humanitarian aid

Children in Gaza face health crisis and hunger amid continued Israeli attacks

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Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

Photo: AWDA Health & Community Association

Children in Gaza are becoming increasingly hungry and unhealthy as the destruction of healthcare infrastructure exacerbates the spread of infectious diseases

The health of children in Gaza is deteriorating rapidly. Between June and October 2024, Nasser Medical Complex treated 300 children daily for infectious diseases like diarrhea, respiratory issues, and skin infections. These numbers are compounded by Israeli attacks on hospitals, obstruction of humanitarian aid, and the dire living conditions faced by more than one million forcibly displaced Palestinians preparing for winter in makeshift shelters.

The situation is equally critical regarding hunger and related conditions among children. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 33,000 children have been admitted for acute malnutrition. Health workers have also reported a rise in cases of nutritional edema, a condition that causes swelling due to a lack of protein intake. For over a year, children in the Gaza Strip have struggled to access adequate nutrition because of Israel’s blockades.

Child health experts have repeatedly warned about the long-term consequences of hunger for generations growing up in Palestine. Now, they caution that “there are clear signs of a rapidly worsening nutritional situation across Gaza, with two-thirds of the children admitted for outpatient treatment of acute malnutrition since the beginning of 2024 recorded in the past five months alone.”

Read more: UN experts say, there is already famine in Gaza

Many child health services have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli attacks, leaving families reliant on sparse healthcare facilities still providing support. Doctors Without Borders (MSF) recently reported that, as a result, many mothers are forced to undertake dangerous journeys on foot to access healthcare for their infants. These journeys, MSF stated, expose both mothers and children to potential attacks and “put them [ill children] at high risk of health complications.”

“Even after receiving treatment, newborns and children return to unsanitary living conditions, which in turn leads to a deterioration of their health conditions and ability to heal properly,” MSF said. “My son doesn’t laugh, doesn’t play, doesn’t drink milk. He sleeps all the time,” a forcibly displaced mother shared with MSF.

Poor hygiene conditions, resulting from Israeli bombardment of water and sanitation infrastructure, are set to worsen further as the rainy season progresses. Thousands of tents have already been destroyed by heavy rains in recent days. Humanitarian agencies expect that heavy rainfall and rising sea tides will make sewage accumulation worse, fueling the spread of disease.

Read more: Dr. Adnan Al-Bursh’s death by torture underscores brutal targeting of Palestinian health workers by Israel 

Meanwhile, Israeli attacks on healthcare facilities and other civilian infrastructure in Gaza continue. Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza is still being targeted, including by quadcopters, resulting in damage to essential medical equipment and critical injuries to more healthcare personnel. Among the injured is the hospital’s director, Hussam Abu Safiya.

Israeli authorities are still trying to justify the attacks by alleging the presence of Palestinian resistance groups in the hospitals they are attacking, despite not providing any proof. However, UN human rights experts emphasize that even if such claims were true, “Israeli forces are still bound by their obligations under international humanitarian law.”

“The manner in which this Israeli operation [the attack on Kamal Adwan] has been conducted is raising concerns about the likelihood that northern Gaza will be emptied of Palestinians through death and displacement,” the UN Human Rights Office in Palestine stated.

People’s Health Dispatch is a fortnightly bulletin published by the People’s Health Movement and Peoples Dispatch. For more articles and subscriptions to People’s Health Dispatch, click here.

Original article by Ana Vračar republished from peoples dispatch under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA) license.

dizzy: Israel’s genocides should be regarded as a joint enterprise involving the United States, United Kingdom and Israel.

Experiencing issues with this image not appearing. I suspect because it's so critical of Zionist Keir Starmer's support of and complicity in Israel's genocides.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpA
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government's support for Israel's Gaza genocide and the UK government and military's active participation in genocide.
Genocide denying UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy says that UK is suspending 30 of 350 arms licences to Israel. He also confirms the UK government’s support for Israel’s Gaza genocide and the UK government and military’s active participation in genocide.

Continue ReadingChildren in Gaza face health crisis and hunger amid continued Israeli attacks

As Millions Starve in Gaza, Israel Terminates Agreement With UNRWA

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Palestinians scramble to receive sacks of flour at a United Nations Relief and Works Agency aid distribution center in Deir al-Balah, Gaza on November 3, 2024. (Photo: Majdi Fathi/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

“Restricting humanitarian access and at the same time dismantling UNRWA will add an additional layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering,” said the U.N. agency’s commissioner-general.

Israel’s Foreign Affairs Ministry on Sunday formally notified the United Nations that it has terminated a decades-old legal agreement governing the country’s relations with the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, a move that aid workers and advocacy groups say will spell further disaster for Gaza’s besieged and famine-stricken population as winter approaches.

The director-general of the Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry announced the decision to scrap the 1967 agreement in a letter to the president of the U.N. General Assembly, a message sent roughly a week after Israeli lawmakers approved legislation banning the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) from operating or providing services “in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel.”

The new letter states that the legislation “will enter into effect following a three-month period.”

The Washington Post reported Monday that Juliette Touma, UNRWA’s communications director, said that “the agency expected to continue its work coordinating the distribution of aid in Gaza and the West Bank at the operational level.”

But aid groups have warned that Israel’s UNRWA ban could inflict fatal damage to humanitarian operations in Gaza and the West Bank, given Israeli control over access to the illegally occupied territories. The legislation Israeli lawmakers passed last week bars the government from issuing work permits to foreign UNRWA staff and prevents the military from coordinating with the aid agency.

“The human cost of this ban is immeasurable,” Mara Kronenfeld, executive director of UNRWA USA, said in a statement last week. “This Israeli Knesset vote banning UNRWA is not merely an attack on the U.N. agency; it’s an attack on the fundamental rights and dignity due to all human beings. The consequences of this ban could result in the loss of tens of thousands, if not more, precious Palestinian lives. Where is the humanity?”

“You can hear children crying, people screaming, people running for their lives, and it has been nonstop for 24 hours. There’s nowhere to go. People are trapped.”

The U.S., Israel’s main ally and arms supplier, urged the Israeli government last week not to implement the newly passed legislation, even though the U.S. has yet to restore its own funding to UNRWA. The Biden administration suspended U.S. funding for UNRWA in January after Israel accused a small number of agency employees of taking part in the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel.

The U.N. fired nine UNRWA workers after an investigation determined that they “may have been involved” in the attack. UNRWA has roughly 13,000 staffers in the Gaza Strip, and the agency is the most important aid group operating in the enclave.

Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs at the Center for International Policy, argued that by terminating its agreement with UNRWA, “Israel is also further breaking U.S. law prohibiting the restriction of aid delivery.”

“It’s a definitive rejection of an explicit demand in the Biden administration’s October 13 letter and by law must result in halting U.S. arms and military aid to Israel,” Williams added.

The Israeli Foreign Affairs Ministry’s announcement came as Israel’s military continued its bombing campaign and ground attacks across Gaza. Reuters reported that at least a dozen Palestinians were killed by Israeli airstrikes on Monday, including seven people in an attack on houses in northern Gaza.

“It is absolutely terrifying,” Louise Wateridge, an UNRWA spokesperson, told Al Jazeera on Saturday, referring to conditions on the ground in Gaza. “You can hear children crying, people screaming, people running for their lives, and it has been nonstop for 24 hours. There’s nowhere to go. People are trapped.”

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Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA’s commissioner-general, said Monday that Israeli authorities allowed an average of just 30 aid trucks to enter Gaza per day last month.

Prior to October 7, 2023, around 500 aid trucks were entering the enclave daily.

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“This cannot meet the needs of over 2 million people, many of whom are starving, sick, and in desperate conditions,” Lazzarini said Monday. “Restricting humanitarian access and at the same time dismantling UNRWA will add an additional layer of suffering to already unspeakable suffering.”

“Only political will,” he added, “can put an end to a politically made situation.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingAs Millions Starve in Gaza, Israel Terminates Agreement With UNRWA

With Israel’s Move to Ban UNRWA, ‘A New Way Has Been Found to Kill Children’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Palestinian children sit with pots near makeshift tents as they wait to receive food aid in Khan Younis, Gaza on October 28, 2024. (Photo: Doaa Albaz/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“It’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza,” warned a spokesperson for the U.N. Children’s Fund.

Humanitarian groups and United Nations officials issued dire warnings Tuesday about the potentially catastrophic consequences of Israeli lawmakers’ vote to ban the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, the body primarily responsible for delivering lifesaving aid to the people of Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem.

James Elder, a spokesperson for the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), said Tuesday that if the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is unable to operate due to the measures passed overwhelmingly by the Israeli Knesset on Monday, “it’ll likely see the collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza.”

“So a decision such as this suddenly means that a new way has been found to kill children,” said Elder.

The legislation that Israeli lawmakers passed in a 92-10 vote bars UNRWA—a frequent target of Israeli smear campaigns and military attacks—from operating or providing “any service” within “in the sovereign territory of the state of Israel.”

Israeli lawmakers also passed a measure declaring UNRWA a “terror” group, barring Israeli officials from engaging in any contact with the agency.

The Guardian noted that the newly passed measures—which are set to be implemented within 90 days—are “expected to lead to the closure of UNRWA’s East Jerusalem headquarters and would effectively block the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza via Rafah.”

“The severing of diplomatic relations would preclude Israel from issuing entry and work permits to foreign UNRWA staff and prevent coordination with the Israeli military to permit aid shipments,” the newspaper added.

“Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNWRA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNWRA cannot be replaced by NGOs.”

Agnès Callamard, the secretary-general of Amnesty International, warned in a statement Tuesday that the measures represent “an outright attack on the rights of Palestinian refugees.”

“It is clearly designed to make it impossible for the agency to operate in the occupied Palestinian territory by forcing the closure of the UNRWA headquarters in East Jerusalem and ending visas for its staff,” said Callamard. “It amounts to the criminalization of humanitarian aid and will worsen an already catastrophic humanitarian crisis.”

“This appalling, inhumane law will only exacerbate the suffering of Palestinians, who have endured unimaginable hardship since the horrific attacks by Hamas and other armed groups in southern Israel one year ago, and whose need for global support is greater than ever. The international community must be quick to condemn it in the strongest possible terms and exert any influence they have on the Israeli government to repeal it.”

The U.N. General Assembly established UNRWA in the aftermath of the 1948 Nakba, and the agency is central to humanitarian operations in the famine-stricken Gaza Strip—a role that aid groups described as necessary and irreplaceable. According to a World Health Organization official, roughly a third of the healthcare workers assisting the polio vaccination campaign in Gaza work with UNRWA.

“UNRWA plays a critical role in serving civilians in desperate need in Gaza,” the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said Tuesday. “Humanitarian actors rely on coordination with UNRWA to deliver aid and alleviate suffering. UNRWA cannot be replaced by NGOs like IRC.”

“The bill passed in the Israeli parliament is an unprecedented attack on a U.N. agency and, if implemented, would only worsen the humanitarian catastrophe,” IRC added. “We strongly urge that this legislation is not applied. We continue to advocate for an immediate ceasefire to get aid in, to release the hostages, and to meet the growing and dire needs of the civilian population.”

Sam Rose, deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, said in a CNN interview that “the entire humanitarian system” in the Palestinian enclave “relies every minute of every day on UNRWA to deliver services to 2 million people living in the worst possible conditions.”

Implementation of the ban, Rose warned, “would be devastating for us, devastating for other aid agencies—but more importantly, for the population here that’s suffering so much.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). 

Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK's air force has been essential in Israel's mass-murdering genocide.
Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that his active support and that of UK’s air force has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide.
Continue ReadingWith Israel’s Move to Ban UNRWA, ‘A New Way Has Been Found to Kill Children’

Labour’s approach to Middle East conflict “failing” as civilian death toll mounts

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Image of the Green Party's Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.
Image of the Green Party’s Carla Denyer on BBC Question Time.

Green Party Co-Leader, Carla Denyer said, “The reports over the weekend that no food has entered Northern Gaza since the 1st of October, of Israel’s attack on al-Aqsa Hospital, of chemical weapons being used to attack UNIFIL peacekeepers, of mass civilian casualties in Gaza’s Jabalia Refugee Camp and of increased rocket fire into Israel from Hezbollah are extremely disturbing. The huge numbers of civilian deaths and the prospect of widespread starvation in Northern Gaza are intolerable.

The Labour government must recognise that violence in the Middle East is escalating rapidly and that their current approach is failing. The Government needs to consider far more direct measures to incentivise a ceasefire including an end to arms sales, the introduction of divestments, boycotts and sanctions, prosecutions for all those who have committed war crimes and a plan for a viable Palestinian state.”

Continue ReadingLabour’s approach to Middle East conflict “failing” as civilian death toll mounts

Palestinian Diplomat Calls Israeli Assault on Northern Gaza ‘Genocide Within the Genocide’

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Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

A Palestinian man mourns after an Israeli attack killed members of this family on October 12, 2024. (Photo: Omar al-Qattaa/AFP via Getty Images)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is reportedly “examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza,” which could starve hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

Palestine’s deputy permanent observer to the United Nations said Saturday that “what is happening in northern Gaza now is a genocide within the genocide” as Israeli forces continued to bombard the region and terrorize the hundreds of thousands of people who remain trapped there, in increasingly desperate need of food and other necessities.

Palestinian Ambassador Majed Bamya’s message came after the World Food Program (WFP) warned that Israel’s latest offensive in northern Gaza “is having a disastrous impact on food security for thousands of Palestinian families.”

“Food distribution points, as well as kitchens and bakeries in North Gaza, have been forced to shut down due to airstrikes, military ground operations, and evacuation orders,” the U.N. body said in a statement. “The only functioning bakery in North Gaza, supported by WFP, caught fire after being hit by an explosive munition.”

Antoine Renard, WFP’s country director for Palestine, said that the northern part of the enclave “is basically cut off and we’re not able to operate there.”

“WFP has been on the ground since the onset of the crisis,” said Renard. “We are committed to delivering lifesaving food every day despite the mounting challenges, but without safe and sustained access, it is virtually impossible to reach the people in need.”


No shipments of food, water, or medicine have been able to enter northern Gaza in at least two weeks due to Israel’s assault, which has trapped around 400,000 people and killed dozens. Residents have reported witnessing Israeli drones and quadcopters fire on people attempting to flee the famine-stricken area.

Israel’s military said Saturday that even shelters for displaced people in northern Gaza are considered part of a “dangerous combat zone,” further underscoring that there is no safe place in the besieged enclave.

” Israel is exterminating northern Gaza right now,” said Middle East historian and analyst Assal Rad. “There are 400,000 Palestinians there being deliberately starved, with nowhere to go, trapped inside a killing field. There’s no outrage or wall-to-wall media coverage because Israel is the one doing it and the victims are Arab.”

On Sunday, The Associated Press reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “examining a plan to seal off humanitarian aid to northern Gaza in an attempt to starve out Hamas militants, a plan that, if implemented, could trap without food or water hundreds of thousands of Palestinians unwilling or unable to leave their homes.”

According to AP, the plan was proposed to Netanyahu and the Israeli parliament by “a group of retired generals.” It would give the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who remain in the northern third of Gaza a week to leave before the area is declared a “closed military zone.”

“Those who remain would be considered combatants—meaning military regulations would allow troops to kill them—and denied food, water, medicine, and fuel,” AP added. “The plan calls for Israel to maintain control over the north for an indefinite period to attempt to create a new administration without Hamas, splitting the Gaza Strip in two.”

While the Netanyahu government has not yet decided whether to “fully carry out” the plan, the outlet observed, “one official with knowledge of the matter said parts of the plan are already being implemented, without specifying which parts.”

Citing senior defense officials, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Sunday that the Netanyahu government “is not seeking to revive hostage talks and the political leadership is pushing for the gradual annexation of large parts of the Gaza Strip.”

“Army commanders in the field who spoke with Haaretz say the recent decision to launch operations in northern Gaza was taken without any in-depth discussion. They said it appeared that the operations were aimed principally at pressuring local residents, who were again told to evacuate the area for the coast as winter is approaching,” the newspaper continued. “It is possible that the operation is laying the groundwork for a decision by the government to put into effect the so-called surrender or starve plan of Maj. Gen. (ret.) Giora Eiland.”

Original article by Jake Johnson republished from Common Dreams under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0).

Continue ReadingPalestinian Diplomat Calls Israeli Assault on Northern Gaza ‘Genocide Within the Genocide’