Continued long delays at checkpoints and only being able to deliver aid during daylight hours means that much needed food and medical provisions are not getting through to the people of Gaza.

The consequences of “very limited” aid missions into the north of Gaza  was highlighted by Jamie McGoldrick, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator overseeing crisis relief in Gaza.

UNICEF Aid Truck Hit

A vehicle being used by the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) team was hit by live ammunition on Thursday, and then it was held “for hours” at a checkpoint on Salah Al Deen Road.

Tess Ingram who was part of the  UNICEF team said that they had hoped to proceed to the region “because it was such a critical mission with nutrition products for the children who were malnourished in the north of Gaza, among other things”. 

However, after waiting at the holding point for at least another two hours, they decided moving forward was no longer feasible as there would not be enough time to conduct all their activities, and returned to Rafah.

She said:

“We know that children are dying of malnutrition there. At least 23 children have reportedly died at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, which is where we were trying to bring these nutrition treatments on Tuesday.  There’s a boy that I met in the middle area at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. His name is Omar. He is seven years old. I wasn’t able to speak to him because he was in such a terrible condition, so much pain. “

90% of the children being admitted to the hospital have malnutrition.

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Jamie McGoldrick described visiting Kamal Adwan Hospital two weeks ago, where “every single patient” in the children’s ward faced life-threatening hunger. 

“The last child I saw was in an incubator who was a two-day-old boy, but who wasn’t prematurely born – he was born after nine months – but he was 1.2 kg. There are going to be long-term consequences, which will be felt in the development possibility of that child.”

Jamie McGoldrick said that the targeting of the non-governmental organisation World Central Kitchen convoy two weeks ago was only recent evidence of the frequent dangers faced by aid teams operating in Gaza.

Al Shifa Hospital – Gaza’s biggest has been completely destroyed after two weeks of attacks by the Israeli military, including the oxygen plant, laboratory equipment and other critical equipment including a CT scanner and other machines required to provide lifesaving care. 

Thanos Gargavanis, WHO trauma surgeon and emergency officer said:

“The buildings themselves are burned down, walls are missing; there are holes of shrapnel and fire all along them.” Last week open spaces were found littered with makeshift graves or with bodies lying either uncovered or with a plastic sheet over them.

“We want to stress again that hospitals should never be militarized.”

The WHO and other UN agencies have ensured that the deceased found at Al Shifa can receive a dignified burial, after naming the bodies or making it possible for them to be identified by DNA testing in future.

Saturday April 13th Day of Action

CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) has condemned all killing of civilians and has called for the upholding of the laws of war and international humanitarian law. It has declared Saturday April 13th a day of action calling for a permanent ceasefire. Across the UK marches and events are taking place, including in Orkney, where the vigil, now ongoing for over 6 months, will take place again on Saturday, between 1 and 2pm on the steps of St Magnus Cathedral Kirkwall.

The US Jewish Voice for Peace is calling on the US Congress to stop arming Israel.  Over 150 Jewish creatives, including actors Joaquin Phoenix and Elliott Gould, filmmaker Joel Cohen, and comedian Ilana Glazer, have signed an open letter in support of Jewish  filmmaker Jonathon Glazer’s Oscar speech. Glazer’s film, “The Zone of Interest”, about the Holocaust won Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film and for Best Sound and was nominated in 3 other categories. Glazer said The Zone of Interest shows where dehumanisation leads at its worst:

“Right now, we stand here as men who refute their Jewishness and the Holocaust being hijacked by an occupation which has led to conflict for so many innocent people”. 

Fiona Grahame