Israel has arbitrarily denied 7 international aid organizations access to the Gaza Strip, which means they can no longer send in healthcare workers. This is an alarming decision that will cause significant loss of life. A 🧵
Repeated attacks on hospitals and against healthcare workers have led to a complete breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system. Since January 2024, emergency medical teams (EMTs) have routinely entered Gaza under the World Health Organization to fill the gaps in medical care.
EMTs with my organization alone, Glia, have provided emergency trauma care, general surgery, eye surgery, obstetrics, neonatal support, & primary health care. Weekly, we see 500 patients – all internally displaced - in our field clinic, where they receive free medical treatment.
Collectively, these orgs have treated at least 15,000 patients. They coordinate delivery of medical supplies, operate hospitals, provide mental health supports, help run schools, community centres, run medical evacuations & provide other direct humanitarian aid.
Operationally, we already took a direct hit after Israel took the Rafah crossing on May 7. Before, individual orgs could send in teams up to 10 or 12 and bring with them multiple suitcases full of medicine and supplies. It wasn’t enough to address need, but it was something.
After May 7, EMTs must cross through Israel, putting it in complete control over who could enter and with what. The # of each team was whittled to roughly 3 per rotation, and supplies were no longer permitted – only one carry-on suitcase, one backpack. No medicine.
Suddenly another new rule emerged: no one of Palestinian decent was permitted to enter with an EMT. This cut off scores of highly skilled experts with a cultural awareness and language fluency from entering Gaza, further hurting collective efforts to provide aid.
And now, none of our 7 orgs are permitted to enter. This makes up about 1/3 of all EMTs. We've been given no reason for our denial. It's an escalation in Israel’s attack on healthcare in Gaza, in a genocidal war that has seen every hospital damaged and over 500 HCWs killed.
International governments must swiftly condemn this decision, and protest to Israel to have the denial be reversed. The WHO and other neutral agencies -- not Israel -- should be the ones responsible for determining which EMTs are permitted to provide medical services in Gaza.
Lives are at stake. This arbitrary denial has resulted in an immediate 30% drop in available services. If it is not reversed, and if the onslaught of violence on Gaza doesn't stop, thousands of people who would have otherwise received care from these individual orgs, will die.
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