Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem-March 8, 2025

ACTION ITEM FOR THE WEEK

Senator Bernie Sanders recently introduced a second Joint Resolution of Disapproval urging that Congress block the $8.56 billion sale of offensive weapons to Israel. here Please tell your legislators that these weapons transfers are contrary to healthcare workers’ professional and moral values. Providing these weapons to a country using them against civilians also violates US and international law. Tell Congress: Block $8.5 bn in weapons to Israel. Click here

Webinar

3/16, 12pm ET, Zoom webinar to hear from Israeli conscientious objectors who will share their stories of refusing to join the Israeli military. Partnership with Veterans For Peace Chapter 51 and the Refuser Solidarity Network (RSN). The Refuser Solidarity Network works to end the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian Territories and the militarization of Israeli society, one soldier at a time. here

Videos:

The Destruction of Healthcare Systems in Gaza: Realities, Ramifications & ACTIONS, Boston MA, March 1, 2025 panel: here

Webinar on health news from Electronic Intifada: here

Save the Children estimates that 15 Palestinian children a day suffer injuries with potentially lifelong disabilities, worsened due to the decimation of the health system and destruction of health facilities in Gaza, as well as the restricted flow and low availability of medicines, which has made treatment, therapeutic or rehabilitative care inside Gaza near impossible. The Electronic Intifada invited Dr. Mimi Syed, a U.S.-based emergency physician, to discuss the current state of Gaza’s healthcare and appeals to US lawmakers and the UN to address this health catastrophe. here

Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council: The Hospital as a social institution and refuge during the Gaza Genocide with Faris Giacaman, Palestine Editorial Director at Mondoweiss. here

Al Jazeera: What happens to Palestinian women in Israeli prisons? | Now You Know here

JOURNAL ARTICLES & REPORTS

Gaza’s health system is “completely eviscerated”—what happens now? Sixteen months of bombings and attacks have decimated Gaza’s health system and workforce. Palestinian doctors talk about the effects on mental health, what needs to happen next, and how UK doctors can help. (BMJ 2025; 388 doi: here

Gaza: UK must act to evacuate severely injured children, say campaigners, BMJ 2025; 388 doi: here Cite this as: BMJ 2025;388:r279

Why Palestine is a feminist issue: a reckoning with Western feminism in a time of genocide, Nicola Pratt (she/her), Afaf Jabiri (she/her), Ashjan Ajour (she/her), Hala Shoman (she/her), Maryam Aldossari (she/her), & Sara Ababneh (she/her), Pages 226-250 Published online: 06 Feb 2025, here

Death sentence for health sector as Israel closes Gaza crossings here

GAZA

3/2, Israeli authorities announced a halt to all humanitarian aid entering Gaza, a clear violation of international law that jeopardizes the progress made after the 1/19 ceasefire on releasing captives and overcoming the threats to life and health caused by the Israeli devastation of Gaza. Since 1/19, 30 live and 8 deceased hostages have been released to Israel, and 1,777 Palestinian detainees (44 children) have been released. While progress has been made improving conditions, less than 4% of the US$4 billion in funding required to meet basic human needs has been secured.

Killed: 48,405 + (57 this week, 49 of whom were corpses unearthed in the rubble)

Injured: 111,835+ (74 this week)

Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 407 (0 this week)

Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 2,582 (1 this week)

Hostages in Gaza: 59

Gaza Information Ministry: 14,000+ still missing in Gaza are now classified as killed, which brings their estimate of the death toll to over 62,000.

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

• 2/26- 27, 2 killed, 5 injured by explosive ordnance in North Gaza and Rafah as people were digging to erect tents.

• 2/28, 18-year-old killed in Rafah and a child killed in North Gaza.

• 3/2, 1 killed on his roof in Rafah; 1 killed and several injured in Khan Younis.

• Israeli army has resumed random shelling and airstrikes, marking the latest Israeli attempt to sabotage the ceasefire following Netanyahu's violation of the agreement by stopping the flow of humanitarian aid. Israeli army shelled several residential areas in Beit Hanoun, killing civilians in their homes and in displacement camps in northern Gaza. In Khan Younis and al-Bureij to the south, Israeli tanks stationed on the border have fired randomly at Palestinians on a daily basis since 3/3.

Health and hospitals

• An account from Dr. Seema Jilani, Houston pediatrician and volunteer in Gaza. At a U.N. Security Council. “One day, four of the five patients we were resuscitating from the brink of death were under the age of fifteen. I told them of the Palestinian doctors—forcibly displaced multiple times and forced to scavenge for shelter, food, and water for their families—who would still show up to work. How, stethoscope in hand, they pronounced their own family members dead, took a moment to weep, and then returned to treating patients.”

• Child psychotherapist for Médecins Sans Frontières stated: “The mental health of both children and adults in Gaza has been severely affected. They have gone through immense trauma, worrying about their lives for more than a year. We see depressive symptoms in adults and children…because they can’t take it anymore… The ceasefire needs to hold because without it, these children will once again be trapped in extreme survival mode…the uncertainty, fear and trauma have lasted too long for anyone to bear.”

• 2/1-3/2, WHO supported the medical evacuation of 1,136 patients (451 children) and 1,720 companions. 12-14,000 people (4,500 children) urgently need medical evacuation.

• Polio vaccination campaign (ending on 2/26) reached 602,795 children <10. WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus noted: ending “polio hinges on fully vaccinating every last child and ensuring uninterrupted access to safe water, sanitation and hygiene, and proper nutrition.”

• Israeli restrictions on the entry of medical equipment and supplies, such as generators, spare parts, oxygen plants, reagents and laboratory equipment, prevents scaling-up health service delivery. As of 3/1, 15 of 35 hospitals, 82 of 145 PHCs, and 194 of 360 medical points across Gaza remain non-functional.

• Kidney patients in Gaza face a dire shortage of clean water, medicine, and dialysis, struggling for survival. Inside the corridors of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in central Gaza, Mohammed Saleh sits, exhausted, waiting for his turn to undergo a dialysis session. Signs of fatigue are evident on his face—not only due to his illness but also because of the grueling search for clean drinking water, which ended in vain. With a weary tone, he says, “Every day, we fight a tough battle to find clean water to sustain our frail bodies.” He stresses that access to bottled water for kidney patients in Gaza is no longer a luxury but rather “a matter of life or death.”

• Paralyzed by fear I had heard of insomnia before, but I never truly understood it until it became my relentless companion, a shadow that followed me every night. I once adored the night – the tranquility, the solitude, the opportunity for reflection. But I came to despise the night. During the war, there was no serenity, no peace to be found in the hours after sunset. The Israeli drones never ceased. As the sun dipped below the horizon, the sky became filled with the deafening hum of these machines. Their omnipresence paralyzed our mental health, gnawing at our bones with an unrelenting message: “No sleep. No peace. Only suffering.”

Education

• 2024-25 academic year began on 2/23, marking the return to in-person learning since the war began 10/23. As of 3/3, 150,000+ students have enrolled in 165 government schools across Gaza; more than half operating on 3 shifts a day; with 7,000+ teachers. Israeli attacks damaged most schools as did their use as IDP shelters; at least 88% of school buildings still require full reconstruction or major rehabilitation. Construction materials shortages prevent repairs, and the lack of capacity to clear explosive ordnance prevents their use. Between the ceasefire of 1/19 and 3/1, only 100 of 600 tents needed as temporary learning spaces were allowed to enter Gaza. The entry of educational supplies has also been limited, making it difficult to re-establish an effective learning environment.

• 2/25, a school near Rafah, set to reopen this week, was hit by gunfire. Attacks on schools over the past 15 months have instilled fear among children, teachers, and parents, and now threatens to continue to disrupt education efforts.

Aid

• The 3/2 Israeli halt to humanitarian aid entering Gaza, including fuel, is a contravention of the cease-fire agreement. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Tom Fletcher, stated: “International humanitarian law is clear: We must be allowed access to deliver vital lifesaving aid. We can’t roll back the progress of the past 42 days. We need to get aid in and the hostages out. The ceasefire must hold.” UNICEF warned that ending aid deliveries will quickly lead to devastating consequences for children and families struggling to survive. here

• UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid deliveries into the Gaza Strip will “quickly lead to devastating consequences” for children and families struggling to survive. “The aid restrictions announced yesterday will severely compromise lifesaving operations for civilians,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa. here

• One day after Israel began halting the entry of all goods and humanitarian assistance into the Gaza Strip, Palestinians there were already feeling the effects of the sweeping measure, with prices of essential goods on the rise. “It was a complete shock,” Iman Saber, a 24-year-old nurse from northern Gaza, said of Israel’s decision to block aid and commercial shipments. Already, said Ms. Saber, who has been living in a tent with her father, a cancer patient, and her mother and sister, prices for sugar, oil and chicken have gone up, and hopes raised by the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas have proved fleeting.

Food & Nutrition

• UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini said aid entering Gaza should be at a scale similar to what Israel allowed in the past six weeks since the cease-fire began, adding that "aid and these basic services are nonnegotiable. They must never be used as weapons of war."

• Disruption to aid entry threatens 80 community kitchens. Some will need to adjust meal content or reduce the number of meals prepared to cope with anticipated shortages. Remaining distribution of parcels will soon run out. Household-level flour distribution will have to be suspended to prioritize the flour for sustaining the 25 reopened bakeries.

• Safe access of farmers, breeders, and fishers to their lands, livestock and the sea is critical for resuming agricultural activities and restoring the food supply chain. With 50 million tons of debris scattered across Gaza, large swathes of agricultural land have sustained damage, and incidents of fishers being fired at while fishing just meters from the shore continue. To resume safe agricultural practices and fishing, the import of agricultural and fish production inputs and tools needs to resume, the removal of hazardous materials, including unexploded ordnance, should continue, and fishers must be granted safe access to fishing waters. Israeli restrictions on the entry of agricultural inputs must be lifted.

• As of 3/1, Nutrition Cluster partners provide services for severe acute malnutrition at 4 in-patient stabilization centers and 135 out-patient sites for acute malnutrition. Partners have scaled up the distribution of nutrient supplements, reaching nearly 230,000 children and 90,000 PBW since 1/19.

• Israel’s war has decimated Gaza’s farmlands and killed most of its livestock. The bombing has destroyed agricultural land and poisoned the soil, while Israel’s sweeping blockade has made water scarce for farmers who once provided a third of Gaza’s food needs.

• U.N. food agency, the World Food Program, says it only has enough supplies in Gaza to keep public kitchens and bakeries open for less than two weeks.

Water & Sanitation

• 3/4, WHO: the “lack of water and sanitation threatens the health, dignity and, survival of women and girls in Gaza … [as the] inability to maintain hygiene increases anxiety and stress, deepening the mental health crisis among those displaced.” A female doctor displaced from North Gaza described women cutting up their clothes to provide their daughters with makeshift sanitary pads in displaced sites, stressing that "only a woman can truly understand this suffering – lack of necessities, underwear, sanitary pads, and hygiene.” Since the ceasefire, partners have distributed 90,000 dignity kits; WHO provided hygiene and sanitation supplies for 77,000 women and girls.

• 38% of Gaza’s drinking water is now produced by 2 operational seawater desalination plants and the Mekorot supply lines from Israel; 62% is produced by municipal ground water wells. Over 1,300 water points are operational across Gaza, 95% of which are used to support water trucking activities and are endangered by the Israeli blockade on fuel entering Gaza.

• Israeli policies continue to severely and negatively impact WASH in Gaza: Israeli electricity blackouts shut desalination plants, limiting water production and harming machinery; Israeli denial of entry to WASH equipment as “dual use” prevents repairs of water and waste infrastructure; Israeli designated “no go” and “buffer zones” remove access to important pieces of Gaza’s WASH infrastructure, especially waste disposal sites.

• Israel has cut off power to two desalination plants in the Deir Al-Balah area of central Gaza, depriving thousands of Palestinians of water, according to the local municipality. The municipality said that the South Sea Desalination Plant and the Basra Desalination Plant ceased operations after Israeli occupation forces cut off the electricity supply, the Middle East Monitor (MEMO) reported. here

Communications

• A significant amount of telecommunications equipment was damaged or destroyed in the conflict, and Israel is now restricting entry of repair or replacement supplies. These limits to telecommunications and internet services across Gaza affect every aspect of life, and especially the education, healthcare and WASH sectors. Partners appeal for the lifting of restrictions and sufficient funding.

Prisoners

• Palestinian prisoner Ali Ashour Al-Batsh, 62, died in Israeli custody. Hamas said the latest death confirms Israel’s “brutality, its complete disregard for all human values, and its total denial of all international norms and conventions related to the rights of prisoners of war.”

• Geneva-based Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor has described the physical and mental health conditions of the Palestinian detainees released during the seventh round of the exchange agreement between Israel and Hamas as “shocking.” “Israel’s release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and detainees, who arrived in the Gaza Strip recently in exceptionally poor health, illustrates its ongoing use of torture to terrorize and persecute prisoners and detainees and break their will until the very end of their detention.”

Displacement

• After 15 months of forced displacement, Mutasim Zahed and his family returned to return to their home in Jabaliya in northern Gaza. The family of six had endured more than a year of relentless Israeli attacks. But the ceasefire that allowed for the family’s return to their badly damaged home did not mean that their struggle for survival was over. The widespread destruction wrought by Israel – and the lack of essential infrastructure and insufficient humanitarian assistance – has left Palestinians in Gaza like Mutasim and his family feeling they are now enduring a different kind of war.

THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

This week, Israeli forces killed 3 Palestinians (1 child) and injured 64 (14 children). Killed since October 2023: 1,058 (224 children) and injured: 16,588 (2,560 children).

For more detail: here

Israeli attacks

• 2/25, Israeli forces shot and killed 1 and injured 31 (3 journalists and 1 infant) with live ammunition, rubber bullets, and teargas during a 14-hour raid in Nablus. When Palestinians threw stones at military vehicles, Israeli forces responded violently. A kindergarten was evacuated by the Red Crescent.

• 2/26, man died from injuries sustained during a Christmas eve Israeli airstrike on Nur Shams refugee camp raising the toll of that attack to 2 killed and 4 injured (1 child).

• 2/26, a boy shot and killed when Israeli military and Palestinian stone throwers clashed at the Qalqilya North.

• 3/3, Palestinian authorities announced the 2/23 death in custody of a man from Jenin refugee camp held under administrative detention since November 2023.

• Four Palestinians were shot and injured as Israel increased home demolitions in the West Bank. Palestinian journalist Yusuf Shadeh was reported injured after Israeli occupation forces opened fire on journalists while they were covering the demolition operations carried out by the forces in Rafat town, northwest of occupied Jerusalem.

Settler Attacks

This week, settlers carried out 24 attacks against Palestinians, injuring 11 and damaging property (10 olive groves and 9 vehicles). A surge of often violent settler attacks and access restrictions from January 2023 through January 2025 have displaced 2,275 Palestinians (1,117 children) across the West Bank.

• 2/28, settlers accompanied by Israeli forces injured 2 Palestinians who refused to leave their land near Halhul (Hebron).

• 3/2, settlers accompanied by Israeli forces injured 3 men eating in their fields in Shuqba (Ramallah). One suffered a broken arm and one vehicle was confiscated by Israeli forces.

• 3/2, settlers raided the communities of Isfay al Fauqa and Khirbet al Fakheit in the Israeli-designated “firing zone” in Masafer Yatta (Hebron). They injured 4 Palestinians with sticks, stones and pepper spray and grazed sheep on community land, stealing sheep and donkeys and killing 2 of the community's sheep. Near-daily intimidation, attacks, night raids, threats and property destruction are designed to pressures Palestinians to leave these communities.

• 2/25-3/3, 5 herding families (39 people, 19 children) were forcibly displaced by recurrent settler violence, Israeli armed raids, and access restrictions in Rantis (Ramallah) and Ein al Hilwa-Wadi al Faw (Jordan Valley).

• An Israeli settler leader has reportedly said that Defense Minister Israel Katz had assured illegal Jewish settlers that “we have to behave exactly like Gaza” in the West Bank. According to Washington Post, Israel Ganz, the chairperson of an umbrella organization of illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, said he “had been pressuring Netanyahu and Smotrich for more than a year to apply the same tactics that the IDF has used in Gaza to the West Bank.”

Demolitions & Displacement

This week, Israeli authorities demolished 59 Palestinian-owned structures for lack of Israeli-issued building permits, displacing 84 people (41 children) and affecting 180 people. In January and February, 273 structures were demolished, displacing 385 people (198 children).

• 46 of those displaced were in the Khallet Athaba' community of Masafer Yatta (Hebron), where 8 residential tents, provided as humanitarian assistance in response to a demolition earlier in February, were demolished. Masafer Yatta, the Palestinian community at the center of the Oscar-winning film 'No Other Land', is still at imminent risk of forcible displacement. An activist from the community writes about the daily settler pogroms targeting his people.

• In 2 separate incidents, Israeli authorities demolished 33 structures (4 homes, 27 agricultural/ livelihood structures, and a water network) in Az Za'ayyem Bedouin community (Area C, Jerusalem) and blocked community access to their surrounding agricultural lands. 22 people (9 children) were displaced and 117 affected.

• After a 2/4 attack killed 2 Israeli soldiers and injured 6, Israel closed the Tayasir checkpoint (connecting the northern Jordan Valley with the rest of Tubas governorate). This severely restricts movement for 60,000+ people and impacts travel between Nablus and Jericho. Over 100 teachers and school staff must now take a 90-minute longer route via Al Hamra checkpoint; residents who had relied on health services in Tubas must now travel to Jericho, extending their journeys up to 2 hours. The closure also causes higher transportation and commodity costs.

• IOF decided not to investigate the illegal expulsion of Palestinian families by soldiers in the West Bank. The army acknowledged that the soldiers violated procedures but chose to settle for a reprimand and declined to explain why it decided not to investigate the incident. “This is evidence of a culture that grants immunity to soldiers who harm Palestinians,” said Roni Peli of Yesh Din.

• Masafer Yatta, the Palestinian community at the center of the Oscar-winning film 'No Other Land', is still at imminent risk of forcible displacement. An activist from the community writes about the daily settler pogroms targeting his people. here

Developments in the northern West Bank

• Israeli military operation in the northern West Bank entered its 7th week. Tens of thousands have been displaced from Jenin, Tulkarm and Nur Shams refugee camps, which are now almost completely deserted. Since 2/18, Israeli forces have notified residents of 41 homes in Tulkarm and Nur Shams camps to evacuate their belongings ahead of demolitions. Armored vehicles and bulldozers are active in the camps, but the number of structures destroyed is unknown.

• 3/4, Israeli forces deployed armored carriers and access restrictions in Jenin city. They bulldozed infrastructure and cut electricity for at least 5 hours. 30 families (3 previously driven from Jenin refugee camp) were displaced. 2 Palestinians were shot and killed, the military withheld one body; 3 people were assaulted and injured. Also on 3/4, Israeli forces shot and killed an 18-year-old near Homesh checkpoint and withheld his body. Since 1/21, 68 people (8 children) were killed during the ongoing operations. 3 Israeli soldiers have been killed.

• 3/6, three Palestinians, including two children, were shot and injured by Israeli occupation forces during raids in areas of the occupied West Bank while the army began demolishing 17 homes in the Nur Shams refugee camp. Palestinian Red Crescent: a 14-year-old child was hospitalized after being shot in the leg with live ammunition during an Israeli raid in the Rihiyye area, south of Hebron (Al-Khalil) in the southern West Bank.

• UNRWA needs assessment of IDPs in 11 shelters found: people in shelters lack essentials, including bedding and dignity, cleaning and hygiene materials; all rely on external food support (1 daily hot meal from NGOs) and most cannot afford to buy food; access to water and sanitation is precarious; children’s education is disrupted; lack of privacy in public shelters leads to gender abuse; shelters are not accessible to people with disabilities; medications are scarce or unaffordable, despite some clinic access. Mental health distress is a major concern.

ISRAEL

• An Israeli rights group said Israel appears to have recently dropped a longstanding policy against demolishing Palestinian homes during Ramadan, which began last weekend. Israel demolished a record 181 homes in East Jerusalem last year.

• Israeli media recognized billionaire Israeli government asset Miriam Adelson as a “modern day Rothschild” using her vast fortune to dictate Trump’s policy on Gaza, where he is now supporting Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid.

• Hours before Israel announced the aid stoppage, Israel proposed a seven-week extension of the temporary cease-fire, during which Hamas would have to release half the remaining living hostages as well as the remains of half the deceased ones. Upon conclusion of that extension, if agreement on a permanent cease-fire occurred, all the remaining hostages would have to be released. More here. here, here, here

• Briefing the Israeli press after Netanyahu’s order to turn off the aid supply to Gaza, supported by the US, government officials claimed that the Palestinian territory had several months’ worth of food stockpiled from earlier deliveries. However, the announcement led to an immediate jump in prices of basic necessities in Gaza, with residents saying they had doubled. Aid agencies say the population of Gaza remains highly vulnerable and that the blockade of humanitarian supplies to a civilian population is unacceptable in any circumstances.

• Israel has scrapped the Gaza ceasefire and blocked aid reaching civilians, shifting its primary war tactic to collective punishment through starvation and restriction of basic necessities. After failing to achieve any of their military objectives, an embarrassed Israeli Prime Minister is prepared to expand the war once again to ensure his own political survival. Ben-Gvir welcomed the suspension of aid; he also called for cutting off electricity and water, describing the situation as the right moment to “open the gates of hell” on Gaza.

• In Its Fight Against Fascism, Israeli Academia Remains Blind to a Basic Truth, The government’s assault on democratic norms can’t be separated from its oppression of Palestinians—but the Israeli academy keeps trying. here

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered military forces to prepare to "defend" the minority Druze community in the Damascus suburb of Jaramana, following reports of unrest and armed clashes in the city. Israel’s insistence on portraying itself as a protector of Syria’s Druze has been met with scepticism and viewed as a strategy to justify future attacks. here

US

• Trump gave ‘Last Warning’ to Hamas: Release Hostages or Face Annihilation, In a blistering social media post, the president told Hamas that if it continued to hold hostages, “you are DEAD!” here

• Rubio Bypasses Congress to Send Israel $4 Billion in Arms, Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s emergency declaration calls for sending 2,000-pound bombs and other weapons to Israel as the war in Gaza continues. here, here

• Trump administration says it has canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over what it described as the school's failure to police antisemitism on campus.

• Barnard College of Columbia University called in the New York Police Department to arrest students holding a sit-in to protest a decision to expel three students for their activism in support of Palestine. Nine students were arrested after Barnard College called police onto campus to break up a sit-in staged by pro-Palestine demonstrators over the recent expulsion of three student protesters.

• Ex-Israeli PM Naftali Bennett’s closed-door Columbia meeting with Israeli and Jewish American students ignited protests. News of Bennett’s visit sparked protests from hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists. On campus, Bennett called to ‘bomb the heck’ out of Iran and accused Hamas of ‘self-genocide.’

• U.S. Federal complaints were lodged against California schools for discrimination and harassment against Jewish and Israeli students. Filed with the Department of Education by Jewish groups, the complaints allege that Scripps, Cal Poly, and the Etiwanda school district were aware of antisemitism at their institutions and did not take the needed steps to stop it.

• Statement in Support of Palestine Studies and Academic Freedom at Hunter College here

• In Illinois, a jury found landlord Joseph Czuba guilty of murder and hate crimes for killing 6-year-old Palestinian American child Wadea al-Fayoume and wounding his mother, Hanan Shaheen, in October 2023 in the town of Plainfield. He now faces life in prison without parole.

INTERNATIONAL

• Palestinian co-director of a film that won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature has urged the world to take action “to stop the ethnic cleansing” of his people. “No Other Land reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people,” Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist and journalist from the occupied West Bank town of Masafer Yatta, said in an acceptance speech at the 97th Academy Awards. here

• Despite the ban and significant funding cuts to UNRWA, Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that agency continues its essential work, even in East Jerusalem. In Gaza, the agency has distributed food to more than 1.9 million Palestinians during the ceasefire and has also resumed its teaching both online and onsite, albeit on a limited scale. In the West Bank, UNRWA’s schools and health centers remain open, although its activities have been severely hampered by the ongoing Israeli military operation in northern refugee camps.

• More details emerged of Egypt’s plan for rebuilding the Gaza Strip. The plan sets out proposals to rebuild the area by 2030 without removing its population. Hundreds of thousands of temporary housing units would be set up where Gaza’s population could live while reconstruction takes place. The rubble would be recycled, and some of it would be used as infill to create expanded lands on Gaza’s Mediterranean coast. It also calls for opening an airport, a fishing port and a commercial port. here

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, New York Times, Palestine Chronicle, Electronic Intifada, Haaretz, Mondoweiss, NPR, Drop Site News, Electronic Intifada, Lit Hub, Chronicle of Higher Education, Palestine Chronicle, Max Blumenthal on X, New York Times, Palestine Chronicle, Democracy Now, The Guardian, +972, The Guardian, The New Arab, Truthout