How on Earth is Palestine Supposed to Cope with Covid-19 – And Where is The International Outcry?

• How on Earth is Palestine Supposed to Cope with Covid-19 – And Where is The International Outcry?
  by Darius Shahtahmasebi, https://www.rt.com/
  Israel continues to occupy Palestine but is falling far short of its international obligations to help the Palestinian people weather the storm of Covid-19. Can we expect the global community to step in, or will they stay silent?
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  If Covid-19 is allowed to proliferate throughout the Gaza Strip, the result will be nothing short of chaos. Gaza is full of vulnerable groups and refugee camps, and it has a large number of poor and densely populated areas. The tools the Palestinian Administration needs to combat the virus are already in short supply, as are medical staff. While the number of confirmed cases is significantly higher in Israel, Israel is better equipped with the necessary resources to contain the virus in the longer term.
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  As of writing, the number of recorded Covid-19 cases in the Palestinian Administration has risen to 466. Two new cases have been recorded in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of cases in this heavily populated area to 17. Approximately a week ago, the number of confirmed cases there was only 41 and, at the time, there were concerns that the virus was spreading undetected throughout the Palestinian Administration. All things considered, I’d be greatly surprised if any of these numbers told the whole story. According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the low numbers thus far reflect limited testing capacity more than anything else.
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  As the occupying power, Israel tinkers heavily with the goods and services Palestinians can receive that you or I may take for granted on a daily basis. In the Gaza Strip, electricity is usually available for less than half the day. 97 percent of its drinking water is contaminated with sewage and salt – the supply of which is also controlled by Israel. If Covid-19 begins to spread rapidly across a population of approximately two million people trapped in what is widely regarded as an open-air prison, it doesn’t take a mathematician to work out that the number of ventilators it has (currently less than 100) is simply not enough.
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  Despite all of this, Israeli officials have said that Palestinians have largely abided by the lockdown measures. In fact, Jerusalem’s highest rates of confirmed Covid-19 cases appear to be centered in its most ultra-orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. With this in mind, one would expect the Israeli government to have been working closely with the Palestinian Authority to help contain the spread of the virus. No?
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  The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially accused Israel of denying Palestinians access to vital medicine (perhaps this is why Trump threatened to defund the WHO). Moreover, according to Electronic Intifada, Israeli occupation forces have been attacking Palestinian communities even throughout the pandemic. Homes and schools have been raided, Palestinians have been detained (including local emergency-committee members), food parcels have been confiscated and assaults have been committed. Israel has also continued to target water, sanitation and hygiene facilities as well as agricultural and livelihood structures in the occupied West Bank as it further cements its plans to demolish Palestinian homes and forcibly remove the Palestinian population. Even up until the end of March, reports indicate that Israel has routinely bombed Gaza during this crisis as well.
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