Urgent Health Update: Health Consequences of war on Gaza-March 17, 2024

The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council is sharing information on the health implications of the attacks.  We will update in a week.  Please use this information to organize & educate. As the Israeli government threatens an all out assault on Rafah, increasing the risk of further massacres & genocide, starvation is rising & multiple countries move to defund & destroy UNRWA, this is a time to make your voices heard. The month of Ramadan has become a much more dangerous time for Palestinians in terms of Israeli aggression.

Israeli bombings and killings continue as well as widespread Palestinian resistance and flailing cease-fire talks.

The accusation of sexual violence by Hamas is a serious charge that must be meticulously investigated, but the propaganda wars persist. This is important review: Here’s what Pramila Patten’s UN report on Oct 7 sexual violence actually said:

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/heres-what-pramila-pattens-un-report-on-oct-7-sexual-violence-actually-said/?ml_recipient=115607815458915365&ml_link=115607646496622320

Day 163

Numbers are cumulative. 

GAZA

·       Killed: 31,645, including >12,000 children, >7,000 people missing under rubble, others are believed to have been detained at Israeli checkpoints while fleeing south or trying to return to the north.

·       Injured: 73,676

·       UN staff killed: 168

·       348 health workers killed

·       48 Civil Defense killed

·       14 PRCS killed

·       As a result of the lack of healthcare, bombing, starvation, & dehydration, Gaza’s elderly population are dying at an alarmingly high rate.

·       Israeli forces killed in Gaza: 247

·       Israeli forces injured in Gaza: 1,476

·       Hostages: 134

·       Israeli soldiers have been killing Palestinian civilians by running them over with tanks & armored vehicles, per Euro-Med Human Rights chairman: hundreds of Palestinians have been run over by Israeli tanks.

·       12 hospitals partially functional, 2 providing maternity care, 2 of 3 field hospitals fully functional

·       ~24% of primary health care facilities functional

·       17 emergency medical teams operational

·       12 out of 36 hospitals across Gaza that remain partially functional.

·       WHO and partners delivered medical supplies sufficient for 80,000 patients to Al Aqsa Hospital in Deir al Balah on 3/13.  ~140 health workers, 70% volunteers, are serving 650 hospitalized patients, in addition to ~250 patients treated in the emergency room daily. Hospital struggling with water, sanitation, hygiene & waste management, (WASH) with ~7,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) sheltering in hospital’s warehouses. 

·       ~180 women are giving birth every day, 21,000 have delivered since the current conflict began.

UNFPA has provided basic supplies to a doctor who has set up operations in a tent in a site established for 40,000 IDPs in Rafah.

·       >2,000 medical staff in northern Gaza are exhausted, struggling to keep up under immense physical pressure with nothing to eat as they work around the clock

·       >300,000 cases acute respiratory infections

·       >200,000 cases acute watery diarrhea

·       >5,000 students & >240 teachers killed, >60% of schools damaged (~353 of 563)

·       >1 million children need mental health care

·       ~17,000 children unaccompanied or separated from parents

·       124 journalists & media workers killed

·       Almost entire population is reliant on food aid that is insufficient.

·       31 people died of malnutrition & dehydration (27 children)

·       ~16% of children < 2 in northern Gaza and ~5% in Rafah suffer acute malnutrition

·       >1/2 million facing catastrophic levels of food insecurity

·       2.2 million: crisis or worse levels of food insecurity

·       1.17 million: emergency levels of food insecurity

·       >8,000 on wait list for medical referral outside Gaza

·       1.7 million internally displaced

·       >70,000 housing units destroyed

·       1 of 3 water pipelines from Israel operational at 42% capacity

·       83% of groundwater wells not operational

·       All wastewater treatment systems non-operational, 1 partially working

·       No access to clean water in north

·       2 of 3 main desalination plants partially working

·       57% of WASH facilities damaged/destroyed

·       40% of aid missions in Gaza requiring coordination were denied or impeded access

·       During first 2 weeks of March, 12 humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza were facilitated by the Israeli authorities, 6 were denied, and 6 were postponed.

·       Missions that involved OCHA, UN Population Fund, UNRWA, World Food Program (WFP), UN Department for Safety & Security, & the International Committee of the Red Cross made it to northern Gaza. They delivered maternity medicine & anesthetics to Al Ahli and Al Sabha hospitals, 88 metric tons of food parcels & flour for 25,000 people, & assessed the condition of coastal road north of the Israeli checkpoint, noted to be in extremely deteriorated condition.

·       On 3/11, World Health Organization & its partners delivered 24,050 liters of fuel, food, & medical supplies for 42,000 patients at Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza.

·       For at least second time in just over 2 weeks, a convoy bringing aid to hunger-stricken northern Gaza ended in bloodshed. >20 killed & >150 injured, Israeli forces accused of carrying out a “targeted” attack against “a gathering of civilians waiting for humanitarian aid” near the Kuwait traffic circle in Gaza City.

·       UN >12 attacks on Gazans waiting for desperately needed aid since January

·       Clan chiefs in Gaza & UN officials delivered aid following directions issued by Hamas security agencies asking Palestinians not to gather near areas where aid trucks arrive due to frequent Israeli attacks on crowds seeking aid.

·       ~75 orphans & other vulnerable children were evacuated by SOS Children’s Villages from Rafah to an orphanage in Bethlehem in the West Bank.

·       With limited access to pads, medicine & toilets – not to mention privacy – Palestinian women talk about the extreme difficulty of managing their periods during Israel’s assault.

·       49 doctors & staff members at Khan Yunis’s Nasser hospital complained of  violence & humiliating treatment while detained by the IDF, which was operating in the hospital

·       Supplied by World Central Kitchen charity, 200 tons of food provided by sea was fully unloaded on a makeshift jetty constructed out of rubble off Gaza. Distribution was set to unfold in the shadow of a series of attacks that have killed or wounded Palestinians scrambling for desperately needed food - unclear who will handle distribution, ?UNRWA. This is equivalent of ~10 truckloads of food.

 WEST BANK AND EAST JERUSALEM

·       Killed: >435

·       Arrested: 7,605

·       UN Human Rights Office has called on Israeli authorities to immediately halt any imminent home demolitions & the forcible displacement of some 1,550 Palestinians in Al Bustan area of Silwan in East Jerusalem.

·       Israel prepared for thousands of Palestinian arrests & began obstructing access to Al Aqsa mosque. Thousands of Palestinian worshippers have been denied access to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem for Ramadan’s first Friday prayers

·       60,000 Palestinians performed Ramadan’s Al-Tarawih prayer in Al-Aqsa Mosque on Saturday.

 ISRAEL

·       Palestinians arrested in Yaffa: 65

·       Residents of the Arab town of Tayibe had a chance to come out & protest the war for the first time. It was third anti-war demonstration organized by Palestinian citizens of Israel to get approval from security authorities.

·       Amid reports of a growing number of deaths from hunger in Gaza, a convoy of Arab-Jewish activists from “Standing Together” movement set out for the Kerem Shalom crossing carrying food.

·       Israeli military presented a plan for the full dismantling of UNRWA in Gaza & West Bank. Despite requests from the military, Israel’s government has not explained how it will find a replacement for UNRWA.

·       Reports that Israel is trying to create an authority in the Gaza Strip in place of Hamas. One of Israel’s means of achieving this is by using the food & aid deliveries as a tool to strengthen & push some clan leaders to the front seat & put them in charge of handling the aid, coordinating with Israel & international agencies.

·       At the end of February, ad hoc Israeli medical ethics committee visited the medical compound set up in Israel for detainees from Gaza, at the request of the compound’s staff. Committee consisted of representatives of the Health Ministry, ethics committee of the Israel Medical Association & directors of the country’s hospitals. Physicians for Human Rights called the conditions at the military medical compound in Israel – where patients are kept shackled and blindfolded the entire time – ‘torture.’

·       >27 detainees from Gaza had died in Israeli military facilities since the start of the war. Some of the deaths occurred at the Sde Teiman military base in southern Israel & the Anatot base in the West Bank.

·       Hebrew University in Jerusalem suspended Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian after she refused their demand that she resign. The feminist Palestinian scholar distributed a petition accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza & denying sexual violence by Hamas.

·       Israel has severed the West Bank from Gaza. During war, this becomes a death sentence. Since the 1990s, Israel has been working to separate the 2 parts of the territories. The fact that a temporary displacement of Gazans to the West Bank isn’t being considered demonstrates the deeply embedded split created by Israel.

·       Netanyahu is continuing to make plans for a ground assault of Rafah, IDF says civilians will be directed to “humanitarian islands.” UN: “Many people are too fragile, hungry, and sick to be moved again.” No credible “islands” have been identified.

US

·       US is leading an initiative to put in place a temporary floating pier off Gaza’s coastline to ease the transit of goods. American officials hope the pier could make it possible to deliver 2 million meals a day for the area’s 2.3 million people.

·       Senator Schumer’s speech calling on Israelis to shake of Netanyahu & call new elections made major waves in US & Israel.  He is the highest ranking Jewish elected official & may pave the way for a defection for Democrats.

·       Oscar-winning Jonanthan Glazer (The Zone of Interest-about Auschwitz) expressed horror at the genocide in Gaza during his acceptance speech & is being severely attacked by the Zionist rightwing.

·       A group of senators, led by Bernie Sanders, said under US law, Biden administration must cut off American military assistance to Israel unless the Netanyahu government immediately stops impeding aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip, where children are dying of starvation after months of incessant Israeli bombing & attacks on humanitarian convoys.

·       Some Jewish settlers have been put under U.S. Department sanctions, which also put 2 illegal outposts, Moshes Farm and Zvis Farm, on the list. This is the first time the US punished an entire Israeli outpost with economic restrictions.

INTERNATIONAL

·       Cease-fire talks continue to flounder. Hamas dropped its demand for a permanent cease-fire & proposed the release of hostages in exchange for a phased pullback of Israeli troops from parts of Gaza as well as prisoner releases.

·       German Air Force will take part in humanitarian airdrops into Gaza at the request of the foreign ministry.

·       EU leaders will demand an “immediate humanitarian pause leading to a sustainable cease-fire” in Gaza & urge Israel not to launch a ground operation in Rafah, according to draft conclusions of a summit set for next week.

·       Group of NGOs said they will sue the Danish state to end its arms exports to Israel, citing concerns that its weapons were being used to commit serious crimes against civilians in Gaza

·       UN is reporting 1 aid truck was recently denied access to Gaza because it contained scissors inside medical kits. According to UNRWA head the long list of banned items the Israeli Authorities classify as “for dual use’ “includes basic & lifesaving items: from anesthetics, solar lights, oxygen cylinders & ventilators, water cleaning tablets, cancer medicines & maternity kits.”

·       UN report on sexual violence on 10/7 has found no evidence of systematic rape by Hamas or any other Palestinian group, despite widespread media reporting to the contrary. But there are deeper problems with the report’s credibility. EU’s top humanitarian aid official says Israel did not present any evidence of claims against UNRWA to him or any official at the EU executive or to any other donor. UNRWA’s initial investigations have also found that some of its staff in Gaza were severely tortured & abused by Israeli forces & were forced into making false confessions to support Israel’s claims that the agency’s staff have ties to Hamas. 

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, Middle East Eye, The Guardian, Haaretz, Mondoweiss, Democracy Now, Think Global Health, New York Times, Washington Post, Times of Israel, The New Humanitarian