Palestine: Israeli authorities are suffocating Gaza with deliberate shortages of food, medicine and fuel
Healthcare system in Gaza under threat from systematic obstruction of aid and fuel shortages.
Palestinians are constantly on the verge of losing access to essential medical care and clean water due to deliberate actions by Israeli authorities. This policy restricts the entry of medical supplies and fuel to the bare minimum, and at the whim of the Israeli authorities.
While this strategy creates the illusion of aid flowing into the Gaza Strip, it effectively prevents the humanitarian response from reaching even the minimum required for people entirely reliant on assistance.
The Israeli authorities must end their collective punishment of the people in Gaza and immediately allow the consistent entry of sufficient medical supplies and fuel.
Large influxes of wounded people
Over the past week, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières’ (MSF) has seen large influxes of wounded people, many of whom have suffered traumatic injuries. At our hospital in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza, the number of patients with gunshot wounds increased by 190 per cent compared to the week before. Some clinics, such as those in Khan Younis and Deir Al-Balah, saw their highest weekly intake to date.
Following three months of total blockade and despite Israel’s claims to have opened supply corridors, MSF’s supplies are running critically low due to continuing restrictions imposed on entering goods.
“We are missing everything: medical consumables like gauze, medications and food for patients,” says Katja Storck, nursing activity manager in Khan Younis. “This also includes therapeutic food for people with malnutrition, especially children.”
Along with crucial medical supplies, the dangerously low level of fuel is a big concern for people in Gaza, as it powers the desalination plants where much of the clean water comes from. Palestinians across Gaza have already seen their access to water drop significantly. Without fuel, millions of people will be trapped with no safe drinking water.
Equally, fuel powers the entire healthcare system: medical equipment, air conditioning, elevators, oxygen concentrators, ventilators and cold-chain storage for medicines and vaccines. Without fuel, even ambulances will be grounded, preventing the transport of critically ill and wounded people.
Deliberate shortages
“Newborns in neonatal intensive care units are often too small to breathe on their own – they need ventilators and oxygen to survive,” says Amy Low, medical team leader in Gaza city. “But recently lack of fuel has caused electricity at [MSF-supported] Al-Helou maternity hospital in northern Gaza to cut out several times, shutting off ventilators and oxygen and putting babies’ lives at immediate risk.”
On June 18, the UN managed to retrieve 280,000 litres of fuel from the stocks stuck in a no-go area in Rafah, after the Israeli authorities denied 12 previous requests to retrieve it. As fuel stocks got so low, the teams at Al-Helou had to temporarily shut down elevators in the hospital to ration stocks.
“The charade of only allowing medical and fuel supplies at the very last-minute ahead of a looming disaster is nothing but a Band-Aid on a gushing wound. The weaponization of aid must end,” says Aitor Zabalgogeazkoa, MSF emergency coordinator in Gaza. “No militarized scheme developed by a warring party, like the one we are witnessing with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, can replace the work of independent humanitarian agencies.”
MSF teams are witnessing patterns consistent with genocide in Gaza. Mass killings, the destruction of vital civilian infrastructure and severe restrictions on fuel supplies and the delivery of assistance are deliberate actions. Israel is systematically dismantling the conditions necessary for Palestinian life.
