Urgent Health Updates: Consequences of war on Gaza-April 28, 2024

This has been a particularly catastrophic week with rising deaths & injuries in Gaza, the discovery of mass graves at destroyed hospitals, Israeli preparations for a Rafah ground invasion, continued obstruction in aid to starving Gazans, settler pogroms in the West Bank. Positive signs are the continued explosion of campus protests in the US & internationally, & the growing documentation of the genocide. Use this info to pressure elected officials and to join protests everywhere. Wear a white coat, a stethoscope, make it clear you are a health care worker!

PUBLICATIONS:

1. Good summary of campus protest activities and administrative & police responses. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/apr/24/palestine-protests-columbia-nyu-mike-johnson?amp;utm_campaign=GuardianTodayUS&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=GTUS_email

2. Reflections on Columbia https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/april/at-columbia & https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/04/27/storm-over-columbia-nadia-abu-el-haj/

3. Anti-Palestinian Racism Research Group (APRRG) in consultation with the Arab Canadian Lawyers Association announced preliminary release of national survey, reveals key insights into how racism & discrimination against Palestinians has harmful effects on Palestinians & non-Palestinian allies advocating for Palestinian rights in the United States. 64.6% of respondents experienced anti-Palestinian racism either directly or online (73.5%) reported feelings of being isolated and alone 71.2% reported  mental or physical health had been harmed by personally experiencing or witnessing anti-Palestinian racism leading to feelings of fear, anxiety, self-doubt, low self-esteem, depression, hypervigilance, insecurity, isolation, alienation, difficulty concentrating, feeling more irritable, & other negative emotions. Other harmful impacts described in the survey include insomnia, headaches, back pain, loss of appetite, fatigue, and nausea. 
   https://medium.com/@aprresearchgroup/anti-palestinian-racism-survey-preliminary-report-april-2024-11cfed327d85

4. Gaza after 200 days of genocide: A message to the world, https://afsc.org/news/gaza-after-200-days-genocide-message-world

5. Summary of Israeli military assault on Gaza medical system https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/26/world/middleeast/gaza-israel-hospitals-medical-system.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

A Word from Dr. Mads Gilbert

“Organize. Act. Now! We often feel helpless, so little we can do. But we are the majority, the people on the side of life, of freedom, against colonialism, apartheid, racism. We must organize better to match the colonial powers with all their money, arms, profits, lies and media. When we organize better - with more people - we force our leaders to change their politics. Small groups of committed citizens can change the world, we know that! Don’t be alone. Organize, be active! We are the stronger part. Palestine is winning, Israel is losing. Truth is winning, lies are losing. Our solidarity is winning. Organize. Act. Now!

STATISTICS and UPDATES

Numbers are cumulative  

GAZA

·       Killed: 34,356

·       Injured: 77,368

·       Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 260

·       Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 1,584

·       Estimated # of hostages: 133

·       >252 aid workers killed

·       491 health workers killed (15 counted under aid workers)

·       67 civil defense staff killed on duty

·       141 journalists & media workers killed

·       Israel assassinated the eldest daughter of the esteemed Professor Refaat Al-Areer (who was killed earlier), Al-Shaimaa, along with her husband & newborn baby.

·       11 of 36 hospitals partially functioning

·       6 field hospitals functioning

·       62 of 77 primary health care facilities not functioning

·       8 of 24 UNRWA health centers operational

·       >712,000 cases acute respiratory infection

·       >380,000 cases acute watery diarrhea

·       23 emergency medical teams

·       75% of Gaza is displaced (~1.7 million)

·       >50,000 children acutely malnourished

·       World Food Program warns that without massive & consistent food assistance that can be delivered freely & safely, famine thresholds in Gaza will be breached within the next 6 weeks.

·       Bakeries that were not previously destroyed are re-opening their doors for the first time since October after humanitarian aid finally entered northern Gaza. Authorities in north Gaza have distributed it to the bakeries & the population to facilitate production & ease the burden of suffering during this famine.

·       Several mainstays are still missing in the north of the Gaza Strip, especially at affordable prices. Many vegetables, fruits, & flour, are now slowly available, but not everything needed.

·       >60% of residential & >80% of commercial facilities damaged or destroyed

·       155 health facilities damaged

·       165 UNRWA installations damaged

·       126 ambulances damaged

·       In hospitals it is hard to work under continuous military attack, floods of injuries & corpses, & feelings of helpless

·       >392 bodies have been discovered buried in a mass grave at the destroyed Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis, bearing signs of torture, mutilation, &  execution. Israelis deny allegations. Mass graves were also found at Al-Shifa Hospital

·       Education, shelter, WASH no significant changes

·       Rising temperatures are exacerbating the sanitation crisis, affecting more than 1.7 million internally displaced people who lack adequate shelter & essentials for survival; 1 infant girl has reportedly died in Rafah from extreme heat.

·       4/1-26 42 humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza facilitated by Israel, 25 denied of impeded, 8 cancelled

·       >138 aid missions to southern Gaza facilitated by Israel, 20 denied or impeded, 12 cancelled

·       54% of 9,817 patients who submitted requests for medical evaluation approved, of those, 82% were medically evacuated abroad

·       Deadly Israeli airstrikes again hit Rafah. Palestinians have been bracing for a ground offensive on the southern Gaza city, where over one million residents have fled.

·       Jamal al-Hams, a doctor at the Kuwaiti hospital in Gaza, noted that displaced people are “living in very difficult conditions,” “there is no protection from viruses & epidemics.” “We used to receive 100 patients a day in this small and simple hospital…Today we are talking about receiving 1,000 or more patients with infectious diseases during a single day, not to mention the many cases of injuries because of the ongoing war on Gaza.”

·       Khaled al-Tayebi, an official with Gaza’s health ministry, warns of a real threat to the lives of residents & displaced people, especially vulnerable groups like children &  pregnant women, due to mosquito bites. The problem is not only the irritation & itching but also the fact that mosquitoes can transmit infectious diseases. With the collapse of the health system & the spread of many infectious diseases among the displaced & residents, health officials say  malaria is of growing concern.

·       Israeli airstrikes have intensified. Israeli military said Air Force fighter jets attacked rocket launchers located in a humanitarian aid area in southern Gaza.

·       Israeli military has concluded all necessary preparations to enter the southern city of Rafah, & can launch an operation the moment it gets government approval, said a senior defense official.

·       New satellite images showed a new tent complex being set up near Khan Yunis, as the Israeli army continues to indicate that it is preparing to invade Rafah. Tents are being set up near Khan Yunis, while the Caliber channel reported for the first time that Israel received a shipment of tents from China. It was reported that it is planning to evacuate civilians from Rafah during the expected invasion of the southern city, where hundreds of thousands of people took refuge during the war. Caliber channel can confirm that the order to begin the invasion is expected to be issued after Easter, while the Chief of Staff announced the plans for the operation had been approved. 

·       Construction of camps has begun in Khan Yunis and the Al-Mawasi safe area, which will house evacuees immediately after the evacuation is announced. Once construction is completed, the eviction process will begin within the next 2 weeks, will take about a month. NGO staff in Gaza have already received instructions from the IDF to move to Deir al-Balah.

·       In recent weeks, both Egypt and the United States have approved the IDF's invasion plans, & with nothing more to stand in the way, the timer has started.

·       Top Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya said organization is willing to agree to a truce of 5 years or more with Israel, & would lay down its weapons & convert into a political party if an independent Palestinian state is established along pre-1967 borders. Hamas wants to join the PLO, headed by the rival Fatah.

·       UN official said the rubble left by the war in Gaza could take about 14 years to remove.

·       A humanitarian pier the US military will bring to the Gaza Strip is currently being assembled & is expected to be ready to receive initial shipments of food & other aid early next month. Effort to deliver aid to Gaza through a maritime corridor, which was announced in March, will involve an elaborate, multistep process.

·       Pier will initially enable the transfer of ~90 truckloads of aid per day & will eventually ramp up to 150 truckloads per day at full capacity.

·       US authorities said pier is intended to supplement, not replace, existing aid deliveries over land.  Once aid reaches the shore, relief organizations that will distribute it within Gaza will face familiar dangers & obstacles amid ongoing Israeli bombardment.

·       UN’s top coordinator for humanitarian aid for Gaza said that Israel has taken steps to improve the delivery of relief supplies to the enclave but warned that much more must be done to meet the vast need there.

·       Israel announced efforts to increase the flow of aid into Gaza, including by opening an additional border crossing & by accepting shipments at a nearby port. But UN warned with increasing urgency that a famine is looming and that deliveries still fall short of the level needed to stop the spread of starvation.

WEST BANK & EAST JERUSALEM

·       2 days of fighting in Nur Shams, the refugee camp near Tul Karm, left homes with pockmarked walls, sewage overflowing into the streets, & spotty electricity. “What happened here reminds me of 1948,” said one resident. “Unprecedented terror” continues to haunt Palestinians after Israeli army concluded its 52-hour-long invasion in which it killed 14 Palestinians, 9 of whom at least were unarmed civilians.

·       An Israeli interfaith institute and local church leaders say anti-Christian hate crimes are increasing in Jerusalem despite government and police assertions that they are tackling the problem.

ISRAEL

·       An Israeli court ordered the release of Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a Palestinian feminist scholar, after she was arrested at her home in Jerusalem’s Old City. Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a professor in the faculty of law at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, was released by the court “on condition that she attend an interrogation & sign a financial guarantee.” 

·       According to the poll conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute, less than a 1/4 of Israeli Jews are in favor of renewed settlement in Gaza. A plurality of Israeli Jews think control over Gaza should be handed over to an international force, & 13% think the Palestinian Authority should assume responsibility.

·       Senior Israeli officials have admitted that the Israeli campaign against international funding for UNRWA has failed.

·       Israel will allow UK-appointed observers to visit detention facilities holding Hamas members after reports that conditions there constitute a breach of international law.

US

·       Students all over the country at >50 university and college campuses are protesting & setting up encampments, demanding divestment from Israel & ceasefire. Many have been met with intense police crackdowns and hundreds of arrests, including of faculty.

·       Columbia & Barnard chapters of Association of American University Professors (AAUP) issued statement protesting ‘flagrant disregard of shared governance.’

·       House speaker Mike Johnson suggested calling in the National Guard at Emerson College.

·       US House of Representatives voted resoundingly to provide Israel with $26 billion in emergency assistance on 4/20 including nearly $14 billion in unconditional military aid. The bill passed by a total of 366-58, with 37 Democrats and 21 Republicans voting against.

·       The Department of Education is probing claims that the school discriminated against Palestinian & Arab students amid Israel’s war on Gaza.

·       Majority of Harvard Faculty of Arts & Science dispute presence of systemic antisemitism, or anti-Arab or anti-Muslim bias on campus. Similar sentiments voiced by Jewish students at Columbia

·       Barnard Faculty Members of the AAUP unanimously voted to issue statement of “No Confidence” in President Rosenbury.

·       Hundreds of Jewish anti-war demonstrators were arrested during a Passover seder that doubled as a protest in New York, as they shut down a major thoroughfare to pray for a ceasefire & urge the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, to end US military aid to Israel. 

·       Officials at the US Agency for International Development concluded in a confidential memo to Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Israel is violating a White House directive by blocking humanitarian aid from entering the besieged Gaza Strip during its ongoing genocidal assault on the Palestinian enclave.

·       Bernie Sanders has a message for prime minister of Israel Netanyahu: “Stop murdering innocent people.”

INTERNATIONAL

·       Israel has yet to provide evidence of UNRWA staff terrorist links; a report commissioned by the UN found the government has yet to substantiate claims UN relief agency staff have ties to Hamas or Islamic Jihad. UN officials & some donor nations are renewing calls to revive funding for UNRWA, after a review found that Israel had not provided evidence to support its claim that many employees of the agency are members of terrorist organizations.

·       Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sissi reiterated his country’s firm stance against the displacement of Gazans into the Egyptian-controlled Sinai as Israel prepares for an impending military operation in Rafah.

·       Freedom Flotilla Coalition is hoping to sail for Gaza soon, hundreds from 32 countries, carrying 5,500 tons of humanitarian aid

SOURCES:

UNOCHA, WHO, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Health, NY Books, The Guardian, New York Times, Haaretz, Electronic Intifada, Democracy Now, The Intercept, Harvard Crimson, Politico, Barnard Bulletin, twitter/Jehad Abusalim, Portside, CNN, Mondoweiss, CNN, LA Progressive, Common Dreams, Caliber Hebrew website, personal report, Devex, New York Times, Times of Israel, The Jewish Independent, Harvard Crimson