7 August 2022
Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) urges the international community, including the UK Government, to take urgent and immediate steps to protect Palestinians and ensure their access to medical care amid Israel’s attacks on Gaza.
You can support MAP's medical response to the situation in Gaza here.
As of 12.00 local time on 7 August 2022, the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Gaza reports 31 Palestinians have been killed, including six children and four women, and 265 have been injured by Israel’s airstrikes.
Israel’s attacks have destroyed residential buildings, struck refugee camps and partially damaged a hospital. Rockets and mortars fired by Palestinian groups in Gaza have also been fired at Israel – most of them intercepted – with no serious injuries reported.
On 2 August, Israeli authorities closed all Gaza crossings and stopped the planned transport of fuel into Gaza. As a result, the Ministry of Health has indicated that they may have to stop their services within 72 hours if Israel continues to prevent the entry of fuel into Gaza. So far, the electricity is reduced to about four hours every 16 hours and hospitals rely on generators.
MAP is responding to the emergency situation at MoH hospitals in Gaza by releasing prepositioned medicines, lab reagents and disposables, and procuring lifesaving items that are currently at zero stock. MoH hospitals are facing serious challenges in providing the needed care to the injured, given the critical deficit of drugs. The hospitals are also constrained by severe restrictions of movement, a chronic energy crisis and a worsening economic situation. This latest violence comes in the context of having less than one month’s supply available of 40% of essential drugs and 20% of medical disposables.
Fikr Shalltoot, MAP’s Gaza Director, said this morning after two nights of continuous airstrikes: “We can’t believe that we are living another round of airstrikes as we have still not recovered from the May offensive last year. The news of innocent people and children getting targeted by airstrikes is devastating. I am deeply concerned that the healthcare system will collapse and hospitals will stop their services due to fuel shortages, given the chronic shortages of essential medical supplies, specialised staff and equipment, including X ray machines, that Israel is not allowing into Gaza.”
All of Gaza’s 2.1 million population are affected by this violence. Israel’s collective punishment of Gaza through its 15-year-long closure and blockade has created a humanitarian and health crisis that continues to deteriorate year-on-year.
Coming in the context of a protracted humanitarian crisis, precipitated by years of illegal closure and blockade and the COVID-19 pandemic, this offensive is once again pushing Gaza’s healthcare system – and exhausted health workers and humanitarians – to the brink.
The current attacks on Gaza began on 5 August, after Israeli forces arrested an Islamic Jihad commander in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, during which a Palestinian teenager was killed. Egyptian efforts to secure a ceasefire are ongoing, but no progress has been reported as yet.
The current violence is the most serious since the 11-day conflict in May 2021 that left more than 200 Palestinians dead.
MAP’s Programme Officer, Mohammed Aghaalkurdi, said: “Last May, we learnt that home, the last safe place, was safe no more, but being together under the same roof, and possibly with shared destiny, calms a little. With swarming skies, dark neighborhoods (as there is no electricity), appalling news, grief-stricken hearts, and above all, uncertain tomorrows, we pray that calm will prevail soon.”
MAP is working with local partners to ensure that Palestinians get the medical aid they need during this critical time. Please make an urgent donation today.
Photo: Damage caused by an Israeli airstrike on a building in Sheikh Acleyn neighbourhood in Gaza. (Credit: Mohammed Zaanoun).
