Hospitals in the besieged Gaza Strip have recorded two more deaths “due to famine and malnutrition” in the past 24 hours, according to the territory’s Health Ministry, bringing the total to at least 113.

Israel has recalled its ceasefire negotiating team for “consultations” after Hamas submitted a response to a proposed Gaza ceasefire deal to mediators.

The response reportedly includes amendments to conditions around the entry of aid, areas from which the Israeli army should withdraw, and guarantees on securing a permanent end to the war.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 59,587 people and wounded 143,498. An estimated 1,139 people were killed in Israel during the October 7, 2023 attacks, and more than 200 were taken captive.

For aid to arrive into the hands of Palestinians in Gaza, it is not straightforward.

Since the war began in October 2023, some aid has been able to pass into the territory through a handful of militarised crossing points.

But even if lorries carrying supplies can get in, without the cooperation of Israeli authorities they can’t get much further.

Aid groups say there is no shortage in the supply of food, but accuse Israel of obstructing it and making it virtually impossible for humanitarian assistance to reach millions of people who desperately need it.

Instead, truckloads sit untouched in warehouses, external while not far away, aid groups say, Gazans face mass starvation.

Israel denies this, and blames UN agencies and « the collection bottleneck » as the main obstacle for supplies getting into Gaza.

Earlier this year, the Israeli military blockaded the entry of aid trucks into Gaza for 11 weeks, it said, to pressure Hamas into releasing hostages.

Not longer after that, Israel and the US backed a controversial organisation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) to bypass the UN and act as the main distributor of aid in Gaza.

The GHF, unlike the UN, uses private security contractors to distribute supplies from sites in Israeli military zones. It’s a system Israel and the US say is necessary to stop Hamas from stealing aid.

But aid organisations have also roundly condemned the scheme, which the UN says has seen more than 1,000 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces while trying to collect food.

And according to the World Health Organization, a large proportion of the population of Gaza is starving.

World Opinions + Agencies

L’article Israel has starved 113 Palestinians to death in Gaza.. How does aid get into Gaza – and why isn’t enough getting through?.. Video est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

The Palestine Red Crescent says Israel has imposed a curfew around Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Younis, and that gunfire and The Israeli military says its ground forces have encircled Khan Younis, the southern Gaza Strip’s largest city.

The International Court of Justice says it will decide this Friday on South Africa’s requested provisional measures against Israel in genocide case.

UNRWA reports “mass casualties” as training centre sheltering tens of thousands of displaced people in Khan Younis catches fire after being struck amid fierce fighting.

Israeli forces continue tank-and-drone strikes on Khan Younis city with at least 210 people killed over the past 24 hours.

At least 25,700 people have been killed and 63,740 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from the October 7 Hamas attacks stands at 1,139.

WHO laments killing of Palestinians in Israeli strike on UNRWA shelter

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has offered his condolences to those killed after Israeli tanks shelled a URWA facility sheltering displaced Palestinians in Gaza earlier today, lamenting the “horrendous” heavy bombardment of Khan Younis.

“The ongoing heavy bombardment, evacuation orders and killing of civilians in Khan Younis, Gaza is just horrendous,” Ghebreyesus said in a social media post.

“WHO team joined an UNRWA mission to help those who were injured in today’s blast at the training centre where civilians were sheltering. Our deep condolences to the families who lost loved ones.”

Troops have also reportedly advanced deeper into remaining parts of the city, where they believe Hamas leaders are hiding in tunnels with hostages.

Residents said tanks had shut the last road out of the city to the Mediterranean coast, effectively stopping them from fleeing southwards.

There was also intense fighting around the city’s two main hospitals.

It came as funerals took place for some of the 24 Israeli soldiers killed on Monday on the deadliest day for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) since the start of its ground offensive in Gaza 12 weeks ago.

At least 195 Palestinians were also killed in Gaza over the previous 24 hours, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.

The ministry says more than 25,400 people have been killed – mostly children and women – during the war between Hamas and Israel.

It was triggered by an unprecedented cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on southern Israel on 7 October, in which about 1,300 people were killed – most of them civilians – and about 250 others taken hostage.

Israeli ground forces expanded their operation into southern Gaza in early December, after largely taking control of Hamas strongholds in the north.

Within days they were said to have reached the « heart » of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of people who had fled northern areas were sheltering.

But the troops have since faced fierce resistance from Hamas’s Khan Younis Brigade. It is considered to be one of the two strongest in the group, which is designated as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the UK and other countries.

The Israeli operation has expanded and intensified in recent days, with dozens of people reported killed in air and artillery strikes on Monday alone as tanks pushed into the west and centre of the city.

On Tuesday, the IDF put out a statement saying that over the past day its troops had « carried out an extensive operation during which they encircled Khan Yunis and deepened the operation in the area ».

The troops had « engaged in close-quarters combat, directed [air] strikes, and used intelligence to co-ordinate fire, resulting in the elimination of dozens of terrorists », it added.

The IDF also ordered residents of western Khan Younis to move immediately to the al-Mawasi area, on the Mediterranean coast, for their own safety.

However, some witnesses said tanks had blocked the road leading there, preventing them from joining the estimated million people currently sheltering to the south in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.

« I am trying to leave for Rafah but the tanks are now very near to the coast and are firing toward the west, » Shaban, an electrical engineer with four children, told Reuters news agency.

The World Health Organization meanwhile said it was deeply concerned by reports of attacks on hospitals in Khan Younis.

On Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a civilian had been killed by an Israeli drone at the entrance of Al-Amal Hospital, which it runs, and that others had been injured when shells struck its nearby headquarters.

« The situation remains extremely dangerous. Early this morning, there was direct artillery shelling of the Palestine Red Crescent’s headquarters on the fourth floor. Israeli drones did not stop firing at people at al-Amal Hospital, » spokeswoman Nebal Farsakh told the BBC from Ramallah.

« [There is] panic and fear among thousands of displaced people who are taking shelter inside our facilities. »

There was no immediate comment from the IDF, but it has previously accused Hamas fighters of embedding themselves among the civilian population and operating in and around medical facilities.

Ms Farsakh also said ambulances were « facing significant challenges to reach wounded people and transport them to hospitals », adding that they were now being told to take critical cases to Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza.

And she warned that Al-Amal and the nearby Nasser Medical Complex – the largest of the 14 hospitals still partly working in Gaza – were « overwhelmed and overcrowded ».

Dr Haytham Ahmad, who works in Nasser’s emergency department, told the BBC that multiple amputations were being performed, and that in some cases, patients were not being given anaesthetic because of a shortage of supplies.

« These cases have severe crush injuries and there is just some skin and muscle still connected. We try to use limited anaesthetic in this situation, » he said.

A World Health Organization spokesman said Nasser was « now basically besieged » and that there was « no way in and out » for its 400 patients, as well as the medical staff treating them and displaced civilians.

Gaza’s health ministry alleged that Israeli forces had fired « heavily on the upper floors of the specialised surgery building and the emergency building » of the hospital.

One video filmed by a Palestinian journalist appeared to show gunfire hitting the hospital’s western corner, while in another clip smoke is seen rising from an area to the south.

The IDF told AFP news agency that it was « not aware of the event ».

Later, UN Secretary General António Guterres said the humanitarian situation in Gaza was « appalling » and that the entire population was « enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history ».

He also once again appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.

Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman said it was « engaging in serious discussions with both sides » on a potential deal, and a Palestinian official told the BBC that a Hamas delegation had arrived in Cairo on Tuesday morning to « discuss new proposals » with Egypt’s intelligence minister.

Israel has not denied that it has proposed a two-month truce, involving the release of hostages and Palestinian prisoners. But there are reports that has already been rejected by Hamas, which demands a permanent ceasefire.

World Opinions + Agencies

L’article Khan Younis: Israel says forces have encircled Gaza’s second city.. Video est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Rather than investing in predatory for-profit healthcare companies, development finance institutions should use their funds to help improve universal public services across the continent.

Recently, a good friend of mine took his perfectly healthy daughter to a private hospital in West Africa for a routine check-up. The paediatrician thought she was a bit thin for her age and advised that she undergo a surgical procedure, which is known to trigger weight gain in children. Despite the family’s misgivings, the operation went ahead.

She died on the operating table. It was a terrible loss. So many people I know in Africa have stories like this.

Public investment in essential public services has been in decline, creating a vacuum in healthcare provision that those seeking to make a profit are increasingly exploiting. But mixing profit maximisation with healthcare too often comes at an unacceptable cost.

Today, many private hospitals are abusing and violating the rights of patients and their relatives and impoverishing them. I see the devastating results every day in Africa – people faced with no choice but to watch their loved ones die, or forced to sell everything or take loans to pay the exorbitant medical bills.

However, the private sector continues to gain huge support as “the solution” to Africa’s development challenges.

Last month, I attended the Summit on the New Global Financial Pact in Paris on behalf of Oxfam. African leaders spoke passionately there about the issues affecting their citizens and, in particular, the need for public finance and public solutions. South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted the profiteering by Big Pharma during the pandemic, and we kept saying, “What is more important, life or profits by your big pharmaceutical companies?”

But the World Bank and the rich countries instead again offered the private sector as the answer.

The new World Bank president, Ajay Banga, talked about how “for years, the World Bank Group, governments, and other multilateral institutions have tried – and fallen short – to mobilise meaningful private investment in emerging markets” and that “we must try a new approach … to catalyse private capital more effectively”.

In my view, the private sector knows quite well how to look after itself. It does not require taxpayers’ funding.

Sadly, and without asking us, governments in rich countries have contributed to this misery by underwriting and investing in these predatory private healthcare companies, feeding them to grow in our countries and become ever more powerful.

Oxfam recently released two shocking reports, based on complex and detailed investigative research in a number of countries.

We show how development institutions belonging to the governments of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, as well as the European Union and the World Bank, are investing billions of dollars in Majority World countries into for-profit private hospital chains that block or bankrupt patients, deny them emergency medical care, with some even imprisoning patients and retaining corpses for non-payment of fees.

They are making huge profits for their already rich owners. All this, in the name of advancing universal health coverage and fighting poverty.

Ironically, the same rich countries provide healthcare and education funded by taxation and free of charge to their own citizens.

In Kenya, Oxfam unearthed dozens of cases of alleged or confirmed human rights violations by the Nairobi Women’s Hospital since 2017, including a newborn baby detained for three months, a schoolboy for 11 months, and a single mother of two for 226 days during which time her bill escalated by more than 2,000 percent.

The body of Francisca’s mother was locked in the hospital’s morgue for two years, she said. “I feel very sad seeing her … It is not easy for me because her body has changed … It does not look like a body any more, it’s more like a stone … We pleaded with the hospital to give us the body. We will never be able to pay the money, no matter how long they keep it.”

What upsets me most is that this hospital’s policy of detaining patients was already public knowledge before the rich countries chose to invest.

In Nigeria, nine out of 10 of the poorest women give birth with no medical care, yet childbirth at Development Finance Institution (DFI)-funded Evercare Hospital would cost those women their 12 years’ income.

Across all the hospitals getting these development funds, the average starting price for a childbirth procedure is more than a year’s income for an average earner in the poorest 40 percent.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, when people in my region of the world searched in desperation for scarce oxygen and life-saving care, exploitation escalated within some of these DFI-funded hospitals.

In Uganda, one of Africa’s poorest countries and hardest hit by the virus, private hospitals funded by European governments and the World Bank charged patient “clients” up to $2,300 per day for treatment and care. The Maputo Private Hospital reportedly charged COVID-19 patients an upfront deposit of more than $6,000 for oxygen and more than $10,000 for a ventilator.

In my view, the evidence is clear that the private sector is not the answer for the delivery of the public good. We know what the solution entails.

Instead of promoting the growth of expensive, out-of-reach hospitals for the elite, countries should support quality universal public services – funded by taxes and aid – and delivered free of charge at the point of use.

For example, look at the incredible improvements in healthcare delivered by thousands of new health workers in Ethiopia, pioneered by then minister of health, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, before his time leading the World Health Organization.

European governments and the World Bank should stop funding for-profit private hospitals and evaluate the effect that their decades of investment in them have had on healthcare in Africa.

Fati N’zi Hassane – Oxfam in Africa Director – Aljazeera

L’article Investments in private healthcare are not helping Africans est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Private hospitals in India and Kenya accused of refusing people on low incomes vital healthcare, or holding them hostage until bills have been paid, benefit from UK government investment funds, according to a report by Oxfam.

Investments worth hundreds of millions of pounds by government-backed agencies are used to facilitate the “impoverishment and even the imprisonment of the very people [the private hospitals] are supposed to be helping”, said the development charity.

A succession of incidents that in some cases have left patients with large debts shows the policy of investing in private healthcare is flawed and should be halted by the UK government, the charity said.

Oxfam’s Sick Development report is a critique of the millions of pounds taken from the UK aid budget and invested into foreign businesses and programmes in poor countries via British International Investment (BII), which is owned and managed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

The report found that the UK government was one of several, including those of France and Germany, and international groups like the World Bank that backed investments by wholly or part state-owned agencies into private healthcare groups, themselves often owned by large US private equity groups.

Development charity says patients denied treatment or held hostage until fees paid in private facilities in India and Kenya

Oxfam said investments by these agencies – known as development finance institutions (DFIs) – into private healthcare providers in low and middle-income countries should be redirected into strengthening public health systems “to help those living in poverty to access healthcare”. It said many of the countries receiving development money for healthcare had become “go-to destinations for health tourists”.

The report found “dozens of cases”, from a BII-funded hospital chain in Kenya, of patients being imprisoned until they paid medical fees.

This included a secondary school student who was held hostage in hospital for 11 months. “There have also been several cases of the hospital refusing to release dead bodies until fees are paid, in at least one case for over two years,” the report said.

In India, private hospitals funded by BII were accused of denying people treatment, “even though they had government health insurance cards entitling them to free care”.

Much of the report focuses on the activities of BII, which is the UK’s DFI. It has a mission to invest in private sector organisations in developing countries to boost growth and achieve the United Nations development goals.

The agency said all its activities are directed towards achieving these goals and supporting private healthcare businesses to “strengthen the quality and accessibility of healthcare in ways which improve the lives of millions”.

A spokesperson said: “Every healthcare system in the world – be they public or private – have isolated incidences of shortfalls in care.

“We take the Oxfam allegations extremely seriously. We investigate all such incidents whenever they come to light and have an established complaints mechanism for anyone to raise matters of concern.

“We continue to encourage Oxfam to share any evidence they hold of these alleged cases so that we can accelerate our investigations.”

The World Bank’s DFI, the International Finance Corporation, said it was always concerned by “improper healthcare delivery” in hospitals where it invested, but “private sector-led innovations such as digital health solutions can allow providers to help augment health systems’ capacity and capabilities and reach people who are vulnerable, poor or living in hard-to-reach rural areas”.

Oxfam said the evidence from its research in India, Kenya and Nigeria was that private hospitals failed to honour promises to accept accident and emergency cases and the profit-motive meant cases of financial or medical abuse were covered up.

The charity’s senior health policy adviser, Anna Marriott, who investigated many of the claims made against individual hospitals, said more than 90% of BII’s health investments were “out-of-sight and unaccountable, made via fee-charging and profit-hungry private equity funds mostly domiciled in tax havens”.

An inquiry by the all-party international development committee into the UK’s use of DFIs is due to be published next month.

“This is far more than just a case of a few bad apples. Wherever we looked we found cases of exclusion or exploitation and some appalling human rights violations,” said Marriott.

Oxfam’s local representatives spoke to people who were pushed into poverty by health fees of up to $36,000 (£29,000), the report said. “There were also cases of emergency patients, including a stab victim, not being treated until relatives turned up with cash.”

The report said BII-funded private hospitals were found charging “astronomical fees for maternity care”. In one hospital in Nigeria, the fee for an “uncomplicated birth” was the equivalent of 12 years’ wages for the poorest 10% of the population. A caesarean section cost the equivalent of 24 years’ wages, the report said.

Marriott said: “Every second, 60 more people are pushed into poverty by catastrophic health costs, and instead of helping to tackle the problem this way of spending UK aid is fuelling it.

“At a time of spiralling need and decimated aid budgets, it’s more crucial than ever that any development funding for health is spent as effectively as possible to reach those without access to healthcare.”

World Opinions –Theguardian.com

L’article UK aid should not fund private hospitals in developing countries, says Oxfam est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.

Health systems in most of Brazil’s largest cities are close to collapse because of Covid-19 cases, its leading health institute warns.

More than 80% of intensive care unit beds are occupied in the capitals of 25 of Brazil’s 27 states, Fiocruz said.

Experts warn that the highly contagious variant in Brazil may have knock-on effects in the region and beyond.

« Brazil is a threat to humanity, » Fiocruz epidemiologist Jesem Orellana told AFP news agency.

The country has recorded more than 266,000 deaths and 11 million cases since the pandemic began.

It has the second highest number of deaths in the world after the US and the third highest number of confirmed cases.

Despite this, President Jair Bolsonaro has consistently opposed quarantine measures and expert advice on fighting coronavirus.

What’s the situation in Brazil?

On Tuesday the country recorded 1,972 Covid deaths, a new daily record.

According to Fiocruz, 15 state capitals have intensive care units (ICUs) that are at more than 90% capacity including Rio de Janeiro, Brasilia and São Paulo.

Two cities – Porto Alegre and Campo Grande – have exceeded ICU capacity.

In its report, the institute warned that figures pointed to the « overload and even collapse of health systems ».

« The fight against Covid-19 was lost in 2020 and there is not the slightest chance of reversing this tragic circumstance in the first half of 2021, » Fiocruz’s Jesem Orellana said, quoted by AFP.

« The best we can do is hope for the miracle of mass vaccination or a radical change in the management of the pandemic. Impunity in management seems to be the rule. »

On Tuesday, the country also recorded more than 70,000 cases, a 38% increase on last week, according to local media. The surge in cases has been attributed to the spread of a highly contagious variant of the virus – named P1 – which is thought to have originated in the Amazon city of Manaus.

World Opinions News – bbc.com

L’article Covid: Brazil experts issue warning as hospitals ‘close to collapse’ est apparu en premier sur World Opinion | Alternative Média.