‘Operation Al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 66: Israel attacks ambulances, medics in Gaza; people across the world join strike for Palestine

Casualties 

• 17,997 killed*, including 7,729+ children, and 49,229 wounded in the Gaza Strip.
• At least 275 Palestinians have been killed in the occupied West Bank since October 7.

* This figure was given by the Gaza Ministry of Health on December 10. However, due to breakdowns in communication networks within the Gaza Strip (particularly in northern Gaza) and the high number of people trapped under rubble, the Gaza Ministry of Health has been unable to regularly and accurately update its tolls since mid-November. Some rights groups put the death toll number closer to or above 20,000.

Key Developments 

• UN OCHA: Gaza’s Ministry of Health Director General of Pharmacy and two staff were shot and injured while trying to reach a medical warehouse.
• UN OCHA: One patient died during an evacuation coordinated by UN and Palestine Red Crescent Society staff due to multiple hour-long delays caused by Israeli forces. 
• PRCS: The Israeli military opened fire on an ambulance carrying critically wounded patients on Sunday. 
• A global strike is taking place in countries across the world on Monday, as a response to calls for increased  solidarity with Palestinians, and an immediate ceasefire in Gaza. 
• “The potential for a miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict is increasing,” says the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.
• Jordan FM: Israel is trying to “empty Gaza of Palestinians” in a campaign that amounts to “genocide.”
• WHO: calling for “immediate, sustained and unimpeded” healthcare aid for Gaza. 
• UN OCHA: Thousands of internally displaced Palestinians in Rafah, southern Gaza, are “facing extremely overcrowded and dire conditions.”

Patient dies waiting at Israeli military checkpoint in Gaza

International medical groups are becoming increasingly concerned about Israel’s full-on attacks against healthcare as the military continues targeting paramedics, ambulances, patients, and doctors. 

On Sunday, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported the Israeli military opening fire on an ambulance carrying critically wounded patients as well as obstructing, detaining, and abusing paramedics. 

The incident took place on Monday morning as six PRCS ambulances, escorted by the United Nations (UN), evacuated 11 critical patients from Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital in Gaza City to a hospital in the besieged enclave. 

The ambulances, filled with amputee and head casualty patients, were forced to stop for hours at a time at several military checkpoints, during which two paramedics were detained, and one of the patients died waiting. 

One paramedic, Rami Al-Qatawi, was held by the army for over four hours and was subjected to beatings, abuse, and blackmail. After being released, he was forced to walk over 2 kilometers in cold weather while stripped of his clothes and handcuffed. 

When Qatawi finally arrived at the other side of the checkpoint, he was in “deplorable condition.”

Later on Sunday, PRCS reported that their medical crews were once again put in danger by the Israeli army when soldiers invaded the area near the UNRWA clinic in the Jabalia camp.

“The team consists of nine doctors, nurses, and volunteers. The surrounding area is currently under bombardment, posing a constant threat to the lives of medical teams and the wounded,” it said.

“What we are seeing in Gaza is not simply the killing of innocent people and the destruction of their livelihoods, but a systematic effort to empty Gaza of its people,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said at the Doha Forum.

“Israel has created this amount of hatred that will haunt this region. [It] will define generations to come and, therefore, it’s hurting its own people as much as it’s hurting everybody else in the region,” Safadi continued.

The Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy called Safadi’s allegations Safadi “outrageous,” claiming Israel is simply “fighting to defend itself.” 

As hopes of a ceasefire dwindle, the World Health Organization (WHO) executive board unanimously voted in favor of a resolution calling for the “immediate, sustained and unimpeded passage of humanitarian relief, including the access of medical personnel.”

The rare executive board meeting is only the seventh in WHO’s 75-year history, highlighting the dire situation. 

The resolution, which “underscores the importance of health as a universal priority,” even in the “most difficult of situations,” was proposed following the UN’s failure to call for a ceasefire.

“It is an important moment for WHO – an organization focusing on international public health. For me, it is a victory [for] humanity. A victory of member states in promoting health, protecting the vulnerable, and saving lives,” said Dr Ahmed al-Mandhari, regional WHO director, as cited by Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the United States representative said Washington agreed not to oppose the consensus on the text but had “significant reservations,” saying it “regrets the lack of balance in the resolution.”

Monday: Global Strike for Palestine

On Monday, Palestinians across the occupied West Bank are joined by global communities in the observation of a general strike called upon by Palestinian factions. 

Businesses, banks, schools, universities, and public institutions in the West Bank have closed to honor the strike.

“We expect the entire globe to join 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,” said a statement released by a coalition of groups.

The strike called on by Palestinians is a response to the US veto against a UN Security Council resolution calling for a ceasefire and the end to the Israeli war on Gaza. 

“This is a message to the US administration that stands against the aspirations of our people,” Muwafaq Sahwil, Fatah’s secretary in Ramallah and el-Bireh, told Al Jazeera.

“It is also a message from people around the world to their politicians and the international community to stand up for the Palestinian people who have been suffering from occupation for 75 years,” Sahwil continued. 

A miscalculation could trigger a regional war

As Israel’s war on Gaza continues, tensions in the region are rising as hostilities climb. 

Since October 7, Israel and Hezbollah have continued to exchange fire at the border between Lebanon and Israel; up until this point, it has been largely contained to the border areas. 

On Monday morning, at least eight rockets were fired from Lebanon at the northern Israeli city of Ma’alot-Tarshiha, reported Israeli media.

While social media footage shows the rockets being intercepted by Israel’s iron dome, some missiles appeared to have landed in open areas. No injuries have been reported. 

On Monday, Hezbollah announced two of their fighters had been killed. However, they did not include when or under what circumstances. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights added that in addition to the fighters, two Syrians working with the group were killed by overnight Israeli attacks near Damascus, according to Al Jazeera.

On Sunday, Hezbollah launched explosive drones and powerful missiles at Israeli positions, and Israeli air strikes rocked several towns and villages in south Lebanon, according to Reuters. 

The day before, an Israeli airstrike hit the town of Aitaroun, destroyed five homes, and damaged many more. 

“Divine intervention prevented anyone from being martyred. Three women and two men were wounded,” Reuters continued, citing a local official. 

UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, said in a statement, “The potential for a miscalculation that could trigger a wider conflict is increasing.”

In Syria on Sunday, the army announced that its air defense shot down Israeli missiles fired from the occupied Golan Heights, Syrian land occupied by Israel, into the surrounding area of Damascus city.

Other missiles were not intercepted and caused some damage, the army added. 

Meanwhile, in the Red Sea, France says one of its warships shot down two drones approaching from Yemen on Sunday, where Houthi rebels have committed to halting all forms of Israeli shipping through the crucial waterway. 

In response, Israel’s national security adviser says Israel would give Western allies “some time” to organize a response, but if the threats persist, “we will act to remove this blockade.”

From the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, Jon Alterman told Al Jazeera that there is a “real possibility” of a wider war erupting in the Middle East, adding that there are two ways it could spread in the region. 

“One is escalation – perhaps the Iranians decide they want a war. Or there could be miscalculation; someone on the periphery does something that is not authorized and it goes wrong. I mean the Americans are intercepting attacks on US forces daily,” he told Al Jazeera.

“I think it is a real possibility that the region does erupt into war. I think that likelihood has increased in the past few weeks, and I think that likelihood will sustain. I don’t see any signs it’s getting less,” Alterman continued. 

Despite the growing potential of wider regional conflict, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear the government has no plans to de-escalate the situation. 

“People are talking about this war stretching on for another two months. Benjamin Netanyahu says that they will continue to fight until they achieve all their goals – goals he talked about at the start of the campaign, which includes the release of all those being held captive, the destruction of Hamas, and the deradicalization of Gaza, as he calls it. It seems that Israel is still a long way away from that, which means the end of the war is still a long way away, too,” says Al Jazeera’s political analyst Alan Fisher. 

Death, siege, destruction, and deprivation on human rights day

On Sunday, the UN Human Rights Office in the occupied Palestinian territory released a statement to mark 75 years since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, using it as an opportunity to draw attention to Israel’s grave human rights violations. 

“Those who do not die under the bombs are at risk of dying from hunger, thirst, and disease,” the statement said, adding that Palestinians in Gaza are facing death, siege, destruction, and deprivation of the most essential human needs. 

“Meanwhile, Palestinians in the West Bank are being subjected to a disturbing increase in arrests, ill-treatment, extreme movement restrictions, state and settler violence and displacement in what was already, prior to October 7, the deadliest year on record,” the statement continued. 

“To give life to the Universal Declaration in Palestine, we need an immediate ceasefire, the release of hostages and, ultimately, an end to the occupation, guarantee the rights of the Palestinians to self-determination, and provide justice and equality for the peoples of both Palestine and Israel,” the office concluded. 

“This bloodshed must stop immediately,” Osama Abdel Khalek, Egypt’s UN representative, said in a post on X, which shared yet another UN General Assembly resolution draft calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

In Gaza, “humanitarian aid has been made conditional. Humanitarian assistance is withheld or delivered according to political and military agendas to which the United Nations is not privy,” says UNRWA’s commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini. 

“Our colleagues are facing hugely difficult challenges. They are putting themselves in the line of fire. We have lost more than 110 UN staff,” Lazzarini continued.