65 Doctors, Nurses, and Paramedics: What We Saw in Gaza
October 09, 2024 at 07:32PMDoctor Feroze Sidwha, who spent a few weeks last spring working in Gaza, collaborated with The New York Times to poll 65 volunteer health care workers about their experiences in the besieged region since October 7. Some findings: 63 of those polled observed “severe malnutrition”; 52 saw “nearly universal psychiatric distress in young children and saw some who were suicidal or said they wished they had died”; 44 witnessed “multiple cases of preteen children who had been shot in the head or chest.” (The IDF declined to directly answer questions about the targeting of children.) All the while, the U.S. has continued to arm Israel:
For the past 12 months, it has been well within our government’s power to stop the flow of U.S. military aid to Israel. Instead, we fueled the fire at almost every opportunity, shipping over 50,000 tons of military equipment, ammunition and weaponry since the start of the war, according to a late-August update from the Israeli Defense Ministry. This amounts to an average of more than 10 transport planes and two cargo ships of arms per week.
Now, after more than a year of devastation, estimates of Palestinian deaths range from the tens of thousands to the hundreds of thousands. The International Rescue Committee describes Gaza as “the most dangerous place in the world to be an aid worker, as well as the most dangerous place to be a civilian.” UNICEF rates Gaza as “the most dangerous place in the world to be a child.” Oxfam reports that in Al-Mawasi, the area Israel has designated as the humanitarian safe zone in Gaza, there is one toilet for every 4,130 people. At least 1,470 Israelis have been killed in the Oct. 7 attack and the following war. Half of the hostages who remain in Gaza are reportedly dead. And, while American officials blame Hamas for prolonging the war and hindering negotiations, Israeli news outlets consistently report that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sabotaged cease-fire talks with both Hamas and Hezbollah while recklessly escalating the conflict instead of reaching an agreement that could achieve many of Israel’s stated war aims, including the release of Israeli hostages.
Was this ghastly outcome for the Palestinians and Israel worth corrupting the rule of law in our own society? Certainly, the Biden-Harris administration can’t say they didn’t know what they were doing. Eight sitting U.S. senators, 88 members of the House of Representatives, 185 lawyers (including dozens working in the administration), and 12 civil servants (who resigned in protest of our Gaza policy) have told the administration that continuing to arm Israel is illegal under U.S. law. In September, ProPublica reported the lengths to which the Biden-Harris administration went to avoid complying with the laws that define clear consequences for countries, like Israel, that are blocking humanitarian aid. In these pages, the journalist and commentator Peter Beinart recently suggested that Vice President Kamala Harris can “signal a clear break” with the current administration’s disastrous Gaza policy during her run for president. How? “Ms. Harris should simply say that she’ll enforce the law.”
from Longreads https://longreads.com/2024/10/09/65-doctors-nurses-and-paramedics-what-we-saw-in-gaza/
via IFTTT
Watch