The World Stands with Palestine
Myth of Western Humanity and Democracy Dies In Gaza
Since the temporary ceasefire ended on December 1, Israel's relentless and unconscionable bombardment of Gaza and ground offensives have pushed Gaza into an all-out humanitarian catastrophe.
Meanwhile, the criminal mentality of the U.S. and Israel can be seen in their claims to be taking all manner of measures to protect civilians, such as leafleting to inform Gazans of supposed safe zones in southern Gaza where they will not be bombed or the presence of legal staff embedded with the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) waging a merciless ground war to declare whether airstrikes are directed at military targets and thus conform to the standards of international humanitarian law. In this way, health care and United Nations humanitarian facilities and workers are targeted not only with impunity but with evermore vengeance and ever greater blood thirst. With Israel given the green light by the U.S. and with the support of countries like Canada and the big powers of Europe, it has shattered the myth of western humanity and democracy.
Situation in Gaza
The Ministry of Health in Gaza informed on December 14 that at least 18,787 people have been killed and 50,897 injured in Israeli strikes, of which some 70 per cent are women and children. The UN Relief Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA) reported on December 13 that up to 1.9 million people (or over 85 per cent of the population) have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, some multiple times, because families are forced to move repeatedly in search of safety. Nearly 1.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) were sheltering in 155 UNRWA facilities across all five governorates of the Gaza Strip. Of these, more than 1.1 million are sheltering in 98 UNRWA facilities in the central and southern Gaza Strip (the governorates of Deir El Balah Khan Younis and Rafah).
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) informed on December 12 that since the end of the temporary truce on December 1, roughly 100 trucks per day carrying aid continue to enter the Gaza Strip, still a fraction of what is needed under normal circumstances. UNWRA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna told Al Jazeera on December 14 that 100 trucks per day fall far short of what is required. "We need hundreds of trucks per day; there is a huge need. Without letting hundreds of trucks [in] we will suffer a lot, the population will suffer a lot."
The displacement of people, starvation, destruction of housing, sanitation infrastructure and health care facilities, as well as the detention and killing of medical personnel and staff of humanitarian agencies is leading to outbreaks of disease. Coupled with the rains which force the unprotected people to sleep directly in the water which accumulates, a disastrous situation is unfolding in addition to the collapse of Gaza's health system and the spread of disease reported by OCHA. The overcrowded living conditions add to the strain on an increasingly overwhelmed health system and an increased risk of people dying. The head of the World Health Organization in the Occupied Palestinian Territory announced on December 12 that cases of meningitis, jaundice, impetigo, chickenpox and other upper respiratory tract infections had been recorded. "We've got a textbook formula for epidemics and a public health disaster," said Lynn Hastings, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
People
take shelter in an UNWRA school.
On December 13, Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, addressed the plenary of the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva, conveying the situation facing the people of Gaza and his agency, that he called "a living hell." He stated in part:
"Most of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced, largely into the southern part of the Strip, Rafah. Rafah is now hosting well over a million people. It used to be home to 280,000 people. It lacks the infrastructure and resources to support such a population.
"Inside our own warehouses, families live in tiny spaces that are separated by blankets hung on thin wooden structures. Out in the open, flimsy shelters have emerged everywhere. Rafah has become a tented community. The spaces around UNRWA buildings are congested with shelters and desperate, hungry people. Aid can no longer reach those who could not move to the south. [...]
"The entire humanitarian response heavily relies on UNRWA's capacity. It is now on the verge of collapse. UNRWA is still operating eight health centres, out of 22. We are sheltering more than a million people in our schools and other facilities. Our social workers are supporting traumatized people as best they can. We are still distributing whatever food we manage to bring in, but this is often as little as a bottle of water and a can of tuna per day, per family, often numbering six or seven people. This operational reality is not sustainable. Not for the population and not for the Agency.
"More than 130 UNRWA staff are confirmed killed. Many of our staff, who are themselves displaced, take their children to work with them to ensure that they are safe together or die together. I asked one colleague how he managed to remain composed and offer help in a shelter. He told me that he looks for a corner in the building to cry 10 times a day. [...]
"There is nowhere to feel safe in Gaza. Civilian infrastructure and UN facilities have not been spared by the shelling. I was horrified by images yesterday of an UNRWA school being blown up in the north of Gaza. The people of Gaza are running out of time and options, as they face bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-ever-shrinking space.
"They are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948. And it has been a painful history. The events in Gaza are taking place against a backdrop of 75 years of displacement. Seventy-five years of failure to find a just and lasting solution to the plight of Palestine Refugees. During this time, they have been deprived of their basic human rights and their right to self-determination. Throughout the region, many continue to live in overcrowded refugee camps with substandard living conditions, generation after generation.
"For the last 75 years, the world has asked UNRWA to uphold the rights of Palestine Refugees. And we have done so successfully, contributing to their development and to their feeling of stability as much as possible. Over 2 million students have graduated from our schools, half of them girls. Health indicators among this refugee community exceed WHO standards.
"But today, and despite our successes, UNRWA suffers from chronic underfunding which impacts the quality of our services. Upholding refugees' rights is not only the responsibility of humanitarian and development actors. It is a responsibility shared with donors and Host countries. [...] Palestine Refugees need a just solution, not just aid. Today, they feel abandoned by the international community. They feel betrayed as the world fails to act in the face of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time in Gaza. They now believe that human lives are not equal and human rights are not universal. This is a dangerous message, and it will have serious repercussions."
The latest reports from Gaza indicate that Israel is becoming ever
more blatant in its flouting of international law and the crimes it
is committing.
The New Arab reported on December 12 that "Medical staff
from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) are being harassed
and detained by the Israeli army in Gaza while carrying out urgent
missions to transfer wounded patients and deliver aid, the World
Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.
"One PRCS medic was detained, beaten and stripped by the Israeli
army and a critically ill patient succumbed to wounds and died while
an ambulance convoy was held up by the army at a checkpoint, the WHO
said in a statement."
That same day, Israeli forces raided the Kamal Adwan Hospital in
Northern Gaza, after having besieged and encircled it for several
days. Some 70 medical staff are reported to have been kidnapped,
while dozens of patients and staff, as well as some 3,000 people
taking shelter there are trapped inside without electricity, water
or food.
On December 13, Al Jazeera broadcast footage from the Shadia
Abu Ghazala School, said to show the aftermath of an Israeli raid on those taking shelter there.
Those interviewed said that bodies of their loved ones were found in
the classrooms with wounds indicating they were executed by gunfire
at point blank range, as opposed to being killed by artillery or
missiles strikes.
Situation in West Bank Also Worsening
Israeli destruction in
the West Bank, December 14, 2023.
UNWRA reports that on December 12, "Israeli Security Forces (ISF) conducted search and arrest operations in Jenin City and Jenin Refugee Camp, in the northern West Bank, lasting some 60 hours according to the Israelis. At the time of writing, seven Palestinians had been killed, including one child, due to missiles fired by ISF drones and exchanges of fire with the ISF. ISF also hit a house inside Jenin Refugee Camp, in the vicinity of the UNRWA Community and Camp Service Office. ISF reportedly fired a missile at a Palestinian house in the eastern part of Jenin City, and bulldozed infrastructure and private property belonging to Palestinians. Some 70 Palestinians from the camp, including one woman, were reported detained. The operation is ongoing. UNRWA operations in the camp have been severely impacted and are currently suspended.
"ISF search and arrest operations were also reported in the morning in Nablus, in Balata and Askar refugee camps."
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on December 14 reported that Israeli forces killed an unarmed Palestinian teen inside a hospital complex in Jenin. Speaking to Al Jazeera, MSF coordinator Irene Huertas Martín described the incident at the Khalil Suleiman Hospital:
"The children were playing, and they were throwing stones. We were trying to manage [the situation] because we knew this could be a problem, but we never thought they were going to shoot the child because he was playing inside the hospital compound."
Huertas Martín also described Israeli soldiers routinely blocking patients from receiving treatment in recent weeks as well as ordering paramedics and drivers out of ambulances, making them kneel in the street and strip-searching them.
"It is very weird because the ambulance [staff] are here all the time, and the soldiers are outside the gates of the ER, so they knew who they were. It didn't make much sense. They are changing their patterns," she said.
OCHA informs that to date, 271 Palestinians have been killed by the ISF in the West Bank, including 69 children. In addition, eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli settlers and another two either by IDF or settlers. This year has been the deadliest year for Palestinians killed in the West Bank since the UN began recording casualties in 2005.
This article was published in
Volume 53 Number 31 - December 2023
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2023/Articles/MS53311.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca