Save the Children: Gaza’s children suffer “complete psychological destruction” – Day 158

Save the Children discusses what youth in Gaza are going through, what it means for their future; more aid-seekers killed, this time at an UNRWA warehouse; food reaches northern Gaza at last; sea corridor won’t make much of a splash; assassination of bike rider in Gaza; what about the 5,000 people in Gaza who have acquired disabilities from injury over the past five months?; at least 5 killed in West Bank; 8 US senators send a letter to Biden, demanding an ultimatum: expand aid to Gaza or lose US military assistance; advocacy for Palestinian rights faces silencing on UPenn and Columbia campuses; more

By IAK staff, from reports

STATE OF CHILDREN IN GAZA – Save the Children reports: Five months of violence, displacement, starvation and disease on top of nearly 17 years of a blockade have caused relentless mental harm to children in Gaza. Parents and caregivers told the child rights organization that children’s capacity to even imagine a future without war has virtually disappeared.

The emotional distress of dodging bombs and bullets, losing loved ones, being forced to flee through streets littered with debris and corpses, and waking up every morning not knowing if they will be able to eat has also left parents and caregivers increasingly unable to cope. The support, services and tools they need to care for their children are further and further out of reach.

One mother said, I wouldn’t even say that their mental health has deteriorated – it’s been obliterated. Complete psychological destruction.”

(The full report is available here.)

BREAKING: GAZA AID-SEEKERS – Al Jazeera reports: Palestinian journalists have shared footage documenting people bringing in victims of an Israeli bombing in central Rafah to the Kuwaiti Hospital.

The journalists say an UNRWA aid distribution centre was shelled in Rafah City. The footage, which has been verified by Al Jazeera, shows people being evacuated in vehicles bearing the UNRWA logo.

At least 4 were killed.

 

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NORTHERN GAZA – The UN World Food Program (WFP) says it delivered food for 25,000 Palestinians to Gaza City. WFP says it was the first successful delivery since February 20.

RICHARD SILVERSTEIN ON THE SEA CORRIDOR – Middle East Eye reports: Biden’s maritime corridor plan will not circumvent Israeli obstacles, with the White House noting that the Israelis “have worked very closely with the Cypriots now for months to establish the mechanism in Larnaca port that will be essential”. Israeli officials will inspect the cargo in the Cypriot port before it is shipped to Gaza.

In Gaza, the cargo will be offloaded to a pier constructed by the US Army. It will then be handed off to humanitarian agencies for distribution to starving Palestinians. But the Israeli army, which controls the Gaza shoreline, could again interfere at this juncture.

When a journalist asked a Pentagon official how the US could guarantee that Israel would not sabotage the aid plan, he replied: “Our focus is on delivering the aid. I’m not going to speak for the Israelis.” Not the most reassuring response.

Daily distribution via the sea route would reportedly max out at around 200 truckloads of aid, less than half the amount necessary; before the war, Gaza’s population received around 500 truckloads a day. While dozens more truckloads of aid can be expected via Jordan and Egypt, the total will still fall short of Gaza’s aid requirements.

Previously, a civilian project to take aid to Gaza by boat, originated by activists Greta Berlin and Paul Larudee, had resulted in multiple humanitarian flotillas attempting to deliver aid to Gaza.

Israeli forces attacked them, killing 9 people on one of the boats, including an American citizen, 19.

ASSASSINATION IN GAZA – New York Times reports: Social media for the Israeli military presents drone footage showing two people walking down a road in Gaza, when they are suddenly blasted by an Israeli strike, their forms disappearing in the flash of an explosion. The caption: “elimination of terrorists.” One person is labeled as holding a rocket-propelled grenade.

The person actually held a bicycle, the military acknowledged on Monday in response to questions from The New York Times. Euro-Med Monitor first discovered the fact.

“When the video was published, the bicycle carried by one of them was mistakenly marked as a rocket launcher…the I.D.F. regrets the marking error.”

Despite the error in identifying the bicycle as a weapon, the I.D.F. stood by its claim that the people targeted were combatants.

“During the several days leading up to the documented strike, armed terrorists used the route shown in the video in order to transfer ammunition and attack I.D.F. forces,” the statement said. “The strike took place after real-time identification of the people as armed terrorists, based on information gathered ahead of the strike.”

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DISABILITIES IN GAZA – OCHA reports: Some 5,000 people in Gaza who have acquired disabilities from injury over the past five months are among the vulnerable groups worst affected by hostilities, according to a new assessment by Atfaluna Society for Deaf Children, which identified the most urgent community needs of persons with disabilities (PwDs) and their families.

The assessment finds that PwDs in Gaza, particularly women and children, suffer from a lack of accessibility in non-inclusive shelters, potential exploitation, insufficient medical services, and neglect of their needs. This is leading to social isolation and a deterioration in their mental health such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder.

The report provides recommendations to address the needs of PwDs, including the provision of assistive devices, psychosocial interventions, and improving accessibility measures in displacement shelters, among others. (Read the report here.)

WEST BANK DEATHS – Palestine Chronicle reports: At least five Palestinians have been killed across the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem as Israeli forces continue to intensify their military raids.

Israeli reportedly forces stormed the grounds of a Jenin hospital, opening fire at a group of civilians who were standing in front of the emergency department, killing one and seriously injuring several.

A Palestinian youth was shot and killed by Israeli occupation forces on Wednesday near the military checkpoint of Al-Nafaq, west of the city of  Beit Jala, in Bethlehem. The Israeli military claimed that he had attempted to carry out a stabbing attack. Eyewitnesses said he was denied first aid and left to bleed to death.

A Palestinian youth, as well as a 16-year-old child, were killed, and three others injured, after Israeli forces opened fire on them near the town of Al-Jib, northwest of Jerusalem.

Earlier on Tuesday evening, a 13-year-old boy, identified as Rami Hamdan al-Halhuli, was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Shuafat refugee camp in occupied East Jerusalem. Israeli occupation forces claimed he had fired fireworks at them.

REGARDING THE 13-YEAR-OLD PALESTINIAN KILLED – Ha’aretz reports: The Israeli Border Police officer who shot and killed a 13-year-old Palestinian youth on Tuesday in the Shuafat refugee camp in northern Jerusalem, was summoned for questioning by the Justice Ministry department that investigates police misconduct.

On Tuesday evening, Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir commented on the incident on X, formerly Twitter, saying, “I stand behind the Border Police officers who are risking their lives in front of dozens of Arab rioters in Shuafat,” and adding that he “salutes the fighter who killed the terrorist who attempted to shoot fireworks at him and the forces.”

Later, Ben Gvir also declared that the officer “deserves an award” for his actions and should not be interrogated.

US CONGRESS – Al Jazeera reports: Eight United States senators have sent a letter to President Joe Biden calling on him to offer Israel an ultimatum: expand aid to Gaza or lose US military assistance.

“The United States should not provide military assistance to any country that interferes with US humanitarian assistance,” the senators said in their letter.

“Federal law is clear, and given the urgency of the crisis in Gaza and the repeated refusal of Prime Minister Netanyahu to address US concerns on this issue, immediate action is necessary to secure a change in policy by his government.”

US CAMPUS SILENCING – The Daily Pennsylvanian reports: A group of UPenn professors filed a lawsuit against the University, alleging a pattern of “McCarthyism” for preventing speech in opposition to Israel and seeking to stop the University from submitting documents to Congress.

The lawsuit was filed on March 9, alleging that efforts to investigate the University over alleged antisemitism on campus have threatened professors’ academic freedom.

“This nation is seeing a new form of McCarthyism, in which accusations of anti-Semitism are substituted for the insinuations of Communist leanings which were the tool of oppression in the 1950’s,” the complaint reads.

The claim alleges that Penn is “privileging, protecting, and endorsing” pro-Israel speech over pro-Palestinian speech in the University’s academic community. The complaint contends that the term “antisemitism” has been used “in egregious ontological error, to chill, punish, and end virtually all moral, political, legal, and other criticism of the nation-state Israel.”

US CAMPUS SILENCING – NYCLU reports: The New York Civil Liberties Union and Palestine Legal – two legal rights groups in the United States – have filed a lawsuit against Columbia University “for the unlawful suspension of its chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) for engaging in peaceful protest”.

“These student groups were peacefully speaking out on a critical global conflict, only to have Columbia ignore their own rules and suspend the groups. This is retaliatory and targeted, and it flies in the face of the free speech principles that universities should be defending,” NYCLU says in a statement.

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