Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem, & Lebanon - April 5, 2025
ACTION ITEMS FOR THE WEEK
1. After filibustering for 25 hours on 4/1, Cory Booker proved that talk is all he is good for on 4/3 by voting to continue supplying weapons to Israel. If your senators are also members of the Genocide Caucus, call or write them so they know how disappointed/ disgusted/ angry you are. US Capital Switchboard: 202-224-3121
2. The Israeli execution of 15 EMTs/ first responders in Rafah should be enough to convince anyone of Israel’s commitment to genocide. Share this article here with 5 friends or relatives who are not yet active in the movement to end the genocide.
3. Attend the JVP National Meeting in Baltimore, May 1-4. This will be the largest US gathering of Jews and our allies for struggling for justice in Palestine and here at home. Amazing speakers! Inspiration! A Health Advisory Council panel (likely 5:00-6:30 PM in Room #: BCC 347) and lunchtime meetup sessions Friday and Saturday can help you connect with other health workers. Registration closed 4/4/25.
Webinars
JVP Health Advisory Council webinar 4/5/25, Crimes of Deprivation and the Rule of Law with Alexander Smith
Here is a link to the recording: here
Alexander Smith is a lawyer with a background in global health, human rights, and international humanitarian law. He studied law and public health at Northeastern and Tufts and dedicated 23 years to health and human rights work, including in Afghanistan, Jordan, Sudan, West Africa, Southeast Asia, the Balkans, and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. Alex resigned from his Senior Advisor position with USAID after four years of service due to the agency's policies, inaction, and silencing of speech about health conditions and violations of international law in Gaza. He has since been speaking out on the urgent need to prevent the crime of starvation in Gaza, on CNN, Al Jazeera, and multiple academic and interagency forums.
Scientists for Palestine presents Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza: A Reckoning, with Peter Beinart, CUNY and editor of Jewish Currents, in conversation with Assaf Khfoury, Steering Committee member for the Bisan Lecture Series, on 4/16, at 7PM Palestine/ noon NYC/ 9am Pacific. Register here.
Video
Kids Under Fire: a new Al Jazeera documentary based on interview testimony with mostly doctors about how Israeli snipers are deliberately targeting children in Gaza. Please watch this devastating film. here
UN on Gaza
4/2, Jonathan Whittall of UN OCHA/OPT, summarized the past 2 weeks: UN premises have been shelled by tank fire, killing 1 UN staff member; international aid compounds and hospitals have been hit; municipal workers have been killed in humanitarian-donated trucks; people have been bombed at food distribution points; strikes have damaged humanitarian warehouses; and hospitals are overflowing with mass casualties. “We cannot accept that Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the point of being somehow unworthy of survival…[and] people’s survival is dependent on an aid system that itself is under attack… Gaza has become a death trap [in] a war without limits [that] defies decency, humanity and…law.”
GAZA
Israel’s siege of Gaza continues; no food or supplies have entered since 3/2. Malnutrition is the norm, starvation is imminent. Genocidal killings have increased, with 1,163 killed since Israel broke the ceasefire. 280,000 people have been displaced in the past 2 weeks; Israel has declared 65% of the Gaza Strip “off-limits” to Palestinians. The US Senate endorsed the genocide again on 4/3 by voting 82 to 15 to continue providing Israel with weapons.
This week: 379 Palestinians killed, 1,072 injured
Since the breaking of the ceasefire: 1,163 Palestinians killed, 2,735 injured
Killed since 10/23/2023: 50,523+
Injured since 10/23/2023: 114,776+
Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 407 (0 this week)
Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 2,583 (0 this week)
Hostages in Gaza: 59
March 2025 Israel Prison Service (IPS) data lists: 9,406 Palestinians in Israeli custody, including 1,486 sentenced prisoners, 2,960 remand detainees, 3,405 administrative detainees (held without trial), and 1,555 “unlawful combatants.” These figures do not include Palestinians from Gaza still detained by the Israeli military since 10/2023.
For more Gaza data: here
Israeli attacks
Israeli has escalated air, land and sea bombardment and expanded ground operations, killing or wounding thousands, destroying infrastructure, and displacing a quarter of a million people.
• 3/25, 8 killed (1 child) in Al Breij refugee camp, Deir al Balah.
• 3/26, 8 killed (5 children) in Jabalya Al Balad, in North Gaza.
• 3/26, 5 killed at a food distribution point in An Nuseirat refugee camp, Deir al Balah.
• 3/ 27, a World Central Kitchen volunteer killed and 6 wounded at a community kitchen at meal-time.
• 3/27, 10 killed in Beit Lahiya, including a paramedic with Medical Aid for Palestinians, killed with his wife and child in their tent after their home had been destroyed.
• 3/27&28, 19 killed (1 child) in Gaza City.
• 3/29, 6 killed and others injured in Khan Yunis when, after being displaced, they returned home to collect food.
• 3/30, 10 killed (3 children) in an IDP tent in Khan Yunis.
• 3/30, 9 killed (3 children) in Khan Younis.
• 3/31, 9 killed (3 children) in Gaza City.
• 4/1&2, 20 killed (including a journalist, his wife and their 3 children) in Khan Younis.
• 4/2, 22 killed (9 children) in an UNRWA clinic hosting 700 IDPs in Jabalya refugee camp.
• 4/3, 15 killed and others injured near Gaza City.
• 4/3, 21 killed and 100 injured, mostly children, in a school sheltering IDPs in Gaza City.
Health and Emergency Worker Massacre in Rafah
• 3/30, 15 bodies were recovered in Rafah – 8 members of the Palestine Red Crescent, 6 Palestinian Civil Defense, and 1 from UNRWA -- after being buried in the sand alongside their vehicles, 5 clearly marked ambulances, 1fire truck and 1 UN car. The first team was killed by Israeli forces on 3/23 and the other emergency and aid crews were killed over several hours as they searched for their missing colleagues. The mass grave was marked with the emergency light of one of the crushed ambulances. A 9th Red Crescent medic remains missing.
See more information here.
Read the testimony of the only known survivor here: here
• PRCS stated: “This massacre of our team is a tragedy not only for us at the PRCS, but also for humanitarian work and humanity.”
• The Secretary General of the International Red Cross, Jagan Chapagain, said: “These dedicated ambulance workers were responding to wounded people. They were humanitarians. They wore emblems that should have protected them; their ambulances were clearly marked. They should have returned to their families; they did not.”
• UNRWA Commissioner-General stated: “Targeting or endangering emergency responders, journalists or humanitarian workers is a flagrant and severe disregard of international law. In Gaza, these killings have become routine. This cannot become the new norm. There must be accountability.”
• Since 10/7/2023, at least 409 aid workers, including 291 UN staff, have been killed in Gaza.
Health & Hospitals
• 3/27, WHO supported the medical evacuation of 81 patients and 107 companions for treatment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Between 2/1-3/27, 1,805 patients (632 children) were evacuated with 2,713 companions. According to WHO, about 11-13,000 people (4,500 children) urgently need medical evacuation.
• 3/23, a strike on the surgical unit of Nasser Hospital killed 2 patients, injured 8, and destroyed 35 beds while it reported a bed occupancy rate of 95%.
• 22 hospitals and 5 field hospitals remain partially functional; 4 field hospitals are fully functional.
• Al Wafaa Rehab Hospital in Gaza City, the only functioning rehabilitation facility in the Strip, was recently placed under a displacement order, rendering its continuity of services uncertain.
• Miscarriages are increasing in Gaza as continued Israeli attacks, forced displacement, and a lack of medication and food take a toll on pregnant women. Little information is available on the survival rate of newborns or complications during pregnancy, but health experts reported in July 2024 that the rate of miscarriages increased by 300% since October 2023. Since then, maternal healthcare has deteriorated even further. here
• The conscious destruction of Gaza’s health care system is described and named “medelecide.” here
• Video Update on Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya from his lawyer, describing his weeks of isolation, torture, interrogations, beatings, injuries, and psychological pressure–one of hundreds of medical personnel now in Israeli military camps and prisons. here
Aid
• 4/3, an Israeli airstrike hit a Saudi humanitarian aid warehouse, destroying the warehouse and 1,600 pallets of medical supplies.
• Warehouses in Jordan are full, and the number of UN/INGO trucks waiting to be dispatched from Egypt into Gaza has increased 50% (5,500 truckloads of cargo).
• Between 3/25-4/2, of 72 aid movements coordinated with Israeli authorities, 30% (22) were facilitated, 60% (43) were denied, 6% (4) were impeded, and 4% (3) cancelled.
• 3/27, remaining UNRWA international staff left Gaza, banned by the Knesset bill from entering. UNRWA’s Palestinian staff remain one of the largest providers of nutrition, health, education, water and sanitation services. Between 10/7/2023-3/16/2025, UNRWA provided 7.9 million medical consults, accounting for over half of people reached by health services.
• Gaza Media Office noted that 16,800 aid trucks and 1,400 fuel trucks “were supposed to enter Gaza in the past month.” They emphasized that the current siege “is but an extension of an 18-year-long systematic policy of starvation and dehydration by the occupation forces… However, today it has reached unprecedented levels of brutality, where sources of food and medicine are deliberately targeted, and humanitarian aid is blocked.”
Children
• UNICEF reports 322 children have been killed since Israel broke the ceasefire. Children have “again been plunged into a cycle of deadly violence and deprivation,” says UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. Beyond the direct violence of the conflict, children also face risks from unprecedented and immeasurable emotional and psychological damage, compounded by loss of accompaniment, gender-based or domestic violence, and suicidal ideation. The latest wave of displacement heightened risk of family separation and trafficking, exploitation, abuse and neglect. Due to the high risk of mass casualty incidents, it is unsafe to gather large groups of children for psychosocial support activities. With no new supplies for over a month, it is impossible to provide clothing and other essential items even to the displaced children who have only the clothes on their backs. Efforts continue to distribute child identity bracelets, disseminate awareness raising messages about family separation, and facilitate family reunification.
Education
• The Education Cluster reports 88.5% of schools (499 out of 564) have been directly hit or damaged, requiring significant or complete reconstruction. These schools served 546,500 students with 20,450 teachers, 88% of Gaza’s students and teachers.
• Ministry of Education closed all 186 government schools in Deir al Balah, Rafah and Khan Younis governorates, due to the escalation of hostilities and widespread insecurity. 132,000 children are now deprived of schooling, psychological support and structured recreational activities.
Food & Nutrition
• World Food Program warns that hundreds of thousands of people are again at risk of severe hunger and malnutrition as food stocks dwindle, prices soar, and borders remain closed. Military activity has disrupted food assistance and the lives of aid workers. As of 4/3, all 25 subsidized bakeries closed due to a lack of cooking gas and flour; see https://pchrgaza.org/famine-is-imminent-in-gaza-strip-bakeries-closed-amid-lack-of-flour-and-foodstuff/. Food parcel distributions will soon be depleted. Hot meal distribution continues at a reduced rate, but supplies are running out. Israel prevents the entry of 89,000 tons of food stranded outside Gaza. Prices of the little remaining in shops have soared: wheat flour increased by 450% and cooking gas by 4,000%.
• The lack of safe access for farmers, breeders, and fishers to their lands, livestock and the sea is also preventing the resumption of agriculture and restoration of the food supply chain.
Water & Sanitation
• Households face significant challenges accessing sufficient water for drinking and domestic use. Nearly 36% were unable to access 15 liters per day (LPD), the minimum necessary to safeguard public health in an emergency. While water production improved during the ceasefire, the hostilities and forced displacement since 3/18 have limited the ability of WASH partners to provide services and repair damaged networks. Israeli authorities have denied access since January to repair the Mekerot Bani Said water line, located in a “no-go” zone.
• Poor sanitation conditions are also increasing public health risks. Displacement sites in Al Mawasi report flea and mite infestations, causing rashes and other health issues. Population mobility, severe overcrowding, restricted access to basic services, and limited ability to make improvements increase the risk of disease spread. Roughly half of assessed households rely on facilities classified as limited, unimproved, or equivalent to open defecation; they are also exposed to sewage from flooding, overflow, and the destruction of sanitation facilities. Environmental health is threatened by rodents and pests, standing water, piles of solid waste, and sewage. WASH Cluster estimates that 15,000 latrine units are stalled at the border, enough for approximately 300,000 people. Of the 20 solid waste trucks in southern Gaza, only 6 are operational; 5 more could be used if Israel allowed the import of tires.
• 3/23, an Israeli attack on a clearly marked sewage truck in Abasan Al Kabira killed 3 sanitation workers.
Evacuation and Displacement
• Israeli military issued 13 displacement orders since 3/18, affecting 126.6sq.km., 35% of Gaza. In addition, Israeli authorities have limited movement in the “no-go” zone along Gaza’s perimeter and their arbitrary divisions between north and south. Together, these areas comprise 65% of Gaza. Recent displacement orders affect about a quarter of a million people, and mean shutting a hospital, 2 field hospitals, 6 primary health centers, 10 medical points, 9 community kitchens, 8 schools, and 10 temporary learning spaces (TLS), affecting over 10,000 children, and dozens of displacement sites.
• These recurrent displacement orders, severe destruction, and denial of entry of resources have worsened the shelter situation. The Humanitarian Access Manager at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) stated: “We're seeing the shelter response approaching a complete standstill because we have almost nothing left to distribute despite still seeing these massive forced transfers happening every day, sometimes multiple times a day… More than a million people remain in dire need of tents in Gaza and 700,000 more require very basic items like plastic sheets and ropes to reinforce their currently inadequate makeshift shelters and the damaged buildings in which they're in… As many as 10 people at a time are trying to fit inside a single tent, people sheltering in the corridors of crowded school buildings and in the shadows of collapsed buildings… Many people, with no alternative shelter, are staying in structurally unsound and damaged buildings, where incidents of buildings collapsing on top of men, women, and children continue to be recorded.”
THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM
• The weekly OCHA/OPT report which is usually summarized here was not released this week.
Last week’s autopsy of the first Palestinian minor to die in Israel's Megiddo Prison revealed signs of starvation and medical neglect, with the report noting severe muscle and fat loss, as well as colitis and scabies. here
• The Gazafication of the West Bank: “Is This Really Happening Again?” Netanyahu is doing what his government promised all along: level the West Bank just as it did Gaza. here (4 paragraphs are avail, then requires subscription)
• Israeli soldiers and settlers spent several hours 3/29 vandalizing a Palestinian village in the Masafer Yatta area of the West Bank, marking the 2nd attack on the village in 2 days, according to local residents. here
ISRAEL
• PM Benjamin Netanyahu announced Israel is establishing a new security corridor across the Gaza Strip to pressure Hamas, suggesting it would cut off the southern city of Rafah, which Israel has ordered evacuated, from the rest of the Palestinian territory. here, here
• Netanyahu Promises the “Final Stage” of Gaza Genocide Will Lead to Implementation of “Trump’s Plan." “Hamas will lay down its weapons. Its leaders will be allowed to leave. We will see to the general security in the Gaza Strip and will allow the realization of the Trump plan for voluntary migration.” here, here
• Members of PM Netanyahu's coalition claimed that the WHO is antisemitic, supports Hamas, and promotes "pedophilic" content in a Knesset Health Committee meeting on Israel's possible withdrawal from the global public health agency.
• Several senior IOF reservists warned of a 50% fall in the rate of reporting for duty. One said brigade and battalion commanders are dealing with scores of cases in which reservists have announced they will not report for duty, mostly due to the violation of the hostage deal.
• Why is the IDF's Military Police Criminal Investigation Division opening only 6 investigations into its use of Palestinians human shields? here
LEBANON
• Four people killed by Israeli airstrike on Beirut. here
UNITED STATES: UNIVERSITY UPDATES
• Columbia: Jewish students chain themselves to gates. here
• Columbia: Campus Occupation Could Have Ended Without Police. here
• Harvard: The Divinity School suspended its Religion, Conflict, and Peace Initiative, forced out the Center for Middle Eastern Studies faculty, and the School of Public Health suspended its partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank. here
• U of Michigan: 300 Jewish faculty and 100 students sent letters to President Santa Ono condemning the exploitation of antisemitism as a means to attack higher education. here
• U of Minnesota: ICE detained an international grad student this week. here
• U of Minnesota: JVP and Educators for Justice in Palestine statement. here
• NYU: canceled a talk by Dr. Joanne Liu, ex-head of Doctors Without Borders, for condemning federal and USAID cuts and mentioning Gaza. here
• Pomona College: JVP statement here
• Tufts: Declaration in support of Rumeysa Ozturk here
• The MAGA state is likely to use accreditation to force colleges and universities to ground their curriculum in white Christian nationalism: here
• Betar US, a far-right pro-Israel group that claimed credit for the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, claims it has submitted “thousands of names” for similar treatment. It is only one of the Israel groups supporting efforts to deport international pro-Palestinian students. here
• An Intercept investigation [here] reveals that the pro-Israel group Canary Mission received $100,000 in 2023 from a foundation linked to a U of Pennsylvania trustee’s family. Their dossiers are used by US immigration authorities to monitor and target pro-Palestine activists.
UNITED STATES
• International human rights lawyer Richard Falk: As independent evidence of Israeli crimes continues to mount, the west remains wedded to anti-Palestinian propaganda. here
• Thousands of demonstrators from unions, women’s organizations, anti-war, Muslim, Arab-American organizations, and others, including Jewish Voice for Peace, gathered at the Washington Monument to “March for Palestine” on ICE Headquarters in Washington, DC. The demonstration was part of, and a corrective to, the “Hands Off” April 5 national demonstrations that did not officially include a call for the end to genocide in Gaza. here
SOURCES
OCHAOPT, Al-Jazeera, AMNY, AP, Chronicle of Higher Education, DropSiteNews, The Guardian, Haaretz, Harvard Crimson, The Hill, Intercept, Michigan Daily, Middle East Eye, Mondoweiss, NYTimes, Palestine Center for Human Rights, Palestine Chronicle, Portside, UNICEF, Zeteo, Defense for Children International