‘Cease relentless attacks on healthcare’ in Gaza, Lebanon: UNFPA
The United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency has condemned what it called repeated, egregious attacks on healthcare facilities in Gaza and Lebanon, saying not only are they deadly but they also deprive women of their right to access reproductive healthcare.
“Just three of the ten hospitals in northern Gaza are operational, and only at minimum capacity. These hospitals face dire shortages of the most basic items. Women, many of them malnourished, are left to give birth under heavy bombardment with little medication,” said UNFPA executive director Natalia Kanem.
Women in Gaza have lost access to essential health services, including emergency obstetric care, prenatal checkups, and safe delivery facilities, Kanem said, “contributing to a drastic increase in pregnancy-related complications and maternal deaths”.
Attacks on healthcare have not been limited to Gaza, she added. About half of the more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare in the occupied Palestinian territory have taken place in the West Bank, according to WHO.
“Now healthcare is also under fire in Lebanon. As fighting intensifies, attacks on health facilities have killed health workers and patients, and forced almost half of primary health centres in conflict-affected areas to shut down,” Kanem said.
Israel lying about existence of safe pathways for evacuation: Abu Zuhri
Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri has said that Israel has not provided safe pathways for people in northern Gaza to leave the area, which is under heavy bombardment.
“There are no safe areas. The occupation continues to target or arrest all those who are trying to leave the north using the paths that they say are safe,” he added.
Abu Zuhri also said Israel continues to attack hospitals and prevent paramedics from helping people. He called “on all humanitarian organisations to save the health system and to provide it with the needed equipment, including fuel, in order to carry out their duties”.
G7 defence ministers release statement on Middle East conflict
The defence ministers of the Group of Seven (G7) countries have reiterated their support for Israel and condemnation of Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attacks.
The key points of the joint statement are:
- The group reaffirmed their support for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all captives, a “significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance” in the Strip and a “sustainable pathway” to a two-state solution.
- The ministers said they are concerned about the events in Lebanon and all threats to the security of UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
- It condemned Houthi attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb strait and Gulf of Aden.
- The group also condemned Iran’s direct attacks against Israel on April 13 and October 1 and called on Tehran to refrain from providing support to Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other nonstate actors.
The statement did not mention that the two attacks against Israel were in response to the killing of Iranian officials and of prominent figures close to the Islamic republic, including Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah.
The document also did not mention Israel’s war conduct in Gaza, where more than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, large swaths of the enclave have been reduced to rubble and a dire humanitarian crisis threatens civilians in northern Gaza with starvation.
Well yeah, the G7 (United States, Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany and Japan) are all colonialist countries with their own genocides in their history. They wouldn't condemn one of their own. Double standards.
