Photo: Activestills
Starting last Sunday, we began receiving a growing number of requests for assistance for urgent medical needs arising from the attack on Israel’s South and in the wake of the heavy fighting in and around Gaza. At the same time, the need to keep acting tirelessly against all deliberate harm to innocent civilians grows with every passing moment as rockets are fired at Israeli communities, and a mighty and unrestrained attack on Gaza and its two million inhabitants unfolds. Some examples of our numerous activities:
We’re granting urgent medical aid to communities evacuated from the Gaza envelope. Following a request from Kibbutz Be’eri survivors, we helped set up a clinic at the Dead Sea hotel they were evacuated to. Our physicians and nurses provided care to hundreds of the Kibbutz residents, as well as emotional support. In addition, we sent deliveries of medical equipment and medication to evacuees from the South in several locations.
We provided medical aid to work migrants from Thailand who were evacuated from the South. Here, too, we visited them at several locations and granted them medical care, medication, and personal hygiene equipment. We continue to participate in a wider initiative to provide for the needs of this community.
We sent the Gazan Ministry of Health a list of medication required by people kidnapped from Israel, as well as information about those suspected of having sustained serious injuries requiring urgent medical care.
We led a call by Palestinian and Jewish medical teams in Israel for the release of kidnapped people from Gaza and for granting medical care to those needing it. We further called for an immediate cessation of harm to innocent civilians as part of the Israeli attack on the Strip.
Over the last few days, we have alerted the international community to the grave harm to the Gazan healthcare system’s capacity to function in the wake of the fighting and the Israeli demand to evacuate the northern part of Gaza. In particular, we pointed to the fact that hospitals in northern Gaza have announced they cannot evacuate to the south due to the cost this would entail in human lives. We are also calling on Israel not to harm medical facilities and teams in Gaza and are in close contact with the Gazan healthcare system and human rights organizations in the Strip.
Our departments are in direct contact with the field and civil society organizations to assess the most urgent needs while protecting the most vulnerable communities in this emergency. We are promoting the immediate introduction of defensive measures for the unrecognized Bedouin communities in the Negev, the protection of the rights of prisoners and detainees during the emergency situation declared in Israel’s prisons, are fighting for the right to health and access to care for refugees and asylum seekers, and are monitoring violent incidents in hospitals.
We are following with grave concern the assault on the Gaza Strip and are alerting to the illegality and immorality of deliberate harm to innocent civilians. When the fighting stops and the situation allows, we will send urgent medical and humanitarian aid to healthcare facilities in Gaza, as we always do following rounds of fighting.
We will continue hoping for quiet days until they come.
