July
23, 2024
Earlier
this month, the Lancet published an article estimating that the total number of
Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks
since October 2023 could be nearly five times higher than the official death
toll, and could reach “up to 186 000 or even more.”
It
noted that “this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza
Strip.”
According
to the piece, the latest available count of Palestinians killed – 37,396 – is
far too low, based on the fact that it is still unknown how many more lie under
the rubble, how many are missing but not accounted for among the dead, and how
many will perish due to starvation, dehydration, or diseases.
“Even
if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect
deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive,
communicable, and non-communicable diseases,” it noted.
However,
even this Lancet estimate of nearly 200,000 dead might be only half the actual
number of Palestinians killed, according to some counts.
Norwegian
Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has worked extensively from Gaza over the years – notably
during times when Israel was waging wars on the Palestinian enclave – recently
outlined the manifold preventable conditions which contribute to such
“indirect” deaths, estimating the number dead or soon to die could be over
500,000.
As
causes of indirect deaths, he details “the lack of food entering Gaza and
the destruction the agriculture, the fisheries, the poultry, the dairy farms,
and so on. The lack of water, which leads to dehydration and infections.”
The
third component of the “triangle of death” is common diseases, Gilbert
notes. “There are maybe as many as 10,000 or more cancer patients in Gaza. The
Israeli army bombed the Rantisi hospital for children with cancer and they
bombed the Turkish friendship hospital for adult cancer patients. They do not
allow cancer drugs to come in.”
More
than 1.2 million people, he says, are getting infected because of the bad
hygiene conditions.
Gilbert
points out that in the high temperatures in Gaza now, the uncollected garbage,
destroyed sewage pumps and resulting flooding of streets with raw sewage, “it
makes a hell of parasites that can spread diseases.”
Then,
there are the pregnant women giving birth in unsanitary conditions, their
bodies weakened from starvation. He estimates that more than 50,000 children
have been born in Gaza since October 7, 2023, adding that “all these women
need clean water and good food in order to take care of their children. There
is massive over mortality among pregnant women who have difficult deliveries,
who need cesarean sections.”
The
nearly 40,000 dead is already an appalling number, but these recent estimates
are absolutely horrifying.
Planned
starvation and diseases
Having
lived three years in Gaza (over the period of late 2008 to early 2013), I saw
(and lived) the brutality of the Israeli siege, the severe power outages (16-22
hours a day when I lived there) after Israel destroyed the only power plant and
how those power outages impacted hospitals (dialysis and emergency room
function; incubators; refrigeration for medicine, etc.).
The
power outages impacted the ability to treat sewage, or at the least pump it
into the sea. When sewage over-accumulates, it overflows into the streets
(including at least one horrific case where five civilians drowned in a
northern Gaza village when sewage overflowed).
The
Israel lockdown itself severely restricts what is allowed into Gaza, including
medicine, cooking gas, fuel, food products, livestock, seeds, fertilizers, and
much more. Likewise, it severely limits exports, contributing to the killing of
economy.
As
I wrote a few years ago, the power outages, fuel and cooking gas shortages,
dramatic food insecurity, stunted growth in children, 50% unemployment, and 96%
undrinkable water have been Gaza’s reality for years.
In
fact, already back in 2008, I wrote (from Gaza) about the dearth of food aid
allowed into the enclave:
“UN
figures reveal an average of less than five truckloads a day have been allowed
in, compared to 123 in October and 475 in May last year. On 27 November, the UN
announced that it had run out of food supplies and essentials in Gaza.”
Back
then, there was already a drastic shortage of “300 different kinds of
medicines, 95 of which (including cancer medicines) are no longer available in
Gaza.” 220 machines used for dialysis and other vital procedures, like CT
scans, were not serviceable.
Likewise,
the relentless Israeli attacks on Palestinian farmers and fishers, killed and
maimed with bullets and shells, abductions of fishers and theft of their boats,
have been going on for over a decade and a half, meaning a severe impact on
Palestinians ability to grow or catch their own food.
Other
Israeli army tactics include burning Palestinian crops, cutting down or
otherwise destroying olive trees, and demolishing farms throughout the border
regions. The Israeli government went as far as to calculate the minimum number
of calories needed to keep Palestinians not quite fully starving.
In
2010, I wrote about Israel’s systematic destruction of wells and cisterns from
the southeast to the north, visiting farmers and witnessing the destruction.
Many resorted to trying to irrigate their land via donkey cart with jugs of
water. For over a decade, 95% of water from the Gaza’s sole aquifer has been
unfit for human consumption.
Add
numerous Israeli wars on Gaza to the unrelenting siege, and you can see how
Israel long ago set the stage for chronic disease, stunted growth, anemia, and
so many more diseases and afflictions – long before October 7, 2023.
Remember,
in October, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant declared, “I have ordered
a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no
fuel, everything is closed. We are fighting human animals, and we are acting
accordingly.”
Remember,
also, how Israeli forces have repeatedly fired on starving Palestinians lined
up for what meagre food aid did enter Gaza, the worst such massacre in
February, killing at least 115 civilians and wounding over 750.
Some
months before the Lancet’s warning, back in March, Ralph Nader likewise
questioned what he believed was a severe undercounting of the Palestinians
killed in Gaza, writing, “From accounts of people on the ground, videos and
photographs of deadly episode after episode, plus the resultant mortalities
from blocking or smashing the crucial necessities of life, a more likely
estimate, in my appraisal, is that at least 200,000 Palestinians must have
perished by now and the toll is accelerating by the hour.”
More
recently, Dr. Ahmad Yousaf, a doctor with Med Global who is working in Deir
al-Balah, central Gaza, said in an interview:
“This
ICU is full of diabetic patients who get a very treatable disease but they are
dying of the most simple thing: because the insulin is unavailable, because
they’re not allowed to bring it in, and refrigeration is gone. As many amputees
from the trauma, there are amputees of diabetes uncontrolled.
“The
numbers are vastly higher, I would say four, five, six times higher easily. Let
alone the ones who will die in the decades coming from both the psychiatric
trauma and the physical disabilities associated with what’s happened in the
last nine months.”
‘Safe
zones’ are not safe
Palestinians
tortured to death in Israeli prisons should also be included in the “indirect”
death count, as Israel has abducted over 4,000 Palestinians from Gaza,
including children, journalists, doctors, women (this is in addition to the
nearly 10,000 non-Gaza Palestinians in Israeli detention).
Virtually
no coverage in Canadian legacy media, scant coverage in the US. In fact, the
New York Times’ heading unsurprisingly removes Israel as the reason behind the
deaths, with its, “Fighting Isn’t the Only Killer of Gazans Amid the War,
Researchers Say,” and otherwise writes Israel out of responsibility for the
starvation it deliberately has caused in Gaza.
It
is always worth it to point out the hypocrisy of Western press and talking
heads’ reactions when it is Israel committing atrocities, compared to when the
West claims Syria, Russia or another state allegedly did something similar.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to massacre Palestinians in what were supposed to
be “safe zones,” notably the recent repeated bombing of al-Masawi refugee camp
(with least 1.5 million displaced Palestinians), killing at least 71 civilians
and injuring nearly 300 more. Then, Israel re-bombed that same camp just days
later.
It
is mind-boggling that this slaughter of Palestinian civilians continues, with
some hand wringing and mild condemnations. As Ralph Nader wrote, “It matters
greatly whether the aggregate toll so far, and counting, is three, four, five,
six times more. It matters for elevating the urgency for a permanent
ceasefire.”
Daniel Larison
Israeli forces attacked “vital civilian infrastructure” at the
port of Hodeidah in Yemen on Saturday in response to a Houthi drone strike in
Tel Aviv, according to Mwatana, a leading independent Yemeni human rights
organization.
The Israeli military claimed that it hit “military targets,” but
Mwatana reports that the strikes did extensive damage to oil facilities, fuel
tanks, and the port’s wharf and cranes, all of which are critical to supplying
the civilian population in north Yemen with much-needed fuel and food.
The group also said that the strikes knocked out the central
power station providing power to the entire city. Houthi authorities say that
the strikes killed at least three people and wounded 87. Yemen researcher Nick
Brumfield commented on the Israelis’ choice of targets: “The Israeli attack on
Hudaydah’s oil storage was not an example of the Houthis hiding weapons in
civilian infrastructure and it getting bombed. As best as I can tell, this is
Israel purposefully targeting vital civilian infrastructure in and of itself.”
The Israeli government used the same tactics in Yemen that it
has employed to such devastating effect in Gaza.
The Israeli response represents a major escalation against the
Houthis, who have been launching drones and missiles at Israeli targets without
success since shortly after the war in Gaza began. The attacks have taken their
toll: Israel’s Eilat port is now bankrupt as all shipping has been redirected
elsewhere, to safer routes, and the U.S. Navy has spent over $1 billion in
resources intercepting the Houthis’ far less expensive weapons in the Red Sea.
Like the ineffective U.S.-U.K. bombing campaign against the
Houthis that began in January, these Israeli strikes play into the hands of the
Houthis, the armed militia group and political movement that has been the de
facto government of north Yemen for the last ten years. Direct conflict with
both the U.S. and Israel is a significant boost for the Houthis’ domestic
political standing, and their opposition to the war in Gaza has likewise raised
their international profile.
Journalist Iona Craig observed on BlueSky that the strikes are a
gift to the Houthis: “For a group whose existence, evolution and expansion
depends on being at war they’re being gifted everything they need.”
In addition to being a disproportionate response to the drone
attack, the strikes on Hodeidah seem certain to provoke the Houthis to launch
more attacks on Israel. Hodeidah was a frequent target of Saudi coalition
airstrikes before the 2022 truce took effect, but this did nothing to stop
Houthi attacks on Saudi and UAE targets. After more than nine years of foreign
governments bombing Yemeni cities, it should be clear that it doesn’t achieve
anything except to inflict misery and death on Yemeni civilians.
According to Haaretz, the Israeli military knows that striking
Yemen is unlikely to deter the Houthis from launching more drones and missiles.
Escalation against the Houthis isn’t going to make Israel more secure, but it
will further strain Israel’s resources as it brings the region closer to a
wider war. As long as the U.S. continues backing Israel’s war in Gaza and wages
its own military campaign in Yemen, the U.S. is at considerable risk of
becoming further embroiled in that wider war.
The people that will suffer the most from Israel’s strikes are,
as always, the civilian population of Yemen that has already endured a decade
of war and deprivation. Craig added, “While helping the Houthis, the only
damage such performative strikes do is to the Yemeni people by targeting the
main entry point of food in a country that imports more than 70% of its food
supplies and 90% of its wheat.”
Indeed, the U.S. has refrained from targeting the port in its
bombing campaign because of concerns that doing so would worsen the country’s
ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The Israeli strikes in Yemen will make it harder for the Biden
administration to pretend that Houthi attacks on Red Sea commercial shipping
have nothing to do with the war in Gaza. The administration wants to keep these
conflicts in separate boxes to maintain the illusion that it has prevented the
war in Gaza from destabilizing the region, but they are all obviously
connected. It does no one any favors to ignore this reality.
If the U.S. wants to see an end to the Houthi attacks on
shipping and those directed at Israel, it should stop trying to bomb its way to
de-escalation and put real pressure on the Israeli government to end its
campaign in Gaza. The war in Gaza is the main driver of all these other
conflicts, and none of them will be successfully resolved until there is a
lasting ceasefire and an end to the blockade that has been strangling the
Palestinian people there.
At the very least, the U.S. should be pressing the Israeli
government to avoid any further escalations against other countries in the
region. Among other things, that requires delivering a clear message to Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu when he comes to Washington this week that the U.S.
will not bail him out if he goes to war in Lebanon. The region cannot afford
any more conflicts, and the U.S. must stop stoking existing ones with more
weapons and support.
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