HOSPITALS in the Gaza Strip are ‘stretched to breaking point’ and infections are ‘exploding’ the UN reported yesterday.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that only 13 out of 36 hospitals in Gaza are partially functional as a result of the Israeli occupation forces targeting medical centres and staff in their continuous bombardment.
The OCHA report also said that the maternity unit at the Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya in the north of Gaza was hit by Israeli forces on Monday, killing several mothers.
Ahmed al-Kahiout, head of the hospital, told Al Jazeera that ‘no one can leave’ the hospital which has been under siege, surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks, for four days.
The report also said that for the sixth consecutive day the Al-Awda hospital in Jabalya (northern Gaza) remains surrounded by Israeli forces with 250 doctors, patients and their families trapped inside while two medical staff were killed while on duty inside the hospital on Saturday.
Doctors Without Borders (Médecins Sans Frontières) wrote on X: ‘Targeting medical workers as they care for their patients is utterly reprehensible, utterly inhumane.’
This targeting of hospitals has been a main feature of the Israeli genocidal war against Palestinians, a war that to date has cost the lives of at least 18,205 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 49,645.
Hospitals are attacked as ‘military targets’ by the Israeli military with repeated claims that they are centres of Hamas command posts with tunnels located under every one, despite the Israeli military failing to produce any evidence to support its propaganda claims.
This propaganda onslaught has failed completely to win over the millions of workers and young people across the world who have demonstrated their support for the Palestinians’ fight against the genocidal Zionist regime.
In November, over 400 trade union members, including health workers, teachers, hospital workers and artists, blockaded a BAE Systems arms factory accused of supplying weapons to Israel.
This was in response to a call for an International Day of Action for Palestine by Palestinian trade union members to workers across the world to demonstrate against Israeli war crimes.
In response to the US vetoing the UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza – with its UK poodle abstaining – the Palestinian National and Islamic Forces issued a call on Saturday for a global strike on Monday.
In a statement, this coalition said: ‘We expect the entire globe to join in the strike, which comes in the context of a broad international movement involving influential figures. This movement stands against the open genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing and the colonial settlement in the West Bank.’
Despite the very short notice, this call for strike action met with a response across the occupied West Bank which was completely closed down for the day. The Lebanese government closed down all government offices and institutions in support of the strike.
In New York on Monday, protesters gathered outside the New York Times to protest against its pro-Israeli coverage chanting: ‘Free, Free Palestine, from the river to the sea.’
In Turkey, videos posted on X show stores closed in Istanbul while Manchester Palestinian Action posted on X that ‘Today in Rusholme, Manchester – stores close to join the global strike for Palestine. With just one day’s notice, local people have answered Palestine’s call to strike and protest the ongoing genocide in Gaza and Israeli colonisation.’
The working class and youth support and identify with the struggle of the Palestinian people against a common enemy – a world capitalist system that in its death agony can only survive by waging genocidal war to secure its domination over vital resources while at the same time waging a class war against the working class at home.
Hundreds of thousands of workers and youth have demonstrated their support for Palestine and now the UK trade unions must force the TUC to answer the call by immediately organising a general strike to smash the Tories and bring in a workers government that will end all support for Israel and give 100 per cent support to the struggle for the independent state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital.
