Urgent health update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem - June 15, 2025

Action items 

1. Tell your members of Congress: No War on Iran! [links to: here ] It’s a no-brainer, but remember who you are writing to.

2. Support the Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy to Gaza as it gets closer and attempts to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Q&As about the convoy here. [ Ed note: Convoy has been aggressively stopped by Egyptian authorities] [link to: here here  

3. In response to the Block the Bombs Act, H.R. 3565, in the House of Representatives, Brad Parker, associate director of policy at the Center for Constitutional Rights, issued a statement that begins: The Block the Bombs Act is a historic bill that prohibits the transfer and sale of specific U.S. weapons to Israel that the Israeli government has consistently used to commit atrocities against Palestinian civilians in violation of U.S. and international law. …” For more information on the Act, visit here Contact your representatives here

4. Work with your organization and other allies to oppose the 2025 Entry Ban, the latest in a series of cruel anti-immigrant policies that rely on fear and scapegoating. This campaign is coordinated by Muslims for a Just Future and UndocuBlack Network with support from the Building Movement Project. here

Journal articles & Reports

·       July issue of the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) features a special section on the environmental, health, and humanitarian crises in Gaza. American Journal of Public Health. One research article, “The Ongoing Environmental Destruction and Degradation of Gaza: The Resulting Public Health Crisis” synthesizes evidence from international agency reports and peer-reviewed literature to document the devastating impacts on water, wastewater, and hygiene; chemical and debris contamination from bombings; noise pollution; food insecurity; environmental health impacts on susceptible populations; destruction of health systems and lack of access to care; and traumatic impacts of targeted environmental destruction. here or here

 ·       A discussion piece in Global Health Action details how the current health crisis in Gaza is likely to intensify as summer temperatures rise and the risk for heat-related health conditions increases, particularly among vulnerable populations. The authors write that “climate-adaptive public health measures should be treated as essential components of humanitarian aid.” here

·       Editor-in-chief of The British Medical Journal (The BMJ), Dr. Kamran Abbasi, discusses the responsibility of medical journals to address the mass death and starvation in Gaza arguing that “medical journals that avoid the impact of political decision making on health are not doing their job.” He further describes the role of doctors in conflict zones and highlights the importance of listening to the testimonies of medical professionals who have worked in Gaza. He concludes by asserting that “arguing against a permanent ceasefire has become morally repugnant.” here

·       University of Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research published a policy brief exploring the role that self-organized individuals and community groups in Gaza have played in promoting health resilience as formal health care institutions and infrastructure collapse.  here

·       A ten-year-old boy hasn’t spoken or eaten in days. When our psychologist finally gets him to talk, he asks a question that stops her cold: ‘Everyone says my friend went to heaven, but I didn’t see his head. How can he go to heaven without his head?’ This is mental health work in Gaza today. Mental health, it turns out, isn’t just about healing trauma—it’s about preventing it. The question isn’t just how we provide care during genocide. It’s why the world allows genocide to continue. here

·       We are part of a group of 27 Jewish scholars of Jewish studies who have filed an amicus brief in Harvard’s lawsuit against the Trump administration. We submitted the brief, drafted by the civil rights attorney Yaman Salahi, because we support the university’s fight against government overreach. Yet in doing so, the institution has committed a different kind of discrimination – one that violates federal civil rights law. We reject Harvard’s troubling assumption that being Jewish necessitates supporting Israel, or that criticism of Israel’s genocide in Gaza constitutes antisemitism. here

United Nations

Hunger must never be met with bullets 

6/12, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher stated, “Attacks on civilians in Gaza – including the killing and injury of hungry people seeking food and those delivering aid – are unacceptable.” He decried how aid convoys and aid seekers have been attacked by armed Palestinian gangs and shot by Israeli forces.
Fletcher condemned Israeli forces for firing on starving people, killing 245 and injuring over 2,150 in the past 2 weeks, also noting that the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation stated that Palestinians involved in their distribution had been killed, injured, or captured by Hamas. Full statement here:

GAZA

Israel’s war and siege of Gaza continues. The militarized US/Israeli Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “aid” scheme, with 2 distribution points set up in Rafa and Deir al Balah, proved deadly for 245 people killed and 2,150 injured since 5/27 while trying to retrieve food. Israeli forces have further escalated air, land and sea bombardment, killing hundreds, targeting hospitals, housing and water, and displacing more people: 664,800 since they broke the ceasefire. Now 82% of the Gaza Strip is off-limits to Palestinians. 

·       This week: 497 Palestinians killed, 2,053 injured

·       Since the breaking of the ceasefire: 4,821 Palestinians killed, 15,353 injured

·       Killed since 10/23/2023: 55,104+

·       Injured since 10/23/2023: 127,394+

·       Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza: 424 (4 this week)

·       Israeli soldiers injured in Gaza: 2,702

·       Hostages in Gaza: 53

·       For more detail on Gaza: here

·       463+ aid workers (319 UN staff members) killed in Gaza since 10/2023. 3 killed this past week:  6/7, UNDP reported an Israeli airstrike killed a staff member at home in Jabalya, along with 36 family members. 6/5, a psychologist with the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees was killed in an airstrike on Gaza City. 6/4, a staff member of the Ma’an Development Center was killed. 

·       6/5, Israeli airstrike in the yard of Al Ahli Hospital (Gaza City) killed 4 journalists, injured 3. According to COGAT, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) “operated from a command and control center” there. UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) condemned the repeated targeting of journalists, with 18 killed in May, and this 3rd targeting and murder of journalists at hospitals. 6/9, another journalist and 3 Civil Defense paramedics killed in a rescue operation after an attack on Gaza City.

·       Israeli bombardment killed 110 and injured many more in attacks on homes and IDP tents in Gaza City, Jabalya Al Balad, Jabalya an Nazlah, and the Al Mawasi area.

·       Israeli forces massacred more than 400 Palestinians and injured more than 2,000 in airstrikes, tank shellings, drone attacks, and with sniper fire between May 29 and June 4. Attacks continued against hospitals, medical clinics, schools turned into shelters and inside humiliating death traps engineered by U.S. mercenaries and Israeli soldiers under the guise of distributing meager amounts of snacks to millions of starving people, while real international aid remains in trucks, stuc behind the crossings, for more than three consecutive months. (The Electronic Intifada 6/6)

·       In recent weeks Israel has been using an algorithm of phone usage patterns it knows to be inaccurate to designate Gaza areas as ‘green,’ or cleared of residents, and carry out airstrikes – killing hundreds of civilians. here

Gaza Humanitarian Foundation: Starve or be shot (or both)

·       Multiple incidents of shootings of people trying to access food at the militarized distribution points in Rafah and Deir al Balah killed 224 and injured 1,858+ In the past 2 weeks, the Red Cross Field Hospital in Rafah activated its mass casualty incident procedure 12 times for large numbers of patients with gunshot and shrapnel wounds: an “overwhelming majority of patients from the recent incidents said they had been trying to reach assistance distribution sites.” The ICRC received 933 cases, including 41 DOA, higher than all their mass casualty incidents for the preceding 12 months combined. “Medical personnel are struggling to cope with the overwhelming number of patients arriving at the field hospital. They are working under constant exposure to stray bullets, endangering the safety of those providing and receiving medical care,” per ICRC.

·       “Recent days have also seen an increase in hostilities around the few remaining and functional hospitals. This has made patient transfers between facilities increasingly challenging, and in many cases, patients cannot receive the intensive or specialized care they require.”

·       6/10, commenting on the work of the distribution points, UNRWA’s Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini, reiterated, this “humiliating system continues to force thousands of hungry and desperate people to walk tens of miles excluding the most vulnerable and those living too far. This system does not intend to address hunger. Aid deliveries and distribution must be at scale and safe.”

·       Gaza Starvation Experiment: Israel’s new US-backed aid scheme in Gaza integrates food into military strategy. Since the war began, Israel has restricted aid, easing up when famine alerts appeared, tightening as attention faded. Now, amid a bloody rollout, the new mechanism risks entrenching starvation rather than ending it. here 

·       Outsourcing Occupation: US Private Contractors in Gaza. According to the Orbis plan, GHF is mandated to cover the cost of the food aid and manage its delivery, while SRS, (a specialized firm handling security, logistics and facility management in conflict environments,) recruits armed security personnel to guard the distribution sites. In this way, the new scheme deliberately sidelines UN bodies and aid organizations that have been working in Gaza for decades. Consequently, the UN has refused to participate in the GHF system due to its failure to adhere to humanitarian principles. here

·       American Security Contractor Unloads On US-Israeli ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’: I thought I was signing up for an aid mission. But what I've witnessed in Gaza is horrific. here

Healthcare & Hospitals 

·       For the first time in 3 weeks, WHO supported the medical evacuation of 16 children with 48 companions to Jordan. According to WHO, more than 10,000 patients (4,000 children) need medical evacuation.

·       6/9, severe shortage of diabetic testing kits and medications in Gaza has led to significant health risks, including death, for people with diabetes. Children with Type 1 diabetes have been particularly hard hit with parents reporting that they have been forced to guess their children’s blook sugar levels in the absence of testing supplies. Humanitarian sources in Gaza report that the IDF places strict limits on the amount of medical equipment allowed to enter Gaza and conducts long inspections that delay the delivery of supplies. here

·       6/7, Gaza Health Ministry warned of an impending total collapse of health care services in the southern part of Gaza with only one functional hospital remaining in Khan Yunis. The ministry also reported that as of 6/7, hospitals that remain in Gaza were fully dependent on generators, which had fuel for only three more days. The ministry added that Israel is preventing the UN and other humanitarian aid organizations from accessing fuel depots designated for hospitals. here

·       6/9, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesu reported: “Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis is now essentially out of service due to increasing hostilities in its vicinity. Access to the hospital is obstructed, preventing new patients from reaching care, and leading to more preventable deaths.”  2 emergency medical teams remain to serve patients with limited supplies. WHO called for the expedited flow of medical supplies into and across Gaza via all possible routes and for the protection of Nasser Medical Complex, the only remaining health facility in Khan Younis with an ICU, dialysis and neurosurgery units. Nasser ICU is operating at double its capacity of 42 beds. The hospital is overwhelmed, food is scarce, fuel is low, many essential medicines, medical supplies and blood units have run out, and the oxygen plant (which provides oxygen for all nearby health facilities) requires urgent maintenance.

·       MSF warned: Nasser is “the last functioning ICU for children and newborns in the south, which cannot be moved…the only remaining hope for Palestinians in southern Gaza, especially women and children… Israeli forces’ displacement orders and bombings in the close vicinity of Nasser hospital have forced [MSF] to adjust its operations in the hospital and move part of its burn and orthopedic activities to [the MSF] field hospital in Deir Al Balah.” 

·       6/12, Nasser Hospital began evacuating medical departments and is at risk of fully closing due to IDF activity in the area. WHO warned that the closure of Nasser Hospital could lead to the total collapse of the health care infrastructure in southern Gaza. It has 500 beds, which is more than a quarter of all hospital beds in Gaza. here

·       The 100% bed occupancy rate is exceeded in all partially functional health facilities, with hospital corridors overflowing with patients needing emergency care. The main oncology hospital is nonfunctional, oncology drugs have run out, and cancer patients are without treatment.

·       87% of orthopedic supplies are out of stock. Carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide and ethylene stocks are completely depleted, as is anesthesia, non-communicable disease medications and IV fluids, and lab and surgical consumables. 43% of 271 essential medicines are out of stock. Blood supplies, micro reagents, and blood bank materials are nearly depleted.

·       Since Israeli resumption of hostilities on 3/18, WHO has facilitated 37 emergency medical teams (EMTs) from 22 organizations (35 international and 2 national EMTs). 74 EMT staff have been allowed into Gaza, 58 have been denied. Entry is granted at the last minute, delayed, or not approved, frustrating deployment. Restrictions on entry of medicines, medical consumables and equipment, safe movement, and military attacks impair health care provision. Since 3/18, only 134 pallets of medical supplies from WHO have been delivered. Attacks on health facilities, ambulances, and EMT accommodations further undermine care. 

·       WHO recorded 76 attacks on health care this year, killing 38, injuring 65, and affecting 23 facilities and 24 vehicles. 56 attacks were documented since 3/18, 42 in May. No hospitals are currently functional in North Gaza and Rafah. As of 6/11, only 37% (213 of 572) of health facilities remain functional: 17 of 36 hospitals, 7 of 15 field hospitals, 63 of 162 PHCs, and 126 of 359 medical points/mobile clinics. 80% (67 of 85) of the hospitals, field hospitals, and PHCs are projected to soon run out of fuel.

·       British orthopedic surgeon Dr. Graeme Groom has spent the past three weeks in Gaza working long days at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. There, Groom treated civilians with blast injuries, amputations — and increasingly, gunshot wounds. Many he treated in Gaza were civilians shot trying to reach aid. here

Women and girls

·       Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) reports on dire conditions faced by displaced women and girls. “These camps lack even the most basic humanitarian necessities, suffering from severe shortages of clean water, the absence of sanitation, and the total collapse of medical care,” rendering them unfit for habitation. Women and girls are disproportionately affected, facing an acute lack of privacy, and heightened risks of gender-based violence, including harassment and assault.

·       Overcrowding and absence of partitions between tents causes discomfort and insecurity for women and girls, and severely restricts freedom of movement. Inadequate sanitation leads many to: limit showers, including after the menstrual cycle; avoid drinking water to reduce toilet use; continuous use of birth control pills to suppress menstruation; and urinate in buckets inside tents. Breastfeeding mothers struggle to find private, safe spaces to nurse, causing some to stop breastfeeding. The report underlines the profound psychological distress and loss of dignity women face daily after 19 months of war, and the urgent need for safe, gender-sensitive shelter, sanitation and protection.

Aid

·       Aid blockade continues, with only a few UN agencies and international NGOs allowed to deliver extremely limited amounts of food, nutrition and health supplies, and water purification items. All other supplies (shelter materials, hygiene products, and medical equipment) remain blocked. Egypt and West Bank cargo routes remain closed. The Kerem Shalom crossing is tightly controlled by Israel, not even the UN is permitted to monitor the site or the aid pipeline

·       Transport capacity is limited due to Israeli rejection of drivers. Limited access, long delays in approvals (36+ hours), constant shifting among insecure convoy routes, intense military operations, a breakdown in public order and safety, and a high risk of looting all severely constrain operations and increase risk. Collections are frequently cancelled, re-routed, or significantly delayed, aid deliveries are unsafe, unpredictable and inefficient. The limited assistance that enters is increasingly offloaded by hungry civilians and armed gangs.

·       Ongoing fuel blockade threatens life-sustaining services, especially WASH and healthcare. These services may soon cease without fuel entry. Between 5/15-6/9, 14 fuel retrieval missions were denied by the Israeli authorities and about 260,000 liters were lost to looting.

·       Past week, of 102 missions coordinated with Israeli authorities, 47% (48) were denied, 5%(5) were impeded, 30% (31) were facilitated, and 18% (18) were withdrawn.

·       6/10, a critical telecommunications and internet failure resulted in an internet blackout in Gaza City and northern Gaza. Without the delivery of fuel and engine oil to operate generators, telecommunications services are expected to collapse, severely impacting humanitarian coordination, operational continuity, staff safety, and people’s ability to access life-saving information and services.

Displacement & Evacuation

·       Israeli military issued 4 displacement orders this week for North Gaza and Gaza governorates, an area including 3 hospitals, 5 PHCs, and 18 medical points. 39 orders have evacuated 277.6 sq.km. (76% of Gaza) since Israel broke the ceasefire. 82% of Gaza is now off-limits to Palestinians. 6/8, 2 schools in Jabalya al Balad sheltering about 20,000 people were forcibly evacuated. Airstrikes then destroyed the schools.

Food & Nutrition

·       6/10, the WFP reported it has transported over 700 trucks of aid to the Kerem Shalom border crossing point, and has more than 140,000 metric tons of food, enough to feed the population for 2 months, within or on its way to the region. Most of the 6,000 tons of wheat flour that entered Gaza since 5/19 was offloaded by hungry people in dire need, mostly coming from the north, to feed their families, and in some cases by armed criminals, before reaching warehouses or designated distribution points. (About 10,000 tons are required to provide 1 bag of wheat flour to every household in Gaza.)

·       Israeli authorities continue to prohibit food parcel distributions. As of 6/10, 246,000 meals were prepared by 15 partners in 59 kitchens, 77% compared to the end of April. “To stave off starvation, stabilize markets and calm desperation, we need to consistently support the entire population with basic food requirements every month,” WFP stated, this is “the only way to reassure the population and to push back starvation.”

·       According to the IPC, (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification), the expansion of military operations, the inability of humanitarian organizations to access populations in need, and the continued mass displacement makes the risk of famine increasingly likely.

Water & Sanitation

·       Severe fuel shortages are crippling water production and forcing rationing. Hundreds of groundwater wells risk shutting down, desalination systems will suffer permanent damage, and water trucking may cease entirely. This will compromise public health and increase disease risk and social unrest. The fuel crisis also threatens solid waste collection and sanitation services. 

·       A 3-week supply of chlorine was finally allowed to enter the Gaza Strip. Public utilities will disinfect produced and distributed water with it. Water monitoring is now being carried out by 7 field laboratories (up from 4) to ensure safe water access and mitigate the risk of waterborne diseases. 

·       Stocks of pesticide supplies (including insecticides) are almost completely depleted, severely limiting pest and rodent control efforts. 

WEST BANK, INCLUDING EAST JERUSALEM

OCHA did not release a West Bank report this week. See the summary “snapshot” of West Bank information: here

·       Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved a decision to resume the land registry process for lands in Area C of the West Bank after decades of freezing. The decision entails grave consequences for Palestinian ownership of land in what constitutes 60% of the West Bank, as it puts an end to the treatment of Palestinian lands in Area C as occupied territory, instead treating them as a part of Israel. (Mondoweiss 6/13) 

·       Israel has placed the occupied West Bank under lockdown, sealing the entrances of cities and villages with iron gates and concrete barriers, as its forces bomb Iran. (personal contact confirmed by here

ISRAEL

·       Israel has struck more than 250 targets in Iran, and Iranian forces have fired more than 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, in addition to scores of drones, according to the Israeli military. The strikes have killed at least 128 people in Iran and at least 13 in Israel. 
here

US

·       The Trump administration has imposed sanctions on Addameer, a leading Palestinian human rights groups and five other charities for alleged links to political factions deemed by the US and Israel as “terrorist organizations.” Mondoweiss 6/12)

US UNIVERSITIES

·       A federal judge declined to release Palestinian Columbia University student protest leader Mahmoud Khalil from ICE detention, after the Trump administration changed its legal strategy. The last-minute argument was that Khalil could still be detained for charges the government threw against him after they arrested him, including that he allegedly intentionally misrepresented his employment history on his green card application. (Zeteo 6/13)

·       University of Michigan using undercover investigators to surveil student Gaza protesters. here 

·       Students at Dartmouth College have launched a hunger strike to demand that the school divest from Israel and lift the suspension of a student activist. here

·       The administration is using Title VI to justify the suspension of federal grants, while completely leapfrogging the legal process outlined by the Civil Rights Act, even as it points to Title VI as justification for their funding cuts. In the process, legal experts say, the administration is not only misusing Title VI—turning a statute intended to combat discrimination into a potent weapon with which to assault pro-Palestinian activism—it is also illegally undermining universities. here

INTERNATIONAL

·       6/1, the Madleen set sail from Catania, Sicily, packed with humanitarian aid – baby formula, rice, flour, diapers, menstrual supplies, water purification kits, medical gear, crutches, prosthetics, and crewed by 12 activists, including Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan. Israel intercepted the vessel and brought the crew of activists to an Israeli port with the expectation of expelling them from the country. (The Guardian 6/9) here 

·       UN General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted another resolution demanding an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for Israel to allow the entry of humanitarian aid. The US and Israel were among the minority of 12 countries voting against the resolution. This came as the UN warned of a full internet blackout in Gaza, paralyzing any humanitarian aid operations. Landlines were also disrupted after key telecommunications infrastructure was damaged in Israeli strikes (Democracy Now 6/13)

·       Israel is accused of the gravest war crimes - how governments respond could haunt them for years to come. Lawyers believe that there is evidence that Israel followed war crimes, committed by Hamas when it attacked Israel, with very many of its own, including the crime of genocide. here

·       UK, Canada and Others Impose Sanctions on Far-Right Israeli Ministers. The coordinated move against Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich highlights the hardening of several countries’ stance toward Israel amid the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. here

SOURCES

OCHAOPT, The People’s Forum, Electronic Intifada, +972, The Guardian, Mondoweiss, Democracy Now, Zeteo, American Journal of Public Health, Global Health Action, British Medical Journal, Research Gate, Aljazeera, New York Times, BBC, Jewish Currents, NPR, Haaretz, Al Shabaka, Counterpunch, Research Gate