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SvennoJ on 24 July 2024
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‘There is nothing left that resembles life in northern Gaza’

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says all hospitals in northern Gaza have been either damaged or destroyed.

Small clinics are treating some cases, but even those are underequipped and can’t offer the services or medication needed, the aid group added. There is no fuel for vehicles so the injured need to be transported by donkey cart.

Salma Altaweel, NRC’s support manager in Gaza City, said Palestinians in this area have gone through two “major famine-like scenarios”: The first during the siege in Ramadan and the second experienced by people currently.

“There is very little aid trickling through, there are no vegetables available, let alone fruit or meat. If we are lucky, we get two meals a day. For breakfast, tea, one piece of bread and zaatar without any oil, and for dinner, tinned food,” she said in a statement.

“When you see the stampedes around the only two aid trucks to arrive in weeks, how children are unable to stand up and walk on their feet, the deaths as a result of malnutrition, and the wasting among children, there is no doubt what is happening here,” Altaweel added.

She said that the prices of goods, if they are available, are beyond the purchasing capacity of most people. As examples, she mentioned that one egg sells for $2.20, one kilo (2.2 pounds) of onions is $55 and cooking gas is $41 per litre.

“The economy and commerce are dead here and cash liquidity is non-existent. Water treatment stations are not working. Sewage water floods the streets, and there is garbage everywhere. Diseases such as hepatitis A are spreading and there is no medicine or food to help people recover. Wherever you go, you are breathing toxic smoke,” she added.

‘Summary child executions are happening in Gaza’

Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, an American-Jordanian paediatric physician who has been to Gaza several times since October, says children in Gaza are being deliberately shot by Israeli soldiers.

“If I hadn’t been there and witnessed children shot by Israeli forces, I would struggle to believe that summary child executions are happening in Gaza. See [the] full CBS report and then mobilise to stop this,” she said in a post on X.

Haj-Hassan was referring to a story by US broadcaster CBS News citing the testimony of Jewish-American surgeon Mark Perlmutter who spent two weeks working in Gaza. He alleged he saw Palestinian children who were shot twice by Israeli forces.

“No toddler gets shot twice by mistake by the world’s best sniper,” Perlmutter said.