war crimes

Death toll of Gaza’s health workers crosses 1,000

Spread the love

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

Palestinian Red Crescent crews mourn fellow paramedics Haitham Tubasi and Suhail Hassouna, killed by Israeli forced (Photo via PRCS)

A new report from the Palestinian Ministry of Health warns that over 1,000 health workers in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. Meanwhile, a severe shortage of essential hygiene supplies continues to exacerbate the health crisis

Israel has killed 1,151 workers in Gaza’s healthcare system since October 2023, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Among the dead are 260 nurses, 184 health associates, 165 physicians, and 76 pharmacists, along with hundreds of management and support staff. While most of the victims’ names have been confirmed by health authorities, over 150 confirmations are still pending due to Israel’s refusal to release the martyrs’ bodies.

In addition to those killed, hundreds of health workers remain imprisoned, where they face abuse and torture, as documented by international organizations. Ziad Muhammad Al-Dalu, a physician from Al-Shifa Hospital, was among those who died in Israeli custody, as reported by the Ministry of Health. His death serves as yet another example of Israel’s deliberate targeting of Gaza’s healthcare workers and infrastructure, actions that violate international humanitarian law.

Read more: Palestinian health workers in Gaza describe torture and abuse in Israeli detention

The ongoing attacks on healthcare have left tens of thousands of people with life-altering injuries. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 25% of those injured between October 2023 and July 2024 have suffered burns, severe limb injuries, or amputations, with no access to rehabilitation services. Dozens of physiotherapists were killed in the attacks, and inpatient rehabilitation services have been shut down for months. “Even the most essential assistive devices, like wheelchairs and crutches, are lacking due to the restricted flow of aid,” the WHO said.

Israel’s blockade on humanitarian aid continues to choke Gaza’s healthcare system. At the moment, one of the most urgent problems is the shortage of soap and detergents. With the cost of a small bar of soap reaching USD 10—a price that could buy approximately 2 kilograms of soap in Germany—many families in Gaza are unable to afford basic hygiene supplies. “A family relying on cash-for-work income would spend 60% of the unskilled income on consumable hygiene products,” warned organizations monitoring water and sanitation in Gaza.

With soap being an omnipresent product, it might be difficult to imagine how severe the effects of a shortage might be, particularly for children. Health and hygiene officials estimate that adequate access to soap in the Gaza Strip could reduce respiratory infections by 20% and diarrheal diseases by up to 40%. This would potentially prevent illness in at least one in three children currently suffering from diarrhea. However, humanitarian organizations estimate that delivering the 5 million soap bars needed each month to meet demand in Gaza is basically impossible under the existing restrictions.

Read more: Israel targets health workers in the West Bank, obstructs polio campaign in Gaza

Despite this situation, Gaza recently completed the first phase of its polio vaccination campaign, with an 87% coverage rate among children—just below the 90% benchmark. The campaign is set to resume in the coming weeks, but incidents of Israeli forces obstructing access to those taking part in it persist, jeopardizing future public health efforts.

As winter approaches, the need for essential medicines, hygiene supplies, and nutritious food in Gaza becomes even more urgent. Concerns about potential floods and worsening living conditions highlight once again the critical need for an immediate ceasefire and rebuilding of the health system.

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

Continue ReadingDeath toll of Gaza’s health workers crosses 1,000

Morning Star Editorial: Britain must act against Israel’s attempts to ignite wider war

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-must-act-against-israels-attempts-ignite-wider-war

Civil Defence first-responders carry a man who was wounded after his handheld pager exploded, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, September 17, 2024

FOLLOWING Israel’s murderous exploding-pager stunt in Lebanon, Labour’s Emily Thornberry is asking questions every Cabinet minister should answer.

It is all very well for the Foreign Office to call for “calm heads and de-escalation” every time Israel bombs or assassinates people in neighbouring countries.

Since Israel faces no consequences for repeated escalation, it will continue to escalate: and, as Iran warned after the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, this means a failure to respond to Israel’s provocations is itself escalatory, likely to lead to wider war.

Iran called on the UN security council to rein Israel in: since Israeli allies Britain, France and the US have a majority on that council, and since all are also involved in supplying arms to Israel and providing logistical support for its war on Palestine, the particular responsibility to act rests with Tel Aviv’s Western backers.

Thornberry, newly elected chair of the foreign affairs committee in the Commons, asks: “Why is this happening now? And what will the result be?

“…Is this the first step, and what will Israel do next? Is it part of a larger plan? It is very worrying and I would certainly be expecting Israel’s friends to be speaking very seriously to them, and saying: ‘What on Earth are you doing’?”

Thornberry could go a lot further. She could call out the pager operation for what it was: a callous act of terrorism committed in a country with which Israel is not at war.

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/britain-must-act-against-israels-attempts-ignite-wider-war

Continue ReadingMorning Star Editorial: Britain must act against Israel’s attempts to ignite wider war

Peace, justice and a new left party launched in London?

Spread the love

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-justice-and-new-left-party-launched-london

Former Labour Party leader and now Independent MP Jeremy Corbyn on stage to address a march in central London organised by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, July 6, 2024

LINDA PENTZ GUNTER reports on speakers highlighting global conflicts, from Gaza to Manipur, as Jeremy Corbyn’s initiative gathers leading lights of the left to grapple with Britain’s progressive political future

EVERY morning, Lubna Masarwa repeats the same task. She views footage and photographs and decides what her news outlet will publish. Except that these are no ordinary images. These are the pictures coming from Gaza and now the West Bank, and, according to Masarwa, they can be summed up in a single word: horrible.

“I have never witnessed such a thing,” said Masarwa, the Jerusalem bureau chief of the news website Middle East Eye, who has been covering Israel’s genocide in Gaza since it began.

The material she is forced to view includes “mothers grieving near Nasser hospital trying to recognise the bodies of their children,” says Masarwa, children who are often only identifiable by the shoes they were wearing that day or even their teeth. “I would say Israel went mad,” she said.

Masarwa was the opening speaker of a day-long conference last Saturday in London, hosted by the Peace and Justice Project (PJP), an initiative launched in December 2020 by Jeremy Corbyn and his wife, Laura Alvarez. The PJP said Corbyn was designed to be “a political home for the politically homeless.”

…

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/peace-justice-and-new-left-party-launched-london

Continue ReadingPeace, justice and a new left party launched in London?

Hezbollah holds Israel responsible for cyber terrorist attack in Lebanon

Spread the love

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

Chaos following the explosion of pagers across Lebanon. Photo: Al Manar

Israel continues to carry out war crimes and breach the sovereignty of countries in the region, while the international community remains unmoved

The Lebanese Internal Security Forces announced on Tuesday, September 17, that thousands of pagers or wireless communication devices exploded in a number of areas across Lebanon, including in the southern suburb of the Lebanese capital of Beirut. The attack reportedly targeted pagers held by members of the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah.

The explosion of the pagers killed at least nine people, including a child, and injured over 3,000 others. Videos that have circulated online of the explosions, illustrate how many occurred in public places and caused transit accidents, secondary injuries, and general chaos.

According to media reports, Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mojtaba Amani was among the people who sustained injuries in the attacks, and was transported to a hospital to receive treatment. Some casualties were also reported in Syria’s southwestern governorate of Rural Damascus. Mahdi Ammar, son of Ali Ammar, a member of parliament with Hezbollah’s Resistance Loyalty Bloc, was also killed in the attacks.

Hezbollah movement stated on Tuesday that the pagers, which exploded, were in the possession of a number of workers at various Hezbollah units and institutions, and that the reasons behind their explosion were still unknown. The movement also announced that investigations have been under way to unveil the reasons and the circumstances behind the simultaneous explosions. According to Reuters, the detonated pagers were acquired by Hezbollah in recent months.

“Hezbollah’s competent agencies are currently conducting a wide-ranging security and scientific investigation to determine the causes of those simultaneous explosions. Likewise, medical and health agencies are treating the wounded and injured at a number of hospitals in various Lebanese regions,” Hezbollah said in a statement. In the statement, the movement urged the Lebanese people “to be aware of the rumors and false as well as misleading information that some parties are spreading in a way that serves the psychological war of the Zionist enemy.”

Hezbollah issued another statement later on Tuesday holding Israel fully responsible for the attack, which injured thousands including civilians and Hezbollah members. The statement was issued after the movement scrutinized the facts, current available data, and information about the attack. The statement also stressed that the attack will not deter Hezbollah from continuing its support to the Palestinian people. “Our martyrs and wounded are the symbol of our struggle and sacrifices all the way to Al-Quds in triumph of our honorable people in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank and continuous support,” Hezbollah added in the statement, concluding it with a pledge to justly punish Israel for what it described as a sinful aggression.

The Palestinian Islamic Jihad movement condemned the attack in a statement describing it as a “war crime”. “The treacherous operation carried out by the Zionist entity’s devices through the explosion of dual-use communication equipment is a documented war crime. It inflicted severe damage on a large number of innocent civilians inside their homes with premeditated malice,” Islamic Jihad said in its statement. “Although the enemy’s resort to this option is intended within the framework of psychological and intellectual warfare, it indicates the level of frustration and the narrow options they now have after the blows they have received from multiple fronts supporting the Palestinian people,” Islamic Jihad added.

The spokesperson of Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement Mohammad Abdul Salam also condemned the attack in a post on his platform on X describing it as a crime and a violation of Lebanese sovereignty. A number of countries also officially condemned the deadly series of explosions in Lebanon vowing to provide necessary medical assistance to the Lebanese people, including Jordan, Iran, and Palestine.

Meanwhile, the United States denied being aware of the attack. On Tuesday, the US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said that the US “was not aware of this operation and was not involved in it”. Miller added that the US “is still gathering information about the explosions in Lebanon”. The unprecedented deadly cyber attacks came after Israeli media outlets recently reported that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to expand a military operation on the northern front with Lebanon.

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

Continue ReadingHezbollah holds Israel responsible for cyber terrorist attack in Lebanon

Analysis Details How Israel’s Gaza Siege ‘Is Driving a Humanitarian Disaster’

Spread the love

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

Trucks carrying aid supplies to Gaza are seen at the Karem Abu Salem border crossing on February 17, 2024. (Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu via Getty Images)

“Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease, and hunger,” said one campaigner.

Israel’s “complete siege” of the Gaza Strip “is driving a humanitarian disaster,” with 83% of required food aid failing to enter the embattled enclave, where the entire population is facing hunger and disease and almost half a million Palestinians are at risk of starvation, an analysis published Monday revealed.starvation,

The analysis by 15 international aid organizations noted that a record-low average of just 69 aid trucks are entering the Gaza Strip each day, compared with an already insufficient 500 daily truckloads a year ago. Additionally, the groups said that “only 17 out of Gaza’s 36 hospitals remain partially functional, and “critical infrastructure such as water networks, sanitation facilities, and bread mills” have been destroyed.

“While Israeli military attacks on Gaza intensify, lifesaving food, medicine, medical supplies, fuel, and tents have been systematically blocked from entering for almost a year,” the aid groups—which include ActionAid, American Friends Service Committee, CARE International, Christian Aid, Islamic Aid, Oxfam International, and Save the Children—said in a statement.

The publication highlights numerous ways that “lifesaving aid is systematically obstructed on a daily basis” in Gaza.

“These include the denial of safety, with more than 40,000 Palestinians and nearly 300 aid workers killed since last October; the sharp tightening of a 17-year blockade to a full siege, which prevents aid from entering Gaza; delays and denials which restrict the movement of aid around Gaza; tightly restrictive and unpredictable control of imports; the destruction of public infrastructure such as schools and hospitals; and the displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers,” the analysis’ authors wrote.

Zenab, a 33-year-old Palestinian woman pregnant with her second child, said that her pregnancy “has been the hardest time of my life.”

“It was also hard to get the medication I needed,” she continued. Sometimes I had to walk for hours to different pharmacies, hospitals, and health centers to see if anyone had my medication available. For me as a pregnant woman, there has been hardly any healthcare support, no proper hygiene and sanitation, and no suitable mattress to sleep on.”

“I was suffering from complications during my pregnancy,” Zenab added. “We didn’t have enough water to drink, and had hardly any food. The doctors again told me that my pregnancy was in danger.”

Among the report’s key findings:

  • 83% of required food aid doesn’t make it into Gaza, up from 34% in 2023;
  • An estimated 50,000 children aged between 6-59 months urgently require treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year;
  • 65% of the insulin required and half of the required blood supply are not available in Gaza;
  • Availability of hygiene items has dropped to 15% of the amount available in September 2023, with 1 million women now going without the hygiene supplies they need;
  • Only around 1,500 hospital beds in Gaza remain operational, compared to around 3,500 beds in 2023 which was already well below sufficient to meet the needs of a population of more than 2 million people; and
  • 1.87 million people are in need of shelter with at least 60% of homes destroyed or damaged as of January, yet tents for around just 25,000 people have entered Gaza since May 2024.

“There is a shortage of all humanitarian items. We are overwhelmed [with] these needs and [these] urgent requirements,” said Amjad Al Shawa, director of the Palestinian NGOs Network. “People [are] starving due to the shortage of aid. One hundred percent of the population depends on humanitarian aid.”

The authors of the analysis—which was released ahead of this week’s United Nations General Assembly in New York—are demanding that Israel secure an immediate and lasting cease-fire. They are also calling for an arms embargo on Israel and Israeli compliance with the recent International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory opinion, which found that the occupation of Palestine is an illegal form of apartheid that must end immediately. Israel is on trial for genocide in a separate ICJ case.

“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now.”

“The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now,” CARE International West Bank and Gaza country director Jolien Veldwijik said in a statement. “Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease, and hunger.”

That includes dozens of children who have died due to malnutrition, dehydration, and lack of adequate medical care.

“Aid is still not getting in, and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to do their jobs while attacks and violations of international law intensify,” Veldwijik added. “Aid, which is urgently required for 2.2 million people at risk of dying in the coming weeks and months, should never be politicized. We demand an immediate and sustained cease-fire, and the free flow of humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.”

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

Continue ReadingAnalysis Details How Israel’s Gaza Siege ‘Is Driving a Humanitarian Disaster’