons or weapon components to Israel could make them complicit in serious violations of international humanitarian law, even if those transfers are carried out under existing export licenses or indirectly through an intermediary country.
VIDEO
Stand With Hesen, https://youtu.be/MxOxhvhhZIk Hesen Jabr, nurse at NYU Hospital, was receiving a service award when she voiced support for Palestine. She was fired the next day. Here she speaks & reads an open letter to the American Nurses Association, which has remained silent. -Dave Lippman
TEACH IN
Abandoning the AMA: A Teach-In by Healthcare Workers for Palestine-Chicago
IMPORTANT ARTICLE
Pregnant in Gaza With Nowhere to Go, must-read essay in New York Times
GAZA
· Killed: 37,431
Injured: 85, 653
· Israeli soldiers in Gaza or on border killed: 312
· Israeli soldiers in Gaza injured: 1,957
· Israeli tanks supported by the air force pushed deeper into western part of the city of Rafah, killing 8 people, Gaza residents & Palestinian medics
· Deadly incidents this week include:
3 collecting wood in agricultural area
7 hit while in tents for internally displace people (IDPs)
6 including children in residential building
8 including pregnant woman & child in barracks used for storing humanitarian aid
12 on side of road
5 while attempting to operate water wells inside municipality
17 in their homes, bombed at night
· Hostages in Gaza: 120
Hospitals
· Health system has lost 70% of hospital bed capacity
· WHO: volume of supplies entering Gaza insufficient, all medical evacuations remain halted
· MoH: >310 medical personnel have been detained by Israeli forces.
· Efforts to restore key services at hospitals: Patients’ Friendly, Al Shifa (includes kidney dialysis), Indonesian
· Much of work force unpaid since October
· In southern Gaza, only 7 hospitals remain functional, all partially, including 3 in Deir al Balah & four in Khan Younis, alongside 8 field hospitals with a cumulative capacity of 630 beds.
· Doctors evacuate Rafah’s last hospitals: “We’re all at risk of being targeted.” Almost no facilities remain to treat the wounded in Gaza’s southernmost city, as doctors fear a repeat of Israel’s attacks across the Strip.
· Dire conditions in Gaza leave a multitude of amputees. Access to medical care & even clean water is limited, the risk of infection is high, making it difficult for patients to get follow-up surgeries, prosthetics, & rehabilitation. That has led to “a hellscape full of nightmarish scenes,” said Dr. Seema Jilani, who served as a senior emergency health adviser for the International Rescue Committee, an aid group. She has worked in several conflict zones, but she said she couldn’t get images from her 2 weeks in Gaza out of her mind.
· ~2,150 critical patients unable to leave as of 6/20
Humanitarian Aid
· Severe access restraints, humanitarian missions: 6/1-6/20, in north, 51% facilitated by Israel, 11% denied, 25% impeded, 13% cancelled
· In south, 70% facilitated, 6% denied, 13% impeded, 11% cancelled
· Insecurity along the Salah Ad Din Road (north/south) remains a major concern due to ongoing fighting, criminal activities, & the risk of looting.
· Member states have disbursed 31% of funds requested for critical needs in oPt
· UN: warning >50,000 children in Gaza require immediate medical treatment for acute malnutrition. UNRWA: situation in Gaza is catastrophic as residents “continue to face desperate levels of hunger.”
· Aid organizations operating in Gaza said US-built pier for aid distribution has failed, is likely to be dismantled weeks earlier than expected,
· International Committee of the Red Cross: 22 people have been killed in a shelling attack that damaged its Gaza office, which is surrounded by hundreds of displaced Palestinians living in tents
· Israel’s decision to halt daytime military operations along a key aid route into southern Gaza could help alleviate a severe hunger crisis, relief groups said, but cautioned that effects would be limited unless security improved, more aid routes opened & hostilities with Hamas ended altogether.
Education
· ~39,000 high school students unable to sit for General Secondary Exams (Tawjihi)
· 625,00 out of school since October
· >7,000 students & 378 educational staff killed
· Educational Cluster partners establishing & expanding Temporary Learning Sides for children in & around IDPs shelters serving 17,000 kids in Khan Younis & Deir al Balah
Prisons (includes info on prisoners from entire oPt
· Commission for Prisoners & Ex-Prisoners Affairs & Palestinian Prisoners’ Club issued a joint statement to express concern about the enforced disappearance of Palestinians detained from Gaza & the lack of information about the circumstances of death of Palestinians who have reportedly died in Israeli custody. This includes death of Dr. Iyad Al Rantisi, head of the Maternity Department at Kamal Adwan Hospital, following his detention, & death of Dr. Adnan Al Bursh, the head of the Orthopedic Department at Shifa Medical Complex.
· Shin Bet says Rantisi was arrested on suspicion of involvement in holding hostages, died a week later
· “Israeli military is investigating 36 deaths at its Sde Teiman detention facility, 2 deaths at Anatot detention center & the deaths of people who died en route to a detention center…these figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who died in prisons operated by the Israel Prison Service.”
· 9,112 Palestinians in Israeli custody, including 3,410 administrative detainees held without trial & 899 people held as “unlawful combatants.” These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza who have been detained by the Israeli military since 10/7 & their number remains unknown.
· Khaled Mahajna, a lawyer representing a reporter for Al Araby taken to Sde Teiman prison facility in southern Israel, told Qatari outlet that conditions at the facility are “catastrophic;” that Israel is preventing human rights groups from examining it. He also claimed that detainees are being physically & sexually abused.
· Israeli government notified the High Court of Justice that it was acting to establish a mechanism replacing visits by the International Committee of the Red Cross to Palestinian prisoners from the West Bank & Gaza who are held in Israel.
Women
· UN: Women Led Organizations are facing immense operational, security, & funding challenges. Gaza offices: of 89% of surveyed organizations sustained some level of damage, including 35% that were destroyed. 56% of the organizations, including those that had their offices damaged, have been able to operate at full capacity in terms of personnel by relying on their extensive network of volunteers, while 40% have been facing shortages in personnel & are working at partial capacity.
· 56% of women led organizations report decreased funding that they attributed to suspended instalments or cancelled commitments by donors. Majority also remain seriously concerned about physical safety & mental health of their staff.
· WLOs have maintained high levels of engagement in various areas of the humanitarian response, except funding decisions, including coordination meetings, development & implementation of needs assessments & flash appeals, & participation in emergency response efforts.
Other
· UNRWA: > 330,000 tons of solid waste has accumulated in or near populated areas throughout Gaza, posing “catastrophic environmental & health risks.” Among the dangers is hepatitis A, a virus, often transmitted through person-to-person contact or contaminated food, that may cause liver disease. More immediately, those infected can suffer debilitating fatigue, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, jaundice and other problems.
· UN Environment Program: war in Gaza has destroyed >60% of water infrastructure, creating some 40 million tons of building debris, which contains toxic materials.
WEST BANK & JERUSALEM
· Nearly 20 years after the Second Intifada, Israeli military has resumed airstrikes in the West Bank — killed 24 children. An open-source Intercept investigation: documented ~37 Israeli airstrikes, drone strikes, & attacks by helicopter gunships in the West Bank since 6/2023, which killed 55 Palestinians, per UN. Most attacks struck densely populated urban areas & refugee camps in Jenin, Tulkarem, & Nablus, all in northern West Bank.
· Israeli military, at times in collaboration with Israel’s border police & domestic secret police Shin Bet, has continued to conduct deadly raids into the West Bank, wreaking havoc to private Palestinian property & civilian infrastructure.
· Israel is putting key responsibilities in West Bank under an administrator who answers to a hard-line government minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who favors annexation of the territory, in what analysts and human rights activists describe as the latest step toward the far right’s aim of expanding Israeli settlements there.
· Israeli judges have long ruled that Israel’s control of the territory is a temporary military occupation & complies with international law. Smotrich’s 6/9 speech at a West Bank gathering may make that posture harder to maintain. In it, he outlined a carefully orchestrated program to take authority over the West Bank out of the hands of the Israeli military & turn it over to civilians working for Smotrich in the defense ministry. Parts of the plan have already been incrementally introduced over the past 18 months, some authorities have already been transferred to civilians.
· Israeli settlers attacked a Palestinian shepherd & an Israeli activist who was there helping the man. Settlers threw stones at the shepherd’s car, smashed his windows, threatened & beat both him & the activist.
· Palestinian woman & man were wounded in an attack by settlers in Burin, south of Nablus. Several settlers entered the village, burned a car, & were then escorted out by soldiers.
ISRAEL
· Representatives from several Israeli anti-government protest groups have announced their intentions to intensify their activism with “A Week of Resistance” that will include country-wide demonstrations taking place over the next several days.
· Magen Ezrachi, or Civilian Shield, puts volunteers on the ground to record abuses at the protests, where Israel’s police, under the rule of Ben-Gvir, has been using force against demonstrators, journalists, & even family members of hostages held in Gaza.
· Netanyahu disbanded his 6-member war cabinet after the centrist former general Benny Gantz quit government. Development followed demands from the nationalist-religious partners in Netanyahu’s coalition, including the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, to be included in the cabinet.
· Netanyahu demanded his coalition partners “get a hold of themselves” & “put aside all extraneous interests” to focus on the war, as divisions within Israel’s government become sharper & more public. Netanyahu has clashed with members of his own party & with far-right & religious party leaders in his coalition. Conflicts have involved how far to go in requiring military service by ultra-Orthodox Jews, who controls the assignment of rabbis to communities, leaks to the news media & how much of a voice the far right will have in setting war policy.
· Israeli police assaulted a doctor & arrested another while they were treating injured protesters at an anti-government protest in Israel. Doctors called these events “a crossing of a mutually agreed upon line,” which could lead personnel to refuse providing medical treatment in the field “out of fear for their own safety.”
· Sofia Orr, 19, just spent 85 days in military jail after refusing to enlist in the Israeli military. Now released after being recognized as a conscientious objector, she talked about:
why she did it: "I refuse to enlist in order to show that change is needed & change is possible, for the security & safety of all of us in Israel-Palestine, & in the name of empathy that is not restricted by national identity. "I refuse to enlist because I want to create a reality in which all children between the Jordan River & the [Mediterranean] sea can dream without cages." She was met by violent threats against her life, rape threats, belittling, accusations of being a traitor She noted her fellow inmates "The female soldiers who deserted or evaded the draft couldn't afford [to go to the army] because of their mental health, or their economic situation, or their home life or their family's health.
· After Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said that, ”minimum force” should be used in IDF operations in the West Bank, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich called this a “Western line of thinking, disconnected from reality.”
· Israeli military’s English & Arabic-language channels: Military would “pause” its fighting during daytime hours along an important humanitarian aid corridor in southern Gaza until further notice. Netanyahu says he didn’t know about Israel’s plans to reduce fighting in southern Gaza. Analysts are skeptical.
US
· Sen. Bernie Sanders said Netanyahu’s government is breaking international law in Gaza, & in “West Bank, where they are pursuing illegal annexation by force,” & that “Netanyahu should be facing serious consequences for these violations,” not speaking before Congress.
· US Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Democratic & Republican leaders should withdraw their invitation for Netanyahu to speak at a joint meeting of Congress next month after he released a video attacking the Biden administration for “withholding” weapons from Israel’s military.
· White House & Israeli prime minister traded barbs over military support US is providing Israel, in the latest sign of tensions between the 2 allies over the conduct of the war. Israeli leader lashed out at the US for withholding some heavy munitions, (while still providing billions in military aid).
· US lawmakers called for some Palestinians fleeing Gaza to be granted refugee status. In a letter to Secretary of State Blinken & Department of Homeland Security Secretary Mayorkas, 70 members of Congress called for more pathways for relief for Palestinians affected by the war who are relatives of US citizens & lawful permanent residents.
· Uncommitted voters, tens of thousands of students protesting in encampments, millions more protesting in the streets & in the halls of Congress are sending a powerful message to Biden that his actions are not acceptable.
· Israeli Defense Minister Gallant is due to visit the Pentagon “soon” for talks with his UScounterpart.
· Riley Livermore is in final steps of separating from US Air Force, a months long process he initiated in late October. “I don’t want to be working on something that can turn around & be used to slaughter innocent people…I think the dissonance just kind of continued to get louder and louder, it’s like ‘I can’t really do this anymore.’”
· Some current faculty members at Columbia University learned through a news article that all new students & faculty will be mandated to go through an orientation on antisemitism. Plan was not announced in any direct communications from the university. It was reported by Haaretz, in a story about the university’s task force on antisemitism.
INTERNATIONAL
· 93 countries signed a declaration of support for the International Criminal Court in The Hague, confirming their backing “for the court as an independent and impartial judicial institution” whose mandate is “ensuring equal justice for all victims of genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and the crime of aggression”
· 6/4: UN human rights commissioner, the warning that “unprecedented bloodshed” in the West Bank must come to an end has gone unheeded.
· UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory issued its “first in-depth investigation into the events that took place on & since 7 October 2023.” Report holds Israeli occupation responsible for the ongoing catastrophic situation in Gaza. It also alludes to the possibility that10/7 is a watershed moment for even harsher Israeli occupation unless international law is urgently implemented.
SOURCES
OCHAOPT, Haaretz, New York Times, Electronic Intifada, +972, The Guardian, Portside, The Guardian, Democracy Now, The Intercept, Aljazeera