Urgent Health Updates: Consequences of war on Gaza-May 6, 2024
SUMMARY
This week has seen more hopeful up and down negotiations for a cease-fire and continued horrific deaths & injuries in Gaza with evidence of a imminent ground invasion of Rafah. While more humanitarian aid is getting in, there is continued obstruction to adequate aid, more evidence for widespread starvation. Nonviolent campus protests are spreading with repeated aggressive police responses. 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!
OF NOTE: Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh, 50, prominent Gazan orthopedic surgeon, died in an Israeli prison in the West Bank. He was detained by Israeli forces along with 10 other medical workers in December, taken away while treating patients in Al-Awda Hospital during the Israeli military ground invasion of the Jabalya refugee camp. Palestinian prisoners’ groups decried his death as part of a systematic targeting of health care workers & the health care system in Gaza. Dr. Al-Bursh, head of orthopedics at Al-Shifa Hospital, was declared dead by Israeli prison authorities at Ofer on 4/19. His body has not been released. See coverage on CNN and Democracy Now.
ALSO: On 5/6 Hamas accepted an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal to halt the 7-month war with Israel. Hamas was guaranteed by the US a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza & that Israeli forces will not continue fighting once the hostages are released. An Israeli official told Haaretz that “Israel will, under no circumstances, agree to end the war as part of a deal” & is determined to enter Rafah. Israel says it will continue talks but is conducting strikes in Rafah. Text of proposal here.
STATISTICS AND UPDATES
GAZA
Killed: 34,622, >9,500 women, >14,500 children
Injured: 77,867
Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 262
Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 1,605
254 aid workers & 492 health workers killed (15 also counted under aid worker)
67 civil defense staff killed on duty
141 journalists & media workers killed
~133 hostages in Gaza
75% of Gazans internally displaced
· 4/29, Government Media Office (GMO) reported that a 14-year-old boy was seriously injured & sustained limb amputations, after opening a booby-trapped can of food found while looking for his belongings in his house that had been shelled by Israeli forces in Khan Younis. The GMO indicated that many people have been recently injured due to the explosion of booby-trapped canned goods, urging the population to exercise maximum care. Based on UN estimates of unexploded munitions, the GMO assessed that around 7,500 tons of unexploded ordnance (UXO) might be scattered throughout Gaza, appealing for assistance by the international community to remove explosive remnants of war (ERW) & mitigate the risk for civilians.
· Persons with disabilities, whether pre-existing or newly acquired, are among the vulnerable groups worst affected by hostilities in Gaza. Many have lost assistive devices or have been separated from their primary caregivers, preventing them from fleeing or finding safe shelter. Others who have been injured face the risk of long-term disability due to the lack of supplies to treat even minor injuries or fractures.
· In winter, Gaza’s displaced people faced rainfall & bitter cold. Now with summer, they must cope with a dangerous heatwave, soaring above 100. This left people sweltering & challenged businesses that needed to keep their products cool, including pharmacies carrying meds, especially for a number of chronic diseases.
· Last week, Gaza-based Palestinian health ministry said ~600,000 people in northern Gaza no longer have access to any kind of healthcare. It warned that medicine fridges & the only oxygen plant in Gaza are at risk of shutting down due to the systematic lack of fuel. The WHO said Israel is “systematically dismantling” the health system in Gaza. Save The Children has reported that Israel’s attacks on the health sector in Gaza have been higher than in any other conflict — at the rate of 73 attacks per day. Gaza’s collapsing health system appears to be one of the goals of Israel’s genocide.
12 of 36 hospitals partially functioning
6 field hospitals are functioning
80% of primary health centers not functional
>712,000 cases of acute respiratory infections
>380,000 cases of acute water diarrhea
19 emergency medical teams deployed, including 2 in the north
33% of UNRWA health centers operational
· Those who survive Israel’s deadly bombardment have to contend with rising environmental disaster in Gaza’s displacement camps, including insect infestations, dangerous amounts of garbage & human waste, & spread of infectious disease.
~1.1 million projected to face catastrophic levels of food insecurity
31% of children <2 in northern Gaza suffer acute malnutrition
10% of children <2 in Rafah suffer acute malnutrition
· Israel says number of trucks entering Gaza has doubled to an average of 400 a day. UN disputes that but agrees that the pace of deliveries has quickened.
· >1 month after an Israeli strike killed 7 of its volunteers, World Central Kitchen announced they are resuming operations in Gaza.
· Cindy McCain, the director of the World Food Program, said starvation is entrenched in northern Gaza & is “moving its way south.”
625,000 students: no access to education
>6,425 students & 297 educational staff killed
73% of school buildings directly hit or damaged
60% of school buildings served as IDP shelters of which 65% were directly hit or damaged
As of 4/1, 20% of Gaza’s total daily water production prior to 10/7 is being produced
83% of groundwater wells not functional
2 of 3 desalination plants partially functional
57% of WASH facilities damaged or destroyed
270,000 tons of accumulated waste
· A mental health crisis in Gaza is fueled by repeated acute traumatic events, ongoing displacement, an absent sense of safety, fear & anxiety about the future. According to the Health Cluster, prior to the onset of hostilities, ~485,000 people suffered from mental health disorders in Gaza. >200 days of relentless violence & devastation have further exacerbated psychosocial needs, particularly among >1 million children estimated by UNICEF as requiring mental health & psycho-social support. Health workers in Gaza, already deeply worried about the safety & security of their families, are also enduring high levels of psychological stress & exhaustion that “will leave scars for years to come.”
· 155 health facilities damaged, 165 UNRWA installations, 130 ambulances
· 4/1-4/30, 52 humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza facilitated by Israel, 9 denied, 25 impeded, 8 cancelled
· 147 aid missions to southern Gaza facilitated by Israel, 19 denied, 6 impeded, 13 cancelled
· 54% of patients who submitted requests for medical evacuation were approved, of whom 82% have been medically evacuated abroad
· Dr. Khalid Abu Habel discussed the acute risk facing patients in Gaza due to lack of medicines. He is extremely worried about the scarcity of antibiotics & other basic requirements. With hunger on the rise, the hospital does not have vitamins & food supplements that are vital in treating malnutrition. “The lack of medicines means more complications…And more complications mean more deaths.”
· “It felt like pulling my heart out of the earth:” testimonies from the mass grave at Nasser Hospital. As Civil Defense teams continue to unearth hundreds of bodies from the mass graves discovered at Nasser Hospital, Palestinians are flocking to the medical complex in search of their missing loved ones. The Nasser Medical Complex has become a sprawling mass grave, where the Israeli army buried evidence of a hideous massacre.
· With pro-Palestinian protests on US campuses coming to a head as schools crack down on solidarity tent encampments, Gazans have taken to social media to thank the student protestors for their actions.
· >370,000 housing units in Gaza have been damaged, including 79,000 destroyed completely, according to a new report by the UNDP & the Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, which estimates that even if Israel allows a 5-fold increase of construction material to enter Gaza, it would take until 2040 to rebuild the destroyed houses, without repairing the damaged ones. UN report says rebuilding all the homes destroyed in Gaza could take 80 years if the pace of reconstruction were to match what it was after wars there in 2014 & 2021. The projection didn’t take into account the time it would take to repair the homes that were damaged but not destroyed.
· Palestinian human rights groups say that Israel has escalated its attacks in Rafah where ~1.3 million people, the vast majority of them displaced from other areas in the territory, are now concentrated. Israel intensified artillery shelling in the eastern area of Rafah in what Al-Haq, Al Mezan & the Palestinian Center for Human Rights describe as a campaign of intimidation aimed at compelling a new wave of forced displacement ahead of a large-scale military assault on Rafah.
WEST BANK & EAST JERUSALEM
· New York Times Magazine featured the life and work of Issa Amro, a resistance activist in the West Bank, committed to nonviolence.
· In the month of April, Israeli forces carried out 895 attacks on Palestinians, while settlers carried out 347 attacks, concentrated in the Nablus governorate with 202 attacks, al-Khalil (Hebron) governorate with 188 attacks, & Ramallah governorate with 186 attacks. This represents a dangerous escalation in terrorist attacks by settlers under the protection of Israeli forces, targeting civilians in 36 Palestinian towns & villages from north to south. These attacks resulted in the complete burning of 36 houses and partial burning of 33 others, as well as the partial & complete burning of more than 57 vehicles, in addition to significant destruction of properties and citizens’ facilities.
· Amer Abu Halil, from the town of Dura, near Hebron, was active in Hamas, recently released & testified about treatment in Ketziot Prison in the Negev, including beatings, sexual abuse, & torture.
ISRAEL
· Netanyahu hoped Hamas would reject the cease-fire offer. When it didn't, he turned to sabotage. Israel's prime minister appears more focused on saving his far-right government than saving the hostages who have spent 7 months trapped in Gaza. He is doing everything he can to torpedo what is likely Israel's last and best chance at bringing the hostages home. Netanyahu is facing heightened protests at home.
· Israeli forces were holding 61 Palestinian children in administrative detention as of 3/31, according to information shared by the Israel Prison Service. This is a record number since Defense for Children International Palestine began monitoring child administrative detainees in 2008. >half of these children were detained after 10/7/23, as Israeli forces escalated military operations throughout the West Bank.
· On 4/18/24, Professor Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a dual US-Israeli citizen known for her groundbreaking contributions to Palestinian feminist theory & unwavering commitment to grassroots activism in Jerusalem, was subjected to detention and interrogation by Israeli authorities. Despite a subsequent court order for her release, she was interrogated again for 5 hours without lawyers or US embassy staff & continues to face the ongoing threat of further arrest & interrogation. It is evident that the line of questioning during these interrogations seeks to discredit her scholarly work by baselessly linking her to acts of violence. She was apprehended on meritless grounds, stemming from a gross distortion of statements made in her scholarly articles & during a podcast hosted by reputable university professors in the US. During her detention, she endured degrading & dehumanizing treatment, including a humiliating strip search, tight restraints causing physical harm, denial of essential medication, & exposure to inhumane conditions in a cold & insect-infested prison cell.
· According to a 63 page Israeli government procurement document, 2 of Israel’s leading state-owned weapons manufacturers are required to use Amazon & Google for cloud computing.Though the details of the contractual work are not laid out in the tender document, which outlines how Israeli arms industry obtains software services through Nimbus, the firms are responsible for manufacturing drones, missiles, & other weapons Israel has used to bomb Gaza.
· Israel ordered the local offices of Qatar's Al Jazeera satellite news network to close, accusing it of broadcasting anti-Israel incitement. The ban did not appear to affect the channel's operations in Gaza.
· Israel closed its main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza after Hamas militants attacked it, while the defense minister claimed Hamas wasn't serious about a ceasefire deal & warned of "a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah & other places across all of Gaza." The developments struck blows to ongoing ceasefire efforts in Cairo, mediated by Egypt & Qatar, after reported signs of progress.
US
· Using the term to describe the Israel-Hamas war for the first time, Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN that “I don’t think there’s any doubt that what Netanyahu is doing now – displacing 80% of the population in Gaza – is ethnic cleansing.”
· As of 5/3, more than 2,000 people in the US have been arrested at >50 schools during pro-Palestinian protests across college campuses. According to a report from a crisis-mapping NGO, 99% of campus protests have been peaceful & the police responses have been highly aggressive & militarized. Multiple campus protests & police actions & arrests have occurred all over the country, with calls for ceasefire & university divestment from Israeli companies.
· We’re in the midst of the most widespread campus unrest since the 1960s. Over the last 2 weeks, campus protests have escalated, with pro-Palestinian tent encampments set up in public spaces, triggering counterprotests & clashes with police.
· Erroll Southers is a top USC (Univ of Southern CA) administrator facing demands to resign after canceling a valedictorian commencement speech & cracking down on protestors. He has also produced research labeling identifying with Palestinians as a sign of radicalization.
· An attack on the UCLA encampment stirs fears of clashes elsewhere. The first big pro-Israel counter demonstration in the US was in Los Angeles, home to large Israeli & Jewish populations. More are planned in the coming days.
· Politico reported that a group of lawyers, including >20 who work in the Biden administration, are calling on the president to halt military aid to Israel, arguing that its actions in Gaza do not comply with US & international humanitarian law.
· In response to the student-led, pro-Palestinian movement, the US House of Representatives passed the Antisemitism Awareness Act, a bill which is steeped in anti-Palestinian & anti-Arab racism & dangerously conflates concern for Palestinian human rights with danger & hate. It stifles legitimate criticism of the apartheid state of Israel & that of the Biden administration’s complicity in the ongoing genocide.
· Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) announced in record time that it has opened an investigation into Columbia University for anti-Palestinian racism. The decision to open an investigation came <48 hours after Columbia President Shafik called in the New York Police Department, which violently arrested dozens of peaceful student protesters. Hundreds of police came onto campus, some with guns drawn, using sledgehammers, batons, & flash-bang explosives.
· Scores of Democrats in the US House of Representatives urged US President Biden to consider halting arms sales to Israel if it does not alter the conduct of its war against Hamas.
· A letter signed by 88 Democratic members of Congress & delivered to the White House ratchets up pressure on Biden to take a firmer stance toward Israel, a staunch ally. The lawmakers voiced “serious concerns regarding the Israeli government’s conduct of the war in Gaza as it pertains to the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid.”
INTERNATIONAL
· An Israeli incursion in Rafah would put the lives of hundreds of thousands of Gazans at risk & be a huge blow to the humanitarian operations in all of Gaza per the UN humanitarian office.
· UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell warned on 5/1 that a ground operation in Rafah “would bring catastrophe on top of catastrophe,” highlighting the “unimaginable toll” the war is having on children, who comprise 47% of Gaza’s population. ~600,000 children are now crammed into Rafah, according to UNICEF, with nearly all being “either injured, sick, malnourished, traumatized or living with disabilities.”
· International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan is warning the court’s “independence and impartiality are undermined when individuals threaten to retaliate,” after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called news of possible ICC arrest warrants against himself & other top Israeli officials an “antisemitic hate crime.”
· An aid flotilla due to sail to Gaza from Turkish ports was halted after Guinea Bissau decided to remove its flag from 2 of its ships, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition activist group announced.
· Several European member states are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood by the end of May, the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh.
· The Palestinian Embassy in Egypt is seeking temporary residency permits for tens of thousands of people who have arrived from Gaza during the war, saying it would ease conditions for them until the conflict is over.
· In Australia, vice-chancellors have rejected calls for police to break the Gaza solidarity encampments at universities, saying campuses don’t want an “escalation” of the kind that is happening in the US
SOURCES
OCHAOPT, Electronic Intifada, New York Times, Haaretz, Defense of Children International-Palestine, Mondoweiss, Portside, New York Times, The Guardian, The Intercept, Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee, Palestine Legal, CNN, Democracy Now, Times of Israel, CBC, Seattle Times, Pal Info