Gaza Invasion - "No word in the dictionary that can describe the situation"
[Al Jazeera footage from Gaza]
Apologies for taking so long to post today, and I promise that tomorrow I'll have news other than Gaza - there are, after all, other crises and catastrophes.
But today, all Gaza, all the time. The Israeli invasion has caused a dramatic deterioration of the humanitariation situation over the past three days, with a spike in civilian casualties, hospitals overwhelmed, and food distributions suspended.
That said, Israeli officials claim that "there is no humanitarian crisis," citing the fact that they re-opened the border crossings today to allow humanitarian supplies to enter Gaza.
To which Christopher Gunness, a spokesman for UNRWA - the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees - responded:
"When women, children and babies are killed in Gaza, how can you say Gaza is not in a humanitarian crisis? When hospitals are overwhelmed with patients, how can you not say Gaza is not in a humanitarian crisis? When bakeries are shut down, how can you say Gaza is not in humanitarian crisis?"
Civilian Casualties
According to the January 5th situation report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): "The number of casualties since the beginning of the ground operation on 3 January has risen to approximately 94 Palestinians killed and many more injured. Many of the recent fatalities are women and children with entire families among the dead."
Overall, the Palestinian Ministry of Health estimates a total of 534 dead and at least 2,470 injured since the air attacks started on December 27th. These numbers, though, are probably low. As the OCHA situation report explains, "the danger to medical staff and the difficulty of extracting the injured from collapsed buildings makes proper evacuation and estimation of casualties difficult."
The New York Times claims that a quarter of these total fatalities are civilians, citing the UN.
In addition, four Israeli civilians have also been killed by Hamas rocket fire since December 27th.
Hospitals Overwhelmed
According to an article in Sunday's New York Times:
"For nine days now, doctors have been battling to keep Shifa running under the most adverse circumstances. Sanitation workers constantly mop up blood while Hamas security officers stand guard. But scant resources are being stretched to a breaking point, and a terrible stench is in the air.
Dr. Mads Gilbert, a Norwegian who was allowed into Gaza last week to give emergency medical aid, and who has worked in many conflict zones, said the situation was the worst he had seen.
The hospital lacked everything, he said: monitors, anesthesia, surgical equipment, heaters and spare parts. Israeli bombing nearby blew out windows, and like the rest of Gaza, here the severely limited fuel supplies were running low."
The OCHA situation report adds that hospitals are "struggling to function under 24-hour per day power outages...the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) throughout the Gaza strip are overloaded, and all ICU beds are occupied. There is an urgent need to evacuate patients out of Gaza."
It's increasingly dangerous for medical personnel to move around. For instance, Oxfam reports that "a paramedic working for an Oxfam funded organisation was killed when an Israeli shell struck a civilian ambulance in Gaza".
Similarly, it's also becoming increasingly difficult to deliver supplies, even supplies that are already within Gaza. According to a CARE press release: "Medical supplies that CARE delivered to Gaza on Friday are sitting in a warehouse, as hospital staff are unable to transport it to where it's needed because of the heavy fighting."
Food Shortages, Water Cut
Yazdan El Amawi, CARE's Emergency Team Leader in Gaza, describes the food shortages:
"People do not have money to buy food, and what little food there is in the markets is running out. Even if you have money, people are terrified to leave their homes to buy food because of the bombings. If you are outside, you might be mistaken as a target...People are rationing what they eat. I don't know how much longer people can hold out. They are trying to make things last, but in a week or less, if the situation continues, if we don't get more food and emergency supplies, people will collapse."
According to the CARE press release: "Four hours in line at a bakery will yield just a half a loaf of bread - barely enough for a family for one day."
Just to make matters worse, the UN reports that "approximately 70% of the Gaza Strip population has no access to water, in particular Gaza City and northern Gaza due to the electricity cuts and lack of fuel for back-up generators." In addition, 75% of Gaza's electricity has been cut-off.
As one Gaza resident described the situation:
"We wait long hours, in long queues, in front of the bakeries to be able to buy bread. Shops are closed. Everything was shut down due to the air bombardments. There is no food and the only opened shops are running out of the basic food supplies. I have a 1-year-old son. No Pampers and constant shortages in baby milk. Nothing since last week. The windows glass was broken due to the bombardments. We can't even find plastic to seal the windows."
"When there was a siege, we kept talking about a catastrophe. But then the airstrikes started, and now we don't even know what word to use. There's no word in the dictionary that can describe the situation we are in."
For an interesting analysis of Israel's objectives with the invasion - whether to topple Hamas or not - see this article in the Jerusalem Post. The International Crisis Group has also just released a briefing paper on Ending the War in Gaza.
For the most updated UN situation map (January 5th), see here. For a map showing Israeli troop incursions into Gaza, see here.
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