Nora Barrows-Friedman
The Eolectronic Intifada / September 5, 2024
Israel continued to pound areas across the Gaza Strip this week, including in the north and south, and in the central areas where so-called humanitarian pauses were in place as parents and caregivers brought their children to be vaccinated against polio.
The vaccination campaign began on Sunday in Deir al-Balah and other areas in the central Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian ministry of health in Gaza reported on Monday that medical teams were able to vaccinate nearly 160,000 children within the first two days of the campaign, praising the well-attended turnout from parents and caregivers.
On Tuesday, our contributor Abubaker Abed reported that there were at least three attacks in Deir al-Balah, with Israeli warplanes “hitting the territory in the morning hours, with tanks bombing sporadically, striking the eastern parts.”
On Saturday, Israel again bombed the al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.
City, on Sunday. The school has been used as a shelter for displaced families and at least four people were killed in the attack.
Other airstrikes were reported in Nuseirat and Jabaliya refugee camps over the past few days.
On Monday, Israeli forces targeted a group of Palestinians near Al-Fakhoura school that has been operating as a shelter in Jabaliya, killing five and wounding others who were lined up to buy bread.
The Israeli army withdrew from Deir al-Balah on 29 August, after a days-long series of airstrikes and tank shelling amid widespread and repeated displacement orders.
Writing in The New Arab, Abubaker Abed said that although Israeli forces withdrew its ground troops on the eastern outskirts of the city, Apache helicopter gunships, quadcopters and tanks “remained in the area, pounding the city – and this latest ground incursion caused panic and fear among scores of already traumatized people.”
Al-Shifa Hospital reopens emergency department
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City reopened its emergency department over the weekend, following a massive rebuilding campaign after the hospital – which was the largest medical complex in Gaza and predated the state of Israel – was besieged, bombed and turned into a killing field by the Israeli army in March of this year.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the reopened emergency department has 70 beds, a new triage ward, two operating theaters, a laboratory, a blood bank and a radiology unit with basic X-ray and ultrasound machines.
Though the reopening of Al-Shifa Hospital’s emergency department is a relief to many patients and healthcare providers in northern Gaza, it is still a daunting task to acquire basic medical essentials such as gauze, antibiotics and baby formula.
According to the United Nations, Israel almost doubled its previous rate of denials of entry to humanitarian aid missions in August, compared with July.
Aid groups say that approximately 1,600 trucks full of essential medicines, health and hygiene supplies and food are currently stuck at crossing points along the Gaza boundary with “no progress” on their movement.
Israel’s repeated and incessant displacement orders, which are pushing Palestinians into an ever-shrinking corner of Gaza, have also impacted storage warehouses for humanitarian aid, the organizations say.
Additionally, the severe damage to key infrastructure including roads, water and sanitation – along with the risks of unexploded ordnance – have impeded or prevented deliveries of humanitarian aid altogether.
Just days after Israeli soldiers shot 10 times at a clearly-marked World Food Program vehicle, which was part of a convoy whose movements had been fully coordinated with the Israel army, an Israeli airstrike on 29 August killed four Palestinians in front of an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital.
“The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication,” the aid group ANERA stated.
Assault on the West Bank
Turning to the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military assault in the northern cities, towns and refugee camps is ongoing.
Tamara Nassar reports that as of Tuesday, the widespread Israeli attack has killed at least 33 Palestinians, including seven children, and injured nearly 130 since 28 August, when Israeli troops launched the assault on the Jenin refugee camp, Nur Shams refugee camp east of Tulkarm and Al-Faraa refugee camp in the foothills of the Jordan Valley, south of Tubas.
Hundreds of soldiers, armed with military jeeps, bulldozers and drones, have sealed off cities and refugee camps and inflicted widespread devastation to infrastructure, roads and water networks. The army has also cut off power.
Journalists have been fired at and chased by enormous Israeli military bulldozers while trying to report on the escalating military raids.
In the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and injured a 7-year-old Palestinian boy and a 22-year-old man during a raid in al-Khalil (Hebron), on Tuesday evening. Both were shot in the legs.
Nearby, also on Tuesday evening, dozens of Israeli settlers blocked access into and out of the town of Idhna, shouting slogans calling for the forced expulsion and killing of Palestinians, according to the WAFA news agency. Other settlers gathered near the entrance of Al-Dhahiriya village, closing the road and shouting genocidal slogans against Palestinians.
On Monday, Israeli settlers set fire to large parcels of land in the village of al-Lubban Asharqiya, south of Nablus, WAFA reported.
The head of the village council told WAFA that settlers set fire to olive tree fields near the road between Ramallah and Nablus. The olive harvest season is set to begin in just a few weeks.
Highlighting resilience
Finally, we wanted to bring you some images and videos from journalists and others in Gaza that highlight the resilience, joy and determination of the Palestinian people.
Children played in the rain, the first of the fall season, in Gaza on Sunday. We have two videos for you.
And members of the Gaza Sunbirds paracycling team made this video called “The Hands of Gaza.” They say that “the hands of Gaza are not empty, they are linked together in our call to the world. Don’t stop fighting alongside us with your marches, boycotts, and needed support! Don’t stop until Gaza is free.”
Nora Barrows-Friedman is a staff writer and associate editor at The Electronic Intifada, and is the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine (Just World Books, 2014)
