100 prominent personalities call on EU to act on Gaza
A group of 100 political leaders, humanitarians, artists and scholars has called on the EU to do more to uphold international law in Gaza and make efforts to bring peace to Palestine and Israel. Ahead of a foreign ministers meeting in Brussels this weekend, the Call4Peace initiative sent the EU an open letter in which it denounced its inaction.
“We deeply regret the lack of leadership from Europe and are appalled by the weak reactions from the international community to the extreme violence in Gaza and Israel,” the group said in the letter. “We denounce the horrors perpetrated by Hamas on Israel on October 7th, which ensued with hostages still captive to this day, as well as the disproportionate military action by Israeli forces, which has resulted in mass destruction in Gaza and an unprecedented rate of civilian killing among Palestinians. The European Union cannot wait to act.’’
Signatories include former Irish President Mary Robinson, Swedish politician Margot Wallstrom, American political activist Jody Williams, writer Jonathan Littell and Nepalese-French spiritual leader Matthieu Ricard.
Displacement, overcrowding, lack of safe water fueling disease in Gaza
The WHO says it has provided UNRWA with EWARS – an application designed to improve disease outbreak detection in emergency settings – in response to the disease spread and struggling healthcare system. In a post on X, the WHO said health centres and clinics in the Middle Area, Khan Younis, and Rafah now have the tools for timely monitoring and management of diseases like diarrhoea, respiratory infections and acute jaundice.
Displacement, overcrowding, and lack of safe water and adequate hygiene are fueling disease spread in #Gaza.
As the war rages on, the struggling health system is increasingly unable to effectively detect or control outbreaks.@WHO has provided @UNRWA with the 'Early Warning,… pic.twitter.com/7U5HLZLAvZ
— WHO in occupied Palestinian territory (@WHOoPt) February 1, 2024
Children in Gaza facing severe shortage of water
Children in southern Gaza are getting access to just 2 percent or less of WHO’s recommended rate of daily water consumption. In January, they had access to just 1.5 to 2 litres of water per day in comparison to the WHO’s recommendation of at least 100 litres.
Food and water supplies both dwindled when Israel imposed a total blockade on Gaza, banning food and fuel from entering the strip on October 9. While aid was later allowed in, it has since only been a fraction of what entered Gaza before October 7.
PRCS ambulance crew sent to save young girl on Monday still missing
The Palestine Red Cross Society (PRCS) say it still has not heard from the ambulance crew 66 hours after it was sent to rescue a six-year-old girl called Hind in northern Gaza.
‘Catastrophic scenes’ at Nasser Hospital: MSF doctor
Dr Chris Hook, of Doctors Without Borders (MSF), told Al Jazeera that the situation around Khan Younis is “one of the most devastating things” he has seen in his career. Hook spoke of large numbers of casualties, many of them women and children, continuously arriving at Nasser Hospital where thousands of displaced people are already taking shelter.
If the children are “fortunate enough to survive”, he said they will continue to suffer from “terrible injuries, huge burns covering 50-70% of their body and massively broken limbs”. “They’re going to need long-term care, lots of them will never walk properly, if at all” he said.
Death toll in Gaza surpasses 27,000
At least 27,019 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed by Israeli attacks since October 7 while another 66,139 have been wounded, the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave has just said.
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