Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem, Lebanon, and Syria (and Yemen?) 12/28/24

Reports in mainstream media

NYT Sunday Magazine profiled the small number of sick and injured Palestinians who manage to get medical treatment abroad despite all odds. here

Israel weakened IDF mechanisms designed to protect civilians during combat and vastly expanded the set of military targets it sought to hit in pre-emptive airstrikes, while simultaneously increasing the number of civilians that officers could endanger in each attack. In some cases, senior commanders approved attacks on Hamas leaders despite knowing they would be risking the lives of over 100 civilians. here

Gangs are filling a power vacuum left by Israel in some parts of southern Gaza, hijacking desperately needed aid for Palestinian residents. International aid workers have accused Israel of ignoring the problem and allowing looters to act with impunity. here

GAZA

Israeli air, land, & sea bombardment continues across Gaza, causing further civilian casualties, and destruction of houses & other civilian infrastructure. The 11-week siege of northern Gaza has choked off all humanitarian aid, denying 65-75,000 people access to food, water, electricity or reliable health care. The last remaining partially functional hospital was destroyed. Israeli violations of the ceasefire in Lebanon, widespread Israeli bombing of Syria, the expanded Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights, and the expansion of the war to the West Bank constitute a regional health and human rights emergency.

Killed: 45,338+ (279 this week)

Injured: 107,7643+ (723 this week)

Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 389 (3 this week)

Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 2,494

Hostages in Gaza: 100

(Numbers are cumulative through 12/24/24, per OCHAOPT & Palestinian Ministry of Health. Additional numbers below added from other sources.)

For more details: here

UN: "Break the cycle of violence" in Gaza

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, noted the immense need in Gaza and challenges facing humanitarian workers: “[I]t has become almost impossible to deliver even a fraction of the aid that is so urgently required… Israeli authorities continue to deny us meaningful access – over 100 requests to access North Gaza denied since 10/6.” See his entire statement here.

Israeli attacks

• 12/17 & 19, 23 killed and dozens injured in a house and school in Gaza City.

• 12/17, 8 killed and others injured in a house near Kamal Adwan Hospital, Beit Lahiya.

• 12/18, 8 killed (3 children) and others injured in a house in Jabalya Al Balad.12/19, 10 killed and others injured in Ash Shati’ (Beach) Refugee Camp, Gaza City.

• 12/20, 21 & 23, 60 killed, many injured, and 20 new homes destroyed in An Nuseirat refugee camp and other parts of Deir al Balah.

• 12/20, 10 killed (7 children) and others injured in Jabalya An Nazlah, North Gaza.

• 12/23, Israeli strikes killed at least 20 people overnight including 8 people in the Muwasi area, a designated humanitarian zone. Hospital records show another 6 killed in a strike on people securing an aid convoy and another 2 killed in a strike on a car in Muwasi. One person was killed in a separate strike in the area.

• 12/26, At least 10 people were killed and more than a dozen wounded in Israeli strikes. An attack on a house in Gaza City's Zeitoun neighborhood killed five people and wounded 20, medics said, warning that the death toll could rise as many remained trapped under the rubble.

• 12/26, IDF said it struck a vehicle carrying Palestinian Islamic Jihad militants near the Al-Awda Hospital in Nuseirat in central Gaza. Palestinian sources told Reuters that five journalists were killed in the strike, and that the van they were traveling in was clearly marked as press. The Palestinian Journalists Union said the five journalists worked for the Al-Quds Today channel.

Evacuations and displacement

• Between 12/18-23, Israeli military issued 2 evacuation orders. In Deir al Balah, it covers Al Bureij and its refugee camp (23,100 people, including 10,300 people at 3 IDP shelters), closing 5 medical points and 2 water trucking points. In Gaza City, it affects 5,000 households. 80.5% of Gaza is under active evacuation orders. 12/22, another 350 mostly women and children (men were already separated from their families at an Israeli checkpoint) were displaced when an air-drop of Israeli military leaflets ordered people in Beit Hanoun to move south.

Hospitals and health care

• At Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya has become a symbol of resilience in the face of unimaginable horror. That horror is ongoing as the hospital and surrounding area remained under Israeli attack this past weekend. Injured, traumatized and fearful people taking shelter there are facing the threat of forced evacuation. The pediatrician and hospital director has endured weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment, the death of his 15-year-old son, Ibrahim, and even his own injury, all while refusing to abandon his patients.

• Taking advantage of lessened world attention during Christmas week, the Israeli military is breaking every international law protecting health and hospitals by attacking Kamal Adwan, Indonesian and Al Awda hospitals in North Gaza. On 12/24, the Israeli military invaded Indonesian Hospital, ordering patients, caregivers and staff to evacuate to Gaza City, leaving only 1 doctor and an engineer. Also on 12/24, tanks followed up multiple airstrikes on its surroundings by shelling the 3rd floor of Al Awda Hospital.

• Attacks near and on Kamal Adwan continued, targeting the ICU (where bullets ignited a fire), the maternity ward, and the surgery department. Hours after a WHO mission reached the hospital, it was ordered to evacuate. “Reports of bombardment near Kamal Adwan Hospital and an order to evacuate the hospital are deeply worrisome,” stressed WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, appealing for an immediate ceasefire and the protection of patients and health workers.

• By 12/24, about 400 IDPs and 91 patients, including children and the elderly, remained at Kamal Adwan, amid an urgent need to supply food and water. Attacks near the hospital on 12/23-24 injured 20 people in the hospital, including 5 medical staff. On 12/27, Israeli forces set fire to Kamal Adwan Hospital and forced everyone inside--patients, the injured, medical staff, and journalists--to evacuate.

• By 12/28, 350 patients have been expelled and Dr Abu Safia and other medical staff were reported kidnapped by Aljazeera.

• UNFPA estimates 42,000 pregnant women will be exposed to acute cold and hunger this winter, that over half suffer from anemia, rising numbers of miscarriages, pre-term births and low birthweights now account for 10% of all deliveries, twice the rate prior to October 2023. Premature babies are dying in hospitals from lack of ventilators, formula, and other essentials. In Gaza City, only 3 ventilators exist, in the Pediatric ICU of Patients Friends Association Hospital. As of 12/16, one ventilator is in use by a 10-yr-old, now quadriplegic after shrapnel from an Israeli bombardment shattered his spine. Newborns gasping for air, toddlers with sepsis, and injured children face death at any moment because there are no ventilators available.

• The risk of death, injury and disease has increased as most people now shelter in tents, no more protective buildings; children are injured by shrapnel from strikes over a km away “because they have nothing but pieces of fabric around them.” Overcrowding and lack of hygiene spread Infectious disease: 500+ cases of chickenpox reported at a Deir al Balah site with 8,000 IDPs.

• A survey by Gaza Community Mental Health found displaced families in Gaza with severe psychological distress, with 8% of people in central and southern Gaza needing advanced mental health care, and a likely higher percentage in the Gaza and North Gaza governorates due to worse conditions. Given that trauma symptoms typically become more apparent after a crisis ends, this is likely an under-estimate.

• The use of traditional methods of childbirth has become increasingly common in Gaza where, as far back as April, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reported that most of the 183 women who on average give birth daily in Gaza lack access to trained midwives, doctors or healthcare facilities as a result of Israel’s genocidal violence.

• Three infants have died in the Gaza Strip in the last 48 hours due to cold temperatures and deteriorating living conditions, according to official Palestinian sources. Dr. Munir al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, wrote that Sila Mahmoud al-Faseeh “froze to death from the extreme cold in the tents located on the beach in Mawasi Khan Yunis, in the area declared by the Israeli occupation as a ‘temporary safe humanitarian zone for displaced persons.’

• 12/27 A Palestinian healthcare worker has died due to “extreme” weather conditions, according to a statement by the enclave’s Ministry of Health, as severe cold compounds the hardship faced by people displaced by Israel’s relentless attacks. The body of Al-Hakim Ahmed al-Zaharneh, who worked at the European Gaza Hospital, was found inside his tent in al-Mawasi area, west of the city of Khan Younis, southern Gaza.

• There were at least nine clinics in the Gaza Strip that performed in vitro fertilization (IVF), and these clinics would all send fertilized embryos to the Basma clinic. But in April, an Israeli shell destroyed the clinic and with it some 4,000 frozen embryos, 1,000 sperm and unfertilized egg samples.

Food and nutrition

• For the 3rd consecutive month, bread and lentils dominate household diets, while fruits, vegetables, meat and dairy products are absent. Looting of supplies through Kerem Shalom crossing continues to reduce aid. All 8 WFP bakeries in Deir al Balah and Khan Younis remain closed as do the 5 in Rafah. Hundreds of tons of food, now facing spoilage and expiration dates, remain stranded outside Gaza by Israeli denial of entry.

• Food prices in local markets remain exorbitant. A 25-kg bag of wheat flour ranges between US$160 to $190; a kg of sugar $135; a frozen chicken $41. In November, 80% of households report going without food in the 3 days prior to the survey. 96% of children 6- 23 months old, and pregnant and breastfeeding women, do not meet basic nutritional requirements. Cooking gas is unavailable in north Gaza and high-priced in central and southern Gaza.

• 12/20, UNICEF: Gaza’s children are “cold, sick and traumatized” amid utter deprivation and suffering, “searching through rubble for scraps of plastic to burn.” here

• In the 1st ½ of December, of 27,500 children screened, 1791 were treated for acute malnutrition, and 22 hospitalized. 36,216 children have been treated since the beginning of 2024. Acute cases of malnutrition have increased to 4,770/month since July.

• It has been nearly a year since Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza began, and starvation is now affecting every community. Famine is imminent in northern Gaza. Humanitarian aid entering Gaza is at an all-time low. As winter approaches, Palestinians in Gaza wonder how they will survive with barely any food or goods in the markets. Palestinians of all ages recount how the brutal experience of displacement is compounded by the lack of food and water.

Aid

• MSF reports Israel restricts entry of medications and equipment by strictly regulating items deemed as “dual use” (civilian or military) such as generators, scalpels, scissors, autoclaves and oxygen concentrators. “Humanitarian organizations must navigate painstaking formalities… providing a photo, technical sheet, intended use, and GPS location where the item will be used.” Even if authorization is granted, items are still blocked: 5 autoclaves remain stalled in Egypt. If pallets are damaged during Israeli searches or an item is rejected at a crossing, authorities may reject and return the entire shipment to Egypt, re-starting the process. MSF waited 5 months for refrigerators and is still awaiting authorization for desalination units and generators.

• The International Medical Corps highlighted that on 12/22, 22 trucks with medical and hygiene supplies were looted between Kerem Shalom crossing and a UN warehouse in Khan Younis. They lost 111 of 150 pallets of supplies for 2 field hospitals in central Gaza.

• Between 12/1-23, of 461 planned aid movements coordinated with Israeli authorities, 34% (159) were facilitated, 40% (183) denied, 16% (75) were approved but then impeded, and 10% (44) cancelled. Aid missions to North Gaza governorate were particularly disrupted: of 52 shipments, 48 were denied and only 4 allowed but then impeded.

• As of 12/21, 984 UN and international NGO trucks are waiting in Egypt to be sent into Gaza. 

Water & Sanitation

• Between 12/8-20, the Palestinian Water Authority and Coastal Municipalities Water Utility produced less than ¼ of the water they supplied prior to October 2023. They received only 11.7% of the fuel needed to meet WASH and public health needs, including water production and distribution, sewage management, repair works and solid waste management.

• Israeli is preventing 50,000 tons of WASH supplies from entering Gaza from Jordan and Egypt.

Education

• Between 12/8-20, 13 attacks on schools were recorded, including the killing of a teacher. These events create fear and trauma among parents, children, and teachers. As of 12/17, 11,893 students and 466 teachers were killed, and 18,713 students and 2,539 educators injured.

WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

This week, Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians and injured 36 (10 children).

Killed since October 2023: 986 (210 children) and injured: 16,146 (2,462 children)

Find more detail here:

Israeli attacks

• 12/21, a 6-year-old was killed by unexploded ordinance while herding sheep near Arab Ar Rashiyda Al Barriya, Bethlehem, an area declared a military training firing zone.

• 12/24-25, Israeli forces killed 8 Palestinians during a 40-hour operation in Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps. The operation involved drone strikes and bulldozing roads, causing extensive damage to roads, water, sewage, and electrical networks. Another person was killed when military fired an explosive at his house in Tulkarm.

• 12/25, a Palestinian child died from an Israeli airstrike on Tubas the night before.

Internal unrest

• Since 12/5, Palestinian Authority forces operating in Jenin refugee camp have arrested 60, exchanged gunfire, and closed camp entrances; 8 people have been killed: 4 unarmed Palestinians (2 children), 3 PA members (2 dismantling an IED and 1 by armed Palestinians); and 1 armed Palestinian were killed by the PA. UNRWA has suspended camp services for 20 days, including 4 schools serving about 1,700 students. 12/23, armed Palestinians ended their 5-day occupation of the health center. Jenin city and camp have been on a general strike. 12,000 camp residents have limited access to water and electricity. Repair of water and electrical systems, damaged by Israeli military, has been halted, affecting water access for 60% of the population and causing intermittent electrical and communication outages.

• The Theatre in the Jenin refugee camp, reported 16 days of attacks by the Palestinian Authority (in addition to the more than weekly incursions by the Israeli army). In the most recent days, six people were killed. Buildings are burning, some from fires set by the Palestinian Authority troops. The situation in the camp is extremely dangerous. The PA forces are shooting randomly and people are terrified. There is no way to know where the PA forces will deploy next.

Economy

• Since October 2023, 10 Palestinians (3 in December) were killed and 78 injured while trying to cross informal openings in the West Bank Barrier. Rising unemployment is exacerbated by Israeli settlement expansion, land confiscations, demolition of Palestinian structures, and increased settler violence. Compounding economic distress, Israeli authorities revoked most permits issued to Palestinians for work in Israel and its settlements, including over 800 permits for humanitarian workers. The International Labor Organization notes “the labor market has borne the brunt of the war, with the unemployment rate in the OPT…reaching 34.9% in the West Bank and 79.7% in Gaza.” here

Settler Attacks

This week, settlers carried out 10 attacks against Palestinians, causing injuries and/or property damage. Since 10/7/23, OCHA documented 1,779 attacks by settlers against Palestinians. Since

• 10/7/2023, settler attacks and access restrictions displaced 300 Bedouin households (1,762 people, 856 children).

• 12/20, armed settlers painted racist graffiti on and set fire to a mosque in Marda village, north of Salfit.

• 12/20, armed settlers raided Palestinian land in Area C (Adh Dhahiriya, Hebron) and vandalized a residential structure, damaging windows, walls, and 3 water tanks.

• 12/21, settlers destroyed a residence and an agricultural tent in Burqa village, Ramallah.

Demolitions

This week, Israeli authorities demolished 15 Palestinian-owned structures for lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 22 (6 children). Since 10/7/23, Israeli authorities destroyed 2,047 West Bank structures, displacing 4,854 Palestinians (2,052 children).

• 12/16, Israeli authorities demolished 6 shops and a mall (26 shops) in Area C of Adh Dhahiriya, Hebron for lack of Israeli-issued building permits, affecting the livelihoods of 25 families (178 people, 101 children). They destroyed restaurants, produce shops, bakeries, a coffee shop, and a carpentry workshop as well as several water tanks.

ISRAEL

• Israel agreed to release 200 prisoners serving life sentences, according to a Palestinian source…Hamas agreed to include 11 young men in the first stage of a hostage and cease-fire deal, provided they receive a "special return" for them, the Egyptian channel Al-Rad reported

• Opinion piece in Haaretz: 'When You Leave Israel and Enter Gaza, You Are God': Inside the Minds of IDF Soldiers Who Commit War Crimes “…our government's rhetoric of hatred and revenge, which has been reinforced by its determined undermining of the justice system, led to excessive retaliation and mass killing of civilians in Gaza. It provided a tailwind for atrocities by Callous and Ideologically Violent soldiers, increased their influence over the Followers, and sidelined the Incorruptible.” here

• Report from Israel’s Ofer (torture) Camp. Inmates at Israel's shadowy new facility face non-stop abuse — from deadly beatings and electric shocks, to constant handcuffing and skin diseases. here

• For Israeli police, humiliating Palestinian women is a tool of collective repression. Political arrests of Palestinian women in Israel – who face strip-searches, blindfolding, and doxing – aim to send the community a clear message.

• Israeli occupation forces have detained a Jordanian doctor, Abdullah al-Balawi, while en route to Gaza as part of a medical relief mission on a UN convoy. “Despite receiving official approval from the Israeli side for this mission and all the required security clearances, Dr. Abdullah was detained at the King Hussein Bridge (Allenby Crossing) and has since been held without clear reasons for his arrest and has been denied access to his lawyer,” the Palestinian Australian and New Zealand Medical Association said.

• Israel has renewed the administrative detention order of the Palestinian leader Khalida Jarrar for the third consecutive time for an additional six months and extended her solitary confinement for another month. Jarrar, a leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was arrested on 12/26/2023, and was subjected to an arbitrary administrative detention order for six months, which has “since been renewed twice,” the Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, Addameer, said.

• Most of the internal opposition to the continuation of Israel’s war on Gaza centers around demanding the release of approximately 100 captives taken from Israel. However, awareness among many Israelis of the extent of their country’s actions in Gaza appears minimal. The consequence, analysts say, of a pliant media that – with a few notable exceptions – appears ready to parrot Netanyahu and his increasingly far-right government.

• A new trauma support center will open in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in some two weeks – the 14th such center to open in the country since 2007. In contrast to all its predecessors, which provide mental health and other kinds of support related to the security situation, the center will focus on trauma caused by the wave of violent crime in Arab communities.

LEBANON

• In yet another violation of the ceasefire agreement, Israeli occupation forces infiltrated the strategically sensitive Wadi al-Hujayr, a region that had been inaccessible to them during the war due to the Lebanese Resistance. Israeli tanks and bulldozers advanced on 12/26 from the Taybeh Project toward the town of al-Qantara, then proceeded into Wadi al-Hujayr. Bulldozers were seen erecting earthen barriers in further violations of the ceasefire agreement and assaults on Lebanon's sovereignty. Residents of al-Qantara and Aadchit al-Qusayr fled toward al-Ghandouriyeh as the occupation forces pushed deeper into the area.

SYRIA

• The IDF reportedly conducted raids in villages located in the demilitarized zone between Israel and Syria, arrested two residents on suspicion of spying for Hezbollah, and established several positions at military sites previously controlled by Hezbollah and the Syrian army. The Iraqi government reportedly inked a deal with the country's militias to stop attacks on Israel.

YEMEN

• 12/26, UN announced that the Israeli raid on Sanaa airport took place during the presence of a UN negotiating team that included the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

• Israel’s military says it struck multiple targets linked to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including Sanaa International Airport and three ports along the western coast. The attacks carried out hit Yemen’s Hezyaz and Ras Kanatib power stations as well as military infrastructure in the ports of Hodeidah, Salif and Ras Kanatib, the military said. Two people were killed in the strikes on the airport and one person was killed in the port hits, while 11 others were wounded in the attacks.

• The Israeli strikes came a day after Yemen’s Houthis, who control northwestern Yemen, including Sanaa and its Red Sea coast, fired a ballistic missile and two drones towards Israel. Over the weekend, 16 people were wounded when a Houthi missile hit a playground in Tel Aviv.

US

• More than 100 days have passed since Israeli forces killed 26-year-old Turkish-American Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as she protested illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. And still, no one has been held to account. Despite pleas from her family and lawmakers, the Biden administration has not opened an independent investigation into her killing. Instead, it has said it’s awaiting the final results of Israel's probe.

• Biden’s administration is facing criticism after a US-backed report on famine in the Gaza Strip was retracted this week, drawing accusations of political interference and pro-Israel bias. The report by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), which provides information about global food insecurity, had warned that a “famine scenario” was unfolding in northern Gaza during Israel’s war on the territory.

• Leading Israel lobbyists and at least one of their client politicians in Washington are mounting a renewed assault on Columbia University’s Professor Joseph Massad. The pretext for the revived defamation campaign is the apparently bogus resignation of a Jewish adjunct faculty member supposedly outraged that Massad will be teaching a course on Zionism. In fact, Massad has taught the course, titled “Palestinian and Israeli politics and societies,” since the year 2000.

• Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to sanction Israeli settlers that commit acts of violence in the West Bank. The bicameral Sanctions and Accountability for Non-Compliance and Transparent Investigative Oversight for National Security (SANCTIONS) in the West Bank Act, was introduced by Senator Peter Welch (D-VT) and Representative Summer Lee (D-PA).

• Philanthropists in the US have quietly withdrawn funding from grassroots groups (unrelated to the middle east) that spoke out for Gaza, imperiling a broad range of social justice movements. here

• Inside the Yale Police Department’s War on Student Protesters Against the War in Gaza. Exclusive documents reveal the YPD’s use of counterterrorism tactics in suppressing pro-Palestine activism, with the support of the FBI. Documents reveal that the YPD installed cameras on campus, tracked students’ social media accounts, and monitored students using aerial drones. Additionally, the YPD also collaborated with the New Haven Police Department, other university police, pro-Israel organizations, and even a federal counterterrorism intelligence-sharing center in its effort to crack down on protest. here

• Today, MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) conducts research funded by the Israeli Ministry of Defense (IMoD), with direct applications to the ongoing genocide in Gaza. The MIT Coalition for Palestine, whose tuition and labor support CSAIL, called on CSAIL Director Daniela Rus to lead by example and end her IMoD-sponsored research.

INTERNATIONAL

• An international network of 40 progressive Jewish organizations published an open letter on 12/20 calling for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza, a hostage deal and swift diplomatic action to address the escalating humanitarian crisis.

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, Portside, Common Dreams, Haaretz, Jewish Currents, Zeteo, Electronic Intifada, AFSC, Mondoweiss, +972, Palestine Chronicle, Aljazeera, WAFA, New York Times, Friends of The Jenin Freedom Theatre, US