Let me begin with this quote:
Conditions are increasingly dire in the shelters; there is no water for hygiene, very few showers and latrines are totally inadequate. Disease outbreak is beginning, with skin infections, scabies and others. There are thousands of pregnant women in our schools, deliveries are precarious and we are sheltering newborn infants in these appalling conditions.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it? Yes, that was sarcasm - DEEP sarcasm. This quote describes human suffering on an unbelievable scale. Nearly a quarter of a million people are living under these conditions. And they are the lucky ones. They have survived the artillery barrages, the rockets, the mortars, and the tank shells and were able to make their way to a UN shelter. Not that the shelters are completely safe. The Israeli army has attacked these shelters - defenseless and packed with civilians.
Also from the report:
Yesterday, an elementary girls school in Jabalya serving as a designated emergency shelter for displaced people received artillery strikes, which we have assessed to have been fired by the Israeli military. The precise location and coordinates of the school were conveyed on 17 occasions to the Israeli military, including a notification that the school was sheltering displaced persons. The displaced were instructed by the Israeli military to evacuate their homes and seek shelter in premises such as ours, and I reiterate my condemnation of this attack in the strongest terms, reiterate also that it was a serious violation of international law, and call for accountability, including the immediate launching of a transparent investigation by Israel and to share its findings.
Get your barf bucket handy - there is more sickening content to come.
I have in particular this morning seen the catastrophic human cost of this war, at the pediatric ward in the main hospital in Gaza, with broken bodies that are the real – and unacceptable – consequence of an armed conflict waged with excessive - and at times disproportionate - force in densely populated urban settings. Among the many other children lying in the rooms and corridors was 5 month-old Yussuf who has very barely and not yet definitively survived the shelling of the UNRWA school building yesterday in Jabalya. Like many of you around the table I have children of my own and what I saw today – the terrible wounds - devastated me. I refer to young Yussuf because I have always refused anonymity in death and injury. Too often reports from war zones refer to lists of numbers. The Palestinian children I saw today are not statistics, and behind every death and injury there is a story and a destiny to be respected.
Yes, these are real people who are being killed, maimed, burnt, and shot. They are not to be reduced to mere numbers. They have parents, children, brothers and sisters who care about them. Shall we also care? Will this website give a damn?
We are gravely concerned about this situation. Equally, we are gravely concerned about any possible additional displacement that will drive up the numbers in our shelters. With as many as 2’500 displaced people residing in schools and an average of 80 people to a classroom, we have exceeded the tolerable limit we can accommodate. It is therefore with alarm that I have received accounts of new instructions from the Israeli military to Palestinians to evacuate the Zeitoun area of Gaza City, and areas in the vicinity of Khan Younis.
In view of these facts, and of the shelling affecting UNRWA schools on six occasions, I believe the population is facing a precipice and appeal to the international community to take the steps necessary to address this extreme situation.
Read the report for yourself. The report was made today, July 31, 2014 by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, since 2010, is Filippo Grandi to the UN Security Council.
Here is the link to the UN website presenting it.
The UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is a relief and human development agency, providing education, health care, social services and emergency aid to over 4.7 million Palestine refugees living in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, as well as in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It is the only agency dedicated to helping refugees from a specific region or conflict. It is separate from UNHCR.
If you haven't seen the video of the UNRWA Spokesman, Chris Gunness, who was being interviewed on a live news broadcast, it is important that you watch it now. Mr. Gunness is a former reporter for the BBC and now works for the UNRWA. Here is the YouTube link to his interview. Skip the first 20 seconds and you get right to his heartfelt presentation of how he feels about this problem.
I have read that there has been a three-day ceasefire declared. It may be adhered to, it may not. Even if all the fighting stops, this Humanitarian Crisis will live on for months - probably years - to come.
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Finally, I have to question why - WHY - we have seen over a dozen diaries about this crisis voted to the Rec List and thousands of comments made under them . . . not a single word about it has been written on this website's Front Page. Not a single damn word have I seen.
Is it not a Progressive Value to care for those in need, those who suffer, those who are killed, harmed, made homeless, and/or orphaned unnecessarily - even maliciously? Is the Front Page of this website too good to chronicle this crisis and the real human beings who are suffering and dying?
Screw John Boehner. He's a stupid asshole and a political clown. This really IS more important than his antics.