Israeli siege of northern Gaza: Hundreds of thousands of people endure catastrophic conditions

Thirteen days since the Israeli military issued mass forced displacement orders to various parts of northern Gaza,  CARE’s partner Palestinian NGO Juzoor for Health and Social Development, has sadly lost two of their staff members just the past week, Dr. Ahmad Al-Najar, while he was performing his duties at a medical point in Al-Falouja, Jabalia on October 15, and midwife Ms. Laila Jneid, who was killed along with her parents on October 12. Testimonies from Juzoor’s staff and residents of northern Gaza reveal the catastrophic situation as the intense bombardment of Jabalia camp and other parts of northern Gaza continues. 

Last Sunday, Dr. Alaa Al-Sayyad was also gravely injured while on duty and is currently in a coma with efforts still underway to try to move him to a hospital that can offer more advanced care.

“We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of Juzoor’s medical staff who have been enduring more than a year of continuous horrors and injustice while trying to serve their communities under the constant threat of bombs,” said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) Country Director. “These losses underscore the immense personal sacrifices of health workers and humanitarians putting their lives in danger every day to serve their communities whose lives have been completely upended by this violence. Their memory will continue to inspire us and light the way for us to continue our mission to save innocent lives and call for an end to this unrestrained violence.” 

CARE has been supporting the extraordinary work of the Juzoor team of medical professionals since the conflict escalated a year ago. Juzoor is one of the few organizations that have been able to remain operational in northern Gaza during the bombing and siege. Despite the forced displacement orders received on Sunday 6 October and the ensuing extreme danger, Juzoor’s team has chosen to stay where they are, continuing their lifesaving work in shelters and health centers.

“The situation is beyond horrific and is very difficult and indescribable. Dead people, severed body parts and injured people everywhere. We are receiving emergency calls from all the areas of the north. Ambulances are not able to reach the injured. We have seen more than 23 pregnant women among the injured coming to the hospital since last week, wounded either by shrapnel or gunfire, suffering from fractures. Some were in a critical condition. Kamal Adwan Hospital and other semi-operational hospitals have received displacement orders but there is no way to evacuate in any case,” says Dr. Taghreed Al-Imawi, Juzoor staff and OBGYN doctor at Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza.

“The pediatrics section is closed as it is full of injured people, the surgery section is full of injured people, even the reception, the hospital has been shelled several times and targeted by snipers, people are terrified to come to the hospital now,” Dr Al-Imawi said.

Israeli forces have issued forced displacement orders that apply to the roughly 400,000 Palestinians who remain in northern Gaza, while blocking food from entering Gaza city and other areas in the north. According to the UN, 9,000 pregnant women have been displaced yet again by the violence and the latest forced displacement orders. 

Initial reports estimate that at least 350 Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza since the tightening of the siege and intensification of airstrikes but determining the death toll remains an impossible task as people struggle to reach hospitals. Thousands have either been displaced to Gaza City or further south, or remain stranded, cut off from food, medicine, and water.

“We have not gotten any food or water for the past 11 days, the suffering is getting worse by the day,” said Ismail, a father of two currently in the vicinity of Jabalia in northern Gaza, on Tuesday. “All the necessities for survival are lacking here in the north, no hospitals, no safe place, no safe drinking water, no medications for our children. Lots of people were displaced from Jabalia and they are in the streets with no shelter”.

“We are not getting food or milk for the children or anything nutritious,” said Alaa’, a displaced woman sheltering at a school in Gaza City. “We also suffer to get water, we don’t know when we’ll get it next, you have to wait in a long line to fill up two jerrycans of sea-water to use until you can get water again in 4 to 5 days. As for the drinking, water you get about 14-15 litres every three days for the whole family.”

High levels of hunger, heavy rains, lack of clean water and the spread of polio and infectious diseases pose additional risks to the lives of women and children. One in three children in northern Gaza are acutely malnourished or suffering from wasting, while an estimated 40% of current pregnancies are considered high-risk.

Due to attacks on hospitals and the killing of approximately 1,000 health care staff since October last year, hospitals are left with a shrinking number of doctors, midwives and nurses.

“Our ability to continue working is declining by the minute. Many hospital staff left due to those direct threats we’ve been receiving, while others refused, and we are still conducting our duties. We have only one functional operating room, and only one surgeon left. Most of the pharmacies are closed, and in our hospital pharmacy we have run out of most of the critically needed medication,” says Al-Imawi. “Only three hospitals in northern Gaza are operating at minimum capacity, without sufficient fuel or blood supply. Advanced surgical procedures for intensive care unit patients are impossible under the current circumstances.”

The dramatic escalation in violence and the siege of northern Gaza make it impossible for aid to reach the hundreds of thousands of trapped civilians and continue to obstruct CARE and other organizations from providing a lifeline for vulnerable civilians.

CARE reiterates its call for an immediate and lasting ceasefire, the protection of civilians, aid workers, and civilian infrastructure from attack, full and unimpeded humanitarian access, and a dramatic scale-up in funding for gender-responsive humanitarian action. 

“Our staff and partners tell us that only one fuel truck was allowed to enter northern Gaza three days ago, which was used to operate water plant stations to pump water to displaced communities,” said Veldwijik. “In addition to the death, destruction and physical suffering, the extreme psychological trauma this campaign of forced displacement and siege is causing is palpable and devastating. Allowing a few dozen trucks of fuel, water and food to enter to help a besieged, bombed and starving population who have been enduring a year of unrelenting violence is taking this already inhumane situation to shocking new levels. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, where exactly are all these people expected to go?”.

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