Video report by David Sincock in Gaza for DW News. 30 March 2020.
Palestine Chronicle, 29 March 2020
Israeli forces on Thursday entered a Palestinian village in the northern Jordan Valley to confiscate materials designated to build a clinic to deal with the novel coronavirus outbreak.
Officials from the Israeli Civil Administration came to the village of Khirbet Ibziq with a military escort, bulldozer and two trucks equipped with cranes on Thursday morning to demolish community clinic and emergency housing, according to Israeli human rights monitor Btselem.
The group reported that Israeli officials seized poles and sheeting designated to form eight tents, two for a field clinic, two for a mosque, and four for emergency housing for people evacuated from their homes.
A power generator, as well as supplies of sand, cement and cinder blocks to be used for the floor of the tents, were also confiscated.
Btselem said the villagers were building a first-aid community initiative to deal with the Covid-19 crisis which has paralyzed large parts of the southern West Bank. There are 91 confirmed cases so far in the Palestinian territories, with one death reported on Wednesday
The Jordan Valley covers an area of about 1.6 million dunams (1,600 km2) and constitutes around 30 percent of the total occupied West Bank. According to a previous government report, the Valley includes about 280,000 dunams of arable land, 50,000 of which are still used by Palestinians and 27,000 by illegal Jewish settlers
The majority of the Jordan Valley is under full Israeli military control, despite being within the West Bank. Meanwhile, at least 44 percent of the total land in the Jordan Valley has been reappropriated by Israeli forces for military purposes and training exercises.
(Palestine Chronicle, Al-Arabi Al-Jadeed, Social Media)
Days Of Palestine, Gaza Strip, 28 March 2020
Despite coronavirus pandemic, the Israeli occupation forces continue its crimes against the Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the besieged Gaza Strip.
Days Of Palestine reporter said that the Israeli warplanes attacked a Palestinian resistance post in the north of the besieged Gaza Strip [earlier today].
The Ministry of Health reported no injures.
While the whole world is busy trying fight the coronavirus pandemic, Israeli occupation continues its crimes against Palestinians as today a Palestinian was injured by Israeli occupation forces during the weekly protest against Israeli settlement construction, which takes place every week in the village of Kafr Qaddum in the occupied West Bank.
Freedom Flotilla Coalition statement, 27 March, 2020
In light of global health restrictions on travel and public gatherings, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition has decided to delay our planned departure towards Gaza.
We had initially planned to visit several southern European ports in April and May of this year, and head for Gaza at the end of May, to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Israeli attack on the Mavi Marmara and other Freedom Flotilla vessels in 2010, that killed 10 peace activists. We will of course stand with our IHH partners as they commemorate those deaths and press for justice at the International Criminal Court.
With the help of supporters like you, we recently purchased a boat for this year’s voyage. We will still need more donations to help equip this boat with vital safety, communications and other materials, as well as to buy fuel and other supplies for our next challenge to the inhuman and illegal blockade of Gaza.
Visit our updated website for updates about this boat and our preparations over the coming months. We will decide when our next voyage will begin based on ongoing reviews of public health conditions worldwide and in the ports we are planning to visit.
Here is a link to our new website: https://freedomflotilla.org/news/coalition-statements/freedom-flotilla-will-sail-against-the-blockade-of-gaza-later-than-planned/
The Covid-19 pandemic has created new challenges for our Coalition members in each of our countries, especially as our grassroots civil society organizations depend on public support. We also know that conditions in Gaza are immeasurably more difficult, and that Palestinians there are particularly vulnerable now that the first Covid-19 cases have arrived there. The crowded conditions in Gaza, with a healthcare system which is already stretched, and extremely limited access to outside medical aid, all mean that we must keep the Palestinian people of Gaza in mind as we adapt to new realities worldwide.
We join organizations like the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights in Gaza in calling on the international community and the World Health Organization to pressure Israeli authorities to allow entry of medical supplies and equipment necessary for Corona virus medical examination. While access to international medical aid will be vital to surviving the current crisis, we know that the only lasting peaceful solution for Gaza will be a permanent end to the 13 year blockade, with full freedom of movement for all Palestinians.
Ultimately, we must hold our governments responsible: their political complicity allows Israel to maintain the blockade of Gaza and prevent Palestinian refugees from exercising their right of return to their homeland. Your ongoing support is greatly appreciated: please do what you can to stay healthy and engaged with solidarity campaigns. Together we can help end the blockade.
In solidarity,
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition
[Kia Ora Gaza is a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition]
By Ramzy Baroud, Politics for the People, 26 March 2020
The Middle East, battered by wars and their related humanitarian crises, which have left millions of people stateless, hungry and diseased, is in urgent need of peace, security and reconstruction. However, thanks to US, Russian, French, Israeli and other weapons manufacturers, it is now a dumping ground for military hardware — an ominous sign for the years ahead.
Data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) this month painted a grim picture of the world in general and the Middle East in particular. According to the report, the demand for weapons in this warring region increased by a whopping 61 percent between 2015 and 2019.
Video report by Friends of Palestine, 26 March 2020
There are reports that the number of coronavirus cases in Gaza has increased to 9 after the discovery of 7 new cases today. All are in quarantine at the Rafah crossing.
Palestine Chronicle, 25 March 2020
A Palestinian worker exhibiting coronavirus symptoms was found dumped by Israeli authorities at the Beit Sira checkpoint that connects Israel and the occupied West Bank.
Footage recorded by 25-year-old Ibrahim Abu Safiya, who found him “dumped like trash,” has gone viral on social media.
The video [above – published by Middle East Eye today] shows the Palestinian laborer who works in Israel lying near the checkpoint, causing people to express their outrage over the treatment of the worker [and] widespread a condemnation of inhumane Israeli treatment of this Palestinian worker.
The worker was later picked up by Palestinian health workers and rushed to the National Hospital of Nablus where his COVID-19 test was negative, reported Wafa News Agency.
Despite his shock at seeing a sick man being “left to die” at a checkpoint, Abu Safiya said he wasn’t surprised by the incident.
In response, Palestinian government spokesman Ibrahim Milhem today in his daily briefing condemned the “the racist and inhumane” treatment of the Israeli authorities and employers when dealing with its Palestinian workers.
[Article slightly abridged. Ed]
VIDEO REPORT on the construction of a field hospital in Gaza to quarantine coronavirus patients. Two cases are under quarantine at Rafah. [By VOA 25 March 2020.]
Posted by PCHR, Gaza, 25 March 2020
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) follows up with concern the healthcare situation in the Gaza Strip and seriously warns of a catastrophic deterioration that would strike the health care sector in the case of a Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. PCHR is concerned over the healthcare system’s inability to respond to the needs of patients if an outbreak occurs.
According to PCHR’s follow-up, the healthcare facilities in Gaza are already on the verge of collapse due to the Israeli- imposed closure on the Gaza Strip for the last 13 years, exacerbated by the repercussions of the Palestinian internal division and political bickering. All of this has caused a fragile healthcare system in the Gaza Strip, a perpetual shortage of essential drugs and medical devices and insufficient number of specialized health professionals; rendering the system unable to meet the basic medical needs of the Gaza Strip population in normal times.
According to the Ministry of Health (MOH) in Gaza, the Israeli closure barred MOH from importing new medical devices or spare parts for malfunctioning ones. The crisis of medical devices shortage imposes a major obstacle for the development and sustainability of the Gaza hospitals and medical centers in a manner that would be proportional to the population’s health needs. In a statement published on 21 March 2020, MOH announced its urgent need for respirators, intensive care units and equipment, medicines, medical consumables and protective gear to prepare it to combat Coronavirus. MOH’s appeal came after the Israeli authorities allowed the entry of limited quantities of medical supplies into the Gaza Strip on 18 March 2020, including equipment for diagnosing those infected with the Coronavirus, hundreds of protective gowns and goggles for the protection of medical personnel, upon a request Submitted by the World Health Organization (WHO).
MOH in Gaza announced the first 2 cases of Coronavirus in the Gaza Strip after a total of 118 people were tested (116 of them tested negative for the novel Coronavirus.) Moreover, 1399 persons were forced into quarantine, distributed on 22 quarantine centers across the Gaza Strip while 1969 are placed under home quarantine.[1]
On 19 March 2020, Michael Lynk, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, said in a statement that he is worried about the potential impact of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) on the Gaza Strip population. He added that the Gaza health care system was collapsing even before the pandemic, because its stocks of essential drugs are chronically low and its natural sources of drinkable water are largely contaminated. He explained that Gaza’s population is also a physically more vulnerable population due to the malnutrition, deteriorating living conditions and high population density. Lynk warned that the possible widespread outbreak of the novel Coronavirus in the besieged Gaza Strip will exacerbate pressures on medical personnel[2].
Furthermore, on 21 March 2020, Mr. Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, said in a statement that there can be frightening consequences of Coronavirus in Gaza Strip due to the high population density and limited health facilities. He added that “we are very concerned about the situation in Gaza Strip, it is a complicated area due to the long-term closure and the imposed-Israeli restrictions that could worsen the situation.” McGoldrick also believed that the outbreak of Coronavirus in the Gaza Strip would turn it into “an incubator, especially when people get stuck in a densely populated area where health system suffers from the lack of funding, medical resources and equipment”[3].
In light of the fear of a health sector collapse in the Gaza Strip and the foreseeable inability of the healthcare system to deal with patients in the case of a Coronavirus spreads, PCHR:
– Stresses that the primary responsibility for providing medical supplies to the Gaza Strip population lies with Israel and it must take all necessary preventive measures available to combat the spread of infectious diseases in accordance with Articles 55 and 56 of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949.
–Calls upon the international community and WHO to put pressure on Israel and compel it to comply with its obligations, and to allow the entry of medical supplies and equipment necessary for Coronavirus medical examination.
– Calls upon the international community and humanitarian organizations to provide assistance to the health system in the Gaza Strip, including medical supplies to Gaza Hospitals, in order to combat the spread of Coronavirus.
– Stresses the need for coordination between MOH in Gaza and Ramallah to combat the spread of Coronavirus.
————————————————
[1] To review MOH’s full report issued on 23 March 2020, visits the following link:https://www.moh.gov.ps/portal/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Corona-23-03-4.pdf
[2] For the full statement issued on 19 March 2020, see the UN News website: https://news.un.org/ar/story/2020/03/1051642
[3] For the full interview published on 21 March 2020, see the UN News website: https://news.un.org/ar/story/2020/03/1051802
By Raed Shakshak, We Are Not Numbers, Gaza, 23 March 2020.
It was almost 1 a.m. when I read the news that Gaza had identified its first two coronavirus cases. My heart beat rapidly and fear flushed like ice water through my body. I continued to read but my eyes teared up and everything looked blurred, like a gauzy curtain had suddenly dropped down. I attempted to blink the tears out of my eyes and continue reading.
Those two people had returned to Gaza from Pakistan. And although all travelers have immediately been quarantined, no one here trusts that this has kept the infection contained. The virus is official in Gaza, where our hospitals are already short on vital medicine and equipment, people are crowded in like sardines (we have been banned from traveling for 14 years!), and cleanliness is difficult when water supplies are contaminated and garbage collection doesn’t exist. I searched for evidence that would allow me to label the reports as “fake news,” but I knew the source was verified.
I froze, flashing back to a recent conversation. I was riding in a taxi and the driver remarked on how much his passenger load had already declined with just the fear of virus hanging over the Strip. He was almost in tears when he told me that he had kids and if he doesn’t work every day, he won’t be able to feed them. The same is true for my older siblings; a curfew is coming, like in the West Bank, and their simple work will come to a stop. That’s the case for the majority of people in this place; they have no savings. And due to the 14-year Israeli blockade, our government won’t be able to afford the massive stimulus the U.S. and European governments are planning. Will they step in to help us? I very much doubt it. They’re all stretched and we’ve never been a priority.
Here I am, up at al-Fajr prayer time, which is at 4-5 a.m. I am over-thinking and freaking out in silence. I am unleashing my stress via writing, but that’s not the real reason I’m up. I’m up because I want to tell Dad to not go to the mosque for the al-Fajr prayer. I want him to pray at home because I instinctively assume it’s safer. Dad has major faith in God, so he went out anyway and assured me everything will be all right. I believe in God, too, but I wouldn’t go to public places, even mosques, at this time. When Dad returned, I felt soothed in spite of the fact that I have no evidence the virus is in my neighborhood. The virus infects the mind as well as the body, stealing away our sense of safety–always in short supply in Gaza.
Because this virus has been slow to come to Gaza while it spread around the world, people here felt more secure. We had high hopes we wouldn’t have to deal with the virus because of the blockade–an ironic “silver lining” to this humanitarian outrage. There was even talk on social media about the “benefits” of the siege, which I found sort of shocking. Yes, the blockade helped prevent COVID-19 from invading Gaza for days and weeks, but realistically, it was just a matter of time. And this blockade is the reason hundreds and maybe thousands of people here have died because they couldn’t get access to proper medical treatment. My own mother has suffered severe pain from trigeminal neuralgia, and while treatments are available elsewhere that could bring her relief, she has no access here. She has told me so many times that she’d rather just die.
The blockade also is the reason hundreds of Palestinian youths have lost arms and legs in the Great Return March–punished by snipers for protesting their imprisonment. It is the reason why hundreds of extraordinary students lost opportunities to study at foreign colleges and universities because they could not travel. It is the reason why talented Palestinian athletes and artists cannot participate in international workshops and competitions. And it’s the reason why our economy is so sick our unemployment rate is the highest in the world (70% among youths). It’s insane how the “novel coronavirus” has gotten people to be grateful to live under oppression!
Until the identification of the first two cases, many Gazans made fun of those who feared the coronavirus. They didn’t take it seriously and mocked those who did. Some believed the scare was just an illusion, a political game some countries were playing for economic reasons. I was even a bit like that. When a quarantine center was set up in the hotel across from my home, just a few meters away, I laughed carelessly. But now I won’t open the windows or spend any time in the neighborhood.
Maybe the reason Palestinians in Gaza first reacted this way because we have been “numbed” by war. Real danger is an Israeli F-16 warplane striking a building in a civilian neighborhood and killing tens of citizens, we think.
An Argentinian friend texted me earlier (before the two cases were found) to warn about the virus. She told me to buy canned food and cleaning materials, and to stay home. I explained to her I already lived through three wars, so I know how to survive. I understood, on one level, that the coronavirus is not any less dangerous than Israeli forces. But we weren’t yet in “war mode.” People hadn’t saved food yet. They still went out, parties still happened and weddings still took place. Now, none of that will remain the same.
I understand that it’s hard to stay home for days, weeks or months. My mother’s illness prevents her from leaving her room most of the year. She has had to adapt, so must everyone else.
I do not mean to be negative, but I need to speak the truth. The Israeli blockade of Gaza may have protected it temporarily, but now it will prevent us from caring properly for our people. More people will get infected, and Gaza will morph once again from the “world’s safest spot” to the world’s latest hot spot for coronavirus cases and deaths. Scary numbers will be published as ignorance and poverty push people to take risks and thus get infected. A storm is heading here (maybe it already is) and insecurity is taking over.
And once the world finds a vaccine for the virus, Gaza will be the last to get it.
See more at: https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/Story/COVID19_comes_to_Gaza
We Are Not Numbers, GAZA, 22 March 2020. Today marks World Water Day and the water crisis in the Gaza Strip goes from bad to worse day after day. Since 2007, Gaza has been under the Israeli blockade which has devastated all sources of life including water. Statistics inform that 97% of Gaza’s water is undrinkable which threatens public health. Imagine how serious the situation is with #coronavirus too!
BREAKING NEWS FROM GAZA:
The Ministry of Health in #Gaza has just revealed that the first two #coronavirus cases were reported in the Strip for two men who came back from Pakistan last Thursday.
So now the safest place on earth is not anymore, and civilians started to freak out since it would be hard to contain the virus. May God protect us. [We Are Not Numbers. Gaza, 22 March 2020]
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has initiated the following combined letter and petition to our Prime Minister. Please sign the petition and share now. Ed
Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister
Parliament Buildings
Wellington
Email j.ardern@ministers.govt.nz
Kia ora Ms Ardern,
COVID-19 AND GAZA
The more than two million people living in the blockaded Gaza strip in Palestine are being left to face the Coronavirus with hopelessly inadequate medical facilities and extreme overcrowding – conditions in which the virus will spread rapidly and devastatingly unless action is taken now.
The usual medical and public policy advice to Palestinians cannot hope to deal with this terrifying scenario. Health officials warn that if the virus enters Gaza, containment and treatment under the Israeli blockade will be nearly impossible.
Gaza’s hospitals are already unable to cope with “normal” medical situations. In March last year the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Mr. Jamie McGoldrick, reported on Gaza’s “chronic power outages, gaps in critical services, including mental health and psychosocial support, and shortages of essential medicines and supplies.”
In similar vein the Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem has reported that, even before coronavirus, Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals are dealing with the fallout from thousands of injuries which have resulted from murderous Israeli sniper fire on demonstrators in the ”Great March of Return” protests on the Gaza side of the security fence.
97% of all Gaza’s water is not fit to drink and Gazan hospitals don’t have enough clean water even for medical staff to wash safely. Simply calling on people to wash their hands regularly and keep social distances is a recipe for an unmitigated human catastrophe.
The situation is little better in the occupied Palestinian territories of the West Bank where, as a result of Israeli’s brutal military occupation, medical facilities are also inadequate with serious shortages of basic medical equipment, trained personnel and essential medical supplies.
The looming human catastrophe is clear. When medically well supplied countries like Italy and South Korea have struggled to contain the virus there is no way the hospitals in Gaza or the occupied Palestinian territories will be able to cope.
Each year New Zealand votes at the United Nations for the end of Israel’s military occupation of the West Bank and blockade of Gaza.
It’s now critical for the government to back up those votes with effective political action. We urge you to put the welfare of Palestinians alongside concern for New Zealanders and speak out calling for Israel to end its blockade of Gaza and military occupation of the Palestinian territories and allow Palestinians to access the medical supplies and equipment they need to deal with this crisis.
John Minto
National Chair
Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA)
Jeremy Rose, Marilyn Garson and Fred Albert
Members of Sh’ma Koleinu – Alternative Jewish Voices
(Marilyn worked in Gaza 2011 to 2015)
Cardinal John Dew
Catholic Archbishop of Wellington
Philip Richardson
Bishop, Diocese of Waikato and Taranaki
Archbishop and Primate
Anglican Church of Aotearoa, New Zealand and Polynesia
Anjum Rahman
Islamic Women’s Council of New Zealand
Julie Webb-Pullman
(Julie has lived and worked in Gaza since 2008 – currently visiting New Zealand)
Roger Fowler
Kia ora Gaza
Mike Treen
National Director Unite Union
Convenor Global Peace and Justice Aotearoa
Syd Keepa
Maori Vice-President of the Council of Trade Unions
Annette Sykes
Maori human rights lawyer
Janfrie Wakim
Spokesperson Palestine Human Rights Campaign
Leslie and Marian Bravery
Authors of “In Occupied Palestine”
Kevin McBride
Pax Christi
Megan Hutching
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Jim Consedine
NZ Catholic Workers Movement
SIGN AND SHARE THE PSNA PETITION: https://www.psna.nz/petition
Middle East Monitor, 19 March 2020
The Head of the Popular Committee against the Israeli Siege on Gaza said on Tuesday that the 17th anniversary of Rachel Corrie’s death should be an incentive for global solidarity with Palestine. Jamal Al-Khodari MP told journalists that Corrie, who was killed by an Israeli armoured bulldozer in Gaza on 16 March 2003, is one of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for the Palestinian cause.
Al-Khodari’s remarks came in the wake of the global coronavirus crisis which has affected the scale of solidarity with the Palestinians and their cause as they remain under effective lockdown enforced by the Israeli siege and occupation. US citizen Corrie was killed by an Israeli soldier when she was trying to prevent the bulldozer that he was driving from demolishing a Palestinian home in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“The world must listen to Corrie’s voice which still resonates around the world,” said the MP. He stressed that fact that the 23-year-old solidarity activist challenged the Israeli occupation forces in order to protect a Palestinian family from becoming homeless.
“We hope to see popular, institutional and parliamentarian moves having a tangible impact at the official level,” he added. “Such efforts must lead to real pressure on the Israeli government in order to end its siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. We will never forget Rachel Corrie and her sacrifice to achieve justice and protect the Palestinians”
On the 17th anniversary of her murder, Al-Khodari hailed Corrie and her family, and called for international solidarity movements to intensify their efforts to save the Gaza Strip from the deteriorating humanitarian and economic crises which engulf it. The territory has been under an Israeli-led siege for 14 years, during which time Israel has launched three major military offensives against the largely civilian population.
Palestinian hospitals have chronic power outages, gaps in critical services, and shortages of essential medicines and supplies [Image: AFP]
By Ramzy Baroud, Special to Gulf News , 18 March 2020
Steps taken by the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank to stop the spread of the COVID-19 disease, caused by the Coronavirus, give the impression that Palestine is able to function like any other sovereign country desperately fighting to preserve the well-being of its own people.
Sadly, however, Palestine remains the exception, as the PA operates fully under a cruel Israeli military occupation that has no regard, whatsoever, for the lives of the Palestinian people. This matters in the case of the COVID-19 as it does in every aspect of Palestinian life.
Indeed, for Palestinians, fighting an outbreak of the Coronavirus is not a straightforward matter, even if the dysfunctional PA facilities follow the instructions of the World Health Organisation (WHO) to the letter.
Gaza’s hospitals are as dysfunctional as ever, Gaza’s water is as dirty as ever and, despite repeated warnings, the Strip is still unfit for human habitation, thanks to the brutal Israeli siege and the silence of the international community
Palestinians are separated by an Israeli matrix of control that has excluded many communities behind large cement walls, military checkpoints, and impossible-to-navigate army ordinances that are inherently designed to weaken the Palestinian community and ease the Israeli government’s mission of controlling Palestinians and colonising their land.
Welfare of Palestinians
That in mind, what can the PA do to come to the aid of tens of thousands of Palestinians in so-called ‘Area C’ of the occupied West Bank? This region is entirely under the control of the Israeli army which has little interest in the welfare of the Palestinian inhabitants there.
Following several steps taken by the PA to curtail the devastating impact of the Coronavirus which first struck in the city of Bethlehem, the Israeli government and military are operating entirely independent from any Palestinian decision.
On March 8, Israeli Defense Minister, Naftali Bennett, announced that he is mulling over a decision to completely seal off the occupied territories to stop the spread of the virus. A few days later, the Israeli army reportedly allowed groups of armed illegal Jewish settlers into the Sebastia archeological site in the northern West Bank, despite the fact that the PA had already decided to close off all tourist sites to fight the deadly outbreak.
What is the use of the PA Ministry of Health’s “state of emergency” if the Israeli occupation gives itself the right to override any Palestinian decision? This question becomes even more troubling when considered within the context of what WHO refers to as “health inequalities” among Palestinians, on the one hand, and between Palestinians and privileged illegal Jewish settlers, on the other.
In some way, many Palestinian communities are already ‘quarantined’ by Israel, but for political, not medical reasons. An outbreak of the coronavirus in some of these communities, especially the ones that are cut off from proper health care and well-equipped medical facilities, would prove disastrous.
Hermetic siege
The worst of fates, however, awaits Gaza, should the deadly and fast-spreading virus find its way through the hermetic siege, which engulfs this minuscule and densely populated region. Gaza, which is enduring its 12th year of Israeli siege and is still reeling under the massive destruction of several Israeli wars, has already been declared “uninhabitable” by the United Nations.
However, the misery of Gaza never ceases to unfold. Not a single UN report on Gaza’s ailing medical facilities or preparedness for at least the last ten years has used any positive or even hopeful language.
Last March, UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jamie McGoldrick, bemoaned Gaza’s “chronic power outages, gaps in critical services, including mental health and psychosocial support, and shortages of essential medicines and supplies.”
BBC video report from Gaza, 19 March 2020
In January, the Israeli rights group, B’Tselem, spoke of an unprecedented health crisis in besieged Gaza, one that is not fuelled by the Coronavirus or any other such epidemics but by the fact that Gaza’s barely functioning hospitals are desperately trying to deal with the fallout of the thousands of injuries resulting from the ‘Great March of Return’ which has taken place on the Gaza side of the dividing fence.
This is only a small part of a much more multifaceted crisis. Not only measles is and other highly contagious infectious diseases finding their way back to Gaza, but waterborne diseases are also spreading at an alarming rate.
97% of all of Gaza’s water is not fit for human consumption, according to the WHO. “Even when it is available, doctors and nurses are unable to sterilise their hands because of the water quality,” according to the RAND Corporation.
All previous reports on Gaza by WHO, while accurately detailing the problem, did little to diagnose its roots or to fashion a permanent solution to it. Indeed, Gaza’s hospitals are as dysfunctional as ever, Gaza’s water is as dirty as ever and, despite repeated warnings, the Strip is still unfit for human habitation, thanks to the brutal Israeli siege and the silence of the international community.
The truth is that no amount of ‘preparedness’ in Gaza — or, frankly, anywhere in occupied Palestine — can stop the spread of the coronavirus. What is needed is a fundamental and structural change that would emancipate the Palestinian health care system from the horrific impact of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli government’s policies of perpetual siege and politically-imposed ‘quarantines’ — also known as apartheid.
— Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta)
Ed: See also – Ramzy Baroud’s earlier post on this website: https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/coronavirus-in-gaza-a-terrifying-prospect/
Now everyone might consider how Gaza feels. [Cartoon by Dr. Alaa Al-Laqta of Gaza]
By Ahmed Abbes, Opinion, Mondoweiss, 19 March 2020
Who could have imagined just a few days ago that Europeans would be confined to their homes and become persona non grata all over the world? It is as if the blockade of Gaza has come to us, even if the situation there is incomparably more dramatic.
I should have been in Tunis Saturday March 14 to participate in the closing ceremony of Israeli Apartheid Week. I had invited the Palestinian researcher and documentalist Tarek Barki to give a lecture entitled “We Were and Still Are.. Here” which tells the past and the present of the ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages refuting the Zionist formula “a land without people… ” But by the end of the previous week, disturbing news about the spread of the Coronavirus in Europe, the Middle East and North Africa was starting to accumulate. Death in my soul, I resolved, Monday, March 9, with my friends, to postpone this long-awaited lecture to a later date. Since then, bad news has continued to pour in at an infernal rate.
Two days later, one of my colleagues sent me an article explaining that the coronavirus is coming at an exponential speed: gradually, then suddenly. The author presented and analyzed the curves of the evolution of the epidemic in the world, which left no doubt. Up to a few days delay, these exponential curves seem almost identical for at least three regions: Wuhan in China, Italy and France. Martin Hirsch, Director General of Public Assistance-Hospitals of Paris (AP-HP), declared in Le Monde on Saturday March 14 that “in the memory of professionals, the AP-HP was not confronted with a phenomenon of such a scale with such speed and such high complexity. I would even say such violence.”
In one day there are 368 new deaths in Italy, and the Italian healthcare system is visibly starting to collapse. The American President suspends Europeans’ entry to the United States, saying, “Europe is the new China.” The French president decreed general confinement in France. “We are at war… [T]he enemy is there, invisible, elusive, advancing. And that requires our general mobilization.”
The African continent, which at first seemed spared by the epidemic, is also facing a crisis. Yesterday, there were hundreds of new cases from Egypt to Morocco to South Africa and across the Maghreb schools are closed.
Confined to my home in the Parisian suburbs, trying to focus my attention on my mathematical research, I find myself regularly consulting the news that confirms the exponential spread of the epidemic in the world. I worry about my relatives and my friends and the countries that cannot afford to cope with this disaster. I am struck by the vulnerability of the opulent western way of life. Can the savage capitalism that dominates the world and enslaves the overwhelming majority of human beings for the benefit of a tiny minority survive this crisis? The virus at this stage seems to ignore borders and to treat everyone equally. Leaders of the world’s greatest powers have been infected. But the situation could change over time and poor countries, particularly African countries, could suffer more than others.
All of a sudden, memories of the 2014 Israeli war against Gaza come back to me vividly. I see myself again during the months of July and August of this year, locked up at home to follow and relay the evolution of the situation described by the UN and NGO officials present on the spot as “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.” According to the UN, 2,189 Palestinians died including at least 1,486 civilians, among them 269 women. At least 538 Palestinian children were killed in Gaza: 341 boys and 197 girls, between one week and 17 years of age. Sixty-eight percent of them were 12 years of age or younger. At least 142 Palestinian families lost three or more members in the same attack. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, 11,100 Palestinians, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were injured.
Half a million Palestinians were displaced inside the Gaza Strip, representing 28% of the population. Subjected to incessant bombardment despite the announced truces, Gazans did not in fact have any truly safe place to protect themselves because among the UN buildings (including 84 schools) intended in principle to serve as a refuge, some were the targets of the Israeli army. The UN has estimated that around 20,000 homes were destroyed or severely damaged during the Israeli attacks. The sole power plant was destroyed by Israeli bombardment, which shut down the water supply system, and a dozen hospitals were damaged.
How can I not think of the hospitals in Gaza overwhelmed by the wounded arriving in waves at the rhythm of the Israeli bombardments when I see the images of hospitals in Wuhan, Lombardy and Veneto overtaken by the epidemic of Coronavirus or when I read the interview with Martin Hirsch, director general of the AP-HP, in Le Monde on Saturday March 14? To the question “have you considered an Italian scenario, where doctors are forced to prioritize among the patients to be treated?”, he replied, “there are no such instructions given to caregivers. We are working to avoid having to do what we could call `war ethics’;” the latter is a common practice in Gaza. But at least electricity is not and will not be cut in hospitals in China, Italy and France, and doctors have no shortage of stethoscopes, unlike their colleagues in Gaza.
Unicef, Unesco and Save the Children report that half a million children were unable to return to school by the start of the school year on August 24, 2014 as almost all of the schools are inaccessible. In fact, 213 schools were destroyed or damaged by the bombing of the Israeli army and 103 were transformed into shelters for displaced residents.
How can I not think of the children of Gaza when I think of the French, Italian and Tunisian children confined to their homes and deprived of school right now? But they at least are not likely to have the roofs of their houses falling on their heads like the Samouni family who lost 49 of their own in what humanitarian organizations consider a “deliberate war
crime.”
Who can forget the moment when Chris Gunness, spokesperson for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for the Palestinian Refugees, succumbed to emotion during a live interview with Al Jazeera? [See link below. Ed] He was interviewed about an attack on a UN school shelter in which at least 15 people, most of them women and children, were killed. Gunness said: “What is happening in Gaza, especially for children, is an affront to the humanity of all of us.”
How can I not think of the residents of Gaza who are prisoners of an inhuman blockade that has lasted for more than 13 years when I find myself confined to my home, forbidden to leave my house except for 5 reasons set by the government and provided that I have a certificate? But in Europe at least, we don’t have snipers to enforce this ban.
As misfortunes add up, on Monday March 16th, there were 39 Coronavirus patients in the West Bank and no infections have yet been reported in Gaza. But it is estimated that the number of confirmed cases will increase considerably. Two patients were hospitalized in solitary confinement in the West Bank after their return from Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, but none currently show symptoms of the virus. In addition, 1,400 residents of Gaza are under house quarantine. If the epidemic spreads, Gaza’s medical staff and hospitals will not be able to cope. In order to treat patients with coronavirus, Gaza will have to use equipment that is prohibited from entering by Israel.
So, today more than ever, we are all Palestinians and Gaza is coming to us!
Ahmed Abbes, mathematician, research director in Paris, secretary of the French Association of Academics for Respect for International Law in Palestine (AURDIP) and coordinator of the Tunisian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (TACBI).
VIDEO REPORT: Gaza prepares for potential coronavirus outbreak [AlJazeera, 18 March 2020]
Al Jazeera’s Sara Khairat reports today that Palestinian territory of Gaza yet to report any coronavirus infections – unlike the occupied West Bank, where number of cases now stands at 39, but Gaza is preparing for the worst.
By Tareq Hajjaj, Gaza, Middle East Eye, 18 March 2020
While no cases of COVID-19 have been reported, authorities worry that the virus could have a devastating impact on the blockaded enclave
Palestinian volunteers spray disinfectant in al-Shati refugee camp in Gaza City on 16 March 2020, during a campaign to stem a novel coronavirus outbreak (AFP)
Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of the novel coronavirus spreading across the world.
But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario.
As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus – officially known as COVID-19 – has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with some joking that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.
But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned.
“If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand,” Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible to handle an outbreak.
“We do not have enough intensive care units, personnel or quarantine areas,” he added.
Gaza’s health ministry has repeatedly warned of a shortage of medicines and medical supplies.
The Gaza Ministry of Health has put in place a few new policies to prevent the virus from entering the territory.
Meanwhile, Interior Ministry spokesperson Iyad al-Bozom said in a statement that 51 people who arrived in Gaza on Sunday were being held in quarantine for public safety.
Anyone returning to the Palestinian territory from abroad is now required to enter into self-quarantine or, if returning from a high-risk country, will be taken to a quarantine centre in Rafah, near the border crossing with Egypt.
With help from the World Health Organisation (WHO), the health ministry turned a school in Rafah into the centre, complete with an intensive care unit with 36 beds for infected people and 30 other beds for patients with any mild symptoms, according to Thuhair.
The ministry of health has reported a 45 percent shortage of medical supplies in Gaza since the start of the Israeli blockade.
Thuhair explained that while the WHO was providing some supplies to doctors in Gaza in anticipation of coronavirus cases, it was not enough to deal with a potential outbreak.
“[WHO] offers devices to collect samples, but not to examine it,” he said. “Israel, on the other hand, supplies Gaza with materials that only suffice to collect 200 samples… The samples are then examined at one of the Health Ministry-affiliated centers at al-Remal Center in west of Gaza.”
The possibility of COVID-19 entering Gaza has reportedly become a source of concern even for Israeli forces.
‘Like throwing a gas canister inside a closed room’
According to Haaretz, should the disease hit the Palestinian territory, the situation would bring back to the fore Israel’s responsibility as an occupying power, as outlined under international law, to care for Palestinians in both Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
For the second week in a row, all schools and universities in Gaza had suspended classes, with the Ministry of Education instead launching online programmes for students to continue their studies.
‘If the virus enters Gaza, it will be like throwing a gas canister inside a closed room’
– Iman Hamed, Gaza resident
Public concern is extremely high, as Palestinians in Gaza already face a serious pollution crisis, with more than 90 percent of the enclave’s water undrinkable and the United Nations having previously warned that it would become unlivable by 2020.
“What if we stay home and get infected by the tap water?” Iman Hamed, a housewife and mother of six, told MEE. “If the virus enters Gaza, it will be like throwing a gas canister inside a closed room – everyone inside will breathe it.”
Haned added that while “infection does not necessarily mean death everywhere, in Gaza it could be – medical resources are very scarce”.
She is afraid and believes that the best way to protect her children is to keep them at home until the situation is clearer.
“I will lose faith in everything if one of my kids got infected and no one could help them, only because we are in Gaza, the besieged place,” she said.
[Ed: Also see our earlier post: https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2020/03/04/coronavirus-in-gaza-a-terrifying-prospect/ ]
VIDEO: The situation is horrific’: Palestinians face coronavirus threat at crowded West Bank checkpoints
By Ahmad Al-Bazz, West Bank, Mondoweiss, 18 March 2020
Every morning, thousands of West Bank Palestinian workers commute to their workplaces in Israeli and Palestinian towns beyond the Green Line via Israeli military checkpoints. Workers, who have to obtain military permits to cross, usually lineup in crowded, narrow metal-barred lanes at Israeli checkpoints before dawn. Due to the coronavirus spread, Palestinians are highly concerned about this daily journey. At the time of publishing this video, 39 Palestinians and 255 Israelis citizens are reported to have been infected by the coronavirus. Video: Ahmad Al-Bazz. Ahmad Al-Bazz, born in 1993, is a multi-award winning journalist, photographer and documentary filmmaker based in the West Bank city of Nablus.
[Ed: There are no known cases of coronavirus in Gaza to date – for updated reports, see our post about Gaza’s preparations for a potential coronavirus outbreak: https://kiaoragaza.wordpress.com/2020/03/18/gaza-prepares-for-potential-coronavirus-outbreak/
By َQudsN in Occupied Palestine, 8 March, 2020
The occupation state is holding 43 Palestinian women in its jails, according to a statement issued by the Palestinian Prisoners Club to mark Women’s Day.
Shorouq Dwayyat from east Jerusalem and Shatila Abu Ayyad from the land occupied in 1948 have the highest jail sentence among female prisoners, as they both serve jail times of 16 years for each.
The prisoners include 16 mothers, some of them are mothers of martyrs, whose children were killed by the Israelis.
Four female prisoners are arrested under administrative detention and 8 were wounded during their arrest. The oldest-serving female prisoner is Amal Taqatqa from Bethlehem. She was arrested on December 1, 2014, and serves a 7-year sentence.
The Prisoners Club said in a statement, issued on Saturday marking the International Women’s Day, that the first female prisoner in Palestine was Fatima Barnawi from Jerusalem, who was arrested in 1967 and sentenced for a lifetime, but she was freed in 1977.
The statement added that the occupation state has arrested over 16,000 Palestinian women since 1967.
It also stated that female prisoners are being subjected to torture. The Israeli torture starts from the moment they get arrested from their houses until interrogation sessions and being jailed.
Reports by human rights organizations and witnesses confirm that female prisoners get shot during their arrest. They are also subjected to strip searches, Shabeh, sleep deprivation, blackmail, denial of lawyers and family visits, beating, and punitive measures against their families.
Palestine Chronicle 8 March 2020: “The struggle of Palestinian prisoners epitomizes the struggle of all Palestinians,” wrote Palestinian journalist and editor of The Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud.
“Their imprisonment is a stark representation of the collective imprisonment of the Palestinian people — those living under occupation and apartheid in the West Bank and those under occupation and siege in Gaza,” Baroud added.
Palestinians evacuate a wounded demonstrator during a protest at the fence separating Gaza from Israel. (Photo: File)
By Palestine Chronicle Staff, 7 March, 2020
A report published in the Israeli daily newspaper, Haaretz on Friday revealed harrowing details of the military protocol followed by Israeli army snipers who have killed over 300 Palestinian protesters and wounded thousands more at the fence separating besieged Gaza from Israel.
The report, written by Israeli journalist Hilo Glazer included testimonies of six Israeli snipers who took part in the ongoing army violence targeting peaceful protesters in Gaza, who, starting in March 2018, gathered at the fence demanding an end to the Israeli siege.
‘Eden’, a fictitious name for one of the soldiers, spoke about breaking a record that made him stand out among his fellow soldiers.
“Eden says he broke the ‘knee record’ in the demonstration that took place on the day the new US Embassy in Jerusalem was inaugurated on May 14, 2018”.
Eden said:
“On that day, our pair had the largest number of hits, 42 in all. My locator wasn’t supposed to shoot, but I gave him a break, because we were getting close to the end of our stint, and he didn’t have knees. In the end you want to leave with the feeling that you did something, that you weren’t a sniper during exercises only. So, after I had a few hits, I suggested to him that we switch. He got around 28 knees there, I’d say.”
Another soldier told Haaretz:
“There was a Palestinian who looked like he was about 20, who didn’t stop moving around. Pink shirt, grey pants. What they do is run-run-run, and then end up in the concertina wire. He was really good at it. In that situation you can finish him off or hit someone behind him. I clearly remember being worried about missing his leg – and then feeling relief (sic) that I made a precise hit.”
Referring to the shooting of Palestinian minors, Eden said:
“Sometimes it really is hard to tell the difference (between minors and adults). You look at facial features, height, body mass. Clothing is also a certain index. The younger ones are usually wearing T-shirts. But listen, a 16-year-old can cause you harm, too. If he presents a threat, the age parameter is not necessarily relevant.”
When, after 16 months of protests, the Israeli army allegedly decided to alter its guidelines for snipers and asked them to aim at the ankle to avoid an even higher number of fatalities, Israeli snipers weren’t happy.
“There was a stage when the order really was to aim at the ankle,” Eden said. “I didn’t like that change. Believe in your snipers. To me, it felt like they were trying to make our life harder for no reason.”
Another soldier, Amir: “A terrorist who deserves to die is standing opposite me, but because we have to justify ourselves to Haaretz or to the BBC, he gets out of it without a scratch. Cowardice is created that trickles down.”
“I believe I was on the right side and that I did the right thing,” he insisted, “because if not for us, the terrorists would try to cross the fence. It’s obvious to you that there is a reason that you’re there.”
“Not that we didn’t have enough evidence to indict the Israeli army and government for ordering and executing this kind of human rights violations and war crimes,” Palestinian writer and editor of the Palestine Chronicle, Ramzy Baroud said, “but now we have damning evidence published in Israel’s own media that should be more than enough to put many of these criminals behind bars.”
“The bloodbath that has taken place at the fence of a besieged and war-fatigued Gaza should be the center of the ICC’s investigation of Israeli war crimes,” Baroud said referring to the decision by the International Criminal Court Chief, Fatou Bensouda on December 20, 2019, to investigate alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Aside from the hundreds of dead and thousands of wounded, hundreds of Palestinians in Gaza have been maimed for life.
’42 Knees in One Day’: Israeli Snipers Open Up About Shooting Gaza Protesters
Israeli snipers at the Gaza containment fence. Credit: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
VIDEO REPORT by Middle East Eye, 6 March 2020
Almost 97% of water in the Gaza Strip is undrinkable. Experts say Israeli policies and wars are to blame, and warn the water crisis will have detrimental effects on public health, especially on the most vulnerable segment of society: the children.
Produced and translated by Rakan Abed El Rahman.
Middle East Eye Website: https://middleeasteye.net
In 2020 the Freedom Flotilla Coalition is organising another international peace flotilla to challenge Isreal's illegal 12 year naval blockade of Gaza and for a just future for Palestine. For updates visit the website and facebook: jfp.freedomflotilla.org You can support NZ participation in this project by checking the options in the 'How to donate to Kia Ora Gaza' segment below. Appeal target: $40,000 to cover costs of our share of the purchase and upgrade of the flotilla boats, airfares and accommodation for our NZ participant.
Roger Fowler teaching Kiwi-English at Al Aqsa University, Gaza City.
In June 2012, Kia Ora Gaza sent a four-person team to Gaza as part of an international aid convoy. Our Kiwi convoyers were (from left) Roger Fowler, Tali Williams, Gibran Janif and Hone Fowler. This land convoy, which left from Cairo, delivered ten tonnes of urgently needed medical supplies to health authorities in Gaza. In November 2012 Kia Ora Gaza sent Roger Fowler on a fact-finding mission to Gaza (see his reports posted Nov-Dec 2012 on this website). UK documentary-maker Harry Fear joined Roger on a speaking tour of NZ on his return.
In November 2010, six volunteers from Kia Ora Gaza joined an international land convoy which delivered NZ$7 million in medical aid to Gaza. The convoy, which left from London and was joined by other columns from North Africa and the Middle East, arrived at night in Gaza City to a rapturous welcome from Palestinian throngs.
Miko Peled's book 'The General's Son' can be purchased for $25 (+$4 postage). Limited copies of the new second edition are now available - includes an updated epilogue. Each copy is signed by the author.
"The Prisoners' Diaries', co-translated by Yousef Aljamal, is available for $15 (+$4 postage).
Tee shirts are also available for $30 each plus postage.
Robyn Hughes, a former Auckland Regional councillor, chairs Kia Ora Gaza's public foundation meeting in Auckland on 7 July 2010. Flanking her are (right) Steve Phillips, official representative of Ngati Whatua, and Grant Morgan, former chair of Kia Ora Gaza. The meeting agreed unanimously on Kia Ora Gaza's three aims: (1) deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, (2) help to break Israel's siege of Gaza, and (3) co-operate with others who have similar aims.
