A recent report exposes the serious threat of a superbug epidemic in Gaza, due to Israeli-blockade shortages of sanitation supplies in hospitals, targeting of medical personnel and facilities, and water shortage and contamination. The epidemic would certainly spread beyond Gaza.
Israeli forces “have intentionally shot children. They have intentionally shot people with disabilities, they have intentionally shot journalists… We found that one person, a double amputee, was shot and killed as he sat in his wheelchair (see video). On two separate days, two people visibly walking on crutches, were shot in the head…”
Mohammed suffered a stroke, but Israel says he’s not ill enough for his son to get a travel permit to visit him. He needs care, but that is irrelevant. According to Israeli criteria, travel permits are only granted if first-degree relatives are dead or dying.
Ahmad was a boxing champion-in-the-making. Israel had refused to let him exit Gaza to participate in international competitions. Now Ahmed is wheelchair-bound after Israeli soldiers shot him with exploding bullets in both legs during Great March of Return protests.
45 children were killed in the Gaza Strip since March 30; in the overwhelming majority of cases, DCIP was able to confirm children did not present any imminent, mortal threat or threat of serious injury when killed by Israeli forces.
The report concludes Israeli forces and officials are responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity and other serious violations of international law for the killing of Palestinian child protesters in Gaza.
Operation Cast Lead (winter 2008-9) is emblematic of everything that is wrong with Israel’s approach to Gaza. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a political conflict to which there is no military solution. Yet Israel persists in shunning diplomacy and relying on brute military force – and not as a last resort but as a first resort.
Operation Cast Lead, the first of several incursions by Israel, killed 1,417 Palestinians and just 13 Israelis. Chillingly, the generals call their repeated bombardments ‘mowing the lawn’
For 3 years, Israel has been spraying dangerous herbicides into Gaza to destroy foliage and enable clear viewing of land near the border. (Think Agent Orange.) The destruction of crops and the health risks to farmers infringe on human rights and violate international law. Human rights groups are trying to end this practice.
For the 11th year, Gaza’s Christian minority celebrates Christmas under Israeli siege, unable to join family in West Bank. Travel requests are mostly denied or ignored from an occupying country that claims to promote freedom of religion and worship.
Palestinians in Gaza are dealing with more fallout from the blockade – and their protest against it. Now in addition to thousands of gunshot wounds from Israeli snipers, and their accompanying disabilities and amputations, many are at risk of infection. The healthcare sector is lacking in supplies thanks to import restrictions; patients can not go abroad for treatment thanks to visa restrictions.
One Israeli human rights org reports over 180 Palestinians killed (31 of them minors) and 21,000 injured.
After Israel has demonstrated for months that borders are sacred, its military has once again crossed into Gaza. In what it characterizes as an intelligence gathering operation that “encountered a very complex reality,” 1 Israeli soldier and 7 Palestinians were killed.
3 Israelis and at least 210 Palestinians have been killed in the latest asymmetrical confrontations.