The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) warns of Israel’s blatant disregard for urgent calls to intervene and save Palestinian civilians in Gaza, who are now on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian disaster after confirming the first case of type 2 poliovirus in Gaza, a virus that had been resurfaced in Palestine for the first time in 25 years ago.
PCHR emphasizes that time is running out, and the continued spread of infectious diseases without intervention provides cover for Israel’s apparent intent to commit genocide— a plan that was hinted at in early statements by Israeli leaders during the current war. As General Giora Eiland, former head of the Israeli National Security Council, stated in mid-November 2023, “The international community warns of a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza and of severe epidemics. We must not shy away from it. Severe epidemics in the south of the Strip will hasten victory”.
PCHR asserts that efforts to combat the spread of this dangerous virus must begin by pressuring Israel to comply with the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s provisional measures and UN Security Council Resolutions, as international organizations urgently called for implementing humanitarian pauses coupled with the immediate entry of humanitarian aid, including medicines and vaccines, particularly the novel oral polio vaccine (nOPV2), and the transport of cold chain equipment to store these vaccines, ensuring a prompt and effective vaccination campaign for more than 640,500 children under ten years of age.
Israel’s continued genocidal campaign against Gaza has created a fertile environment for disease outbreaks through their intentional destruction of all vital sectors, blocking the entry of objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population, including relief and medical supplies, systematic attacks on the healthcare system, destruction of water and sanitation systems, crumbling system of solid waste management, and the ban on entry of personal hygiene materials as well as confining 2 million people Gazans to 15 square miles—11% of Gaza Strip’s area, where Israel intends to flood with epidemics and infectious diseases.
The shutdown of Gaza Strip’s two-thirds of hospitals and primary health care centers has shattered the lifeline of the childhood immunization program, which had safeguarded 99% of Gaza’s children according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health1. This loss of control over the epidemiological situation has led to a tidal wave of over 1.5 million cases of various infectious and epidemic diseases, including those for which children had previously received scheduled vaccines.
Dr. Hani Al-Felet, head of the pediatric department of Shuhada Al-Aqsa Hospital, stated to PCHR’s researcher that a 10-month-old baby has been partially paralyzed after contracting polio in Gaza since his family could not reach vaccination centers due to evacuations orders, difficult transportation and deteriorating security situation in Gaza. Dr. Al-Felet added, “there are higher risk of polio outbreak since there is a large number of unvaccinated children, particularly those displaced from northern to southern Gaza, as well as newborns who are yet to receive their two-month vaccine. And given the current dire conditions, the virus is poised to spread like wildfire through contaminated food and water, likely to occur due to the mixing of ground water and sewage, the severely overpopulated shelters, and the seepage of untreated sewage is into the IDPs tents and streets, compounded by the mountains of solid waste piling up in public spaces. What is concerning is the possibility of the virus spreading in the vicinity of the infected child, and testing could reveal 50-100 infected or virus-carrying children.”
Despite the poor disease surveillance system and its inability to track monitors and statistics across Gaza, over 1.5 million cases of infectious diseases have been recorded in central and southern Gaza Strip, including skin diseases, upper respiratory tract infections, hepatitis A, meningitis, dysentery, and diarrhea, leading to the death of many children.
In 10 months of Israel’s war on Gaza Strip, the World Health Organization (WHO) report, revealed 974,253 cases of acute respiratory infections were recorded, with around 3,500 new cases emerging weekly. This crisis deepens as 562,753 cases of diarrhea were reported, including 122,338 in children under five, with a staggering 18,000 new cases each week. Moreover, 500 cases of bloody diarrhea, 103,385 cases of scabies and lice, 65,368 cases of skin rash, 11,214 cases of chickenpox, and 104,766 cases of acute jaundice syndrome were recorded, each with 1,500 new cases weekly.
The remaining hospitals in northern Gaza, already crippled by limited resources, are on high alert, as medical personnel fear the outbreak of an epidemic amid the relentless war and the strangulating siege on Gaza City and its north. Dr. Hossam Abu Safieh, Director of Kamal Adwan Hospital, stated to PCHR’s researcher that, “The first polio case in central and southern Gaza is a warning signal of a looming disaster, by which IOF obliterate years of success in the Palestinian immunization and vaccination program, which had eradicated such diseases over the past two decades. Israel is deliberately creating a breeding ground for epidemics and infectious diseases through the deliberate destruction of infrastructure, water, and sanitation systems, and denying Palestinians personal hygiene supplies. The fear is palpable as we face a fast-spreading virus in the face of chronic shortages in medical supplies and trained healthcare personnel and specialists. Polio is a severe acute infectious disease that damages a motor neuron in the brainstem, and often goes undetected by doctors and families, making early detection difficult. Therefore, the only way to combat the disease is to end the war, restore the vaccination system for all age groups, and allow medical teams to work freely and safely, ensuring families’ access to vaccination centers. Difficult days ahead, and the actual number of polio cases are unknown, as many show no clear symptoms, and many parents are unaware of the symptoms to seek medical help. It is well known that the virus primarily affects children under five, but adults can also be infected.”
PCHR emphasizes that Israel, as the occupying power, has conducted systematic attacks on civilians and infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, forced the healthcare system into total collapse and created a coercive environment that has entrenched the humanitarian disasters and led to the outbreak of epidemics among hundreds of thousands of IDPs. All of this constitutes a flagrant and grave violation of Israel’s legal obligations under the 1907 Hague Convention, the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, particularly Articles 55 and 56, which ensure the occupying power’s duty of allowing the free passage of medicines and medical consignments and prohibit any conduct that would impedes provision of medicine and medical supplies.
The Israeli violations may amount to the punishable acts codified in Article 3 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The population is facing constant danger by impacting every aspect of their daily life and violating their human dignity due to the widescale destruction of healthcare infrastructure and coercive measures imposed to prevent life-saving medical aid deliveries for the people of the Gaza Strip besieged under inhuman conditions. This has rendered the Gaza Strip a fertile environment for the outbreak of epidemics and diseases amid lack of capabilities to stop it, plausibly amounting to measures intended to destroy in part a certain group and thereby entrenching the crime of genocide.
In light of the above, PCHR:
Calls on the Special Rapporteur on the right to health to declare the Gaza Strip an area ripe for diseases and epidemics as a corollary of Israel’s genocidal campaign ongoing since 07 October 2023. Thus, all countries should assume their responsibilities to exert pressure to prevent the aggravation of a humanitarian disaster in Gaza.
Calls upon the international community to compel Israel to stop the genocide against the people of the Gaza Strip, comply with the ICJ’s rulings and allow the entry of vaccines to contain infectious diseases spread within the Strip, particularly polio vaccines and cold storage equipment to maintain the vaccines’ temperature.
Calls for ending Israel’s entrenched impunity and hold the perpetrators of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crime of genocide accountable by upholding what came in the statement of the International Criminal Court Prosecutor on the arrest warrant applications issued on 20 May 2024 that have found reasonable grounds to believe that Benjamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister of Israel, and Yoav GALLANT, the Minister of Defense of Israel, bear the criminal responsibility for arbitrarily restricting the transfer of essential supplies.
Urges the international community to exert pressure on Israel to create adequate circumstances and enable health workers to freely assume their role to combat the diseases and epidemics by allowing the entry of fuel and passage of personal hygiene supplies.
Calls on the humanitarian organizations and World Health Organization to secure lifesaving aid and basic needs for the IDPs in shelters to mitigate the aggravating humanitarian disaster there.
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Trial Version
