Urgent Health Update: Consequences of war on Gaza, West Bank/East Jerusalem - August 2, 2025
Please read and share widely. Pick an action item or two and DO IT!
Joined a protest against the Blue Angels yesterday, a massive pro military show that happens every year in Seattle during Seafare. My essay from 2/17 still rings true. Having screaming death defying fighter jets roaring above my house feels very wrong when we could use those millions for health care and education without polluting Lake Washington and freaking out vets with PTSD, small children, and every dog in South Seattle. And me too.
This Is What Basic Food Costs in Gaza Now, if You Can Find It
Trump Can’t Stop This Guy
don't know how Henry Kissinger & Bill Clinton got in there... but it is a wild assortment of non-MAGA folks...
Silicon Valley Enlists in the Business of War
The military is not just courting Silicon Valley tech companies. In the age of President Trump, it has successfully recruited them.
A beloved bookstore becomes a flashpoint as differing views on Middle East conflict collide in Brookline
I have had a number of book readings at Brookline Booksmith on topics that pushed people's buttons related to Israel/Palestine. Thank you for providing "a safe place to encourage social discourse and appreciation of great authors of our times.”
Here is the latest:
When writer Aymann Ismail came to town in July for a book talk at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner, he wasn’t expecting a protest.
The new book he was publicizing, “Becoming Baba,” was largely about his experience as an Arab and Muslim father. It contains a few pages about the recent violence in Israel and Gaza – including his disbelief at the “horror” of Hamas’ initial attack on Israeli kibbutzes in October 2023, and then describes a “familiar” pattern of civilians killed by the Israeli military.
Protestors showed up.
Starvation is a lifelong sentence: Gaza’s civilians must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law
British Medical Journal: Alex de Waal discusses the urgent need for immediate action to end the forced starvation of Palestinians in Gaza. Describing various historical famines, de Waal notes that “Israel stands out among contemporary cases of wartime starvation in that it is in a position to facilitate near instant humanitarian action, and has chosen not to do so.” He also discusses the long-term consequences of forced starvation, particularly for children, emphasizing that “Starvation is a lifelong sentence for its youngest survivors….Under any formulation of natural justice, they are entitled to reparations from those who inflicted the harm.”
Genocide in Gaza
Report by Physicians for Human Rights Israel documents the Israeli assault for what it is: a deliberate, cumulative, and ongoing dismantling of Gaza’s healthcare system - and of the population’s ability to survive. Its meaning: genocide.
New report: Our Genocide
B’Tselem, Israel’s preeminent human rights NGO, has just issued an 88-page report titled Our Genocide. B’Tselem’s homepage contains this statement: For nearly two years, Israel has been committing genocide in Gaza, acting in a systematic, deliberate way to destroy Palestinian society there through mass killing, causing serious bodily and mental harm and creating catastrophic conditions that prevent its continued existence in Gaza. Israel is openly promoting ethnic cleansing and the destruction of life-sustaining infrastructure for individuals and the group, with 2 million people starved, displaced, bombed and left by the world to die. The genocide must be stopped.
IPC ALERT: Worst-case scenario of Famine unfolding in the Gaza Strip
Integrated food security phase classification: The worst-case scenario of Famine is currently playing out in the Gaza. Conflict and displacement have intensified, and access to food and other essential items and services has plummeted to unprecedented levels. Mounting evidence shows that widespread starvation, malnutrition, and disease are driving a rise in hunger-related deaths. Immediate action must be taken to end the hostilities and allow for unimpeded, large-scale, life-saving humanitarian response. This is the only path to stopping further deaths and catastrophic human suffering.
UN Women statement on the escalating humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza
UN Women’s Sima Bahous noted: 1 million “women and girls in Gaza are facing mass starvation, violence and abuse. Malnutrition is soaring and essential services have long collapsed, forcing women and girls to … face the impossible choice of starving to death at their shelters or venturing out in search of food and water at the extreme risk of being killed. Their children are starving to death before their eyes. This is horrific, unconscionable and unacceptable. It is inhumane.”
Nearly half of mothers screened by MAP’s local partner in Gaza are suffering from severe malnutrition
7/28, Medical Aid for Palestinians warned of the deepening emergency, noting that a partner’s Deir al Balah medical point reported severe malnutrition among 44% of pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, in urgent need of treatment. Their medical point, which served 200 malnourished women and children, was shut down by a 7/20 Israeli displacement order. Parents of 2 severely malnourished children told one of their CHWs that “on their luckiest day, they survive on just dry bread and tea.”
‘A million calls an hour’: Israel relying on Microsoft cloud for expansive surveillance of Palestinians
MSF: 1 in 4 young children and pregnant women in its clinics in Gaza are malnourished
MSF reported 25% of children 6 months to 5 years old and pregnant or breastfeeding women were malnourished. In Gaza City, treatment for malnutrition quadrupled since 5/18; severe malnutrition rates for children <5 tripled in the last 2 weeks. “We are now enrolling 25 new patients every single day [to receive] malnutrition [treatment]. We see the exhaustion and the hunger in our own colleagues.” MSF also recently treated 122 people with gunshot wounds who had been fired on while waiting for flour. 46 more people were dead on arrival.
GAZA: Acute malnutrition in children under five at Save the Children clinics surges 10-fold in over four months of total siege
Save the Children reported numbers of children <5 with acute malnutrition surged 10-fold in 4 months. 43% of Pregnant & Breastfeeding women were found to be malnourished in July, compared to 16% in March.
Gaza's Brutal Food Aid 'Olympics': Leaked Videos, Satellite Images Show Cruel Chaos at Food Distribution Hubs
Leaked video footage of Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid distributions illustrates the cruelty, dehumanization, and danger that Palestinians face when simply trying to feed their families. GHF staff person who took the videos described his experiences: "When I was there, I called it the Gaza Olympics because when the IDF released the secure line, the security hold for the people to come to the site, it's just a giant rush and the survival of the fittest, the people that get there first to get the aid. And most of the time, women and children get nothing."
In a series of interviews, former GHF employee and Green Beret Anthony Aguilar alleged that he saw Israeli soldiers use “indiscriminate” force consistent with war crimes.
U.S. security contractor: ‘I saw Israel commit war crimes at Gaza aid sites’
“Designed as Death Traps”: Fmr. Green Beret Who Worked at Gaza Food Sites Reveals Rampant War Crimes
'I witnessed war crimes' in Gaza, former worker at GHF aid site tells BBC
Israel closes down or leaves unresolved 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse – report
Israel closes 88% of cases of alleged war crimes or abuse without charges, giving soldiers a sense of utter impunity.
Israeli military plans to occupy Gaza City in major escalation of war
Israel’s security cabinet has approved a plan by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the military occupation of Gaza City, located in the north of the Palestinian enclave.
“The [Israeli military] will prepare to take control of Gaza City while providing humanitarian aid to the civilian population outside the combat zones,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement early on Friday announcing the takeover plan.
As far as I can see, there are no zones in Gaza that are outside combat areas.