*Report from Rafah* DemocracyNow!, June 17 https://www.democracynow.org/2024/6/17/unicef . . . *AMY GOODMAN*: ... On Sunday, the Israeli military announced a daytime tactical pause in its attacks on Rafah to allow humanitarian aid to enter the strip, but the head of UNRWA says operationally nothing has changed in southern Gaza. Israel has been systematically blocking aid from reaching Palestinians in Gaza for the last eight months. Israeli forces have also targeted Palestinians seeking the scarce aid and have killed more aid workers than any war since the U.N. was formed.
Israeli forces have also killed Palestinians as they attempt to bring food home to their families, including last Wednesday, when troops fired at a group of fishermen in Gaza, killing two of them. That attack was witnessed by our next guest, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder, who’s joining us now from Rafah. Before we get to that larger issue, can you describe what you saw? What happened to these fishermen, James Elder? *JAMES ELDER*: Amy, we were on a mission to take, well, lifesaving medical and nutritional supplies for UNICEF to 10,000 children in the north. We had gone through all the processes. It’s very complicated. It’s detailed. We’ve seen far, far too much aid denied and restricted for people who are in such desperate, growing need. It’s about a 25-mile journey from where we were, Deir al-Balah, to the north, to Gaza City. Amy, it took us 13 hours. Eight hours of those were near checkpoints. In the end, there was a “who said/she said” on how our truck was enclosed. They thought it was a van. We waited. We waited. We waited. In the end, it was denied that access. We were unable to get those supplies to those 10,000 children. As we waited, Amy, ironically, I had been talking to a colleague about the fishing industry, about, you know, this destruction of education, of healthcare, of housing, of agriculture. This colleague friend of mine explained how his father-in-law had a fishing business, and he showed me videos of when his fishing business, the boats, when they just went up in flames, when they were bombed or missiled, boats, water and, of course, fuel. And he showed me this. He explained his father-in-law had a stroke at this time. So, I was engrossed watching these fishermen. This was just eight or 10 men in knee-deep water in the ocean or in the sea with a single net each. And I was looking at each. I’m thinking, “You were probably a university professor. You’re maybe an engineer,” watching, watching for hours and hours whilst we waited to get our aid. Suddenly, there was a tank. This was very near the Israeli large military checkpoint. There was gunfire. Next thing, two of the fishermen just on the beach were on the sand. Now, I was luckily with other colleagues, World Health Organization, a paramedic. They immediately rang to the authorities to get us permission, those people with emergency medical experience, get us permission to get onto the beach to see the state of these two fishermen. That was denied. That access was denied. Half an hour later, the other fishermen, just so desperate to get to see their friends, their family — I’m not sure — in the end, we gave them body bags. They went. They brought them back. And that’s where I saw that one fisherman had been shot in the back, and one fisherman, still with a fishing net around his ankle, had been shot in the neck. . . . *50,000 Gaza children require urgent treatment for malnutrition: UN* UNRWA warns people in Gaza face ‘catastrophic’ levels of hunger because of Israeli restrictions on humanitarian aid. by Al Jazeera Staff, June 15, 2024 https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/15/over-50000-children-in-gaza-need-treatment-for-malnutrition-un-says *Half of Gaza Cropland Damaged as WHO Warns of “Catastrophic Hunger”* Over 8,000 children under the age of 5 have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition, the WHO chief said. By Sharon Zhang, Truthout, June 13, 2024 https://truthout.org/articles/half-of-gaza-cropland-damaged-as-who-warns-of-catastrophic-hunger/ -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30801): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30801 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/106731341/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
