Alison Barrett writes:
More than 800 child health specialists have written an open letter to UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer urging the British Government to “end all arms export licenses to Israel and to impose immediate sanctions upon Israel until it complies with its obligations under international law and until a sustainable ceasefire is in place”.
“We urge you, as Prime Minister, to use your influence to advocate for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza,” they wrote. “As a country, we must stop being complicit in Israel’s war crimes.”
Meanwhile, international humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has renewed its longstanding calls for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in a report released today.
“The total destruction of Palestinian life in Gaza must stop,” MSF writes.
These urgent calls for ceasefire come as the number of deaths in Gaza over the past 14 months surpasses 45,000, a figure which includes the deaths of 17,000 children.
The Israeli Government has said that around 1,600 Israelis and foreign nationals (including 384 soldiers) have been killed, mostly during the 7 October attack by Hamas. It is estimated that as of 4 December 2024, 100 people remained captive in Gaza, according to the BMJ.
Firsthand accounts
Titled ‘Gaza: life in a death trap’, the MSF report outlines firsthand observations about the ongoing devastation in the occupied Palestinian territory following the Hamas attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023.
“The violence unleashed by Israeli forces has caused physical and mental damage on a scale that would overwhelm any functioning healthy system, let alone one already decimated by a crushing offensive and a 17-year-long blockade,” the report states.
According to the report, MSF teams have witnessed dismantling of the healthcare system through systematic targeting of health facilities and medical personnel, and recurrent obstruction of aid and humanitarian support.
They have seen the destruction of civilian and residential infrastructure, repeated forcible displacement and the deprivation of food, water and supplies.
“Indicative of the appalling hygiene conditions” Palestinians are forced to live under, the main morbidities observed by MSF teams include skin diseases, upper respiratory tract infections and diarrhoea.
According to the report, Israeli authorities have authorised only extremely limited essential supplies into the Gaza Strip.
MSF calls for an end to the “shameful” and extreme rationing of humanitarian aid in the Gaza strip.
In the north of the Strip, “the recent military offensive is a clear illustration of the brutal war the Israeli forces are waging on Gaza, and we are witnessing clear signs of ethnic cleansing as Palestinian life is being wiped off the area”, the report says.
MSF also calls for:
- Israel to withdraw its recent law banning United Nations Reliefs and Works Agency and ensure the agency retains its vital role
- Forced displacement to end. People in Gaza must be allowed to move freely, including to their places of origin.
- Israeli authorities to facilitate the evacuation of those who need specialised care outside of Gaza.
MSF calls on UN member states, particularly Israeli’s closest allies, to end their unconditional support of Israel and respect their obligation to prevent genocide in Gaza, as per the January 2024 ruling by the International Court of Justice.
MSF urges member states to leverage their influence “to alleviate the suffering of the population and enable a massive scale up of humanitarian assistance in the Gaza strip”.
They also renew calls for an independent investigation into the repeated attacks on MSF teams and facilities that have killed eight MSF members and many of their family members, as well as investigation of attacks on other humanitarian and medical workers.
The report says:
Even if the offensive ended today, its long-term impact would be unprecedented, given the scale of the destruction and the unique challenges of organising healthcare in Gaza. A whole society needs rebuilding, while coping with a staggering number of war-wounded who may require years of rehabilitation, and risk infections, amputations and permanent disability.
The mental trauma caused by the violence, the loss of family members and homes, the strenuous living conditions and the repeated displacement represent a massive and urgent need, which will span generations.”
Humanitarian catastrophe
An MSF operative who has spent nearly five months working with MSF on three trips to Gaza this year has described the situation as catastrophic.
“The catastrophic deterioration of the humanitarian and medical situation in Gaza is a direct result of Israel’s indiscriminate bombing and extensive restrictions and obstruction of aid over the past year,” Karin Huster said in an interview with MSF’s headquarters in Paris this month.
Huster, a health advisor at USAID Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance, said, “the number of children and women that we see in the emergency rooms of the hospital that we work in is just mind-boggling”.
The hospitals are constantly lacking essential medication, antibiotics, gauze, tools to do surgeries, according to Huster.
“We’re lacking food. Food is being prevented from coming in. Of course, people will try to go and take whatever food is there from wherever they find it,” she said. “You have kids who are on the brink of malnutrition. They live in insalubrious conditions. They will get super sick because of the [winter] elements.”
You can watch the full interview here.
Similarly, UK doctors who have returned from Gaza have described the situation as “absolutely dire”, according to a report in the BMJ.
Dr Mahim Qureshi, a London-based vascular surgeon who has worked in Gaza twice this year, told the BMJ that starvation is a critical concern. Access to food, especially fresh food, is very limited and many people are developing pancreatitis.
“What little food aid is available often comes out of a can,” she said. Once patients develop pancreatitis, they require insulin, but there is no electricity and there are no refrigerators for people to store the insulin, she said.
“These injuries, these deaths, do not count towards the death toll, but they are a direct consequence of starvation being used as a weapon of war,” Qureshi said.
It was estimated in July this year that up to 186,000 or more deaths could be attributable to the conflict in Gaza when taking indirect deaths into consideration.
More reports from social media
