The new year has commenced as bleakly as the last one concluded in Gaza. As December came to an end, the UN announced that the healthcare system was on the brink of outright collapse due to Israel’s attacks. Within days of the new year beginning, an official with Unrwa warned that social order will collapse if Israel ends all cooperation with the aid agency for Palestinians later this month, as scheduled. In between, scores of people were killed in intensified Israeli strikes, including in an area designated as a safe zone. Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that at least 45,854 have now died there in the 15 months since the Hamas attacks in southern Israel.
The crisis is so familiar and relentless now that international attention has flagged. And yet it is so desperate that the facts must be reiterated. At least seven infants have died from the cold in recent weeks. Almost the entire 1.9m population has been displaced, in most cases repeatedly. They are exhausted and traumatised. An estimated 91% face high levels of acute food insecurity, according to the UN.
