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Here's a summary of some of the latest developments in Gaza and the West Bank, and we'll also share some reportage highlights from the electronic Andaas contributors there.
Israel continued to pound areas across the Gaza Strip this week, including in the north and south, and in the central areas near where so-called humanitarian pauses were in place. As parents and caregivers brought their children to be vaccinated against polio, the vaccination campaign began on Sunday in Deir al-Balah and other areas in the central Gaza Strip. The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza reported on Monday that medical teams were able to vaccinate nearly 160,000 children within the first two days of the campaign, praising the well-attended turnout from parents and caregivers. By today, nearly 180,000 children have been vaccinated. The massive effort will now move to northern and southern Gaza on Wednesday.
Al Jazeera reported that Palestinian children were being vaccinated in Deir al-Balah amid loud explosions in Bureij and Maghazi refugee camps, which were excluded from a humanitarian pause in fighting. And the vaccination campaign on Tuesday, our contributor Abu Bakr Abed reported that there were at least three attacks in Deir al-Balah, with Israeli warplanes "hitting the territory in the morning hours with tanks bombing sporadically, striking the eastern part." Hurts on Saturday, Israel again bombed the Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City. Israeli airstrikes targeted the Safad school also in Gaza City on Sunday. The school has been used as a shelter for displaced families, and at least four people were killed in the attack. Other airstrikes were reported in Nuseirat and Jabalia refugee camps over the past few days. Today, Wednesday, at least two separate Israeli airstrikes targeted homes in the Nuseirat camp, killing and injuring people. On Monday, Israeli forces targeted a group of Palestinians near the Al-Awda school that has been operating as a shelter in Jabalia, killing five and wounding others who were lined up to buy bread. The Israeli Army withdrew its ground forces from Deir al-Balah on Thursday after a days-long series of airstrikes and tank shelling amid widespread and repeated displacement.
Ord writing in The New Arab, Abu Bakr Abed said that although Israeli forces withdrew its ground troops on the eastern outskirts of the city, Apache helicopter gunships, quadcopters, and tanks "remained in the area pounding the city." And this latest ground incursion caused panic and fear among scores of already traumatized people. Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City reopened its emergency department over the weekend following a massive rebuilding campaign after the hospital, which was the largest medical complex in Gaza and predated the state of Israel, was besieged, bombed, and turned into a killing field by the Israeli Army in March of this year. The Ministry of Health in Gaza said that the reopened emergency department has 70 beds, a new triage ward, two operating theaters, a laboratory, a blood bank, and a radiology unit with basic X-ray and ultrasound machines. Though the real opening of Al-Shifa hospital's emergency department is a relief to many patients and health care providers in northern Gaza, it is still a daunting task to acquire basic medical essentials such as gauze, antibiotics, and baby formula.
According to the United Nations, Israel almost doubled its previous rate of denials of entry to humanitarian aid missions in August compared with July. Aid groups say that approximately 1,600 trucks full of essential medicines, health and hygiene supplies, and food are currently stuck at crossing points along the Gaza boundary with no progress on their movement. Israel's repeated and incessant displacement orders, which are pushing Palestinians into an ever-shrinking corner of Gaza, have also impacted storage warehouses for humanitarian aid, the organizations say. Additionally, the severe damage to key infrastructure, including roads, water, and sanitation, along with the risks of unexploded ordnance, have impeded or prevented deliveries of humanitarian aid altogether.
On Friday, more than two dozen international aid organizations warned of an imminent collapse of the humanitarian response in Gaza, which would leave millions of civilians without aid. Doctors Without Borders (Medecins Sans Frontieres) reported last week that for three months, the organization's Gaza team has been trying to import 4,000 hygiene kits containing "basic everyday items such as soap, toothbrushes, shampoo, and laundry powder," adding that the scarcity of such essentials has made them prohibitively expensive for people in Gaza to buy. "For three months, importation of these kits has been blocked by the Israeli authorities," the medical group stated. Just days after Israeli soldiers shot 10 times at a clearly marked World Food Program vehicle, which was part of a convoy whose movements had been fully coordinated with the Israeli Army, an Israeli airstrike on Thursday killed four Palestinians in front of an aid convoy carrying food and fuel to the Emirati Red Crescent Hospital. "The Israeli airstrike was carried out without any prior warning or communication," the aid group, Anera, stated.
This week, like every week, we publish a number of extraordinary features by our writers in Gaza. Huda Skeik, an English literature student, a writer, and a video maker, wrote a personal narrative about being stuck in her second year of studies. Her university, the prestigious Islamic University of Gaza, was bombed and destroyed in October. She says that online classes have opened, but she decided against enrolling since she's displaced in a tent in Nuseirat in central Gaza with about 20 other people. The internet is slow, she writes. There's constant noise around me, there are unexpected evacuations, and my mental health is devastated. "To pursue learning and education at this moment in time, during this genocide, now feels like an act of resistance and reclamation. The familiar rhythms of academic life have been upended, replaced by an environment where safety is a luxury and the sounds of conflict are a constant reminder of our reality. To sit at a desk and read is no longer a possibility, but a symbol of a life that feels increasingly out of reach."
"Sometimes looking back is painful. I think about last year when I was reciting Tamim Al Barghouti's poem in Jerusalem at the Annual Festival held by the English Department, where students would recite poems, sing, or act in plays. It was a chance for us to face our fears and come out of our shells. I remember the pride I felt while on stage and the applause that came after. 'You are all shining stars of The English Department,' the head of the department told us. I felt hopeful and determined that the future I envisioned for myself would be a reality."
"I didn't enroll in classes, but I'm still studying and learning. A friend and I even set aside Fridays to talk about what we've learned during the week, like our own independent study. Each morning, I wake up to the sounds of artillery explosions or the buzzing of drones. The faintest light comes through the cracks of our makeshift curtains in the tent. I rise from my mattress on the floor and get on with my day. My morning ritual is important to me. My first task is to sit alone for a bit to try and find some peace from the noise and chaos. I read the news in English and write stories and poems. It is harder now to do things that once came easily. I struggle to upload books to my phone with the slow and often unavailable internet. The pens and notebooks I now use are different and more costly than the ones I once used. But I know that every line I write and every day that I pursue my own education is a defiant stand against the destruction that encircles me. With or without a desk, a reliable network connection, my fancy pens and sticky notes, and the safety that I once took for granted, I am wholeheartedly dedicated to my education."
That's from Huda Skeik's narrative piece, "With Campus Destroyed, IUG Resumes Online Classes," on electronic and.net.
Turning to the occupied West Bank, the Israeli military assault in the northern cities, towns, and refugee camps is ongoing. My colleague Tamara Nassar reports that as of Tuesday, the widespread Israeli attack has killed at least 33 Palestinians, including seven children, and injured nearly 130 since August 28th, when Israeli troops launched the assault on the Jenin refugee camp, new Oum's refugee camp east of Tubas, and the Al-Far'a refugee camp in the foothills of the Jordan Valley south of Tubas. Hundreds of soldiers, armed with military Jeeps, bulldozers, and drones, have sealed off cities and refugee camps and inflicted widespread devastation to infrastructure, roads, and water networks. The Army has also cut off power. Journalists have been fired at and chased by enormous Israeli military bulldozers while trying to report on the escalating military raids. Tamara reports that Israeli forces this week intensified their attack on Jenin refugee camp, besieging it and leaving it without food, water, or electricity. Israeli soldiers blew up homes in the camp, which houses 20,000 Palestinians, and demolished commercial stores, bulldozed roads, and detained and interrogated residents. Israel's ongoing assault has forced 85% of the camp residents to flee, the largest military, the Israeli military estimates, largely to Jenin City. Those who remained are staying put in their homes, though 80% of the camp has no access to water, the Jenin municipality said. Israel issued an evacuation order to a public hospital in Jenin, currently treating 150 patients. Some restaurants and stores in the area announced that they would be distributing free bread, vegetables, and food supplies to residents as Israel's attacks escalate. Meanwhile, Israeli military bulldozers ripped up 70% of Jenin streets, destroying more than 12 miles of the city's water and sewage grid. Footage circulated on social media shows bulldozers uprooting roads and destroying storefronts. The Israeli Army says that this is done to deter the planting of explosive devices underneath roads by resistance groups. Palestinians can remotely detonate the explosive devices, which have killed and injured a number of Israeli soldiers in recent months. These devices have been more widely used by the armed resistance in the northern areas to resist Israeli invasions into their refugee camps and neighborhoods. That's all from Tamara Nassar's report, "Lethal Israeli Assault Destroys 70% of Jenin Streets," and she wrote a piece earlier this week as the attacks were beginning, "Israel's Intensifying Killing Can't Defeat West Bank Resistance," both on electronic and.net.
In the southern occupied West Bank, Israeli forces shot and injured a 7-year-old Palestinian boy and a 22-year-old man during a raid in Al-Khalil, or Hebron, on Tuesday evening. Both were shot in the legs. Nearby, also on Tuesday evening, dozens of Israeli settlers blocked access into and out of the town of Huwwara, shouting slogans calling for the forced expulsion and killing of Palestinians, according to the Wafa news agency. Other settlers gathered near the entrance of Deir al-Ghusun village, closing the road and shouting genocidal slogans against Palestinians. On Monday, Israeli settlers set fire to large parcels of land in the village of Al-Luban al-Sharqiya, south of Nablus. According to Wafa, the head of the village council told Wafa that settlers set fire to olive tree fields near the road between Ramallah and Nablus. The olive harvest season is set to begin in just a few weeks.
And finally, we wanted to bring you some images and videos from journalists and others in Gaza that highlight the resilience, joy, and determination of the Palestinian people. Children played in the rain, the first of the fall season in Gaza, on Sunday. We have two videos for you. Let's play the first one. And here's another video of kids in a school turned shelter playing in the rain, also on Sunday.
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And members of the Gaza Sunbirds para-cycling team made this video called "The Hands of Gaza." They say that "the hands of Gaza are not empty. They are linked together in our call to the world: Don't stop fighting alongside us with your marches, boycotts, and needed support. Don't stop until Gaza is free."
That's from Gaza Sunbirds. And that's it for the news roundup. As always, go to electronic and.net for much more, especially to read our new features by our brave writers in Gaza.
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