18 oct 2019
Ninety-seven Palestinian civilians, including 45 children and 2 women, were injured due to Israeli soldiers’ excessive use of force against peaceful protestors at the 79th Great March of Return, this Friday, 18 October 2019.
This week witnessed an increase in injuries, particularly children, comparing with last week; as well as Israeli soldiers’ ongoing use of excessive force against protesters. A young man sustained serious injuries and 35 others were shot with live bullets and their shrapnel in addition to other injuries in the upper body due to direct targeting with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
Hundreds of civilians took part in the Great March of Return (GRM) in the five encampments across the Gaza Strip.
Titled this week as “”No to Normalization with Israel,” the protests lasted from 15:00 to 19:00 and involved activities such as speeches and theatrical performances. Hundreds of civilians protested at varied distances from the border fence across the Gaza Strip, where some protestors attempted to throw stones, Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers at the Israeli forces, who responded with excessive force.
PCHR documented 214 killings by Israel since the outbreak of the protests on 30 March 2018, including 46 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics and 2 journalists. Additionally, 14,355 were wounded, including 3,549 children, 382 women, 245 paramedics and 215 journalists, noting that many of those injured had sustained multiple injuries on separate occasions.
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip: Israeli forces’ attacks against protestors resulted in the injury of 23 civilians, including 16 children: 6 were shot with live bullets and shrapnel; 13 were shot with rubber bullets; and 5 were hit with tear gas canisters.
Gaza City: Israeli forces’ attacks against protestors resulted in the injury of 23 civilians, including 10 children: 7 with live bullets and shrapnel; 11 with rubber bullets and 5 with teargas canisters.
Central Gaza Strip: Israeli shooting and firing teargas canisters at protestors resulted in the injury of 21 civilians, including 7 children and 2 women: 10 were shot with live bullets, 10 were hit with teargas canisters and 1 was shot with a rubber bullet.
Khan Younis: Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the protestors; some of them burnt tires near the fence. As a result, 5 civilians, including 1 child, were wounded, and all of them were transferred to hospitals. Among those wounded, a civilian sustained shrapnel wounds, and 4 were shot with rubber bullets and hit with teargas canisters. In addition, many civilians sustained superficial rubber bullet wounds and suffocated due to tear gas inhalation; they received treatment on the spot.
Rafah: Israeli shooting and firing teargas canisters at protestors resulted in the injury 25 civilians, including 11 children and a young man sustaining serious wounds. Eleven of those wounded were shot with live bullets and shrapnel, 13 were shot with rubber bullets, and one was directly hit with a tear gas canister. The young man sustaining serious, Iyad Ibrahim Hussein Zanoun (24), was shot with a live bullet to the back.
This week witnessed an increase in injuries, particularly children, comparing with last week; as well as Israeli soldiers’ ongoing use of excessive force against protesters. A young man sustained serious injuries and 35 others were shot with live bullets and their shrapnel in addition to other injuries in the upper body due to direct targeting with rubber bullets and tear gas canisters.
Hundreds of civilians took part in the Great March of Return (GRM) in the five encampments across the Gaza Strip.
Titled this week as “”No to Normalization with Israel,” the protests lasted from 15:00 to 19:00 and involved activities such as speeches and theatrical performances. Hundreds of civilians protested at varied distances from the border fence across the Gaza Strip, where some protestors attempted to throw stones, Molotov Cocktails and firecrackers at the Israeli forces, who responded with excessive force.
PCHR documented 214 killings by Israel since the outbreak of the protests on 30 March 2018, including 46 children, 2 women, 9 persons with disabilities, 4 paramedics and 2 journalists. Additionally, 14,355 were wounded, including 3,549 children, 382 women, 245 paramedics and 215 journalists, noting that many of those injured had sustained multiple injuries on separate occasions.
The following is a summary of today’s events along the Gaza Strip border:
Northern Gaza Strip: Israeli forces’ attacks against protestors resulted in the injury of 23 civilians, including 16 children: 6 were shot with live bullets and shrapnel; 13 were shot with rubber bullets; and 5 were hit with tear gas canisters.
Gaza City: Israeli forces’ attacks against protestors resulted in the injury of 23 civilians, including 10 children: 7 with live bullets and shrapnel; 11 with rubber bullets and 5 with teargas canisters.
Central Gaza Strip: Israeli shooting and firing teargas canisters at protestors resulted in the injury of 21 civilians, including 7 children and 2 women: 10 were shot with live bullets, 10 were hit with teargas canisters and 1 was shot with a rubber bullet.
Khan Younis: Israeli forces fired live and rubber bullets and tear gas canisters at the protestors; some of them burnt tires near the fence. As a result, 5 civilians, including 1 child, were wounded, and all of them were transferred to hospitals. Among those wounded, a civilian sustained shrapnel wounds, and 4 were shot with rubber bullets and hit with teargas canisters. In addition, many civilians sustained superficial rubber bullet wounds and suffocated due to tear gas inhalation; they received treatment on the spot.
Rafah: Israeli shooting and firing teargas canisters at protestors resulted in the injury 25 civilians, including 11 children and a young man sustaining serious wounds. Eleven of those wounded were shot with live bullets and shrapnel, 13 were shot with rubber bullets, and one was directly hit with a tear gas canister. The young man sustaining serious, Iyad Ibrahim Hussein Zanoun (24), was shot with a live bullet to the back.
The release of two new reports point to the severity of the Israeli-imposed crisis on the Gaza Strip, with thousands of Palestinian patients — many of whom have been injured by Israeli gunfire, shells and missiles — unable to access much-needed medicines and treatment due to the ongoing Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip.
The first report, by Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), reports a rapid and severe increase of bone infections among injured Palestinians.
The group reports:
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is dealing with immense challenges while treating many people who have developed bone infections after having been shot by the Israeli army during protests in Gaza, Palestine over the last year. These infections are adding to the already complicated path to recovery that these injured people must tread. Their serious and complex wounds require months – if not years – of dressing, surgery and physiotherapy. Infections prevent recovery, and to make matters worse, many of them are resistant to antibiotics.
Gunshot wounds prone to infection
“When you have an open fracture, you need lots of things to get better: different types of surgery, physiotherapy, and avoiding the wound becoming infected, which is a high risk with these types of injuries,” explains Aulio Castillo, MSF’s Medical Team Leader in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, for many of our patients who have been shot, the severity and complexity of their wounds – combined with the severe shortage of treatments for them in Gaza – means they have now developed chronic infections.”
“What’s more, we’re finding in preliminary testing that many of these people are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria,” says Castillo.
Gunshot wounds by their very nature are prone to infection. With a dirty foreign body breaking the skin, it is vital that the wound be cleaned to reduce the risk of infection. With injuries such as those in Gaza, where the wounds are huge, bones are splintered, and treatment is difficult, many wounds stay open long after the injury, meaning the risk of infection is drastically higher.
Antibiotic resistant wounds make treatment much harder
Complicating this is what appear to be very high rates of antibiotic resistant infections there.
These infections have developed an ability to withstand many common antibiotics used to treat them. This often happens because antibiotics have been overused, whether in the community or in the environment, which is a growing problem worldwide.
Antibiotic resistance makes the already difficult task of treating people like Ayman much harder. To get better he needs antibiotics, but with the usual option useless against the resistant infection, he has to take a stronger type that carries a higher risk of side effects. These “heavy-duty” antibiotics are also much more expensive.
In the second report, focused on shortages of essential medicines, Yousef al-Jamal, writing for the Electronic Intifada, states:
Israel’s siege – imposed since 2007 – has affected Gaza’s healthcare system enormously. A new report [pdf] by the World Health Organization states that of the 516 items on Gaza’s essential medicines list, nearly half had less than a month’s stock remaining in 2018. The depletion of stocks had worsened by 15 percent since the previous year, the report adds.
Data from 2019 paint a similarly disturbing picture. During August, stocks of 225 essential medicines held in the central store of Gaza’s health ministry had run out [pdf] by at least 90 percent.
Rana Hussein, a nurse at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, says that more than 60 cancer drugs are unavailable in Gaza. Treatments for diabetes and some kidney complaints are hard to find, too.
“There are 250 patients with thalassemia [a blood disorder] who lack medication,” Hussein said.
Improvements?
Israel’s frequent attacks on Palestinians taking part in protests has also placed considerable burdens on Gaza’s hospitals.
More than 1,000 people who have been injured are awaiting limb reconstruction treatment in Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations’ Middle East envoy, stated last month. Unless such treatment is provided, many limbs could be lost because of infection.
Mladenov has claimed that “some improvements were felt” in Gaza’s economy over the past few months. Unemployment has dropped from 47 percent to 46.7 percent, he said.
The improvements have not been felt by many ordinary people. And human rights monitors have drawn attention to how a new method for calculating unemployment data has been introduced in Palestine.
Gisha, a group campaigning against movement restrictions, has estimated that the real level of unemployment in Gaza has risen since last year.
Mahmoud is a 30-year-old unemployed man. Two of his children – Wissam, 8, and Lina, 7 – have epilepsy.
Wissam can have as many as five seizures per day. He has broken teeth and injured his hands while falling down.
“Impossible to afford”
A dose of levetiracetam – the main drug used to treat epilepsy – costs $150 each for Lina and Wissam per month – when it can be found. “This treatment is often not available in Gaza’s hospitals and pharmacies,” said Mahmoud, who does not have the money to buy the medicines, in any event.
The children’s mother Ghada is trying against the odds to remain optimistic. “After black clouds comes sunshine,” she said.
“I wish it was me [who had epilepsy], not you,” she added, looking at her children.
Imam Abdulrahman, now aged 23, was diagnosed with a heart condition in 2016. Since then he has had an aortic valve replacement operation.
It is vital that he takes regular medication to reduce the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. Like many others in Gaza, he and his family do not have the means to pay his medical bills.
Lacking a fixed job, Abdulrahman does occasional work in construction or as a cleaner.
He mainly relies on welfare payments paid to his father by the Palestinian Authority, headquartered in the occupied West Bank. The payments come to $400 and are only issued every three months.
“This is not enough money,” Abdulrahman said. “It is impossible for me to afford medicine to help me overcome my illness.”
Yousef M. Aljamal is a writer based in Gaza. Twitter: @YousefAljamal.
Additional reporting by Mustapha Aljamal.
The first report, by Doctors without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières), reports a rapid and severe increase of bone infections among injured Palestinians.
The group reports:
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is dealing with immense challenges while treating many people who have developed bone infections after having been shot by the Israeli army during protests in Gaza, Palestine over the last year. These infections are adding to the already complicated path to recovery that these injured people must tread. Their serious and complex wounds require months – if not years – of dressing, surgery and physiotherapy. Infections prevent recovery, and to make matters worse, many of them are resistant to antibiotics.
Gunshot wounds prone to infection
“When you have an open fracture, you need lots of things to get better: different types of surgery, physiotherapy, and avoiding the wound becoming infected, which is a high risk with these types of injuries,” explains Aulio Castillo, MSF’s Medical Team Leader in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, for many of our patients who have been shot, the severity and complexity of their wounds – combined with the severe shortage of treatments for them in Gaza – means they have now developed chronic infections.”
“What’s more, we’re finding in preliminary testing that many of these people are infected with antibiotic resistant bacteria,” says Castillo.
Gunshot wounds by their very nature are prone to infection. With a dirty foreign body breaking the skin, it is vital that the wound be cleaned to reduce the risk of infection. With injuries such as those in Gaza, where the wounds are huge, bones are splintered, and treatment is difficult, many wounds stay open long after the injury, meaning the risk of infection is drastically higher.
Antibiotic resistant wounds make treatment much harder
Complicating this is what appear to be very high rates of antibiotic resistant infections there.
These infections have developed an ability to withstand many common antibiotics used to treat them. This often happens because antibiotics have been overused, whether in the community or in the environment, which is a growing problem worldwide.
Antibiotic resistance makes the already difficult task of treating people like Ayman much harder. To get better he needs antibiotics, but with the usual option useless against the resistant infection, he has to take a stronger type that carries a higher risk of side effects. These “heavy-duty” antibiotics are also much more expensive.
In the second report, focused on shortages of essential medicines, Yousef al-Jamal, writing for the Electronic Intifada, states:
Israel’s siege – imposed since 2007 – has affected Gaza’s healthcare system enormously. A new report [pdf] by the World Health Organization states that of the 516 items on Gaza’s essential medicines list, nearly half had less than a month’s stock remaining in 2018. The depletion of stocks had worsened by 15 percent since the previous year, the report adds.
Data from 2019 paint a similarly disturbing picture. During August, stocks of 225 essential medicines held in the central store of Gaza’s health ministry had run out [pdf] by at least 90 percent.
Rana Hussein, a nurse at al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City, says that more than 60 cancer drugs are unavailable in Gaza. Treatments for diabetes and some kidney complaints are hard to find, too.
“There are 250 patients with thalassemia [a blood disorder] who lack medication,” Hussein said.
Improvements?
Israel’s frequent attacks on Palestinians taking part in protests has also placed considerable burdens on Gaza’s hospitals.
More than 1,000 people who have been injured are awaiting limb reconstruction treatment in Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, the United Nations’ Middle East envoy, stated last month. Unless such treatment is provided, many limbs could be lost because of infection.
Mladenov has claimed that “some improvements were felt” in Gaza’s economy over the past few months. Unemployment has dropped from 47 percent to 46.7 percent, he said.
The improvements have not been felt by many ordinary people. And human rights monitors have drawn attention to how a new method for calculating unemployment data has been introduced in Palestine.
Gisha, a group campaigning against movement restrictions, has estimated that the real level of unemployment in Gaza has risen since last year.
Mahmoud is a 30-year-old unemployed man. Two of his children – Wissam, 8, and Lina, 7 – have epilepsy.
Wissam can have as many as five seizures per day. He has broken teeth and injured his hands while falling down.
“Impossible to afford”
A dose of levetiracetam – the main drug used to treat epilepsy – costs $150 each for Lina and Wissam per month – when it can be found. “This treatment is often not available in Gaza’s hospitals and pharmacies,” said Mahmoud, who does not have the money to buy the medicines, in any event.
The children’s mother Ghada is trying against the odds to remain optimistic. “After black clouds comes sunshine,” she said.
“I wish it was me [who had epilepsy], not you,” she added, looking at her children.
Imam Abdulrahman, now aged 23, was diagnosed with a heart condition in 2016. Since then he has had an aortic valve replacement operation.
It is vital that he takes regular medication to reduce the risk of a heart attack or a stroke. Like many others in Gaza, he and his family do not have the means to pay his medical bills.
Lacking a fixed job, Abdulrahman does occasional work in construction or as a cleaner.
He mainly relies on welfare payments paid to his father by the Palestinian Authority, headquartered in the occupied West Bank. The payments come to $400 and are only issued every three months.
“This is not enough money,” Abdulrahman said. “It is impossible for me to afford medicine to help me overcome my illness.”
Yousef M. Aljamal is a writer based in Gaza. Twitter: @YousefAljamal.
Additional reporting by Mustapha Aljamal.
11 oct 2019
Israeli soldiers invaded, earlier Friday, the headquarters of the Work Health Committees in Sateh Marhaba area, in the al-Biereh city, in central West Bank.
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers used heavy hammers and equipment to smash the gates, before storming the officers, and violently searched the building causing excessive property damage.
The Work Health Committee issued a statement condemning the Israeli violation and called on various legal and human right groups in the region and around the world, to denounce these escalating violations, and act on stopping them.
It added that the invasion is a serious violation to various international laws and treaties, especially those regarding the protection of medical and relief facilities.
“The escalating Israeli violations against nongovernmental Palestinian institutions, especially those providing humanitarian, health services, development and education, require immediate international intervention,” it said, “Our people are subject to siege, constant violations by the soldiers and the illegal colonialist settlers, while Israel continues to violate their basic rights and attack the very institutions that serve them.”
Eyewitnesses said the soldiers used heavy hammers and equipment to smash the gates, before storming the officers, and violently searched the building causing excessive property damage.
The Work Health Committee issued a statement condemning the Israeli violation and called on various legal and human right groups in the region and around the world, to denounce these escalating violations, and act on stopping them.
It added that the invasion is a serious violation to various international laws and treaties, especially those regarding the protection of medical and relief facilities.
“The escalating Israeli violations against nongovernmental Palestinian institutions, especially those providing humanitarian, health services, development and education, require immediate international intervention,” it said, “Our people are subject to siege, constant violations by the soldiers and the illegal colonialist settlers, while Israel continues to violate their basic rights and attack the very institutions that serve them.”
7 oct 2019
Israeli soldiers and police officers stormed, on Sunday evening, Augusta Victoria Hospital, in the at-Tour neighborhood, in occupied East Jerusalem, and searched the cancer ward of the medical facility, terrorizing many patients while reportedly “looking for weapons.”
The WAFA Palestinian News Agency the soldiers invaded the patients’ rooms, and various facilities in the hospital, allegedly looking for weapons, and used their dogs during the violent search, terrorizing the patients. video
Palestinian Health Minister, Dr. Mai al-Kaila, denounced the invasion into the hospital and said that this attack is a serious violation to various international human rights agreements, especially those that deal with protecting civilians and medical facilities.
She said that the invasion, carried out by heavily armed and armored soldiers and police officers, and included the use of the military dogs in the medical center, is yet another example of Israel’s disregard of medical facilities and the patients.
Dr. al-Kaila added that Israel continues to violate international laws and treaties, and escalates its crimes, due to the deadly silence of the international community and the lack of accountability.
The WAFA Palestinian News Agency the soldiers invaded the patients’ rooms, and various facilities in the hospital, allegedly looking for weapons, and used their dogs during the violent search, terrorizing the patients. video
Palestinian Health Minister, Dr. Mai al-Kaila, denounced the invasion into the hospital and said that this attack is a serious violation to various international human rights agreements, especially those that deal with protecting civilians and medical facilities.
She said that the invasion, carried out by heavily armed and armored soldiers and police officers, and included the use of the military dogs in the medical center, is yet another example of Israel’s disregard of medical facilities and the patients.
Dr. al-Kaila added that Israel continues to violate international laws and treaties, and escalates its crimes, due to the deadly silence of the international community and the lack of accountability.
5 oct 2019
The Israeli occupation forces (IOF) at dawn Saturday arrested a Palestinian citizen after raiding his home and violently beating him.
Local sources said that the IOF assaulted the Palestinian citizen Mohammed al-Jamal in his home in al-Khalil City and prevented Palestinian medical crews from providing him first aid.
The IOF further assaulted the ambulance officer and forced the medical team out of the house.
The wounded ambulance officer, Eid Abu Minshar, said that al-Jamal was kidnapped while injured and taken to an undeclared destination.
Local sources said that the IOF assaulted the Palestinian citizen Mohammed al-Jamal in his home in al-Khalil City and prevented Palestinian medical crews from providing him first aid.
The IOF further assaulted the ambulance officer and forced the medical team out of the house.
The wounded ambulance officer, Eid Abu Minshar, said that al-Jamal was kidnapped while injured and taken to an undeclared destination.
