Introduction by Croakey: Amid horrific trauma and violence, health and humanitarian workers are working under harsh and dangerous conditions to provide life-saving care and support, from Gaza to the West Bank and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, in Australia, a peak mental health lived experience organisation, VMIAC, has called for a ceasefire between the Israeli Government and Hamas leaders, warning of the conflict’s devastating impacts, including upon “members of our consumer community and the broader Australian community … impacted by this war – Palestinian people, Jewish people, and Middle Eastern and Muslim communities”.
“Unchecked crimes against humanity erode our shared commitment to human rights and dignity,” says the VMIAC statement.
Alison Barrett writes:
The United Nations General Assembly this week stressed that Israel’s breaches of international law “seriously threaten” regional and international peace and security, yesterday voting with majority support to adopt a resolution that demands Israel end its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
The Assembly called upon all UN Member States to “comply with their obligations under international law and take concrete steps” to address Israel’s ongoing occupation of Palestine, including to refrain from recognising Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as lawful, cease importing arms and munitions to Israel and implementation of other sanctions.
While a majority of 124 member nations voted in favour of the resolution, Australia was among the 43 nations to abstain; and 14 countries including the United States voted against it.
Meanwhile, at least 26 people, including two children, were killed and thousands injured in attacks in Lebanon and Syria where communication devices exploded on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Following the second attack, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres implored “all actors [to] exercise maximum restraint to avert any further escalation”.
Médecins Sans Frontières Australia told Croakey that following the 17 September attacks in Lebanon, they “immediately reached out to health actors including hospitals to provide support”.
According to the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon, close to 2,800 people were wounded in the first attacks, they said.
Donations of medical supplies “aim to support the Lebanese health system in treating the huge numbers of wounded who required immediate care and will need longer-term care”, they said.
Polio vaccination campaign
Meanwhile, humanitarian workers in Gaza delivering polio vaccinations to around 560,000 children between 1 and 12 September faced significant safety risks and operational challenges, including damaged infrastructure.
Dr Richard Peeperkorn, World Health Organization Representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said health and community workers showed “incredible resilience” to carry out the campaign at “unprecedented scale” under “the toughest conditions in Gaza”.
WHO, UNICEF and UNRWA called on all parties to the conflict to commit to another round of humanitarian pauses, with unimpeded access to children to deliver the second dose of the polio vaccine next month.
This week, 15 aid organisations, including CARE International, Oxfam and Save the Children, demanded international pressure for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and an “end to Israel’s systematic aid obstruction”.
New data by humanitarian organisations working in Gaza has revealed the scale of aid obstruction and limited aid entering the Gaza Strip.
In August 2024, an average of 69 aid trucks per day entered Gaza, compared to 500 per working day last year, according to the analysis. In the same month, more than one million people did not receive any food rations in southern and central Gaza.
Additionally, the analysis found that 83 percent of the required food aid does not make it into Gaza, resulting in people having only on average one meal every second day.
It is estimated that by the end of this year 50,000 children between six months and five years will require urgent treatment for malnutrition.
Supplies of insulin, blood and hygiene items have also been severely limited. Half of the required blood supply is not available in Gaza, according to the report.
Life-saving aid is being obstructed on a daily basis by denial of safety, displacement of civilians and humanitarian workers, delays restricting movement of aid around Gaza and tightening of a blockade that prevents aid from entering Gaza.
Jolien Veldwijik, CARE Country Director in the West Bank and Gaza said: “The situation was intolerable long before last October’s escalation and is beyond catastrophic now. Over 11 months, we have reached shocking levels of conflict, displacement, disease and hunger.
“Yet, aid is still not getting in, and humanitarian workers are risking their lives to do their jobs while attacks and violations of international law intensify.
“Aid, which is urgently required for 2.2 million people at risk of dying in the coming weeks and months, should never be politicised. We demand an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and the free flow of humanitarian aid into and throughout Gaza.”
Details of the data evaluation methodology and sources is available here.
Jorge Moreira da Silva, head of UNPOS, told the Security Council that it is very challenging to deliver humanitarian response in Gaza right now.
“The effective delivery of aid at scale required simply will not be possible without political will, necessary security and safety guarantees, and an enabling environment,” da Silva said.
Save the Children International has called on the international community to “take action to ensure accountability for violations against children”. The organisation reports that an average of five Palestinian children per day are killed or injured by Israeli forces and settlers in the West Bank since October 2023.
According to MSF, Israeli attacks have increased in the West Bank since 28 August, hampering their ability to run medical activities in the Occupied Territory.
VMIAC statement
Meanwhile in Australia, VMIAC, the peak Victorian organisation for people with a lived experience of mental health problems or emotional distress, issued the following statement on 18 September (references are available here).
“VMIAC is part of a mental health consumer and survivor movement grounded in human rights and social justice.
We hope for a community where people can stand proud, live a life with choices honoured, rights upheld and these principles embedded in all aspects of society. This vision applies at home and abroad, and we oppose discrimination, violence and coercion in all forms.
VMIAC is appalled and dismayed at the violence, trauma and rising death toll in Gaza. The combination of the scale of the violence and its affront to human dignity, the moral urgency of action, the presence of inaction by Australian governments and the impact this is having on the wellbeing of people in Australia drive VMIAC’s response. We recognise the delay in our call for justice and human rights on this issue and apologise to those impacted. We call for a ceasefire, an end to hostilities and a return of hostages.
We acknowledge and share the growing concern of international human rights institutions, including:
- The International Court of Justice judgment on 26 January 2024 that there is a ‘real and imminent risk’ of the Israeli Government causing irreparable harm to the right of Palestinians to be free from genocide.
- The Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories report on 25 March 2024 that concluded the onslaught on Gazans leads to reasonable grounds for believing the Israeli Government’s actions meet the threshold of genocide.
- The UN Human Rights Council’s resolution on 5 April 2024 criticising both Hamas and the Israeli Government for possible war crimes.
- The ICC Prosecutor’s 20 May 2024 request for arrest warrants for both Hamas and Israeli Government leaders for war crimes, including crimes against humanity, and
- The International Court of Justice’s advisory opinion found that the ongoing settlements in Gaza and other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory are unlawful.
We condemn all breaches of international human rights law, including the attacks of 7 October 2023 and the actions by the Israeli Government in the months since. Since the 1,189 deaths of Israeli citizens on 7 October, over 39,000 people have been killed in Gaza (15,000 of whom are children), with more than 90,000 people injured in a grossly disproportionate response by the Israeli Government. Credible estimates in The Lancet suggest that due to famine, ongoing violence and a breakdown of social and healthcare systems, the death toll could reach 186,000 people. The ongoing mental and emotional trauma from this violence will be both profound and immeasurable.
Unchecked crimes against humanity erode our shared commitment to human rights and dignity. On this scale, with limited response by our governments, this brings the conflict home. We are aware that members of our consumer community and the broader Australian community are impacted by this war – Palestinian people, Jewish people, and Middle Eastern and Muslim communities.
The Israeli Government and Hamas leaders must agree to terms supporting a ceasefire. We call on the Commonwealth Government to:
- Use all influence, pressure, diplomatic and sanctioning measures appropriate to secure a ceasefire
- End all military aid to Israel
- Substantially and immediately increase and sustain Australia’s levels of humanitarian aid to Gaza and
- Fulfill Australia’s obligations to support international law, including any measures to support international investigations into leaders of the Israeli Government and Hamas.
We also call on the Commonwealth to recognise and protect peaceful protest, including at universities. At the same time, we condemn protests that conflate religion with political ideology, including protesting outside Jewish synagogues. Conflating these communities and movements feeds antisemitism and also undermines efforts to address actions by the State of Israel.
As part of the Australian community, we reiterate calls to end discrimination and vilification of all kinds, including antisemitic, anti-Palestinian and Islamophobia.
VMIAC’s response to this moment is grounded in the consumer-survivor movement and the values that we have developed. Our work is underpinned by both social justice and relationality. Values of authenticity, human rights and integrity compel us to speak at this unique and tragic moment.
Our values of mutuality, curiosity, and hope help us accommodate people with profoundly different world views and experiences. We hope these principles will be broadly adopted to guide our actions towards social justice and our relations with one another.
We see the distress hostilities in Gaza are causing many people in our community, and we will continue to support our community at this time while the impact of these hostilities continues.”
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