"There Are No Safe Spaces in Gaza" - Two Aid Workers Killed
[Impact of the war on children - Footage from ABC News]
A quick update on the last twenty-four hours in Gaza:
- Israel briefly suspended its attack for three hours Wednesday, to allow humanitarian aid to reach those trapped by the fighting. According to the New York Times: "Israel said the three-hour lull would be repeated every other day between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. to allow Gaza’s population to seek medical help, buy food and receive humanitarian supplies."
(Reuters reports that Israel will suspend fighting from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. each day, and not every other day.)
- Otherwise, the news is bleak. According to the January 7th Humanitarian Situation Report from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA):
"Civilians in Gaza continue to face a serious lack of protection. A growing number of civilians are trapped in their homes due to the ongoing fighting and cannot seek safety nor access relief supplies or basic services, particularly in the eastern parts of the Strip, and in some parts of Gaza city. There are no safe spaces in Gaza, including safe havens and bomb shelters.
There are an unknown number of dead, injured and trapped people in houses which have been hit with shells in areas where there are ongoing hostilities. Rescue operations have been constrained by continued violence and insecurity."
- The Palestinian Ministry of Health reports that 683 Palestinians have been killed, of whom 217 were women and children. More than 3,085 Palestinians have been wounded. This includes 43 people killed yetrerday when Israel shelled a UN school where civilians were seeking shelter. Israel claims that it fired after Hamas militants launched mortars from the school compound.
- Humanitarian access is increasingly difficult. According to UN OCHA: "Continued fighting within Gaza has severely restricted civilians from reaching lifesaving services, and constrained the movements of humanitarian actors to distribute assistance."
- Yesterday, a worker for CARE's food distribution project was killed in Gaza. Mohammed Ibrahim Samouni was killed in an aerial bombardment. He leaves behind six children, one of whom was critically injured in the attack. According to Martha Myers, CARE's Country Director for the West Bank and Gaza:
"Mohammed was dedicated to providing aid to Palestinians, who are becoming more and more desperate as each day of attacks go by...People are running out of food. Food distributions cannot continue because of the bombings. And the very people who are trying to deliver aid - paramedics, and now a worker for CARE's distribution project - are being killed. The killing of civilians is unacceptable."
The CARE Fresh Food Project illustrates just how difficult it has become to deliver assistance in Gaza. As Reuters reports:
"The project delivers fresh fruit and vegetables to 60,000 people, hospitals and orphanages a week. Since the attacks started Dec. 27, CARE has only been able to deliver food twice. The people who normally receive distributions from CARE have no other source of fresh food."
Our thoughts and prayers are with Samouni's family and colleagues.
- Finally, there's a great initiative being launched by Mikel Maron at OpenStreetMap, to provide updated, detailed mapping of Gaza for humanitarian agencies.
According to Reuter's AlertNet: "They are looking for people familiar with Gaza's street names, features etc. to enhance the bare geometries of the current OSM map."
If you want more information, please visit the Wiki page here. Mikel Maron is blogging on this initiative as well - according to the blog: "We particularly need help finding folks with geographic knowledge of Gaza, but not in Gaza presently."
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