Israel perpetrating ‘most heinous form of genocide’: Shtayyeh
Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has told Japan’s Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs Kiyoto Tsuji during a meeting in Ramallah that Israel is perpetrating “the most heinous forms of genocide against our people”.
Shtayyeh, who is currently serving as a caretaker PM after resigning on Monday, added that Israel “works to perpetuate apartheid and acts as if it is a state above the law”, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported.
“Israel has turned the Gaza Strip into a killing field and is facing a major humanitarian catastrophe as people live without the most basic necessities of life – water, food, electricity, or medicine,” Shtayyeh said.
PRCS says hundreds suffering from infectious diseases
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) says its teams in Jabalia, northern Gaza, are receiving hundreds of patients showing symptoms linked to infectious diseases that are spreading rapidly due to overcrowding, medicine shortage and a lack of clean water.
THe PRCS Jabalia medical centre is receiving between 150 and 200 cases per day, and medics say they are witnessing outbreaks of preventable diseases, including hepatitis A. Gaza’s health ministry warned last month that a hepatitis A epidemic was under way among the displaced. The United Nations repeatedly expressed alarm at the news that infections had been confirmed in Gaza.
Volunteers of the Palestine Red Crescent at the PRCS medical point in Jabalia speak about receiving hundreds of patients due to the spread of epidemics among the displaced persons in the northern #Gaza Strip.
📷 Filmed by PRCS volunteer: Yousef Khader #HumantarianHeroes pic.twitter.com/VXO34kmZoB
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 27, 2024
Gaza Health Ministry warns of imminent mass deaths from famine
Ashraf al-Qudra, spokesperson of the Gaza Health Ministry, has called on international agencies to urgently provide food and drinking water throughout Gaza to avert an enormous humanitarian catastrophe. Al-Qudra spoke earlier to our colleagues at Al Jazeera Arabic. Here’s some of what he had to say:
- “What is happening in northern Gaza is a true famine.”
- “We have recorded two deaths as a result of malnutrition in northern Gaza, and there are others who are suffering and may die at any moment.”
- “We have asked international agencies to survey all shelters to document the spread of hunger.”
- “This escalating famine could kill thousands of citizens due to malnutrition and dehydration in the coming days in front of the eyes of the world.”
- “Aid must enter the Gaza Strip and reach all of its areas – in the north and the south – to contain this catastrophe.”
- “Diseases are also spreading along with malnutrition and dehydration throughout Gaza.”
Health Ministry says malnourished infants arrived at northern Gaza hospital
The ministry said in a brief statement that several children suffering from dehydration and malnutrition have been received at Kamal Adwan Hospital. There have been growing reports of children dying in northern Gaza from lack of food and drinkable water due to Israeli siege.
The UN said in last week that one in six children under the age of two in Gaza is acutely malnourished.
Egypt carries out first airdrop to Gaza
The Egyptian Air Forces has carried out its first airdrop of humanitarian aid in Gaza in collaboration with the United Arab Emirates and Jordan, local media reported. State-run Al-Qahera News said 45 tonnes of aid supplies were dropped on the northern and central part of the strip and that the delivery of another 50 tonnes of aid is being planned.
The delivery comes a day after Jordan’s military conducted a similar operation. Footage showed thousands of starving Palestinians in Deir el-Balah jumping into the sea to retrieve the aid.
Sci-fi documentary reimagining Palestine without Nakba premieres in London
LYD, a feature sci-fi documentary reimagining the history of Palestine if there had been no Nakba – the mass displacement of Palestinians that led to the formation of Israel in 1948 – has taken viewers on a journey through the lifespan of the 5,000-year-old city of the same name as it premiered in London.
For Palestinians, the destruction of the city of Lyd is a painful and tragic symbol of the dispossession and loss of a homeland. The film dares to ask the question: What would the city be like had the Israeli occupation had never happened? “The occupation can take many things, but one thing it can’t take is your ability to imagine,” co-director Rami Younis told Al Jazeera.
Asked how the film would be perceived in Israel, co-director Sarah Ema Friedland said she was concerned about the rise in anti-Semitism but noted that “there is so much Jewish presence in our film. Jewish refugees fleeing Europe’s anti-Semitism are welcome.”
