The Health Of Gaza: What Once Was And What May Be – OpEd

October 7, 2023 marks perhaps the most significant event in recent Palestinian history. Palestinian militants from Hamas launched nearly 3,000 rockets into Israel, leaving hundreds dead and sparking an intensification of an already brutal decades-long conflict.

This is typically where Western media coverage of the conflict concludes. In many of the statements set forth by American and European political leaders, there’s no mention of what exactly led up to this attack. The pogroms, demolition of homes, uprooting of families, killing of innocents, settler violence, ethnic cleansing, apartheid, attacks on holy sites, and everything else that accompanies over 70 years of occupation are nearly always overlooked.

A key element of Palestinian history, and an underanalyzed tool used by Israel to oppress the people of Palestine, is the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people’s health. States (such as Israel) have used and will continue to use, tools to target the health of oppressed groups to hold onto power.

For the last 16 years, the people of Gaza have suffered under a suffocating blockade. Since 2018, there have been over 645 attacks on key Palestinian health infrastructure by Israeli forces.

Palestinians have had little access to hospitals and medical technology, especially when compared to their Israeli counterparts. Israel severely limits the movement of Palestinians, and they end up rejecting or denying over 30% of permit applications – which are necessary to travel to a hospital in Palestine.

Children in Gaza seeking medical treatment often could not receive approval from their adult supervisors from Israeli authorities. This leads to poorer patient outcomes, as the longer one waits for treatment, the higher the risks of mortality are.

Take the case of cancer patients in Gaza. Israel denied thousands of Palestinians in Gaza the ability to travel out of the open-air prison to get medical help. The mortality rates of those Palestinians who were denied care from 2015-2017 increased by nearly 150%. This doesn’t even take the thousands of lives lost due to lack of access to medical technology (like x-ray machines, MRIs, and hematologic drugs) due to the Israeli blockade.

As 40 year old cancer patient Dina El-Dhanu explained earlier this year, “The crossing is life, because as patients our treatment doesn’t exist here. (The border crossing) either enhances my treatment or enhances my departure.” 5 months later, and nearly all Palestinians now rely on the Rafah crossing for essential aid. Like they denied hundreds of civilians access to medical treatment just months ago, Israel continues to deprive innocents of their needs.

Now, Israeli officials have announced they will be withholding electricity, fuel, and water to over 2.3 million Palestinians living in Gaza. Nearly half of the individuals living in this tightly crammed strip of land are children, only a small portion of which are members of the militant group Hamas.

Such collective punishment would not only lead to additional escalation and suffering but also, it is considered a war crime. This attack on essential infrastructure would lead to, “…wounded children dying in hospitals because of a lack of energy, electricity, and supplies,” according to Norwegian Refugee Council’s secretary general, Jan Egeland.

After over 2 weeks of bombardment, nearly 6,000 Palestinians have already been killed, with hundreds more stuck under rubble. Gazans have a maximum of 3 liters of water per day to bathe with, drink, and cook with, as opposed to the UN-recommended 100 liters a day.

Palestinians can only survive with this level of lack of water and malnourishment for a limited amount of time. And, if they are not killed by thirst and starvation, Israeli bombs may be what ends their lives. Already, the Israelis have targeted civilian locations, such as churches and hospitals, as they had attacked Red Cross personnel and aid workers in their 2006 war with Lebanon.

Although perhaps the most significant and widely debated hospital strike in the ongoing war was targeted at al-Ahli hospital, there is no question, no ambiguity about Israel’s attacks on other critical healthcare infrastructure.

Hospitals in Gaza, like al Nasser and al-Shifa, are left without a watt of electricity for hours on end. Surgeons are forced to operate on children without anesthesia, using only flashlights to help them see emergency admissions during nighttime raids. Gaza’s most vulnerable populations have it worst in this healthcare crisis. The moment electricity stops, over 130 Palestinian babies will die as their incubators lose power.

The future of Gaza is uncertain. What is certain, though, is that Israel has committed and is currently committing war crimes in occupied Palestine. Every aspect of Palestinian life is impacted by the occupation. But, by targeting Palestinians’ health, Israel has ensured their enemies (Palestinian civilians included) die in the most painful and brutal way possible.

A key element of Palestinian history, and an underanalyzed tool used by Israel to oppress the people of Palestine, is the systematic destruction of the Palestinian people’s health and health infrastructure. States (such as Israel) have used and will continue to use, tools to target the health of oppressed groups to hold onto power. For the last 16 years, the people of Gaza have suffered under a suffocating blockade. Since 2018, there have been over 648 attacks on key Palestinian health infrastructure by Israeli forces.

From stopping cancer patients from acquiring treatment, utilizing water distribution apartheid tactics, to harassing Palestinian doctors and blocking access to crucial health technology, Israel has a history of using healthcare as a method of control to kill thousands of Palestinians, sometimes without even using a single bomb. 

All of these tactics are being seen now, too, as Israel responds to the Palestinian resistance. And, while bombing and direct combat are easily seen examples of Israel’s violence, their attacks on healthcare are often just as lethal. For instance, over 130 Palestinian babies would die a painful, traumatic death the moment electricity supplies stop to Gaza hospitals, as Israel has threatened to do. It is therefore absolutely crucial to acknowledge these less visible crimes and call out Israel’s attacks on healthcare infrastructure as collective punishment and war crimes.