Urgent health update: Consequences of the war on Gaza and the West Bank/East Jerusalem, and now Lebanon and Iran - March 8, 2026

To our Muslim colleagues, Ramadan Kareem.

See the Jewish Voice for Peace statement opposing war on Iran: here

As predicted in our statement condemning the US/Israel attack on Iran, hospitals and other medical facilities have been repeatedly targeted. (Drop Site 3/2) The war has also diverted attention to the ongoing catastrophe in Gaza. In the study of international relations, “Diversionary Theory” suggests that governments facing domestic fragmentation or stalled objectives may escalate external confrontations to consolidate support and redirect scrutiny. Hours after the attack on Iran, in Gaza food prices surged, crossings closed, the Western gaze turned towards Tehran, obliterating concern for the humanitarian crisis in Palestine. here

Action alert

·       Palestinian Columbia University student Leqaa Kordia has been held in horrible conditions in ICE detention for 11 months, most recently having to be hospitalized following a seizure. She has never been charged with anything — but is being punished for speaking against Israel’s genocide against her family in Gaza. Use this tool from our partners to email your members of Congress now and demand they call for Leqaa’s immediate release. here

·       Use this tool from JVP Action to email Congress now and demand they support Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib's legislation to recognize Israel’s genocide in Gaza, end U.S. complicity in these atrocities, and demand accountability. here  

·       World Cup:  FIFA president just appeared with Donald Trump at the sham Board of "Peace" meeting. They're promising $70 million to build soccer fields next to Gaza's schools, ignoring the fact that Israel destroyed all of the schools. In aligning with Trump, FIFA is complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Gaza. To make matters worse, Airbnb is one of the official supporters of this year's World Cup. Airbnb has partnered with FIFA & the World Cup to provide $750 vouchers to anyone who opens their home as a rental. Tell them not to align with genocide!

·       Join [or start] local actions to call for the end of the US/Israeli war on Iran. As health workers, speak out on the impact of war on health, human suffering, and the degradation of the environment under intense bombing.

Webinars

·       JVP Health Advisory Council presents: Health Under Siege, with Dr. Zeena Salman, pediatric oncologist, co-founder of HEAL Palestine. Sunday 3/22, 10 AM Pacific/1 PM Eastern. Read More Register: HERE.

·       USA-Palestine Mental Health Network presents: Besiege Your Siege with Madness: Collective Liberation and the Psychoanalysis of World-Making, with Dr. Reem Abu Hweij, clinical psychiatrist AlQuds University and Dar Al Kalima University. Sunday 4/19, 8:30am Pacific/ 11:30am Eastern/ 6:30pm Palestine. Register here:

·       PHR and Physicians for Human Rights Israel, in collaboration with the Global Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, hosted a webinar briefing examining how the collapse of Gaza’s health system, restrictions on humanitarian aid, and persistent displacement have caused severe harm to maternal and newborn health. The discussion also addressed reproductive autonomy, reproductive violence, and key recommendations for urgent action. Watch here

·       Ethnic Cleansing in the West Bank: It's Even Worse Than You Think: video screening and panel hosted by Voices from the Holy Land, 3/15 register here.

·       APHA Peace Caucus Presents: Bearing Witness: Clinical Realities from Gaza, Thursday, March 19, 2026,  12:30 PM PT | 2:30 PM CT | 3:30 PM ET (US & Canada) Register here:  Speakers: Drs Thaer Ahmad, Yipeng Ge, Ambereen Sleemi

Reports & Publications

·       Israeli soldiers fired nearly a thousand bullets during the massacre of 15 Palestinian aid workers in southern Gaza on 3/23/25—with at least eight shots fired at point blank range—according to a joint investigation by the independent research groups Earshot and Forensic Architecture. The report, based on eyewitness testimony and audio and visual analysis, shows that a number of aid workers were executed and that at least one was shot from as close as one meter away. (Drop Site 2/23) Full report here.

·       Report on Palantir by Alice Rothchild: Major tech companies are facilitating the brutal assaults by ICE in the United States and the humanitarian catastrophe and rising death toll in Gaza. This is made possible by the hoovering up of massive amounts of our personal data and using it to make predictions about behavior or identifying targets to strike. The tactics and AI-powered targeting technologies have invaded our homes, our places of work, and our neighborhoods. Here

·       In this episode of Frontline Shift, health workers from NORWAC — an emergency medical team working in coordination with WHO in the Gaza Strip since February 2024 — alongside a WHO rehabilitation specialist, discuss the urgent needs, gaps, and challenges in expanding access to physical rehabilitation services. They share how the lack of functioning services and essential assistive devices is affecting patients’ recovery, independence, and quality of life. here

United Nations

The UN Humanitarian Country team (over 200 NGOs coordinating essential services - food, water, medical care, shelter, nutrition, education, and protection – with the UN in Gaza) noted the 2/27 temporary injunction by the Israeli High Court of Justice prohibited the decertification of NGOs who have not met Israeli requests for information about their workers, funding, etc. They urged Israel to lift restrictions that impede humanitarian operations and adhere to international humanitarian law.

Read the full statement here

GAZA

The Israeli-US war on Iran has not interrupted the Israeli violations of the 10/10 ceasefire, with daily demolitions of residential buildings, farmland and public infrastructure, as well as military strikes on tent camps, homes, agricultural lands and public gathering places on both sides of the “yellow line.” Palestinian sea access and fishing remain prohibited. Israel closed all border crossings into Gaza on 2/28 and has allowed only a very limited amount of food to enter thru the Kerem Shalom crossing since, exacerbating the food, shelter, and health crisis. 

Between 2/20-25, Israel killed 7 and injured 33.

Since the 10/10 “ceasefire,” Israel has killed at least 631 Palestinians and injured 1,700.

Palestinians killed in Gaza since 10/07/2023: 72,663+ killed, 173,349+ injured. 

For more information on Gaza: here

Note: Since the Israeli-US war began, expected reports from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, upon which this update depends heavily, were not released. 

Israeli attacks

·       3/4, Israeli artillery shelled neighborhoods east of Gaza City in the northern Gaza Strip, while Israeli naval vessels fired machine guns and shells toward Gaza’s coastline. The escalation came as Israel closed all crossings into Gaza until further notice, intensifying fears that the enclave could again face severe food shortages as well as dwindling fuel supplies. UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese warned that Israel is once again deliberately starving the population of Gaza. (Palestine Chronicle 3/4)

·       A Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Salah al-Din Street in the Shujaiya neighbourhood east of Gaza City. The Israeli army is continuing to carry out systematic demolitions of homes and buildings near the “yellow line,” while Israeli forces struck areas east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and shelled the eastern parts of the Bureij refugee camp, amid continued Israeli violations of the ceasefire agreement. (Drop Site 3/6)

Aid

·       2/20-26, the UN2720 Mechanism dashboard recorded 7,500 pallets of aid offloaded at Gaza’s crossings: 66.5% food supplies, 23% shelter items, 5.5% WASH assistance, and 2% health items. 7,200 pallets were transferred into Gaza: 82% food supplies, 9% shelter items, 8% nutrition supplies, and less than 1% health supplies. 

·       2/20-26, of the 55 humanitarian missions coordinated with Israeli authorities: 7 were denied, 32 were facilitated, 15 faced impediments, and 1 was cancelled.

·       2/18-24. many UN and international NGO trucks manifested through the Egypt Corridor were not allowed to offload. Of 244 trucks, only 30% could offload at Kerem Shalom. During February, only 34% of all 1,098 manifested trucks were offloaded. This situation has only worsened since the Israeli-US war on Iran began.

·       Karuna Herrmann, Jerusalem director of the UN Office for Project Services, said fuel stocks may last only “a couple of days,” while Palestinian aid official Amjad Al-Shawa estimated 3-4 days’ supply remains. 3/2, Israeli authorities said the Kerem Shalom crossing would reopen the next day for “gradual entry of humanitarian aid.” Amounts were not specified. (DropSite, 3/3) & here

·       Palantir Technologies has a permanent desk at the US-led Civil Military Coordination Center (CMCC) headquarters in southern Israel. The A.I. data analytics giant is providing the technological architecture for tracking the delivery and distribution of aid to Gaza. The presence of Palantir and other corporations—along with recent changes banning non-profits unwilling to give data to Israeli authorities—is creating a situation in which the delivery of aid is taking a backseat to the pursuit of profit, investment, and the training of AI products, experts say. here

Food & Nutrition

·       The WFP Market Monitor, released before the start of the war on Iran, noted signs of improvement in February, including more accessible market prices and increased food availability. However, vegetables are still consumed on average 2 days per week (down from 6 before 10/2023); fruits just half a day per week (down from 3); protein only 1 day per week (down from 3). Over 50% of the population relies on waste burning for lack of cooking gas. In the north, now 10% of households use cooking gas, signaling gradual improvement.

·       As of 2/23, 200,000 families (1 million people) received household-level general food assistance. February ration sizes only cover half of the minimum caloric needs.

·       As of 2/21, 1.73 million meals are prepared and delivered daily through 182 kitchens. Since the start of Ramadan, meal preparation and distribution times have been adjusted to align with fasting hours. 

·       As of 2/25, 160,000 2-kilo bread bundles were produced daily through 19 UN-supported bakeries. 

·       The pre-Iran war low aid delivery rates threatened meal and bread production, which may be forced to pause by early March, as would the current half-rations of food distribution. 

Health & Hospitals

·       Until it was closed again on 2/28, WHO facilitated medical evacuation for 289 patients and 521 caregivers through the Rafah crossing. UN and humanitarian partners also provided 804 returnees with protection, medical assistance, transportation and basic supplies. Read more about the effect of closing the Rafah crossing will have on Palestinians here: here

·       As of 2/28, 260 of 619 health service points (42%) were functioning, albeit 90% partially. These include 19 of 37 hospitals, 12 field hospitals, 106 primary health care centers, and 123 medical points.  All hospitals remain fully dependent on back-up generators, with delays in the entry of related spare parts, uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems, transformers and critical electrical components impacting ICUs, dialysis, operating theatres and labs all resulting from Israeli “dual use” classifications.

·       From the ceasefire through 2/16, 853 people have acquired new disabilities, including 496 through amputations, 186 spinal cord injuries, and 171 traumatic brain injuries. Despite rising needs, assistive products, including prosthetics, continue to be classified by the Israeli authorities as “dual-use,” severely restricting their entry to 300 artificial limbs into Gaza. The cumulative number of amputations since 10/2023 now exceeds 5,500.

·       Two-year-old Nidal Abu Rabie died in central Gaza on 2/22 after Israeli authorities prevented him from traveling abroad for urgent treatment for severe liver and spleen enlargement. Rabie was on the medical transfer list for more than 14 months and held an official referral for nine of those months; his sister, who also has a valid referral for evacuation, remains hospitalized at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital. Health officials say some 22,000 Palestinians remain on medical evacuation lists—including 5,000 urgent cases and 8,000 cancer patients—with at least one patient dying each day while awaiting permission to leave Gaza for treatment. (Drop Site 2/23)

·       “Israel’s genocide in Gaza might look different than it did a year ago, but it’s not over,” Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) warned, emphasizing that 46% of medications in the Gaza Strip have run out. Ongoing obstructions on entry of essential medical supplies – as well as international health professionals – jeopardize recovery for thousands of Palestinians, adding to health concerns caused by the systematic destruction of health infrastructure in the Strip. here

Displacement & Shelter

·       2/18-24, materials distributed: 105 tents, 2,439 tarps, 3,905 sealing kits, 1,995 bedding kits (4 mattresses, 4 blankets, 6 mats and 6 pillows), 2,000 bedding items, 457 kitchen sets and 1,052 clothing kits and vouchers. Available supplies remain far below the level of need. Israeli rejection of timber and plywood continue to hinder progress toward shelter solutions.

    A recent assessment found:

--539 displacement sites (57%) have drainage channels or water paths, while 606 sites (64%) report rainwater accumulation.

--57% of people live in sites with visible fire hazards.

--2,927 people sleep outdoors with no form of shelter.

-- 21% of the sites, <50% of people had sufficient drinking water or access to adequate soap in the last 30 days.

-- most people have no access to cooking gas or diesel fuel, and instead burn garbage, plastic, firewood, or agricultural residues. 

·       Heavy rains flooded hundreds of displacement tents across the Gaza Strip, with submerged roads in areas like Al-Mawasi prompting urgent rescue calls, according to Civil Defense officials. Israel’s siege is blocking heavy machinery and rescue equipment needed to respond, municipal officials report. UNRWA has warned that shortages of shelter materials have left more than a million displaced people exposed to the rain and cold. (Drop Site 2/24)

Water & Sanitation

·       Drinking water availability in Gaza City remains below WASH emergency standards of 6 liters/day for thousands of families. The Mekorot north water supply line, damaged since mid-January, is currently turned off. The Safa well field remains non-operational as repair access awaits Israeli permission. Water trucking from private desalination sources and production from groundwater wells have increased, but do not meet the needs.

·       The relocation of waste from Firas Market in Gaza City to a new temporary dump site in Abu Jarad resumed after a 4-day suspension due to security. As of 2/23, approximately 2,500 cubic meters of solid waste had been removed.

Currency

Gaza is experiencing a severe cash shortage after more than two years of genocide that has decimated infrastructure, damaged banks, and closed border crossings. This has left some residents with money in their accounts but little physical cash to withdraw, limiting ability to purchase food, medicine, and other necessities. The scarcity of currency has distorted exchange rates, raised prices, and forced people to rely on digital payments or cryptocurrencies that come with high fees and unreliable internet access.  here

THE WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

This year, Israeli forces and settlers killed at least 11 West Bank Palestinians (2 children).

For West Bank casualty and displacement information: here

For West Bank humanitarian access information: here

Note: No information from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, upon which this update depends heavily, was released during the past 2 weeks.

Israeli military attacks

·       Mohammad Wahbi Hanani, 17, died on 2/22 from injuries sustained during Israeli army gunfire near Nablus. In parallel with Israeli military attacks, illegal Israeli Jewish settlers carried out violent attacks against Palestinian communities. Al-Jazeera also reported rising settler activity in several villages, where armed settlers attacked homes and agricultural lands under the protection or presence of Israeli forces. (Palestine Chronicle 2/22)

·       Abu Siyam, who was shot dead in the village of Mikhmas near Jerusalem, is among at least 11 US citizens killed by Israeli settlers or soldiers since 2022. [If the US government took these killings seriously] ”…we would stop supplying Israel with weapons. …We would hold these settlers, these terrorists, accountable. We would sanction them. We would have a weapons embargo,” said William Asfour, Chicago chapter coordinator for American Muslims for Palestine. here

Israeli settler attacks

·       The head of the Wall and Settlement Resistance Commission, Moayad Shaaban, said Israeli forces and settlers carried out 1,965 attacks in February, including physical assaults, land seizures, tree uprooting, and home demolitions. (Drop Site 3/4)

·       3/2, two Palestinian brothers were shot dead by Israeli fire in the Israeli-occupied West Bank during a confrontation with Jewish settlers over land, according to local residents and the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Israeli checkpoint closures delayed ambulances for over an hour, B’Tselem reported. 20 Palestinians from the village were detained. The shooting deaths come amid growing tensions over settler activity and violence in the territory, which has intensified since the strikes on Iran. here & OCHAOPT

Destabilizing families

·       A spiraling economic crisis, shrinking job prospects, and Israeli movement restrictions are putting a strain on relationships and destabilizing families. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of divorces across both the West Bank and Gaza rose by 45 percent between 2012 and 2022, with the West Bank alone showing a 41% increase. Sharia courts also report that between 2018 and 2023, roughly half of all engagements ended before the wedding. (+972 3/1)

ISRAEL

·       Israeli occupation authorities have ordered the removal of five Palestinian media platforms and accounts, accusing them of incitement in their coverage of Israeli actions in East Jerusalem. Israel’s Ministry of Defense announced it had banned five Palestinian media outlets and social media accounts, citing their reporting on Israeli security operations and enforcement activities in the city as grounds for removal. The platforms targeted are Alasima News, M3raj Network, Al-Quds Albawsala Network, Maydan Al-Quds, and Plus Quds Network. (Palestine Chronicle 2/23)

·       2/28, Israel’s High Court of Justice issued a temporary injunction halting a government move that would have forced 37 international aid organizations to stop operating in Gaza and the West Bank. Seventeen NGOs and the Association of International Development Agencies previously filed an urgent petition seeking suspension of the decision, warning of devastating humanitarian consequences if their work is shut down. Despite the temporary injunction, aid groups say the broader system of restrictions imposed by Israel continues to severely limit humanitarian operations in Gaza. (Drop Site 2/27) & here

·       Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has petitioned the Israeli High Court of Justice to order the Israeli military to investigate six incidents in Gaza in which soldiers’ fire allegedly struck its facilities or vehicles, killing seven staff members and relatives. The organization says that despite repeated requests since 2024, Israeli military legal authorities have not opened a criminal investigation, arguing that failing to investigate potential violations involving medical personnel breaches international humanitarian law. here

·       Thirty-two Israeli doctors have joined an appeal to the Supreme Court urging that critically ill patients from Gaza be evacuated to the West Bank and East Jerusalem for urgent care. The petition warns that roughly 16,500 Gazans—mostly children, older adults, and women—face life-threatening delays as the enclave’s health system has collapsed and Israel controls all medical evacuations. It also highlights the dire conditions in overcrowded tent camps, where untreated injuries, infectious diseases, and chronic illnesses mean every day of delay puts lives at risk. here

·       Israel has begun to revoke electronic travel authorizations under its new visa-free ETA system, intending to deny entry to foreign activists en route to the occupied West Bank, according to +972 magazine. Activists who documented settler violence or provided protective presence said their approvals were abruptly canceled—often after soldiers scanned their passports. The new policy has targeted citizens from countries including the US, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia. (+972)

·       Israel lobby groups have spread doctored quotes by UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Francesca Albanese to defame her. Their desperate campaign is a testament to her work and the threat she poses by holding Israel accountable for genocide. (Mondoweiss 2/24)

·       Israel expanded aerial herbicide spraying from Gaza and Lebanon to southern Syria, damaging farmland and raising concerns over environmental warfare and forced displacement. (Palestine Chronicle 2/24)

Prisons

·       Israeli authorities have sharply increased the use of administrative detention, issuing more than 1,400 new or renewed orders without formal charges in the first two months of 2026, according to the Palestine Center for Prisoner Studies. Administrative detention allows Israeli authorities to detain Palestinians indefinitely without charge or trial. The number of administrative detainees held by Israel has risen from about 1,300 before10/7/23 to more than 3,500 in 2/2026, with the group saying activists, students, journalists, lawmakers, women, and children are being increasingly targeted. (Drop Site 2/25)

UNITED STATES

·       US plan for “Dubaification” of Gaza is the final stage of a process that began with bombs and D9 bulldozers that obliterated Gaza’s physical infrastructure. Now skyscrapers and data centers aim to dismantle its’ social fabric, its cultural institutions, its memory, and its capacity to resist. (Mondoweiss 2/27)

·       More than 30 senators, led by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) demanded a formal investigation into the February murder of Philadelphia native Nasrallah Abu Siyam by settlers in the occupied West Bank. In a letter to the State Department, the US ambassador to Israel, and the Department of Justice, Van Hollen was joined by 31 of his Democratic and Independent colleagues, including Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), and Ralph Warnock (D-Ga.). (Drop Site 3/6)

Universities

·       Most of the student activists targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for their pro-Palestine speech have beaten back their deportation cases. Despite being one of the most recognizable faces among the activists, however, Mahmoud Khalil still faces possible re-detention and deportation to Algeria, a country he’s never lived in.  Khalil and his legal team have long argued the Trump administration’s case against him was never about immigration, but about silencing Israel’s critics.  here

LEBANON

·       3/2-3/3, Israeli attacks killed 40 people and wounded 246, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry, and displaced 30,000 according to the UNHCR. The Israeli military issued broad evacuation orders in Beirut, its southern suburbs, in the Beqaa Valley, and throughout southern Lebanon. Israeli bombing has been reported throughout the country as its troops invaded the south. The Israeli military is establishing “a buffer zone” between Lebanon and Israel’s north. Approximately Israeli 110,000 reservists have been called up to reinforce the northern border and the West Bank since the outbreak of the war. (DropSite, 3/3)

·       Millions at risk of displacement as Israel bombards Lebanon. 3/2, after 15 months of a fragile ceasefire, Lebanon woke up to the familiar sounds of Israeli bombs. As the violence escalates and tens of thousands are displaced, Lebanon’s social divisions threaten to worsen an already dire situation. Hezbollah said it had launched rockets and drones from Lebanon to Israel in response to the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and as a response to ongoing Israeli attacks on Lebanon. here

·       Israel’s “Dahiya Doctrine”, mass destruction perfected in Gaza, is now raining down on Lebanon and Iran. here

INTERNATIONAL

·       A group of leading international aid organizations, including Doctors Without Borders (MSF), Norwegian Refugee Council, Oxfam, and Medical Aid for Palestine, have petitioned the Israeli Supreme Court to allow them to keep working in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Israel is set to ban 37 aid groups by 3/1 for refusing to comply with new rules announced last year that require aid groups to register the names and contact information of employees and to provide details about their funding and operations. In a joint statement, the groups said: “The demand to transfer personal data raises acute security and legal risks. It exposes national staff to potential retaliation and undermines established data protection and confidentiality safeguards.” (Drop Site 2/25)

·       The Foreign Press Association has launched a campaign urging Israel to end its two-year ban preventing foreign journalists from independently entering Gaza, where access has been limited to reporters embedded with the Israeli military since 10/7/23. International correspondents and media organizations argue the restriction undermines press freedom and forces Palestinian journalists—more than 200 of whom have been killed during the genocide—to report alone under dangerous conditions. here

·       A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists found that Israel killed 86 journalists in 2025—two-thirds of the 129 media workers killed worldwide—making it the deadliest year for journalists since records began in 1992. Most of the deaths occurred in Gaza, where Palestinian journalists made up the majority of those killed, highlighting that attacks on the press are occurring with little accountability. here

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, Palestine Chronicle, Drop Site, +972, Mondoweiss, Aljazeera, People’s Dispatch, Haaretz, Earshot and Forensic Architecture, Asian News Network, New York Times, The Intercept