Davin News Server

Over the past few months, the Israeli military assault in Gaza has
killed and injured more than 100,000 people and has decimated health
care, education, and housing infrastructure. While international
attention has been focused on the catastrophe in Gaza, another crisis
is unfolding in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Since October 7, 2023, more than 544 Palestinians have been killed
(including 126 children) and over 5,200 injured (including 800
children) by the Israeli military and Jewish settlers in Jerusalem and
the West Bank (6/16/24). The UN Human Rights Office of the High
Commissioner decries “day after day of unprecedented bloodshed…The
killing, destruction and widespread human rights violations are
unacceptable, and must cease immediately. Israel must not only adopt
but enforce rules of engagement that are fully in line with applicable
human rights norms and standards.”

The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council would like to
highlight the following urgent concerns:

The Israeli military has intensified land incursions since October,
especially targeting refugee camps. Before the Hamas attack, the
Israeli military launched an average of 600 raids per month. Since
then, the number has risen to over 1,000 monthly, with increased
closures and blockades, including in Area A, ostensibly under the
civil and security control of the Palestinian Authority. 

Israeli armored vehicles deploy unprovoked lethal force against
Palestinian protesters who pose no imminent threat. These attacks have
been accompanied by a systematic denial of medical assistance to the
injured.

 Israeli forces have carried out airstrikes in blatant disregard for
“collateral damage.” Over 29 attacks on refugee camps and densely
populated areas by unmanned aerial vehicles, planes and the firing of
ground-to-ground missiles have occurred since October 2023. An
Intercept investigation documented at least 37 air, drone, and
helicopter strikes since June 2023. Of the 55 Palestinians killed by
airstrikes, 24 were children, ranging in ages from 11 to 17. Drone
attacks in residential areas result in high levels of physical
displacement and physical and psychological trauma. 

A campaign of targeted assassination by air has also killed many
civilians, a violation of international law.

Jewish settlers have repeatedly vandalized and destroyed more than
43,600 Palestinian-owned trees, as well as buildings, fencing, and
solar equipment. Armed and supported by the Israeli military and
police, settlers create a coercive environment designed to dispossess
local inhabitants and take their land. Since October 2023, 968 settler
attacks have been documented. 

The demolition of 991 structures, 34% of them homes, due to lack of
Israeli-issued permits, as punishment, or as part of military
activities, has displaced 2,155 Palestinians in the West Bank since
October. In East Jerusalem, many Palestinian-owned structures have
been demolished for lacking impossible-to-obtain Israeli-issued
building permits, displacing 183 people since January 2024.

Serious economic hardship has been caused by the military actions,
restrictions on mobility, and the denial since October of permits for
Palestinians to work in Israel. 

The withholding of Palestinian Authority tax revenue has resulted in
50% pay cuts to monthly salaries of civil servants.

Attacks on health care facilities in the West Bank have killed 16
people and injured 95, and affected 319 ambulances, 54 health
facilities and 20 mobile clinics between October 7 and May 28, in 480
instances documented by WHO. 

Water supply was restricted to only two days over the past week in
East Jerusalem’s Kufr Aqab. The local water company says Israel
diminished the area’s supply.

There has been no response from the U.S. government to the increased
number and lethality of Israeli attacks on Palestinians in the West
Bank. These attacks violate international law and the Geneva
Conventions. The UN Special Rapporteur on Counter-terrorism and Human
Rights stated that the obligations of humanitarian law and
international human rights law apply to the West Bank.

The Jewish Voice for Peace Health Advisory Council, as a U.S.-based
organization of healthcare workers, calls on the U.S. State Department
and the Biden Administration to hold Israel accountable for violations
of International Law and International Humanitarian Law in the West
Bank, as documented above.

We call for:

An impartial investigation into Israel’s use of lethal force,
collective punishment, violations of the right of movement,
demolitions of homes, villages, farming land, olive groves, etc. Such
an investigation cannot be carried out by the perpetrator of these
actions, but rather by an international body such as an international
human rights NGO or the appropriate body of the United Nations; 

An end to U.S. funding of Israel’s military as long as any weapons or
technology are being used in violation of human rights and
international law; 

An immediate halt to Israeli military assaults on health care
facilities (including attacks on ambulances and health care workers),
as these are internationally protected sites; 

An immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a return to the negotiating table
to implement a path to Palestinian self-determination and a just and
sustainable peace.

We urge all healthcare workers to urgently speak out and contact their
elected members of Congress and the Biden Administration about the
health and human crisis faced by Palestinians in the West Bank and
East Jerusalem. 

President Joe Biden https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/share/
202-456-1111, TTY 202-456-6213 

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken
https://register.state.gov/contactus/contactusform (202) 456-1111 

find your senator:
https://www.senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.htm 

find your representative: https://www.house.gov/representatives



jvphealth.org statement
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/6387dd858383bb3ab421fb9b/t/667ad3c0d01bc508d6a9e434/1719325633280/west_bank_health_alert_JVP_HAC.pdf