New Weapons Research Group è un gruppo di accademici, ricercatori medici e attivisti che si occupa di studiare e denunciare gli effetti delle armi più recenti sulle persone, in particolare donne e bambini.
Gli ospedali della striscia di Gaza, in particolare i reparti di maternità e pediatria, sono carenti di attrezzature e farmaci, indispensabili per la cura dei bambini. Questa situazione è dettata dal blocco a cui Gaza è sottoposta da anni.
Per questo, in occasione della proiezione del film a ingresso libero “Erasmus in GAZA”, lanciamo questa raccolta fondi che ha come obiettivo l’acquisto di farmaci e attrezzaturedestinate all’Ospedale Rantissi – Unità di dialisi pediatrica – Gaza.
Qualsiasi contributo è importante e può fare la differenza, sostieni anche tu gli ospedali di Gaza.
Cogliamo l’occasione per invitarvi alla proiezione del film “Erasmus in GAZA” di Chiara Avesani e Matteo Delbò, a cui seguirà dibattito, presso la Sala Polivalente San Salvatore in Piazza Sarzano 8 a Genova il giorno 21 marzo 2023 dalle ore 17:00 alle 20:00. L’evento è gratuito ed è accreditato come Attività Didattica Elettiva del Corso di Laurea in Medicina e Chirurgia.
Il film racconta di Riccardo, studente di Medicina, che ha trascorso un semestre a Gaza, tra reparti e pronto soccorso degli Ospedali. Una testimonianza diretta della drammaticità della guerra, un’esperienza di formazione, di amicizie, un viaggio in una città sotto assedio, uno sguardo inedito sulla Palestina.
Aiutaci a portare farmaci e attrezzature negli ospedali di Gaza, insieme possiamo donare speranza e cura
International law requires that health workers operating in occupied territory be permitted to conduct their life-saving work without fear of attack or obstruction. Violations against Palestinian healthcare workers and facilities, however, have long been a feature of Israeli military violence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
In 2022 alone, 105 health workers were injured, including by live ammunition and rubber-coated steel bullets, 77 ambulances were obstructed from accessing the wounded and 44 were damaged. This trend sadly persists in 2023. From assaults against medical teams to the obstruction of ambulances, the health and wellbeing of staff and patients is being put at risk.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) documented 11 violations against their medical teams in the West Bank in January alone. Israeli soldiers delayed or denied PRCS medical teams from reaching injured Palestinians 10 times and – on 13 January in Beit Ummar [Hebron] – fired rubber-coated steel bullets which damaged one of their ambulances.
During the recent Israeli military raid on Jenin refugee camp, which killed 10 Palestinians including a 61-year-old woman, all six of the PRCS ambulances that responded to the emergency were prevented from accessing the camp. “Two hours later, and in light of the increasing numbers of casualties and injuries, our crews were allowed to enter after coordinating through the International Committee of the Red Cross. As we moved into the camp, we still experienced warning shots near the ambulances,” said Azzam Nimer, Head of the Emergency and Ambulance Department at PRCS.
“Israeli forces allowed our medical teams in after they made sure that many of the injured lost their lives. This is not the first or last time that Israeli forces will impede the access of medical teams and wait until the injured bleed to death.”
“We expect cities to be closed and an influx of injuries at any moment”
As well as escalating violence, Israeli forces have further restricted Palestinians’ freedom of movement, including health workers and patients, and even closed off cities completely. In occupied East Jerusalem recently, PRCS medical teams faced prolonged inspections by Israeli forces at checkpoints, delaying their access. This threatens the lives of patients for whom every minute counts.
On 6 February, Israeli forces shot dead at least five Palestinians during a raid on the Aqabet Jabr refugee camp in Jericho, which was closed off for more than a week. PRCS medical teams were prevented from reaching the injured and their ambulance came under attack.
This follows a previous Israeli military raid two days before, where PRCS reported that their ambulances were blocked from treating the injured Palestinians, including three Palestinians who were shot with live ammunition.
Then, on 13 February, an Israeli military vehicle was filmed blocking PRCS paramedics from helping Palestinians injured during an Israeli military raid in Nablus, which killed one Palestinian and injured seven others.
“Given the situation in the West Bank now, we expect cities to be closed and an influx of injuries at any moment,” said Azzam. “We are now treating each city as an isolated territory. I have to make sure that each city has a separate warehouse with enough emergency disposables and medications that can last for three months. The Israeli army can just close a city for weeks, like [last year] in Nablus, and this makes our medical response very complex.”
In the neighbourhood of Shu’fat, in East Jerusalem, PRCS also reported how their emergency teams recently faced delays and hostility from Israeli forces. Soldiers demanded to see their ID cards and interrogated them over the cases of patients they were trying to respond to.
Palestinians are segregated by an ID system, meaning those with a green West Bank ID must obtain a permit from Israeli authorities to cross the separation wall and access East Jerusalem. According to PRCS, paramedics who have West Bank ID cards have recently been barred from immediate entry into Shu’fat refugee camp, despite having permits that allow them to cross any other checkpoints.
The ID system has also impacted patients. Injured Palestinians or their family members have opted to take private cars instead of ambulances, as they fear that being in an ambulance and facing interrogations and ID checks could delay their journey to emergency care.
In 2021 and 2022, Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) provided two fully-equipped ambulances and a field hospital tent to the PRCS in East Jerusalem, as well as other essential supplies and equipment. We have also provided primary trauma care training for PRCS paramedics. But, as Israeli military and settler violence continues to occur on an almost daily basis, the PRCS needs more medical supplies, equipment and ambulances to respond to increasing violence.
But as well as urgently responding to the critical health needs, Azzam says urgent action is needed from the international community: “Even if we have all the requested needs, we will still face the obstacles and violations against our teams that come from working under occupation. We need your support to protect our health workers and ensure Israel is held accountable for violating their basic rights so that they can continue to save lives without coming under attack.”
International Childhood Cancer Day: for “Better Survival,”
PCHR Demands Better Access to the Highest Attainable Standard of Health for Gaza Children with Cancer
February 15th marks International Childhood Cancer Day (ICCD), a global collaborative day created as an annual event by the Childhood Cancer International (CCI) in 2002. This year’s campaign is launched under the theme “Better Survival” to raise awareness about the risks of cancer, the challenges facing children with cancer through prevention, early detection and appropriate treatment of cancer as well as supporting their families.
On this occasion, the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) draws attention to the suffering of the Palestinian children with cancer, including 350 children living in the Gaza Strip and facing a difficult and lengthy journey of treatment due to the Israeli occupation authorities’ practices and the repercussions of the Palestinian political division. These children suffer from the Israeli-imposed restrictions on their travel with their companions for treatment outside the Gaza Strip. They also suffer from lack of specialized medical personnel, poor diagnostic equipment, and lack of many treatment protocols and medical supplies.
Children with cancer receive medical care at Al-Rantisi Hospital, the only hospital that provides pediatric cancer treatment in the Gaza Strip yet suffers from a perpetual shortage in the list of essential drugs and many important medical equipment used for diagnosing cancer, as the hospital services are only limited to chemotherapy, supportive treatments and other healthcare services. This forces patients to complete their treatment in hospitals outside the Strip, and so their suffering from the Israeli restrictions on their travel begins. Leukemia is the most common cancer affecting children in the Gaza Strip, where 86 children with leukemia received treatment last year while 182 children continue treatment in the post-recovery phase on a regular basis at Al-Naser and Al-Ranitisi Pediatric Hospitals. [1]
The restrictions imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on the travel of children and their companions for treatment abroad are among the most prominent obstacles that prevent children from receiving treatment. In 2022, IOF obstructed 272 out of 1000 requests (i.e. 28% of the total number of applications[2]) for children referred for treatment abroad, leading to the death of 3 children due to obstructing their travel by the Israeli occupation. Meanwhile, in the same year 16 children died with cancer in the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli authorities prevent a number of parents from accompanying their children for treatment outside the Gaza Strip. Since the beginning of 2018 to 2021, 43%[3] of the children referred for treatment abroad had to travel without one of their parents because their requests to travel via Beit Hanoun “Erez” crossing were denied or delayed. This hereby affects the mental health of these children who already suffer from serious health conditions and in dire need of one of their parents as a companion during their treatment.
Moreover, the ongoing Palestinian political division causes the level of health services provided by hospitals and healthcare centers for cancer patients in the Gaza Strip to deteriorate, impeding the localization of health services, the adoption of a medicines policy that ensures the availability of treatment for all citizens, and the provision of all medical equipment for the governmental health facilities. All of this is due to not allocating sufficient and necessary budgets to cover the shortage of essential medicines and medical equipment needed for the treatment of cancer patients. According to the Palestinian Ministry of Health (MOH) in Gaza, the list of essential drugs used for the treatment of patients with cancer and blood disorders that are at zero-stock reached (37%), as 23 out of the 63 types of essential drugs ran out in December 2022.
Around 9,000 cancer patients in the Gaza Strip suffer from disastrous health conditions due to the acute shortage of medicines and medical supplies required for their treatment at Gaza hospitals. On the other hand, the Israeli occupation authorities continue to impose restrictions on the entry of new medical devices and laboratory materials necessary for cancer patients’ tests. These challenges deny patients’ access to treatment services appropriate to their serious health status. Also, the MOH expects to record (2000) new cancer cases in 2023 while the number of cancer patients recorded in 2021 was 1952 in the Gaza Strip. Additionally, there were 610 deaths recorded in the same year.
PCHR emphasizes that cancer patients in the Gaza Strip, including children, should enjoy their fundamental rights, including the early and accurate diagnosis, right to have essential life-saving drugs, right to receive adequate and qualitative treatment, and to have “better survival” opportunities for recovered patients. On this occasion, PCHR is deeply concerned over the lives of children with cancer in the Gaza Strip. Thus, PCHR:
Appeals the international organizations, including the World Health Organization, to support the health system in the Gaza Strip in order to improve its current capabilities relevant to diagnosing and treating sick children, and provide necessary medicines and medical devices to ensure high recovery rates among children with cancer in the Gaza Strip.
Calls upon the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities in order to end all restrictions imposed on patients’ travel, especially children with cancer.
Calls upon the international community to exert pressure on the Israeli occupation authorities in order to allow the entry of Radiology devices necessary for diagnosing cancer.
Calls on the Palestinian Ministry of health in Ramallah and Gaza to coordinate with each other and work on allocating operational expenses to purchase medicines and medical consumables for cancer patients to end their shortage, and to ensure that patients receive their right to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental healthcare.
for more information, please call PCHR office in Gaza, Gaza Strip, on +972 8 2824776 – 2825893
Gaza- Jamal ‘Abdel Nasser “al-Thalathini” Street – Al-Roya Building- Floor 12, El Remal, PO Box 1328 Gaza, Gaza Strip. E-mail: pchr@pchrgaza.org, Webpage http://www.pchrgaza.org
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[1] An interview by PCHR’s researcher with Dr. Mahmoud Shubair, Head of the Hematology and Oncology Department at Al-Nasr and Al-Rantisi Pediatric Hospital, 08 February 2023.
[2] Press releases published by the World Health Organization office in the Gaza Strip
[3] WHO factshees, 15 Years of Blockade and Health in Gaza.
Israeli settlers attempt to establish a new settlement in response to the killing of two settlers the night before, near the illegal settlement of Itamar, West Bank, October 2, 2015. All settlements are illegal under international law. This month we are focused again on the impact of the new government of terror and racism in Israel on Palestinians in Israel and the oPt affecting health and human rights.
Of note: The Israeli campaign in the West Bank and Gaza, to provoke, attack, injure, and kill Palestinians continues in full fury, raising the suspicion that the new rightwing government is going to continue these provocations until there is a more militant response from Palestinians and then use that to justify an all-out war. This has certainly happened before and Palestinians are facing horrific grief and dangerous collective punishment. The Israeli rightwing coalition is fulfilling its promises on multiple fronts from hate crimes to violence to subjugating anything and anyone that is not Jewish, Orthodox, or male. While much of the international community is trying to get along with and possibly weakly contain Netanyahu, the power of the Israel hasbara industry was challenged by the recent drama with Kenneth Roth and the Harvard Kennedy School. These are frightening and deadly times and we must not be silent.
MONTHLY HUMAN RIGHTS HERO AND VIOLATION
HERO: UN General Assembly resolution to International Court of Justice
Israeli settlers attempt to establish a new settlement in the northern West Bank in October 2015. Yotam Ronen ActiveStills
UN General Assembly passed a resolution asking the International Court of Justice to give an advisory opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s occupation of Palestine. Netanyahu called the request a “despicable decision”.
Legality of Israel’s occupation referred to UN court
Last week, the UN General Assembly voted in favor of requesting an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank – including East Jerusalem – and Gaza.
The resolution asks the court to set out the legal consequences of Israel’s violation of Palestinians’ right to self-determination and its prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of Palestinian land since 1967.
This includes “measures aimed at altering the demographic composition, character and status” of Jerusalem and the “adoption of discriminatory legislation and measures.”
The resolution also asks the court to determine “the legal consequences that arise for all states and the United Nations” as a result of its findings.
The International Court of Justice is the UN’s tribunal for settling legal disputes submitted by states and requests for advisory opinions on legal questions referred to it through the UN system.
Though both are based in The Hague, the International Court of Justice is a separate body from the International Criminal Court, which opened an investigation into the human rights situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip last year.
Advisory opinions issued by the ICJ are non-binding.
Ignored
This will not be the first time that the ICJ has weighed in on Israel’s activities in occupied Palestinian territory.
In 2004, the court ruled that Israel’s construction of a massive wall in the occupied West Bank was illegal and must be stopped immediately and that reparations should be made for damage caused.
The 2004 advisory opinion had little effect on the ground in Palestine and is one of many recommendations made by UN organs concerning Israel’s violations of Palestinian rights that has gone ignored – both by Israel and third states.
Ahead of last week’s vote, the Palestinian Human Rights Organization Council stated that despite the limited material effect of the 2004 advisory opinion, “the case supported the undeniable right of the Palestinian people to their self-determination under international law and emphasizes the illegality of all annexations and settlements.”
Additionally, the court’s 2004 ruling found that Israel’s wall in the West Bank amounted to de facto annexation of occupied territory.
Al-Haq, a leading Palestinian human rights group, said that the new advisory opinion “may incur, for the first time, important obligations on third states and the international community to bring the occupation to an end.”
Palestinian human rights groups championed the resolution, which was drafted by the UN’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee and then submitted to the General Assembly.
Al Mezan, a Palestinian rights group based in Gaza, said that the adoption of the resolution “is a significant milestone in the struggle against Israel’s apartheid settler-colonial regime.”
The rights group noted that many European states either abstained or voted against the measure despite it coming “at a critical time when a new far-right Israeli government has been installed.”
That government, Al Mezan noted, has “vowed to legalize dozens of illegal settlements and annex the West Bank as a top priority.”
Indeed, Israel is seeing through with those pledges by destroying Palestinian structures in Jerusalem and the South Hebron Hills and issuing forcible transfer notices affecting 1,000 people in the Masafer Yatta area of the southern West Bank this week.
European double standards
The failure of many European states to support the resolution seeking an advisory opinion on Israel’s prolonged occupation throws the double standards by which international law is applied into sharp contrast.
While imposing unprecedented sanctions on Russia over its invasion and occupation of Ukraine, European states have paid only lip service to opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
European Union officials even welcomed the new Israeli government led by extremists who have pledged to formally annex West Bank land and complete the ethnic cleansing of Palestine that began in 1948. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, has stated that he plans to work with the new government on “further improving” relations with Israel.
While Borrell continues to talk about promoting a two-state solution, Zvika Fogel, a member of the new Israeli parliament, said that “the occupation is permanent.”
Fogel belongs to the Jewish Power party headed by Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel’s new national security minister who now oversees Israel’s police and paramilitary Border Police that operate in the West Bank.
Fogel is former chief of staff of the Israeli military’s “southern command,” which includes the Gaza Strip.
In 2018, soon after the launch of Great March of Return protests along Gaza’s boundary with Israel, Fogel championed the use of lethal force against Palestinians who approach the boundary fence, including children.
He said that shooting and killing children was a reasonable “price that we have to pay to preserve the safety and quality of life of the residents of the state of Israel.”
More than 215 Palestinian civilians, including more than 40 children, were killed during those demonstrations, and thousands more wounded by live fire during those protests between March 2018 and December 2019.
A UN commission of inquiry found that Israel’s use of lethal force against protesters warrants criminal investigation and prosecution and may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The UN investigators called for sanctions on those responsible and for the arrest of Israeli personnel “alleged to have committed, or who ordered to have committed” international crimes in relation to the Great March of Return protests.
Those recommendations went ignored by the same states who have thrown their support and money behind war crimes trials and other punitive measures after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NWRG ONLUS ha donato alreparto di nefrologia pediatrica dell’ospedale Rantissi
per soddisfare le esigenze del reparto di dialisi dell’ospedale Rantissi pediatrico, con circa 50 pazienti cronici,
“Per oltre 55 anni l’occupazione militare israeliana ha impedito la realizzazione del diritto all’autodeterminazione del popolo palestinese nei territori che Israele occupa dal 1967, comprendenti Cisgiordania, Gerusalemme e Gaza, violando ogni componente di tale diritto e perseguendo intenzionalmente la ‘de-palestinizzazione‘ del territorio occupato”. A sottolinearlo è stata Francesca Albanese, relatrice speciale delle Nazioni Unite sulla situazione dei diritti umani nei territori palestinesi occupati dal 1967, durante la presentazione alla sala Zuccari del Senato del suo primo rapporto, divulgato all’Assemblea Generale Onu lo scorso fine ottobre.
Statement on EU Parliament’s resolution on two-state solution
Dec 17, 2022
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Statements
The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas vehemently deplores the fallacies and positions included in the EU Parliament’s most recent resolution, titled “The Prospects of Two-State Solution in Israel and Palestine”.
This move reflects an appalling bias towards the Israeli occupation and disregard for the rights of the Palestinians, who are suffering from the terrorism practiced by the Israeli occupation and fascist Israeli colonial settlers.
The EU Parliament’s resolution ignores the facts on the ground. As it commits to the so-called two-state solution, it shows disregard for the Israeli occupation’s policies which have undermined it by accelerating settler-colonial projects and stealing Palestinian land and resources. All that takes place in a blatant violation of international law and the UN resolutions reaffirming the illegality of Israeli settlements and the terrorism and violence practiced by Israeli settlers on a daily basis under the nose of the whole world.
It is not fair for the EU Parliament to lament the Israeli occupation soldiers who were held captive by the Palestinian resistance during the Israeli aggression on Gaza while ignoring the plight of thousands of Palestinian detainees who are languishing in Israeli prisons, where they are subjected to the most heinous forms of physical and psychological torture and are denied their most basic rights. This reflects the EU’s double standard policy towards the Palestinian people.
We reject the EU Parliament’s insistence to label the legitimate Palestinian resistance as “terrorism” while recognising the so-called Israeli “security concerns”.
This move will give the Israeli occupation the green light to commit further crimes against the Palestinian people and children.
We call on the EU to immediately backtrack on this resolution and not to align with the Israeli occupation, whose crimes have not ceased, the latest of which was the execution of Palestinian child Jana Zakarneh in her home in Jenin.
We stress that the Palestinian people will continue their struggle and legitimate resistance to defend themselves and their rights until ending the occupation, restoring their right to self-determination, and establishing their state with Jerusalem as its capital.
RAMALLAH, Thursday, December 15, 2022 (WAFA) – The State of Palestine takes note of the passing of the European Parliament resolution on the prospects for the two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. The State of Palestine recognizes the European Parliament’s firm stance on the importance of realizing the international consensus of two-States, including through the convening of an international conference.
The State of Palestine deeply regrets and is concerned about efforts by certain quarter in the European Parliament to inject false claims and attacks against Palestinian children, institutions, and UNRWA. We regret that the resolution does not take into account Israel’s grave violations and crimes, including Israel’s apartheid regime.
The State of Palestine is also troubled by the politicization of humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people and warns that such politicization sets a dangerous precedent, undermines the independence and humanitarian work that the European Union is a champion of, and discriminates against the Palestinian people.
The European Union Parliament missed yet another opportunity to help salvage the two-State solution by calling for the recognition of the State of Palestine, labeling of settlements products, and pursuing accountability for Israel’s ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people.
Israel’s illegal occupation and its apartheid regime remain a grave threat to international peace and security. The European Union should not be complicit in Israel’s oppression nor reward or accommodate it, including by suspending Association Agreement and labeling of settlement products, in accordance with the European Union’s obligations under international law.
This is critically important not just for Palestine but for the validity and continued viability of the rules-based international order, of which the European Union plays an instrumental role in preserving it.
Finally, the Palestinian people have been under Israel’s occupation and oppression for over 55 years. Indeed, it is the duty and the obligation of the European Union and its Parliament to work towards ending Israel’s injustice and ensuring human rights, freedom, and independence for the Palestinian people.
