Eyeless in Gaza

 

JEFFREY ST. CLAIR

+ In the northern Gaza city of Beit Hanoun, Palestinian families were told by the Israeli army to leave their homes and head for the Jabalia refugee camp in the city center. Hours later, the IDF bombed the city center.

+ As of Thursday morning, the UN estimated that more than 338,000 Palestinians have been displaced in Gaza by thousands of Israeli airstrikes. 500,000 Gazans have no access to food relief because UNRWA was forced to close 14 food distribution centers. Gaza’s sole power plant is out of fuel; 11 UN staffers have been killed by Israeli air strikes; 13 health facilities have been hit; hospitals are facing dire shortages; and all of the border crossings are closed.

+ Dr Khamis Elessi, a neuro-rehabilitation and pain medicine consultant based in Gaza City, told the BBC: “Everywhere you go, you see funerals, you see death, buildings collapsing. It’s like you’re watching a movie about the end of life on this Earth. The kids are crying and screaming. There’s no electricity. There’s no internet. So you feel you could be next.”

+ Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Gaza: “The hospitals, because of the siege, are so short of supplies that we had to clean a teenage girl with 70% body surface burns with regular soap because the hospital is out of chlorhexidine (antiseptic).”

+ There are an estimated 50,000 pregnant women unable to access clean water in Gaza– 5,500 of those women are due to give birth in the next month.

+ Over the history of the Occupation, more than half of all Palestinian males have been detained at least once by Israeli forces.