Lara Kajs | 16 September 2024 |
On 7 October 2023, Hamas fighters and other armed groups attacked Israeli communities, brutally killing 1,139 people and abducting 254 captives. Israel’s military retaliated and attacked Hamas in the Gaza Strip. After eleven months of the war in Gaza, more than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed and the enclave decimated. TGR’s team has been on the ground in Gaza since November 2023.
The level of destruction and number of casualties in Gaza is devastating. TGR’s Chad Thornson said, “Everywhere you turn there is evidence of death.” From the onset, the international community issued protests against what was happening in Gaza. In January 2024, as reports of indiscriminate attacks, water and starvation being used as weapons, and gross human rights abuses were made public, the International Court of Justice ruled that there was a real risk of genocide and ordered Israel to implement six provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has not done that. With each passing day, the situation in Gaza has worsened. There is nothing left in Gaza. No infrastructure left to bomb. Nothing left to eat. Nowhere safe to go.
Indiscriminate Attacks
In the initial days of the Israel-Hamas War, there was an explosion in the courtyard of the Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City that resulted in 471 deaths and 342 injuries. Eleven months later, Al Ahli is operating at 30 percent capacity. It is one of the few hospitals functioning in northern Gaza and serves more than a million people. Due to the instability of electricity, the hospital functions on 100 percent solar power, further limiting services. The hospital also provides safe shelter for tens of thousands of internally displaced Palestinians.
Al Shifa Hospital was the largest medical complex in Gaza City. The hospital came under siege by the IDF in November 2023. The IDF accused Al Shifa of protecting a Hamas command and control center in tunnels beneath the hospital. These accounts have been disproven by multiple sources. The initial assault was followed by a second assault in March 2024. Al Shifa was destroyed. In the aftermath of the siege, the bodies of hundreds of Palestinians were found around the hospital and in mass graves. Eyewitness accounts reveal the IDF shooting hospital staff, patients, and civilians seeking safe shelter from the war.
In less than eight days in July, Israeli forces destroyed five schools in Gaza, killing dozens of people sheltering in them. Israeli missiles struck the UN-run Abu Oreiban school in the Nuseirat refugee camp killing 17 and injuring 80, mostly women and children sheltering from the war.
The Al-Mawasi refugee camp near Khan Yunis is designated a “humanitarian safe zone” by the Israelis and supported by the UN. The camp is meant to shelter a half-million Palestinians. On 13 July, Israeli officials ordered Palestinians to evacuate to the safe zones, and in the light of day, the Israeli military conducted airstrikes on the refugee camp at Al-Mawasi, killing 90 Palestinians and injuring 300 more. Investigations revealed that Israel dropped eight 2,000-pound bombs on the camp; at least one of which was US-made. Eyewitness accounts said that following the air strikes, Israeli aircraft waited for the ambulance and civil defense teams to arrive, and then opened fire on them, killing emergency responders.
Six days ago, on 10 September, the Israeli military conducted another attack on Al-Mawasi in the middle of the night. According to eyewitness accounts, Israeli military planes hit the refugee camp with what appeared to be five missiles. The missiles left three large craters in the sand approximately 9 meters (30 feet) deep. Some 40 refugee tents were destroyed. Entire families disappeared into the sand. Families were digging in the sand trying to find their loved ones.
Eight months of Israeli bombardment in northern Gaza sent hundreds of thousands into Rafah, which became a refuge for more than half of Gaza’s population seeking safety. Then in May, the Israeli military began a ground invasion of Rafah, displacing more than 800,000 Palestinians, many returning to the decimated northern portion of the enclave, even though the IDF was still attacking that region, and continues to this day.
The international community is overwhelmed by the deaths occurring in Gaza as Israel continues to bomb schools, hospitals, and anywhere civilians are seeking shelter. Bombing a safe zone is incomprehensible. Leveling buildings with enthusiasm is a lack of conscience. Using the self-defense argument, Israel could literally kill everyone in Gaza under the excuse that it was targeting Hamas combatants. It is doing it with impunity.
No Safe Place
Neighborhoods all over Gaza have suffered throughout this war. Places that should be safe havens – safe from airstrikes, safe from ground invasion, safe to seek shelter from the fighting have been assaulted by airstrikes. Apartment buildings have been leveled, without warning the civilians inside.
How is dropping multiple 2,000-pound bombs on a refugee camp or a hospital, a “targeted strike”? How is the deliberate airstrike on humanitarian aid delivery, food delivery, and medical relief, an accident? It’s improbable, unless the intended target all along, was civilians. There is no safe place in Gaza. Not even the areas that international law says should be safe are safe.
At least ninety percent of Gaza’s 2.1 million people are displaced, living in makeshift tents or sheltering among the ruins, the vast majority have experienced multiple displacements. Disease and malnutrition are rampant. Hope is fading.
Water and Starvation as Weapons of War
In Gaza, water is being used as a weapon of war against the Palestinian civilian population. Water is a vital staple for human life. However, if it is not drinkable, it becomes a terrible transmitter of disease and death.
The only natural source of fresh water for Gazans is a coastal aquifer, a groundwater system where freshwater from land meets saltwater from the sea. However, over-pumping can result in saltwater pollution. Gazans have been forced to pump three times more water which has led to saltwater infiltrating the freshwater, making it undrinkable.
As a result, Gaza’s water supply has been reduced to 6%, creating a deadly health catastrophe. The whole population in Gaza now lives on an average of 4.7 liters (1.24 gallons) of water, per person, per day; well below the UN recommended minimum of 15-liter (3.96 gallons) during emergencies for drinking, cooking, cleaning, and bathing.
A lack of running water, overcrowded shelters, and the constant threat of disease have become targets for insects and rodents, creating a sanitation disaster. Deep concerns among humanitarians regarding the lack of basic hygiene items have left families unprotected from communicable diseases.
According to the Israeli PM, Israel has delivered clean water and 3,700 tons of humanitarian aid into Gaza and suggested that every man, woman, and child in the Strip had more than 3,000 calories per day, every day for the duration of the eleven-month war – rates that pre-date the conflict. The facts show a very different picture. Organizations such as the World Food Program, UNICEF, International Rescue Committee, World Food Kitchen, ICRC, TGR, and many others dispute the PM’s comments, reporting that a “full-blown famine” is occurring in Gaza.
Attacks on Humanitarians
Delivering aid to Gaza is a demanding journey, spanning many weeks to months including contracting vendors, scheduling, and route planning, up to final delivery. Every step of the process is meticulously planned, and permissions are necessary so that deliveries are not held up and the safety of all those on the delivery team is guaranteed. Navigating the numerous challenges as a result of Israel’s ongoing military offensive has been especially difficult. Immediately after the Rafah ground invasion began in May, aid delivery dropped nearly 84%. Now it is a trickle.
Since the start of the war, the UN has had to relocate its humanitarian aid hub twice. After Israeli forces invaded Rafah, the hub was relocated to Deir-el-Balah in central Gaza. However, on 17 August, the Israeli government launched an attack on Deir el Balah killing 34 civilians, including a family of 15. The UN had to close the aid hub.
But stopping aid operations is not an option in Gaza. More than two million people depend on receiving help – they will not survive without aid. More than 96% of women and infants from 6 to 23 months are acutely malnourished. Nearly the entire population of Gaza, some 2.15 million people fall into acute food insecurity. Famine is at a level 5 in Gaza. The people are starving to death.
The role of humanitarian workers is to alleviate the suffering of people in crisis. They are not combatants. International Humanitarian Law demands that humanitarian workers be allowed to continue their operations without the threat of military attack, or interference, and without the threat of displacement. All warring parties must take care to protect civilians and permit humanitarian access at all times.
In the eleven months of the war in Gaza, more than 280 humanitarian workers have been killed including 219 UN staff and seven World Central Kitchen staff. This is unprecedented and it is unacceptable.
We call on all governments to press upon all warring parties the demand for a permanent ceasefire, the immediate release of all hostages, and the parameters put in place for Palestinian self-determination. It is our deepest desire for Israelis and Palestinians to find a way to live side by side without terror and conflict.
Photo Credit: TGR Photo – Nuseirat camp 6 June 2024.
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