Tag Archives: Médecins Sans Frontières

Global Cease-Fire Call Grows as Israel Wages ‘War Against Hospitals’ in Gaza

“Children in Gaza are hanging by a thread,” said a UNICEF director, calling for attacks on healthcare facilities to stop immediately and the urgent delivery of supplies to hospitals.

By Jessica Corbett. Published 11-10-2023 by Common Dreams

As Israeli forces waged what al-Shifa’s director described as a “war against hospitals” in Gaza on Friday, United Nations officials, human rights groups, and doctors demanded the protection of medical facilities and renewed calls for a cease-fire.

“Half of the Gaza Strip’s 36 hospitals and two-thirds of its primary healthcare centers are not functioning at all,” World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told the U.N. Security Council. “Those that are functioning are operating way beyond their capacities. The health system is on its knees, and yet somehow is continuing to deliver some lifesaving care.”

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‘Catastrophic’: Israeli Forces Unleash Humanitarian Disaster in Jenin

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Israeli bulldozers, said one eyewitness in the occupied West Bank refugee camp, “turned our streets into crumbs” as thousands flee amid destruction of critical infrastructure.

By Jon Queally. Published 7-4-2023 by Common Dreams

Innocent people who were taken out of the camp where they were exiled, regardless of children, the old, the sick or women. Photo: Vildan Ergün/Twitter

Thousands of people who live in Jenin in the occupied West Bank are reportedly fleeing the poverty-stricken refugee camp as Israeli military forces Tuesday continued to batter the city’s water, power, and healthcare infrastructure.

Muhammad Abu Talal, a resident of the camp, told Middle East Eye on Tuesday—a day after a large-scale assault by the IDF left at least 10 Palestinians dead and scores more wounded—that the refugee camp’s “streets are all dug up and uprooted” by bulldozers used by the Israeli forces.

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Critics Decry ‘Preventable Mass Death’ in Africa as Rich Nations ‘Just Sit Back and Watch’

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“Our priority is clear,” said a top WHO official. “it’s crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19.”

By Julia Conley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-8-2021

Photo: WHO

Months into a debate at the World Trade Organization over suspending patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines in order to end the global pandemic, the delay has left Africa facing a third wave of deadly infections as countries across the continent confront dwindling supplies of vaccines.

As The Guardian reported Tuesday, eight countries have seen cases rise by more than 30% in the last week and officials have raised alarm over possible looming shortages of hospital beds and oxygen, unless the outbreaks can be brought under control. Continue reading →

‘A Heinous Crime’: Israeli Airstrikes Damage Gaza’s Only Coronavirus Testing Lab

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“It was bad enough when Palestinians in Gaza weren’t able to get vaccinated, but now to reportedly lose their only coronavirus testing lab is… beyond words.”

By Jake Johnson, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 5-18-2021

The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced they were stopping the only central laboratory for examining coronavirus in Gaza, after it was bombed by israeli warplanes. Photo: Umer Chaudhury/Twitter

Israeli airstrikes in the center of the occupied Gaza Strip on Monday caused severe damage to the territory’s lone coronavirus testing lab and the offices of the Palestinian Ministry of Health, an attack that was immediately condemned as a war crime.

Citing eyewitnesses to the bombing, Middle East Eye reported that Israeli war planes hit the six-story Ghazi al-Shwwa building with “at least three missiles, completely destroying the upper floors.” Continue reading →

Coalition Ignores Famine Warnings and Continues Assault on Yemen as Critics Question US Complicity

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While senators demand answers from the Pentagon, anti-war advocates are calling the attack on Hodeida a failure by the U.S. to stop it and demanding an end to American military support for the coalition

By Jessica Corbett, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 6-16-2018

Yemen Emergency Response Food Assistance. Photo: IRUSA

Ignoring international aid groups’ warnings that an attack on the Yemeni city of Hodeida, which is held by Houthi rebels, could exacerbate hunger in an impoverished and war-torn nation already on the brink of famine, Saudi-led U.S.-backed coalition forces continued a sweeping assault on the Red Sea port city Saturday, reportedly seizing control of an airport.

Since the fighting started earlier this week, thousands of Hodeida’s 600,000 civilians have evacuated and hundreds of people have been killed. The port city is the main conduit through which about 70 percent of international aid reaches Yemenis, many of whom are battling starvation and outbreaks of infectious diseases such as cholera. Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Médecins Sans Frontières

‘Catastrophic’: Israeli Forces Unleash Humanitarian Disaster in Jenin

Israeli bulldozers, said one eyewitness in the occupied West Bank refugee camp, “turned our streets into crumbs” as thousands flee amid destruction of critical infrastructure.