Urgent Health Updates: Consequences of war on Gaza - April 7, 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 killing of aid workers has helped focus world attention on the humanitarian catastrophe.
The population in the Gaza Strip continues to face an unprecedented humanitarian crisis, characterized by intense hostilities and escalating humanitarian access constraints that have severely impeded the delivery of life saving humanitarian assistance and services. While humanitarian organizations continue efforts to scale up response operations, intense aerial bombardment in densely populated urban areas, large-scale military ground operations, unexploded ordnance (UXO) contamination, prevailing insecurity, the closure of key border crossings, movement restrictions, infrastructure damage and persistent access restrictions and denials by Israeli authorities have generated a volatile, insecure, and non-permissive operational environment. These obstacles are hindering the ability of humanitarian actors to address the essential needs of Gaza’s population.
Numbers are cumulative.
Day 184
PUBLICATIONS
Nowhere and no one is safe’: spatial analysis of damage to critical civilian infrastructure in the Gaza Strip during the first phase of the Israeli military campaign, 7 October to 22 November 2023” published in the open access journal Conflict and Health https://conflictandhealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13031-024-00580-x
The Gaza Strip Interim Damage Assessment, conducted by the World Bank, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations (UN). The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip has caused loss of life, forced displacement, & damages to social, physical, & productive infrastructure at an unprecedented speed and scale. The United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) & other humanitarian and development partners have repeatedly called it an extremely severe humanitarian crisis. While physical destruction in Gaza is severe in every sector of the economy, the housing sector & population centers have sustained the majority of damages.
A Doctor’s Diary in Gaza
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/4/7/reusing-scalpels-operating-with-no-anaesthesia-a-doctors-diary-in-gaza
GAZA
· Killed: >33,091 (~14,500 children & ~9,560 women)
· Injured: 75,757
· Aid workers killed: 225 (includes highest number of UN personnel killed in a conflict in the history of the organization)
· 484 health workers killed
· 140 journalists & media workers killed
· >5,800 students & >260 educational staff killed
· Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 255
· Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 1,552
· Israel created ‘kill zones’ in Gaza. Anyone who crosses them is hot. Israeli army says 9,000 “terrorists” have been killed since the Gaza war began. Defense officials & soldiers, however, tell Haaretz that these are often civilians whose only crime was to cross an invisible line.
· Epidemiologists warn that if the humanitarian crisis in Gaza continues, the death toll could reach 100,000 – or even top 120,000
· >80% of school buildings damaged, including 38% directly hit
· 59% of school buildings used as IDP shelters directly hit or damaged
· >580,000 cases of acute respiratory infections
· >310,000 cases of acute watery diarrhea
· 17 emergency medical teams operational
· Hostages: 134
· 10 of 36 hospitals partially functioning, 2 of 3 field hospitals fully functional, ~1/4 of primary health care facilities functional
· Israeli forces have besieged 2 more hospitals in Gaza, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent. “All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment & are completely immobilized.” One of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks pushed back suddenly into areas around al-Amal & Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis.
· 33% of UNRWA health centers operational
· Israel wants to cause a breakdown in social order in Gaza, & it can’t achieve that without erasing its hospitals.
· World Central Kitchen said 7 of its team members were killed in an Israeli military strike in Gaza. The food charity said the 7 killed were from Australia, Poland, the UK, a dual citizen of the US & Canada, & Palestine. World Central Kitchen’s chief executive, Erin Gore, said its team was “travelling in a deconflicted zone in 2 armored cars branded with the WCK logo & a soft skin vehicle. Netanyahu said it was a mistake. Israeli daily Haaretz said the international team was hit with 3 missiles “one after the other”, indicating the intentionality of the strike.
· Other aid organizations, including ANERA, have suspended their work given the risks to the aid workers
· All 4 planned medical missions to Al Shifa Hospital denied or impeded the last week of March
· Israel turned the largest medical facility in the Gaza Strip into a charred wasteland, a slaughterhouse, a cemetery, before withdrawing. During its 2-week siege on al-Shifa Hospital, Israel destroyed “all buildings & departments without exception.” Israeli forces “obstructed the arrival of relief teams, a clear crime that shames humanity.” Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor documented “systematic & horrifying military operations” by Israeli forces inside & around the al-Shifa complex. The medical staff, some of them were killed, others tortured, others detained, & above all, they have been besieged for 2 weeks without any medical supplies or even food or water.”
· 100% of population facing high acute food insecurity
· 1.1 million experiencing catastrophic food insecurity, ie famine
· 31% of children <age 2 in northern Gaza: acute malnutrition
· ~10% of children <age 2 in Rafah: acute malnutrition
· >50,000 children acutely malnourished
· In northern Gaza, Palestinians are surviving on an average of 245 calories a day since January.
· 50-70% of meat & dairy-producing livestock killed or prematurely slaughtered
· Families in northern Gaza are being forced to live on less than a can of fava beans a day
· An array of access restrictions and denials imposed by Israeli authorities continue to obstruct and limit humanitarian operations throughout Gaza.
· Lengthy inspection processes, fuel shortages resulting from Israeli restrictions, & restrictions on the movement of trucks, convoys, & vetted drivers create significant delays, while congestion at the Kerem Shalom crossing present a major operational bottleneck.
· Airdrops and maritime transport routes occur intermittently, supplying small fraction of the need.
· Israeli authorities' designation of the Al Rasheed Coastal Road as the primary route for humanitarian movement between Gaza's southern & northern areas has caused significant delays. The majority of humanitarian convoys travelling northward must navigate high security risk areas & a single Israeli checkpoint on the Salah Ad Din Road, leading to increased road congestion, substantial delays & exacerbated logistical constraints.
· In late March, Israeli authorities announced that 1 of the 3 partners delivering food in Gaza would no longer be allowed in northern Gaza, where more than 300,000 people face catastrophic food security conditions.
· In March, in areas requiring coordination with IDF, that only 26% of requested humanitarian food missions were facilitated by Israeli authorities. The remaining convoys were denied by Israeli authorities (40%), postponed (20%), impeded (11%), or withdrawn (3%) due to prevailing restrictions, security concerns, or operational constraints.
· Months of intense armed conflict have also resulted in a general breakdown of law & order within Gaza, generating additional security & protection risks for civilians & humanitarian organizations.
· 625,000 students no access to education
· 1 of 3 water pipelines from Israel is operational at 70% capacity, 83% of groundwater wells not operating
· All wastewater treatment systems non-operational
· ~57% of WASH facilities damaged/destroyed
· >1 million children need mental health and psychosocial support
· ~17,000 children unaccompanied or separated
· >60% residential buildings damaged
· >80% of commercial facilities damaged
· 155 health facilities damaged, 161 UNRWA installations damaged
· 47% of patients submitted for medical evacuation approved, 80% were evacuated abroad
· Health workers in Palestine continue to resist ongoing Israeli attacks on Gaza, including recent escalations of violence against health centers & hospitals, such as Al-Shifa. Their perseverance serves as an inspiration to nurses, pharmacists, midwives, & doctors globally.
· According to UNICEF, there are 180 births every day in Gaza. These happen without access to any kind of reasonable healthcare facilities; there are barely any anesthetics or painkillers, A new birth engenders considerable pain, stress & hardship & is a tremendous strain on mothers & parents generally when the world around you lies in rubble. It is well-established that postpartum depression in times of war & conflict – or from other sources of external stress and friction – spikes significantly.
· In interviews in The Guardian, international volunteer health providers in Gaza discussed forensic and other evidence that children are being deliberately targeted in fatal & severely damaging sniper & other shootings in Gaza.
· Some 19,000 liters of fuel were delivered over the past 3 weeks to northern Gaza to operate 37 water wells serving some 320,000 people.
· For 11,000 dialysis patients, only 2 dialysis units remain, 65% of dialysis patients will die within a year due to lack of access
· Israeli troops who pulled out of Gaza on 4/7 did so to prepare for future operations, including in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah, Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said.
WEST BANK & EAST JERUSALEM
· >453 killed
· OCHA has documented more than 700 settler violence incidents across the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 10/7, constituting a daily average of 4 incidents.
· Israeli forces raided the al-Aqsa Mosque compound & killed a Palestinian man in Tulkarem.
ISRAEL
· Israel lodged a proposal with the UN for dismantling UNRWA. Aid officials warn that transferring UNRWA’s functions to other bodies with famine looming would be disastrous.
· Netanyahu vowed to shut down news network Al Jazeera following the passage of a sweeping law allowing the government to ban foreign networks perceived as posing a threat to national security.
· A petition filed by 4 Israeli human rights groups calls on Israeli authorities to allow free, rapid, unimpeded passage of all aid shipments, equipment & humanitarian personnel, especially to the northern Gaza Strip. The government rejected all allegations against it.
· Following international outcry at the targeting of World Central Kitchen aid workers, Israel said that it would “temporarily allow aid into Gaza.”
· 2 Palestinian prisoners had their legs amputated due to handcuff injuries, says a doctor at an Israeli prison facility, who describes deplorable conditions & violations of medical ethics & law in a letter to government ministers & attorney general.
· Israel will take”immediate steps” to increase humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, the war cabinet decided, with aid entering for the first time through Israel’s Ashdod port & the Erez border crossing.
· Israeli publications +972 & Local Call have exposed how the Israeli military used an artificial intelligence program known as Lavender to develop a “kill list” in Gaza that includes as many as 37,000 Palestinians who were targeted for assassination with little human oversight. A second AI system known as “Where’s Daddy?” tracked Palestinians on the kill list & was purposely designed to help Israel target individuals when they were at home at night with their families, according to 6 Israeli intelligence officers, who have all served in the army during the current war on the Gaza Strip & had first-hand involvement with the use of AI to generate targets for assassination,
· Thousands of Israelis protest in demand of a ceasefire to release Israeli captives in Gaza & calling for early elections.
US
· Democratic lawmakers & US human rights organizations have expressed concern that intelligence shared with Israel contributes to civilian deaths of civilians in Gaza; there was concern there was little independent oversight to confirm that U.S.-supplied intelligence isn’t used in [Israeli] strikes that unnecessarily kill civilians or damage infrastructure.
· The Biden administration “quietly” approved the transfer of more massive bombs to Israel. Biden is sending along more than 2000 one-ton bombs and 500-pound bombs, “This is obscene,” Bernie Sanders wrote. “We must end our complicity: No more bombs to Israel. The US cannot beg Netanyahu to stop bombing civilians one day & the next send him thousands more 2,000 lb. bombs that can level entire city blocks.”
· The US has been transferring a hefty amount of munitions to Israel in an unprecedented airlift that has been ongoing for 5 months from bases in the US & its strategic stockpiles around the globe, open-source intelligence evidence reveals.
· Biden pressed the Congress to approve $18 billion military package to Israel.
· US Secretary of State Blinken said that the measures announced by Israelto expand the flow of aid into Gaza are welcome, but may not be enough to meet the Biden administration’s demands.
· Decision was made to remove Dr. Kayum Ahmed from the Core curriculum teaching team at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (SPH). This decision was apparently made in response to demands to silence Dr. Kayum & other academics who use critical scholarly frameworks to analyze the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It thereby constitutes a violation of Dr. Ahmed’s academic freedom. In spring 2023 Dr. Ahmed’s syllabus, which included a unit on settler colonial determinants of health, was approved by the Core teaching team.
· Biden called Netanyahu and for first time threatened to rethink his backing if Israel doesn’t change its tactics & allow much more humanitarian aid into Gaza. White House would not specify what could change about US policy, but it could include altering military sales to Israel & America’s diplomatic backup on the world stage.
INTERNATIONAL
· UN Human Rights Council adopts resolution to hold Israel accountable for ‘possible war crime.’
· Last week, the UN Special Rapporteur on Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese issued a report titled “Anatomy of a Genocide,” concluding that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide has been met.
· The UN’s top human rights body called on countries to stop selling or shipping weapons to Israel in a resolution that aims to help prevent rights violations against Palestinians amid Israel’s blistering military campaign in Gaza.
· Human Rights Watch said that it found no evidence that an Israeli attack on a Gaza apartment building in October, in which at least 106 civilians were killed, targeted any militant activity inside the building, contending that it was an apparent war crime.
· UK government has received legal advice that Israel is breaking international humanitarian law in Gaza, but has refused to confirm it publicly, Commons Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman Alicia Kearns, a senior Tory MP, claimed.
· Poland said it will investigate the killing of a Polish national, 1 of the 7 World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by an Israeli drone strike in Deir al-Balah on suspicion of murder.
· EU should debate whether to continue its strategic relationship with Israel if the European Commission finds that Israel has breached humanitarian law in its war on Gaza, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told Al Jazeera.
. Mediators resumed ceasefire talks in Egypt’s capital Cairo with Qatar’s prime minister & CIA chief in attendance, but it’s unclear if high-level Israeli officials are participating.
SOURCES
OCHA, WHO, MOH, Haaretz, Peoples Health Dispatch, The Guardian, Mondoweiss, Common Dreams, Haaretz, CNN, Electronic Intifada, NPR, Democracy Now, Portside. +972, The World Bank, Independent, personal communication from Dr. Ben Thomson
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