Near zero medical services reportedly in Gaza City; malnutrition and cancer deaths, risks to lives of babies – all as aid trucks sit at the border; Gaza death toll likely far larger than reported; released Palestinian prisoners found dead; Israel reportedly allows shooting free-for-all; accusations that Netanyahu is actively thwarting ceasefire deal; more.
Palestinian Red Crescent says all its medical points in Gaza City out of service
Andalou Agency reports: The Palestinian Red Crescent Society on Tuesday said all its medical points in Gaza City went out of service under the Israeli evacuation orders to many areas of the city.
In a statement, it said all its medical points and emergency clinics in the Gaza Governorate came out of service “due to the Israeli occupation’s forcible evacuation measures in various areas of the (Gaza) governorate where these medical points and clinics are located.”
Early on Tuesday, the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City also said they were forced by the Israeli army to close it after its vicinity came under Israeli fire.
The hospital management said all patients and displaced people were forced to leave the hospital, putting them at risk amid Israeli attacks.
The Israeli army carried out a series of airstrikes in the vicinity of the hospital making it impossible for the people to reach it again.
On Monday, the Israeli army ordered the residents in several neighborhoods across Gaza City to flee their areas as the Israeli army raided several areas in eastern and southern Gaza City.
The Israeli army has deliberately and systematically targeted most of Gaza’s hospitals in the course of its military operations across the enclave, rendering most of them out of service.
A powerful interview with an American pediatrician currently on the ground in Gaza.
I pray for these doctors every day. Their strength and courage is nothing short of amazing.
The interview volleys between heartbreaking and infuriating as Dr. Ahmad chokes up describing the… pic.twitter.com/beCaKQTh3z
— Mel (@Villgecrazylady) July 7, 2024
Doctors Without Borders describes medical crisis
OCHA reports: In its most recent humanitarian update, OCHA gave a snapshot of one hospital in Gaza: On 5 July, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) reported that its teams at Nasser Medical Complex were “running on emergency medical stocks” and all departments were overwhelmed by patients, far exceeding available bed capacity.
For instance, while the pediatric department has 56 beds, 100 patients were received on 3 July alone, forcing children to lie on the floor in the absence of mattresses.
The MSF nurse activity manager described the situation as nearing breaking point, with patients in the corridors, lying on blankets and sitting on stairs, and health workers being forced to place nails on the walls to hang the intravenous fluid and medication bags that patients need.
MSF also warned that the Nasser Medical Complex is the main site on which field hospitals rely to sterilize their equipment and, should the facility be left without electricity, several field hospitals would also cease functioning.
According to the NGO, it has been unable to bring any medical supplies into Gaza since the end of April, including most recently on 3 July when trucks carrying MSF medical aid were denied entry into the Strip by the Israeli authorities due to ongoing hostilities.
‘I’m bored, so I shoot’: The Israeli army’s approval of free-for-all violence in Gaza
+972 Magazine reports: In early June, Al Jazeera aired a series of disturbing videos revealing what it described as “summary executions”: Israeli soldiers shooting dead several Palestinians walking near the coastal road in the Gaza Strip, on three separate occasions. In each case, the Palestinians appeared unarmed and did not pose any imminent threat to the soldiers.
Such footage is rare, due to the severe constraints faced by journalists in the besieged enclave and the constant danger to their lives. But these executions, which did not appear to have any security rationale, are consistent with the testimonies of six Israeli soldiers who spoke to +972 Magazine and Local Call following their release from active duty in Gaza in recent months.
Corroborating the testimonies of Palestinian eyewitnesses and doctors throughout the war, the soldiers described being authorized to open fire on Palestinians virtually at will, including civilians.
The six sources — all except one of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity — recounted how Israeli soldiers routinely executed Palestinian civilians simply because they entered an area that the military defined as a “no-go zone.” The testimonies paint a picture of a landscape littered with civilian corpses, which are left to rot or be eaten by stray animals; the army only hides them from view ahead of the arrival of international aid convoys, so that “images of people in advanced stages of decay don’t come out.”
Two of the soldiers also testified to a systematic policy of setting Palestinian homes on fire after occupying them.
Several sources described how the ability to shoot without restrictions gave soldiers a way to blow off steam or relieve the dullness of their daily routine. “People want to experience the event [fully],” S., a reservist who served in northern Gaza, recalled. “I personally fired a few bullets for no reason, into the sea or at the sidewalk or an abandoned building. They report it as ‘normal fire,’ which is a codename for ‘I’m bored, so I shoot.’”
(Read the full article here.)
Total Gaza death toll may be vastly higher than reported
A paper published in the prestigious Lancet medical journal, reports that the total number of deaths in Gaza resulting from the Israeli assault that began on October 8, 2023 is likely far higher than is being reported when all the indirect deaths caused by such things as “destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population’s inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip” are included.
Below are extrapolations based on the paper’s statistics. [More information on indirect deaths is here.]
The paper reports: “In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths.”
Applying that to the reported number of deaths (37,396 as of June 19, 2024) translates to a range of 149,584 to 598,336 total deaths. Using the paper’s 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2,375,259, that translates to a range of well over 6.3% to 25.2% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
The range of total deaths may be even higher. The paper states that the reported number of deaths is an undercount, since it does not include an estimated 10,000 or more additional bodies under the rubble of destroyed homes.
While the Lancet report does not elaborate on the potential statistics from this, extrapolating from an estimated figure of 47,396 direct deaths translates to a range of 189,584 to 758,336 total deaths. That translates to a range of well over 8% to 32% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.
The paper points out that the number of deaths resulting from the Israeli assault will grow even larger in ensuing years:
“Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases.”
Injured Palestinians forced to evacuate al-Ahli Hospital
Andalou Agency reports: Medical staff at al-Ahli Arab Hospital in Gaza City have reportedly evacuated injured Palestinians from the facility after the Israeli military ordered residents of the city’s several eastern neighborhoods to flee their homes.
A medical source said the injured were taken to other hospitals in northern areas of the enclave, and that Israeli quadcopter drones were heavily present around the hospital, firing at civilians and prompting the medical teams to evacuate the hospital.
Lack of treatment killed 436 cancer patients in Gaza since October 7: Source
A medical source has told Al Jazeera that 436 cancer patients have died due to the lack of treatment since October 7.
Six-year-old child dies of malnutrition in Gaza
WAFA reports: Medical sources announced the death of a six-year-old child due to starvation and dehydration, bringing the number of victims of malnutrition in the Gaza Strip to 41.
The same sources said that a child from Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip has died due to malnutrition, dehydration, and a lack of medical supplies at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Babies at Nasser Hospital could die due to fuel crisis: Report
Al Jazeera Arabic says sources at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis are warning that babies in the facility’s neonatal department could die if generators have to be switched off due to a lack of fuel.
Palestinian detainees found naked, dead after release from Israeli prison
Reuters reports: Israeli forces killed three Palestinian men shortly after their release from a detention camp in Israel.
The bodies were found still in handcuffs and without clothing on Sunday near the Kerem Shalom crossing between Gaza and Israel. One man was reportedly missing a leg, and his body was “in pieces.”
When a relative of one of the men tried to retrieve the corpses, Israeli troops shot at him.
RECOMMENDED READING (Al Jazeera): One Samouni brother comes home in Gaza, recalls months of Israeli torture
Stranded aid trucks in Egypt deepen Gaza’s humanitarian crisis
Reuters reports: Hundreds of trucks loaded with food, water and aid have been stranded on a scorching Egyptian road, some for nearly two months, awaiting permission to deliver humanitarian supplies into Gaza.
The truck drivers, parked on the outskirts of the Egyptian city of El Arish in the Sinai Peninsula, said they have been unable to deliver humanitarian supplies ever since Israel expanded its offensive on the Gaza-Egypt border in May. Some food has had to be discarded, they said.
“I swear to God, before this load, we came here and stood for more than 50 days, and eventually the load was returned because it had expired,” one truck driver said.
Netanyahu ‘is doing everything to avoid a deal’
Al Jazeera reports: Some in Israel’s political establishment have accused Netanyahu of trying to sabotage Gaza ceasefire negotiations by publishing a list of non-negotiable conditions even before a cabinet meeting was scheduled to convene to discuss the matter.
One of his demands said Israeli troops must be allowed to return to Gaza “and fight until all war’s objectives are achieved”.
“What is it good for? We are at a critical moment in the negotiations, the lives of the abductees depend on it, why issue such provocative messages? How does it contribute to the process?” opposition leader Yair Lapid said on X.
“It is quite clear that the prime minister is doing everything in his power to avoid a deal,” Israel Ziv, former head of the Israeli army’s operations, told the Maariv newspaper. “Whoever wants a deal does not publish his terms in the media, adds new conditions and publishes them,” he added.
Critics have long accused Netanyahu of trying to extend the conflict for his political survival.
The new demands come just as Hamas has made a huge concession in negotiations.
Omg. What a verbal smackdown! pic.twitter.com/ESu0XJhvmT
— Abier (@abierkhatib) July 8, 2024
West Bank – headlines on property destruction
Israeli forces set greenhouses, crops on fire near Tulkarm
Israeli forces demolish three houses, barns south of Hebron
Israeli forces demolish two houses, raze greenhouses north of Tulkarm
Israeli forces demolish school south of Hebron
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Palestinians in Gaza have been heroic. Gaza's children, mothers and fathers, doctors, nurses, teachers, cooks, journalists, lawyers, ministers of faith, academics, intellectuals, artists, engineers, poets, musicians, farmers, drivers, fishermen, bakers, workers from all paths of… https://t.co/Z4KV24UURw
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 8, 2024
Everywhere you look, destruction.
Driving through Khan Younis today, any remaining buildings are hanging by a thread. Huge craters along rubble filled roads, little hope for those remaining here.
The familiar sight of desperate families sheltering in a destroyed @UNRWA school. pic.twitter.com/LmUxKfGWDB
— Louise Wateridge (@UNWateridge) July 8, 2024
STATISTICS OCTOBER 7 – JULY 8:
Palestinian death toll from October 7 – July 8: at least 38,764* (38,193 in Gaza* – 11,445 women (30%), 15,747 children as of June 17. [The Ministry’s figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.]
This is expected to be a significant undercount since thousands of those killed have yet to be identified – and at least 571 in the West Bank (~134 children). This does not include an estimated 10,000 more still buried under rubble (4,900 women and children). Euro-Med Monitor reports 45,223 Palestinian deaths.
Lancet: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death9 to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.
Ralph Nader earlier estimated 200,000 Palestinians may have been killed in Gaza.
- At least 46 Palestinians have died in Israeli prisons (27 from Gaza, 18 from West Bank).
- At least 40 Palestinians have died due to malnutrition**.
- About 1.7 million, or 75% of Gaza’s population are currently displaced.
- 2.15 million (out of total population of 2.3 million) are projected to face Crisis or worse levels of food insecurity.
Palestinian injuries from October 7 – July 8: at least 93,323 (including at least 87,903 in Gaza and 5,420 in the West Bank, including 830 children).
[It remains unknown how many Americans are among the casualties in Gaza.]
Reported Israeli death toll from October 7 – July 8: ~1,478 (~1,139 on October 7, 2023, of which ~32 were Americans, and ~36 were children); 324 military forces since the ground invasion began in Gaza; 16 in the West Bank) and~8,730 injured.
Times of Israel reports: The IDF listed 41 soldiers killed due to friendly fire in Gaza and other military-related accidents – nearly 16%.
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.
† For most of the conflict, women and children accounted for about 70% of deaths in Gaza, with children making up a little over 40% of those killed, according to official statistics.
Find previous daily casualty figures and daily news updates here.
Source: IsraelPalestineTimeline.org
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