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.

Palestinians are saying that once Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip ends, the next war begins: the healing of the physical & psychological wounds inflicted on the besieged population, esp its children, whose lives have been marked by protracted exposure to trauma. A 🧵 Even before this war, a 2023 humanitarian needs overview concluded that 495,600 children in Gaza were already in need of mental health & psychosocial services and support, but decades of occupation + siege has meant availability of mental health services have always been minimal

While I was in Gaza April-June, I witnessed the brutal effects of Israel’s gen0cide on Palestinians while also seeing the worst in the global humanitarian response. I’ve sat on this for almost two months but I’m still angry, so here goes: Fuck Fajr Scientific. A 🧵 A refresher: Israel took Rafah on May 7. Immediately that meant that the 13,000 Palestinians with life-threatening illnesses referred abroad for medical treatment could not leave, and the 2 mill+ Palestinians already trapped by a 20 year siege saw another border close. And yet...

There are four sounds you hear in Rafah as night falls: the incessant buzz of drones, the menacing roar of jet engines, the boom of exploding bombs.... and children's laughter.

A thread lovingly dedicated to the "rascal children of Gaza" Despite knowing that children make up nearly 1/2 its population, the sheer # of kids in Gaza still took me by surprise. They fill the streets -- playing, running, on bikes, holding hands, selling goods, carrying toys, buckets, food, each other -- and their chatter fills the air.

I just returned from Gaza, on a medical mission with @glia_intl. I bore witness to the human suffering caused by Israel’s ongoing war against Palestinians, but especially children. We are now in the terminal phase of a genocide that has been ongoing for 75 years. I visited multiple hospitals and spent significant time in Rafah, an area that once housed 30,000 and is now home to over 1 million IDPs. Makeshift tents are everywhere, and refuse and rubble are piling up. Tents are now popping up in the hospitals, too, as people seek refuge.

We had such a great turnout for Community Solidarity London's rally in support of healthcare workers today.

Unfortunately we were confronted by another #FreeDumbConvoy, but most problematically, confronted by the #ldnont police. A 🧵 Our amazing speakers, like @DirkaProut seen here, spoke about the need to support the healthcare workers on the front lines, while a stationary group of #convoy protesters nearby heckled "bullshit!"