In the last week the total number of COVID-19 cases in Gaza have tripled, reaching 1,551 yesterday. The International Crisis Group warns that once Gaza reaches 280 new infections daily, “the number of people requiring treatment will exceed the capacity of local hospitals.”
What started off as fear of the unknown, has now settled into somewhat of a feeling of indifference, and detached acceptance. It’s not that people don’t care about getting sick or spreading the virus, but more so that they are tired of their lives being put on hold for something that at this point seems inevitable.
Water shortages in Gaza due to Israeli fuel cuts are leaving Palestinians in a double crisis: a COVID-19 lockdown combined with fears over meeting basic needs.
Gaza Community Mental Health Programme head Yasser Abu Jamei describes how Gaza is responding to the outbreak of COVID-19: “The latest developments were surprising to the overcrowded community who are still in shock.”
Aya Al Ghazzawi shares a day in the life in Gaza during the COVID-19 pandemic, “The coronavirus is just another siege, a quarantine inside a quarantine.”
Imagine being left to fend for yourself against the coronavirus, as your home is threatened by demolition, and your family is living under military occupation. That is the reality for Palestinians living in the village of al-Walaja. Watch the second episode in a five-part Mondoweiss series on how Palestinians are surviving under both a global pandemic, and the Israeli occupation.
The Trumps and Netanyahus think they can use anarchy as a specter to vilify uprisings, but Adi Callai writes: “The more they use the term ‘anarchists’ to disparage a mass movement, the higher we can raise our voices and offer an alternative.”
When Neta Golan’s husband traveled to Egypt at the beginning of March for a wedding, she never imagined it would take nearly five months for him to make his way home. Her story is just one of thousands of families where Palestinians were stranded abroad.
After months of recording remarkably low rates of COVID-19 infection, the Gaza Strip is witnessing a worrying outbreak of the virus, recording nearly 300 new cases in just the past week — and it’s just the beginning.
The coronavirus in now officially running loose in Gaza and the scope is unknown.