Aid providers pulling out of Gaza, citing Israel’s failure to protect them (from itself) – Day 179

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Aid providers pulling out of Gaza, citing Israel’s failure to protect them (from itself) – Day 179
Palestinians at the site of a destroyed home from an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, March 22, 2024. (photo)

Israel makes humanitarian work deadly; airstrike on World Central Kitchen reportedly intentional; Palestinian doctors targeted; West Bank incarceration of Palestinians way up; Israel targets Al Jazeera News for closure; Gaza suffered about $18.5 billion in damages to critical infrastructure in the first four months of the Israeli bombardment; Islamophobia on the rise in US – tied to Gaza

By IAK staff, from reports

On Israel’s killing of 7 aid workers and subsequent suspension of aid operations in Gaza

World Central Kitchen aid workers killed by Israeli air strikes. (photo)

Israel refuses to work with UNRWA, the largest aid organization in Gaza; US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) – which works on projects around the world – has suspended operations after an Israeli airstrike killed a team of 7, including American citizen Jacob Flickinger; now additional critical sources of humanitarian relief are pulling out of Gaza.

Cyprus’ Foreign Ministry spokesman Theodoros Gotsis says 100 tons of aid were unloaded before World Central Kitchen suspended operations after seven of its workers were killed in an Israeli strike earlier today. About 240 tons of aid will be turned back.

Anera, the second largest humanitarian operation in Gaza after UNRWA, announced Tuesday: Following the targeted Israeli attack on a humanitarian aid convoy yesterday, resulting in the deaths of seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) workers, Anera is taking the unprecedented step of pausing its humanitarian operations in Gaza.

The killing of WCK humanitarians, occurring less than a month after the still-unexplained killing of Anera staff member Mousa Shawwa, alongside the loss of numerous other aid workers and their families, has led our team to conclude that delivering aid safely is no longer feasible. For the safety of our staff and their families, we are suspending Anera’s work in Gaza.

Since the onset of the war on October 7, Anera’s Gaza team has provided an average of 150,000 meals daily (in collaboration with WCK), millions of medical treatments, and thousands of other critical emergency aid items.

While we understand the severe consequences this suspension will have on the Palestinian population, the escalating risks associated with aid delivery leave us with no choice but to halt operations until our staff regain confidence that they can do their work without undue risk.

[As of March 21, the UN Human Rights Office reported: “To date, there have been 27 reported deaths of children due to malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza… The true death toll from starvation is likely to be significantly higher, and it is set to rise.”]

 

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ReliefWeb reports: In a stark assessment of the closure of 750-bed facility Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, the World Health Organization (WHO) maintained that aid teams had been waiting for “days and days” for Israeli permission to reach the stricken facility, where staff and patients endured “horrific levels of violence”.

WHO spokesperson Dr Margaret Harris said the group is ready to bring food, medicine, and fuel, and to assess needs post-siege for the hospital, but Israel has consistently denied access.

Before the recent conflict erupted, 0.8 per cent of children under the age of five were acutely malnourished. In the northern governorates today that figure is between 12.4 and 16.5 per cent, the WHO reported.

Reuters reports: The United Arab Emirates is pausing humanitarian aid efforts through a maritime corridor from Cyprus to Gaza pending further safety guarantees from Israel and a full investigation into the deaths of aid workers for the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza, a UAE official has told Reuters.

The UAE has financed the aid shipments by sea to Gaza and WCK has organized them.

Al Jazeera reports: Herzi Halevi, the chief of staff of Israel’s armed forces, said several air strikes on an aid convoy operated by World Central Kitchen, which killed seven aid workers, were a “grave mistake”.

He said that a preliminary review of the incident showed that the strikes were not carried out with the intention of killing aid workers but resulted from a “misidentification” of the vehicles in the aid convoy in complex conditions, at night.

An investigation by Al Jazeera, based on open-source information, witness testimonies and images from the site, found that the attacks were carried out intentionally.

Ha’aretz reports that, although the WCK vehicles were cleared to travel, and were well-marked, according to an unnamed source, military in charge of security for the route had allegedly “identified an armed man…and suspected that he was a terrorist.” The person of interest was not riding in the convoy of vehicles.

This indicates that Israel was willing to kill a group of civilians in order to take out a single alleged enemy combatant.

Mr. Jamie McGoldrick, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, commented on Israel’s killing of 7 WCK aid workers in what is apparently a targeted attack.

“This is not an isolated incident. As of 20 March, at least 196 humanitarians had been killed in the Occupied Palestinian Territory since October 2023. This is nearly three times the death toll recorded in any single conflict in a year.”

Healthcare in Gaza

The New Arab reports: The bodies of a prominent Palestinian medics have been found among the dead of the ruined remains of Al-Shifa Hospital, following Israel’s withdrawal on Monday.

Israeli forces engaged in two weeks of raids on Al-Shifa leaving the hospital completely destroyed and hundreds feared dead.

On Monday and Tuesday, Palestinians began to excavate some of the dead found in the hospital grounds with one of the bodies identified as doctor Ahmad Maqadmeh, a reconstructive surgeon and doctor.

His cousin’s body, Bassem al-Maqadmeh, was also found close to the site, following a two week Israeli raid and siege on the medical complex which left it in ruins, according to members of Gaza’s medical community.

Maqadameh, who is in his thirties, was found alongside the body of his mother, Yusra al-Maqadmeh, a general practitioner.

At least 340 healthcare workers have been killed in Israel’s assault on Gaza since the start of the war on 7 October, while many of the enclave’s hospitals and clinics have been destroyed or damaged.

West Bank news

The number of Palestinians detained by Israel has reportedly risen to 9,312. According to HaMoked, an Israeli rights group, the Israel Prisoner Service released its latest data on incarcerated Palestinians, which shows that 40 percent of those detained are being held in “administrative detention” without trial.

The organization said the number of Palestinians incarcerated has more than doubled since October 7 but administrative detentions “were on the rise long before that date”.

The data does not include laborers from the Gaza Strip and others who were in Israel lawfully with permits on the eve of October 7, following which, “Israel cancelled all permits and has held these people, reportedly numbering over 4,000 as of late October 2023, in Anatot and Ofer military camps,” HaMoked said.

NOTE: Israel is currently holding these 9,300+ Palestinian prisoners in inhumane conditions where many are systematically tortured – about 200 of them are children, 50 are women. The administrative detainees are being held without charge or trial. Administrative detention is intended to be used only in “exceptional” circumstances, but Israel uses it widely. Read more here.

IMEMC reports: On Wednesday dawn, Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian, Wahab Shbeita, 26, who reportedly injured four Israeli officers in a ramming and stabbing attack, north of Qalqilia, in the occupied West Bank.

After confirming his identity, dozens of police officers and Israeli Internal Security agent invaded his home and ransacked it.

His family said Wahab was recently diagnosed with a psychological disorder, and once they realized he left his home, they immediately called the [Israeli] police and provided them with his personal details and diagnoses, in addition to the license plates numbers of the car he was driving.

Veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Aqleh during one of her reports from Jerusalem. - Abu Aqleh, 51, a prominent figure in the channel's Arabic news service was shot dead by Israeli troops early on May 11, 2022 as she covered a raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.
Veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh during one of her reports from Jerusalem. – Abu Akleh, 51, a prominent figure in the channel’s Arabic news service was shot dead by Israeli troops early on May 11, 2022 as she covered an Israeli raid on Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank. (photo)

Freedom of the Press

WAFA reports: The Palestinian Prisoner Society (PPS) said that the Israeli occupation army has detained 66 male and female journalists since the start of the aggression against the Gaza Strip on October 7.

PPS confirmed that a total of 45 are now held in occupation jails.

It confirmed that the majority of detained journalists were subjected to severe beatings and torture, as were all those detained after October 7, and today they face all the unprecedented retaliatory measures imposed by the prison administration against them.

A total of 140 journalists have been killed after October 7, PPS added.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is calling for a “repeal” of the newly adopted Israeli law that paves the way for a ban on Al Jazeera and other foreign news networks.

In a statement, RSF said the new law “above all targets Al Jazeera”.

“Israel is using every possible method to try to silence Al Jazeera for its coverage of the reality of the fate of Palestinians” in the occupied West Bank and Gaza since October 7, Jonathan Dagher, the head of RSF’s Middle East desk, said.

The group said Israel has killed at least 103 journalists in Gaza – at least three worked for the Doha-based network.

“Israel already inflicted terrible losses on Al Jazeera before 7 October,” it added, referring to the killing of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in May 2022.

Palestinians stand on a rooftop overlooking the destruction in Rafah
Palestinians stand on a rooftop overlooking the destruction in Rafah (photo)

Damage assessment in Gaza

Reuters reports: The Gaza Strip suffered about $18.5 billion in damages to critical infrastructure in the first four months of the Israeli bombardment launched in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, according to a joint World Bank and the United Nations report released on Tuesday.

The interim damage assessment report, which received financial support from the European Union, estimates the damages are equivalent to 97% of the combined GDP of the West Bank and Gaza in 2022 and left 26 million tons of debris and rubble that would take years to remove.

“Catastrophic cumulative impacts on physical and mental health have hit women, children, the elderly, and persons with disabilities the hardest, with the youngest children anticipated to be facing life-long consequences to their development,” the World Bank said.

People inspect the site of an Israeli attack on a building in Rafah
People inspect the site of an Israeli attack on a building in Rafah (photo)

Islamophobia in the US linked to war on Gaza

Reuters reports: Reported discrimination and attacks against Muslims and Palestinians reached a record high in the U.S. in 2023, driven by rising Islamophobia and bias as the Israel-Gaza war raged late in the year, data from an advocacy group showed on Tuesday.

Complaints totaled 8,061 in 2023, a 56% rise from the year before and the highest since the Council on American-Islamic Relations began records nearly 30 years ago. About 3,600 of those incidents occurred from October to December, CAIR said.

CAIR’s report said 2023 saw a “resurgence of anti-Muslim hate” after the first ever recorded annual drop in complaints in 2022. In the first nine months of 2023, such incidents averaged around 500 a month before jumping to nearly 1,200 a month in the last quarter.

“The primary force behind this wave of heightened Islamophobia was the escalation of violence in Israel and Palestine in October 2023,” the report said.

[Many news reports and talk radio hosts repeat false claims of supposed Hamas atrocities even though they have been found to be untrue.]

A man carries children wounded in Israeli bombardment at al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah
A man carries children wounded in Israeli bombardment at al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah (photo)

More news

Middle East Monitor: Palestinian doctor walks out of White House iftar, as community boycotts annual event
+972 Magazine: Even without a UN veto, Gaza remains hostage to American power
Al Jazeera: World recoils following Israeli attack on aid convoy
Middle East Eye (Jonathan Cook): War on Gaza: We were lied into genocide. Al Jazeera has shown us how 
IMEMC News Reports

STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – APRIL 2:

Palestinian death toll from October 7 – April 2: at least 33,711* (33,248 in Gaza* (14,280 children, 9,340 women), and at least 465 in the West Bank (117 children). This does not include an estimated 7,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 41,496 Palestinian deaths.

At least 41 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 14 from West Bank)

At least 31 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**

About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.

About 2.2 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are facing Crisis, Emergency, or Catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Palestinian injuries from October 7 – April 2: at least 80,092 (including at least 75,092 in Gaza and 5,000 in the West Bank).

It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.

Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – April 2: ~1,407 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~574 were civilians, 373 or 337 were security and/or military forces, ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 255 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza;, 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.

NBC reports: “According to the latest available IDF data… nearly 1 in 5, or 17%, of all Israel’s losses have come not at the hands of Hamas but from mishaps on its own side.”

NOTE: It is unknown at this time how many of the deaths and injuries in Israel on October 7 were caused by Israeli soldiers.

*Previously, IAK did not include 471 Gazans killed in the Al Ahli hospital blast since the source of the projectile was being disputed. However, given that much evidence points to Israel as the culprit, Israel had previously bombed the hospital and has attacked many others, Israel is prohibiting outside experts from investigating the scene, and since the UN and other agencies are including the deaths from the attack in their cumulative totals, if Americans knew is now also doing so.

**Euro-Med Monitor reports that Gaza’s elderly are dying at an alarmingly high rate. The majority die at home and are buried either close to their residences or in makeshift graves dispersed across the Strip. There are currently more than 140 such cemeteries. Additionally, according to Euromed, thousands have died from starvation, malnourishment, and inadequate medical care; these are considered indirect victims as they were not registered in hospitals. 

Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.

For more news, go here and here. Broadcast news from the region is here.

Hover over each bar for exact numbers.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
 

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