Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel Flash Update #86. Jan 7

On 7 January, staff from the World Health Organization (WHO) and OCHA visited the Al Aqsa Hospital, the only functioning hospital in the governorate of Deir al Balah in central Gaza. According to the hospital director, because of increasing hostilities and ongoing evacuation orders, most of the local health workers and about 600 patients have been forced to leave the facility to unknown locations. Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) stated that their emergency medical team had been forced to cease life-saving and other critical activities at the hospital and leave the facility, as a result of increasing Israeli military activity. According to a post from the WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, his staff witnessed “sickening scenes of people of all ages being treated on blood-streaked floors and in chaotic corridors.” The hospital reported immense needs, notably health workers, medical supplies, beds and the need to be protected from strikes and hostilities. The WHO team delivered medical supplies to support 4,500 patients needing dialysis for three months and 500 patients requiring trauma care. “Al Aqsa is the most important hospital remaining in Gaza’s Middle Area and must remain functional, and protected, to deliver its lifesaving services,” Dr. Ghebreyesus stated. “Further erosion of its functionality cannot be permitted – doing so in the face of such trauma, injury and humanitarian suffering would be a moral and medical outrage.” 

read the full report: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #86

Most people in Gaza are being pushed into an ever-smaller area. Nowhere and no one is safe. Photo by WHO

ZAKA is not a trustworthy source for allegations of sexual violence on October 7

Many of the reports in Israeli and international media networks — including CNN, the BBC, the New York Times, and many others — that accuse Palestinians of committing systematic wide-scale gender-based violence against Israeli women on October 7, 2023, rely on testimonies by Israeli ZAKA volunteers.

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The testimonies provided by ZAKA’s members — all men, most of whom are volunteers — on sexual violence on October 7 are based on their interpretation of what they claim to have seen on bodies they collected after the attack. Not only do these men lack the professional qualifications to make such assessments (they are not medical experts), but their testimonies also lack details: no age, no location, and no time. Details and/or evidence have not even been given to journalists who have asked to see them while reporting on these testimonies. This means that it is impossible to either confirm or debunk them. 

Since October 7, ZAKA has been playing a key role in Israel’s orchestrated propaganda campaign, spreading fake news and vague information in the service of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Looking closely into ZAKA reveals that the organization and its volunteers lack credibility. In fact, a significant part of their testimonies has been proven to be comprised of fabrications. 

read the full article: ZAKA is not a trustworthy source for allegations of sexual violence on October 7

VOLUNTEERS FROM ZAKA IN KIBBUTZ BE’ERI, OCTOBER 12, 2023. (PHOTO: AVI OHAYON/ISRAEL NATIONAL PHOTO COLLECTION)

Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #85. Jan 5

According to UNICEF, cases of diarrhea in children under five years of age rose from 48,000 to 71,000 in just one week starting 17 December. This is equivalent to 3,200 new cases of diarrhea per day. Before the escalation in hostilities, an average of 2,000 cases of diarrhea in children under five were recorded per month. It has been reported that displaced children and adults are unable to maintain the necessary hygiene levels, with some resorting to open defecation. The inability to prevent diseases is attributed to the lack of safe water and sanitation due to damaged or destroyed essential water and sanitation systems in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, UNRWA reported that diaper supplies are not sufficient, as they cover only 25 per cent of the babies in shelters. 

On 5 January, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, stated that “the humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent... medical facilities are under relentless attacks while they  are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.” 

read the full report: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #85

About 90 per cent of children under two in Gaza are consuming two or fewer food groups, a UNICEF survey has found. One in every four pregnant or breastfeeding women consumed only one food group the day before the survey. The risk of famine is increasing every day. Photo by UNRWA