Aid workers risk their lives to deliver food in Gaza: the need is “so great” – Day 189

Al Jazeera reports: The president and CEO of American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) says the organization has resumed operations in Gaza because the “needs were so great”.

ANERA ceased operations in Gaza after the killings of the World Central Kitchen aid workers last week.

“We’ve worked hard over the past week, 10 days, to get some assurances, which we feel we have gotten for really the protection of aid workers and humanitarian work that should be there all the time in a conflict,” Sean Carroll told Al Jazeera.

He added that reports of a UNICEF vehicle being targeted by an Israeli attack on Thursday triggered more concerns over whether it was safe to return to Gaza.

“The truth is, it’s not really safe to go back to work, but our staff wants to,” he said.

“We do believe that there are new measures in place. We’ve been told that there will be no attacks on humanitarian missions or workers or in the area of a humanitarian operation.”

NOTE: Recipients of aid are also risking their lives to eat. Thousands of aid trucks are reportedly waiting at the southern border of Gaza, where Israel has made it extremely difficult to pass, employing complicated and arbitrary procedures; when aid has gotten into Gaza, the people have many times been shot at as they tried to obtain food. Israeli forces have targeted trucks themselves and humanitarian aid staff.

Middle East Monitor reports: Waterborne diseases are spreading in Gaza due to the lack of clean water and rising temperatures, the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator in Gaza said on Friday.

“It is becoming very hot there,” Jamie McGoldrick told reporters via video link from Jerusalem. “People are getting much less water than they need and, as a result, there have been waterborne diseases due to lack of safe and clean water and the disruption of the sanitation systems.”

“We have to find a way in the months ahead of how we can have a better supply of water into the areas where people are currently crowded at the moment,” he said, after making his final visit to Gaza at the end of his three-month assignment.

Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to diseases such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery and hepatitis A, according to the World Health Organization.

Several journalists among those wounded in Israeli attack

CNN reports: Israeli forces surrounded and attacked the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza on Friday, wounding several journalists and at least one other person.

Turkish state broadcaster TRT accused Israeli tanks of launching a “targeted attack” on the journalists, including TRT Arabi cameraman Sami Shehada, who lost a leg, and correspondent Sami Barhoum, who suffered minor injuries. CNN stringer Mohammad Al-Sawalhi was also among those hurt.

The TRT statement called the assault “a deliberate attack against media professionals, marked clearly with ‘PRESS’ on their jackets” and said it was “part of a broader pattern of violence” against journalists in Gaza. As of Friday, at least 95 media workers have been killed covering the war, according to preliminary figures from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CNN video shows Shehada’s right leg was severed.

“We were filming in a safe place, I was wearing my flak jacket and my helmet — even the car I was in had a ‘PRESS’ and ‘TV’ sign marked on it. It was clear that I was a civilian and a journalist. We were targeted,” he told CNN from his operating bed.

UN assessment: Khan Younis is in shambles

OCHA reports: Khan Younis has become marred by profound destruction to homes, schools, hospitals, medical centers, roads and other civilian infrastructure, according to a UN inter-agency assessment mission to the area on 10 April that followed the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

A UN warehouse and Nasser Hospital warehouse were among the buildings found to be significantly damaged, including substantial amounts of medications and trauma supplies that had been provided as humanitarian assistance.

The hostilities have also rendered Nasser, Al Amal and Al Khair hospital non-functional, with assessments necessary to evaluate if specialized medical devices, CT scanners, oxygen plants, generators and solar panels are able to function again, according to WHO staff who described the destruction as “disproportionate to anything one can imagine.”

The UN team, comprised of representatives of OCHA, UNRWA, WHO, WFP, UNMAS and UNFPA, also reported that civilians who have returned to the area and those who stayed during the fighting are facing dire shortages of food, water and other critical supplies, collapsed services, and severe safety risks due to the presence of unexploded ordnance (UXOs), including 1,000-pound bombs found lying on main road intersections and inside schools.

MSF adds, many life-saving amputations might have been avoided and limbs saved with reconstructive surgery in Gaza if the health system were still functional in Gaza.

Hamas May Not Have Enough Living Hostages for Cease-Fire Deal

Wall Street Journal reports: Fears are rising over the fate of the remaining hostages held in Gaza after Hamas said it was unsure whether it could bring forth 40 Israeli civilian captives as part of a U.S.-backed cease-fire proposal, according to officials familiar with the negotiations.

The 40 hostages, including women, children, elderly men and those in fragile health, would be released under a U.S.-supported plan for a six-week cease-fire in the war in Gaza. In exchange, Israel would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.

Instead, the militant group has been unable to confirm that it has enough civilian hostages to fulfill its end of the deal in the initial phase of the proposed plan, complicating talks toward a possible cease-fire in the six-month-old war that has left much of Gaza in ruins.

A Hamas official said the group wouldn’t commit to releasing 40 living hostages but could commit to 40 hostages total, which could mean dead or alive.

Israel estimates about 34 captives have died, but the Journal reported on Thursday that some US officials believe that number should be more than twice as high, which could complicate efforts to reach a new ceasefire deal.

The New Arab adds: Negotiations for a ceasefire in Gaza have encountered hurdles following reports that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preventing a deal with Hamas, and that Hamas is unable to provide 40 hostages as part of said deal.

On Thursday, Israel’s Channel 12 News published a recording from a member of the Israeli negotiating team in Cairo who claimed that Netanyahu’s government is not doing enough to secure a deal.

“We experienced a lack of attention on the part of the Prime Minister to accept ideas and suggestions,” the negotiator said.

“The Israeli government is not doing everything, nor is it doing what is expected of it. There may be a deal in the end, but it is a worse deal than what we could have achieved two months ago and we will receive fewer hostages alive. We cannot waste any more time,” they added.

WAFA reports on a rash of attacks by illegal Israeli settlers in the West Bank, with at least 2 deaths

Here are summaries of some of the reports:

• • Several Palestinians were injured by gunfire and dozens of homes were set on fire Saturday in a large-scale attack by Israeli settler militias on the village of Duma, south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
  • A 14-year-old Palestinian child was shot and injured Saturday by an Israeli settler at the entrance of Beitin village, located northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to medical sources.
  • Six Palestinians were injured, one seriously, by live ammunition Saturday in yet another fresh attack launched by settler militias on the village of Al-Mughayyir, located northeast of Ramallah. Settlers also fired at the funeral procession of a Palestinian who was killed yesterday in an attack by settlers on the village. No injuries were reported.
  • A Palestinian man was killed Friday after Israeli forces opened gun fire at his vehicle in the city of Tubas. Another Palestinian, who was identified as Muhammad Shahmawi, was shot and killed from Israeli gunfire during their military incursion into the Al-Far’a camp, south of Tubas.
  • Israeli colonists Friday attacked Palestinians and their homes in the village of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah, after sneaking into the village and firing live bullets and tear gas canisters towards residents.
  • A Palestinian youth was shot dead and 18 others were injured Friday evening after they were attacked by armed colonists in the town of Al-Mughayir, northeast of Ramallah. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said that its crews dealt with 18 injury cases, one of them critical, in the village. A spokesperson said that at least 1,500 colonists, protected by the occupation army, burned around 40 residents’ homes and vehicles.
  • Five Palestinians were injured Friday night in a new attack by Israeli settlers on the village of Abu Falah, located northeast of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
  • Israeli occupation forces, alongside settler militias, raided the town of Duma south of Nablus, and began searching houses. They seized two houses and turned them into field investigation centers.

Ha’aretz reports on the alleged catalyst for the pogrom: The Israeli army found the body of a 14-year-old Israeli boy who went missing on Friday morning, after he went out to graze cattle in the West Bank.

The IDF, Shin Bet security service and the police reported that the victim, Binyamin Ahimeir of the Malachei HaShalom settlement in the Binyamin regional council, was killed in a terror attack and that a search for the perpetrators is underway. His body was found near Malachei HaShalom using a police drone.

Several [sic] settlers are reportedly burning houses and property in the Palestinian village of Duma, near where the boy’s body was found.

NOTE: Israel has illegally built around 280 settlements on Palestinian land in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are home to more than 700,000 illegal settlers. Israeli settlements and settlers on Palestinian land are a violation of international law. Settlers, moreover, have a history of violence against Palestinians, often with the assistance of Israeli military forces.

The settlement where Ahimeir lived is an unauthorized outpost, meaning even the Israeli government does not recognize it.