Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #87. Jan 8
HUMANITARIAN NEEDS AND RESPONSES: 3 January to 7 January
Health
Since the start of hostilities, Health Cluster partners have provided healthcare and medical services to an estimated 500,000 people.
The Health Cluster estimated that about 5,000 beds are required to meet trauma and emergency needs. A total of 59 out of 77 primary health centers are not functioning leaving many without access to basic health services.
Only 26 per cent of the requested medical supplies needs have been met and only 120 out of 353 formal and informal IDP shelters have access to medical points.
About 350,000 people with chronic illnesses and about 485,000 people with mental health disorders continue to experience disruptions in their treatments.
1.9 million IDPs remain at high risk of communicable disease due to poor living conditions, notably overcrowding of IDP sites and lack of access to proper water sanitation and hygiene facilities.
Read the full report: Hostilities in the Gaza Strip and Israel | Flash Update #87
Most people in Gaza are being pushed into an ever-smaller area. Nowhere and no one is safe. Photo by WHO
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)