7 October 2024
As Gaza marks one-year of Israel’s military assault and siege, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) demands meaningful action to enforce a ceasefire, uphold international law, and protect Palestinians from potential genocide.
A year of Israel’s indiscriminate bombardment has resulted in death and destruction on a previously-unthinkable scale in Gaza. More than 41,000 Palestinians have been killed, and the more than 96,000 injured have entered an overwhelmed and systematically dismantled health system that cannot adequately care for them.
986 health workers have been killed according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health – a number unprecedented in any other conflict in recent years – and those who survive are exhausted, having worked non-stop for 365 days of attacks and airstrikes.
The Israeli military’s siege and obstruction of humanitarian aid operations have strangled access to electricity, food, water, medicine and fuel, and destroyed almost 70% of all buildings in Gaza. Many families now lack the basic necessities for life including safe drinking water, adequate food and hygiene materials. The humanitarian system has all but collapsed and infectious diseases, including polio, are spreading fast.
One year into these horrors in Gaza, Israel has also intensified indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks in the occupied West Bank and Lebanon, killing and injuring thousands more people. The region now continues to spiral towards all-out war, putting countless more civilians in harm’s way.
More than nine months ago, the International Court of Justice ordered provisional measures to prevent a potential genocide in Gaza. These measures remain ignored, and the international community has failed to bring about a permanent ceasefire, enforce international law or ensure the unimpeded delivery of aid to people in Gaza.
Israel’s attacks represent an existential threat to the communities MAP serves across the region. We therefore implore world leaders to end Israel’s war on Palestinians before it is too late.
Fikr Shalltoot, MAP’s Gaza Director, said: “We have run out of words to describe the horrors our teams are witnessing and experiencing in Gaza. Frequent mass killings of civilians, the use of starvation as a weapon of war, and the systematic destruction of healthcare are an existential threat to people. Gaza is being erased in front of our eyes.”
Rohan Talbot, MAP’s Director of Advocacy and Campaigns, said: “We need a ceasefire now, a suspension of arms transfers to Israel and unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid. We need all of this to stop a potential genocide and protect Palestinian survival in Gaza and, increasingly, across the region.”
Since October 2023, enabled by and unprecedented outpouring of solidarity and support from people around the world, MAP’s local team in Gaza have been responding to this emergency, while themselves trying simply to survive. Their tireless work has meant that more than 560,000 people have benefitted from MAP’s relief efforts. This includes essential medicines, medical equipment, food and shelter items. MAP has also sent 10 emergency medical teams of international doctors to Gaza, to support local health workers treating injuries.
Mohammed Aghaalkurdi, MAP’s Medical Programme Lead said: “The health situation in Gaza remains dire following a full year of the deadliest Israeli military attacks I can ever recall. We Palestinians deserve a better future and better lives. We deserve freedom. It starts with a ceasefire, nothing less than that. It will take many decades to rebuild Gaza and our lives here, so we must be able to start now.”
Sondos Alashqar, MAP’s Programme Assistant in Gaza, said: “There is no single word that can describe the past year. Who could have imagined that in this era of rapidly advancing technology, world leaders would remain silent, witnessing constant Israeli military attacks and the displacement of so many people now living in tents, yet saying nothing?”
“The past year has been a period of immense hardship for the people of Gaza, with constant challenges in accessing basic needs, healthcare and education, and rebuilding efforts amid ongoing instability. Yet, despite the crisis, the steadfastness of the local community continues to shine.”
MAP’s emergency response has now extended to the West Bank and Lebanon where we are also supporting medical services amid a significant escalation of Israeli military attacks which are affecting Palestinian communities.
With your help, MAP can provide vital supplies, food and humanitarian aid to Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.
Photo: Palestinians in northern Gaza. (Credit: Atyya Hijazi / MAP).
