Notices by Erin Conroy (chargrille@progressives.social), page 3

"parents in Rafah, where OCHA reported more than 1.3 million residents of Gaza have been forced to flee, say the stress of being unable to protect their children from bombardment is compounded by their inability to provide enough food....Living conditions are overcrowded & unsanitary.

“People are forced to cut down trees to get firewood for heating & preparing food. Smoke is everywhere & flies spread widely & transmit diseases,” said Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi...director of an orphanage in Gaza City"

Al-Naizi fled south w/"40 people under his care [mostly] children & infants living with disabilities.

Hamouda...used to feed his children – aged 6, 4 & 2 – a mixture of fruits & vegetables, biscuits, fresh juices, meat & seafood. This year, he said, the family has barely eaten one meal a day...

“Children are being violent towards each other to get food & water...I can’t stop my tears from falling when I talk about these things, because it’s very hurtful seeing your kids & other kids hungry.”

"All 350,000 children under the age of five in Gaza are especially vulnerable to severe malnutrition, UNICEF reported last month."

The “scale and speed” of potential famine in Gaza will consign child survivors to a lifetime of health risks, said Rebecca Inglis, an intensive care doctor in Britain who regularly visits Gaza to teach medical students.

The first 1,000 days of a child’s life are “absolutely critical” for physical growth & cognitive development, Inglis told CNN."

"Malnourished children have an 11-fold increased risk of dying...Vitamin & mineral deficiencies force the body into an “emergency shut-down state” where it loses the ability to make energy, put on weight, or maintain kidney & liver functions."

These children are also "at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia."

"Cases of diarrhea in children under age five have increased about 2,000% [in #Gaza] since October 7, UNICEF said."

"Hamouda said his own children have diarrhea, cold and flu symptoms. “The children’s bodies are dehydrated … their skin is dehydrated.”

"In times of severe stress, pregnant women are more likely to miscarry or give birth prematurely, health workers previously told CNN. Gaza is home to 50,000 pregnant women, according to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Babies who do survive in utero are more likely to be born underweight and are therefore at higher risk of dying, Inglis said. Starving and dehydrated mothers cannot provide enough breast milk for their babies."

"Shadi Bleha, 20, is trying to feed a family of six. Twice a week, they receive two water bottles, three biscuits and “sometimes” two cans of food from UNRWA, he said."

"The Israeli military in January only granted access to a quarter of aid missions planned by humanitarian agencies to Gaza, OCHA said on January 21. CNN reached out to COGAT for comment on OCHA’s statistics and did not get a reply."

"Meanwhile, Israel’s military offensive has razed at least 22% of Gaza’s agricultural land, according to OCHA. Livestock are starving and fresh produce is hard to come by."

Now, think about the fact that everything you just read is a month old. It's now the last day of Feb.The diarrhea has gotten worse. The starvation has gotten worse. The disease is getting worse.

As of Jan, "Israel’s strikes...killed at least 26,637 people & injured 65,387 others."

In February, Israel killed nearly 4000 more people in Gaza, the bulk women & children.

In 5 months, Israel has killed or injured 1 in 23 Gazans. That ratio applied in Israel would be 400K dead or injured Israelis.

If anyone needs his mental health evaluated, it's a) the cop who did nothing but point a gun at Aaron's head while he was in flames & b) the people making excuses for bombing over 10,000 children to pieces in Gaza.

The people who want to see Aaron's protest buried, & the slaughter of children in Gaza continue, will talk about only one person's mental health today.

People who protest in this way are not presumptively mentally ill.

(UNWRA fired the employees that Israel has accused. #Netanyahu has not fired those ministers of the Israeli government who support ethnic cleansing and genocide. Which is not surprising, since he himself supports genocide against Palestinians and himself directly incited IDF soldiers to genocide with his infamous Amalek letter & remarks.)

https://twitter.com/MouinRabbani/status/1751804884385423454

If allegations against .0004% of UNWRA's employees are enough for US Admin to cancel all US funding for food & water to 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, then why isn't open support by 32% of ***the entire ministry of the government of Israel*** for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza, enough to cancel all US funding to their organization?

/thinking/

https://twitter.com/EpshtainItay/status/1751668300008833149

UNRWA serves 2 million Palestinians in Gaza. The State Department decision is intended to [extend the intentional starvation of] all of them.

“The US chose to stop funds to UNRWA only an hour after the ICJ decision,” tweeted USCPR Organizing & Advocacy Director Iman Abid. “Israel kills over 33,000 Palestinians & the US still continues to negotiate an increase in funding to Israel. I don’t know what more you need to know about this administration.”

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/biden-cuts-off-life-saving-aid-to-palestinians-based-on-israeli-allegations-against-unrwa/

Yesterday the ICJ directed Israel not to commit genocide & collective punishment.

So, the new US scheme to collectively punish #Gazans is: withdraw all #UNWRA funds & starve Palestinian toddlers to death, while you launch a sham investigation on if <0.00001%* of humanitarian donations are used by baddies, while REFUSING to obey US laws requiring you to investigate whether the hundreds of millions of dollars in weaponry you are giving #Netanyahu are being used to commit his war crimes/genocide.

Do Biden's & Harris' ghoulish advisors driving an ongoing foreign policy bus crash, really think they are fooling anyone with these spiteful maneuvers?

*P.S. I am making these numbers up. It's probably much less at issue on #UNWRA funds, and I will correct if someone else has time and does the real research/math.

My point is that in the first case, denying aid funds during your "investigation" kills starving babies, children, & families in Gaza - NOW. And in the second case, *refusing* to do an investigation of the use of the weaponry we're paying for, against Palestinians, kills babies, children & families in Gaza - NOW.

There's a common purpose betrayed by these 2 very different, very hypocritical approaches. Call WH/reps.

And donate directly to #UNWRA to help Gazans, here: https://donate.unrwa.org/gaza/~my-donation

Just a reminder that the Israeli government murdered ***142 employees*** of #UNWRA from October to December of 2023.

#Gaza #Israel #Biden #USStateDepartment

This is such plain, petty, open & obvious retribution for the #ICJ daring to hold Netanyahu & his right wing Kahanist coalition to any kind of accountability at all for the nearly 30,000 Palestinians they have killed in #Gaza, the #WestBank, and #Israel itself, in 2023.

"The Biden administration’s announcement comes on the same day that the UN’s top court ordered Israel to prevent genocidal acts Gaza & a U.S. court began hearing a lawsuit accusing Israel of genocide"

https://mondoweiss.net/2024/01/biden-cuts-off-life-saving-aid-to-palestinians-based-on-israeli-allegations-against-unrwa/

"Moshe & a group of other hostages were marched into Hamas’ extensive tunnel network [to a room where] they were told they’d be released in the coming days.

“We believed them. We believed that would be the first thing Israel would do,” she said. It ended up taking nearly 50 until she was freed.

“I told all the guys, ‘We’ll be here for at least two months & not because of Hamas,’” she said, indicating she harbored anger toward Israel for not securing her release earlier"
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hostage-hamas-gaza-captive-02b11a8ec897970589e580dee732d484