RAMALLAH, West Bank: Palestinians are facing a winter coronavirus surge driven by the omicron variant, placing stress on the medical system even though vaccines are widely available.
The Palestinian Authority’s Health Ministry reported over 70,000 active cases in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on Thursday, more than twice the number at the height of previous surges.
The real figure is likely much higher, as omicron tends to cause milder symptoms, especially in vaccinated patients, and many people are testing at home.
At least 268 people have been hospitalized in the parts of the occupied West Bank administered by the Palestinian Authority, including 80 in intensive care and 24 people on ventilators. Gaza currently has at least 63 serious cases.
The PA has reported at least 4,859 deaths in the West Bank and Gaza since the start of the pandemic.
Dr. Mahdi Rashed, director of health services for the Ramallah governorate, where the PA is headquartered, says hospitals across the territory are at about 85 percent capacity. “It’s a dangerous sign, and a sign that the worst is yet to come,” he said.
The number of serious cases is not yet as high as during a surge last spring, before vaccines were widely available, but Rashed said the current surge hasn’t yet peaked.
The outbreak follows a similar omicron surge in Israel, where the number of infections hit all-time highs and hospitals have been greatly strained. While infections remain high in Israel, the surge has begun to recede.
Israel launched one of the earliest vaccination rollouts in the world last year but initially declined to share its supplies with the PA. Last summer, it offered 1 million doses of vaccines that were about to expire, but the Palestinians refused, saying they didn’t meet their standards.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, territories the Palestinians want for a future state, in the 1967 Mideast war. It annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized by most of the international community. It withdrew from Gaza in 2005. Two years later, the Islamic militant group Hamas seized power there, and Israel and Egypt imposed a blockade.
Rights groups said Israel was obliged to provide vaccines as an occupying power. Israel denied having any obligation, citing past agreements with the Palestinians. Israel has provided vaccines to its own Arab citizens, Palestinians in east Jerusalem and tens of thousands of Palestinians who enter Israel to work.
The Palestinian Authority has meanwhile secured its own supply of vaccines, including through a World Health Organization program for developing countries, but only around half of Palestinians have received them. A vaccination center in Ramallah was mostly empty this week.
A testing center adjacent to it was far busier, with dozens of Palestinians coughing through their masks and showing other symptoms of the virus.
Dr. Abdelbasit Zeineddin said up to 2,000 people show up each day, with around half testing positive.
“The numbers are much higher than before,” he said.
Lama Abu Hilou, 22, has had two vaccine doses but started showing symptoms of the virus this week. She said she came to be tested because she fears it spreading among her extended family. Like many Palestinians, they live in the same apartment building and often gather together.
“It’s not just one person getting it, you hear about entire families, the mother, the father, the children, all infected,” she said.
In Gaza, where the health system has been battered by years of conflict, including last year’s war, the Health Ministry is predicting an “unprecedented number of cases” in the coming weeks.
But Dr. Majdi Dhair, the director of preventive medicine at the ministry, said authorities are confident they can overcome the surge, given the relative youth of Gaza’s population of more than 2 million Palestinians.
“Our main concern is infections among health workers that may lead to a staff shortage,” he said.
Palestinians confront winter COVID surge fueled by omicron
https://arab.news/83tw8
Palestinians confront winter COVID surge fueled by omicron
- The Palestinian Authority's Health Ministry reported over 70,000 active cases in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, annexed east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip on Thursday
- The real figure is likely much higher, as omicron tends to cause milder symptoms
15 pro-government Syrian fighters killed in Daesh attacks: monitor
It is the latest attack of its kind by remnants of the jihadists.
They “attacked three military sites belonging to regime forces and fighters loyal to them... in the eastern Homs countryside, triggering armed clashes... and killing 15” pro-government fighters, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Daesh overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.
It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants continue to carry out deadly attacks, particularly against pro-government forces and Kurdish-led fighters in the vast desert.
Daesh remnants are also active in neighboring Iraq.
Last month, Daesh fighters killed 28 Syrian soldiers and affiliated pro-government forces in two attacks on government-held areas of Syria, the Observatory said.
Many were members of the Quds Brigade, a group comprising Palestinian fighters that has received support from Damascus ally Moscow in recent years, according to the Observatory, which has a network of sources inside Syria.
In one of those attacks, the jihadists fired on a military bus in eastern Homs province, the Observatory said at the time.
Separately, six Syrian soldiers died in an IS attack against a base in eastern Syria, it added.
Syria’s war has claimed the lives of more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus’s brutal repression of anti-government protests.
It then pulled in foreign powers, militias and jihadists.
In late March, Daesh militants “executed” eight Syrian soldiers after an ambush, the monitor said at that time.
The jihadists also target people hunting desert truffles, a delicacy which can fetch high prices in the war-battered economy.
The Observatory in March said IS had killed at least 11 truffle hunters by detonating a bomb as their car passed in the desert of Raqqa province in northern Syria.
In separate unrest in the country, Syria’s defense ministry earlier on Friday said eight soldiers had been injured in Israeli air strikes near Damascus.
The Observatory said Israel had struck a government building in the Damascus countryside that has been used by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah group since 2014.
The Israeli military has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the outbreak of Syria’s civil war, mainly targeting army positions and Iran-backed fighters.
Prominent Gaza doctor killed by torture in Israeli detention
- Al-Bursh died in Ofer Prison, an Israeli-run incarceration facility in the West Bank, says the Palestinian Prisoners Society
GAZA: Adnan Al-Bursh, a Palestinian surgeon and former head of orthopedics at Gaza’s Al-Shifa medical complex, was killed on April 19 under torture in Israeli detention.
According to a statement from the Palestinian Prisoners Society, Al-Bursh, 50, died in Ofer Prison, an Israeli-run incarceration facility in the West Bank.
His body remains held by the Israeli authorities, according to the Palestinian Civil Affairs Committee.
The Palestinian Prisoners Society described the doctor’s death in Israeli custody as “assassination.”
Al-Bursh, who was a prominent surgeon in Gaza’s largest hospital Al-Shifa, was reportedly working at Al-Awada Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip when he was arrested by Israeli forces.
The Israeli prison service declared Al-Bursh dead on April 19, claiming the doctor was detained for “national security reasons.”
However, the prison’s statement did not provide details on the cause of death. A prison service spokesperson said the incident was being investigated.
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, said on Thursday she was “extremely alarmed” at the death of the Palestinian surgeon.
“I urge the diplomatic community to intervene with concrete measures to protect Palestinians. No Palestinian is safe under Israel’s occupation today,” she wrote on X.
I am extremely alarmed by information that Dr. Adnan Albursh, a well-known surgeon at #alshifa_hospital, has died while detained by Israeli forces in the Ofer military prison. While I acquire more information, I URGE the diplomatic community to intervene with CONCRETE MEASURES to…
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) May 2, 2024
Since Oct. 7, when Israel launched its retaliatory bombing campaign in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli military has carried out over 435 attacks on healthcare facilities in the besieged Palestinian enclave, killing at least 484 medical staff, according to UN figures.
However, the health authority in Gaza said in a statement that Al-Bursh’s death has raised the number of healthcare workers killed in the ongoing onslaught on the strip to 496.
Palestinian prisoner organizations report that the Israeli army has detained more than 8,000 Palestinians from the West Bank alone since Oct. 7. Of those, 280 are women and at least 540 are children.
ICC prosecutor calls for end to intimidation of staff, statement says
- The ICC prosecutor’s office said all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately
- The statement followed Israeli and American criticism of the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza
AMSTERDAM: The International Criminal Court’s prosecutor’s office called on Friday for an end to what it called intimidation of its staff, saying such threats could constitute an offense against the world’s permanent war crimes court.
In the statement posted on social media platform X, the ICC prosecutor’s office said all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence its officials must cease immediately. It added that the Rome Statute, which outlines the ICC’s structure and areas of jurisdiction, prohibits these actions.
The statement, which named no specific cases, followed Israeli and American criticism of the ICC’s investigation into alleged war crimes committed during the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian enclave.
Neither Israel nor its main ally the US are members of the court, and do not recognize its jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories. The court can prosecute individuals for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.
Last week Israel voiced concern that the ICC could be preparing to issue arrest warrants for government officials on charges related to the conduct of its war against Hamas in Gaza.
Foreign Minister Israel Katz said Israel expected the ICC to “refrain from issuing arrest warrants against senior Israeli political and security officials,” adding: “We will not bow our heads or be deterred and will continue to fight.”
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said any ICC decisions would not affect Israel’s actions but would set a dangerous precedent.
In October, ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan said it had jurisdiction over any potential war crimes committed by Hamas fighters in Israel and by Israeli forces in Gaza, which has been ruled by Hamas since 2007.
A White House spokesperson said on Monday the ICC had no jurisdiction “in this situation, and we do not support its investigation.”
Houthis offer education to students suspended in US protest crackdown
- Sanaa University applauded the “humanitarian” position of students in US campuses and said they could continue their studies in Yemen
SANAA: Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi militia, which has disrupted global shipping to display its support for Palestinians in the Gaza conflict, is now offering a place for students suspended from US universities after staging anti-Israeli protests.
Students have rallied or set up tents at dozens of campuses in the United States in recent days to protest against Israel’s war in Gaza, now in its seventh month.
Demonstrators have called on President Joe Biden, who has supported Israel’s right to defend itself, to do more to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and demanded schools divest from companies that support Israel’s government.
Many of the schools, including Ivy League Columbia University in New York City, have called in police to quell the protests.
“We are serious about welcoming students that have been suspended from US universities for supporting Palestinians,” an official at Sanaa University, which is run by the Houthis, told Reuters. “We are fighting this battle with Palestine in every way we can.”
Sanaa University had issued a statement applauding the “humanitarian” position of the students in the United States and said they could continue their studies in Yemen.
“The board of the university condemns what academics and students of US and European universities are being subjected to, suppression of freedom of expression,” the board of the university said in a statement, which included an email address for any students wanting to take up their offer.
The US and Britain returned the Houthi militia to a list of terrorist groups this year as their attacks on vessels in and around the Red Sea hurt global economies.
The Houthi’s offer of an education for US students sparked a wave of sarcasm by ordinary Yemenis on social media. One social media user posted a photograph of two Westerners chewing Yemen’s widely-used narcotic leaf Qat. He described the scene as American students during their fifth year at Sanaa University.
Israel confirms death of hostage held in Gaza
- Or was killed and his body held in Gaza since October 7
- His wife was killed in the initial attack while two of their three children were abducted
Jerusalem: An Israeli man held hostage in Gaza since the October 7 Hamas attack has been confirmed dead, the government and the kibbutz where he had lived said early Friday.
Dror Or, 49, is the latest hostage to have been confirmed dead by Israel after begin captured during the Hamas attack that triggered war with Israel.
Or was killed and his body held in Gaza since October 7, the Beeri kibbutz said. It was one of the communities hardest hit in the Hamas attack on southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.
His wife Yonat was killed in the initial attack while two of their three children, Noam and Alma, aged 17 and 13, were abducted and then freed in November as part of a ceasefire and hostages-for-prisoners swap deal between Israel and Hamas.
Israel estimates that 129 captives seized by militants during their attack remain in Gaza. The military says 35 of them are dead including Or.
“We are heartbroken to share that Dror Or, who was kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, had been confirmed as murdered and his body is being held in Gaza,” the Israeli government said on X.
The two children and their brother Yahli are now orphans, it added.
Campaign group the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said it will provide assistance to Or’s family.
The forum and Israeli government did not say how they learned of Or’s death.
“Only by securing the release of all hostages, the living for rehabilitation, the deceased for burial can our people’s revival and future be ensured,” the forum said in a statement.
“Israeli government must exhaust every effort to bring Dror and... the other murdered hostages back for honorable burials in Israel.”
Or’s death was announced as mediators Qatar, the United States and Egypt await Hamas’s response to a new Israeli proposal for a ceasefire and hostage release.
In late November during a week-long truce, 105 hostages were released including 80 Israelis and people from other countries in exchange for the release of 240 Palestinians held by Israel.
The war started with Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel that resulted in the deaths of 1,170 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 34,596 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
