More airlines suspend flights as Middle East tensions rise

GENEVA: The healthcare system in the occupied West Bank has been in “a state of perpetual emergency” since October 2023, the Doctors Without Borders, or MSF, group said in a new report published on Thursday.

“A dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions ... have severely hindered access to essential services, particularly health care, exacerbating already dire living conditions for many Palestinians,” it said.

Violence in the region soared after the attack on Israel in October 2023, which triggered a massive retaliation by Israel that has leveled much of Gaza.

“Since Oct. 7, 2023, the West Bank has seen a dramatic escalation in violence, marked by prolonged Israeli military incursions and stricter movement restrictions,” it said.

The report examined “the attacks and the obstructions of healthcare in a context of what has been described by the ICJ (International Criminal Court) as segregation and apartheid.”

It revealed “a pattern of systematic interference by Israeli forces and settlers in emergency health care delivery.”

The Palestinian Health Ministry says Israeli troops and settlers have killed at least 884 Palestinians, including many militants, in the West Bank since the Gaza war began on Oct. 7, 2023.

Over the same period, at least 32 Israelis have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during Israeli military raids in the territory, official Israeli figures show.

Preventing Palestinians from accessing healtcare was “part of a wider system of collective punishment imposed by Israel, under the guise of its crackdown on armed Palestinian men,” MSF said.

“The already-strained Palestinian healthcare system in the West Bank has been further weakened since October 2023 and is facing significant budget constraints,” it said.

Nearly half the essential medications are out of stock, and health workers have not been paid in a year, the report said, adding that “most clinics and hospitals are running at significantly reduced levels.”

“Access to health care is severely impeded by a sprawling system of checkpoints and roadblocks that obstruct ambulance movements, compounded by the escalation of violent military raids involving the use of disproportionate tactics.”

This is compounded by “frequent attacks on medical personnel and facilities ... Hospitals and healthcare structures are often encircled by military forces, with troops sometimes occupying the buildings themselves, compounding the risks to both patients and staff.”

Violence from settlers often exacerbates these dire conditions, it said.

MSF called on Israel to stop its “disproportionate use of force” in the West Bank, including on medical facilities and against medical personnel.

It called for independent probes into past such attacks, for Israel to facilitate medical access to those in need, and to allow the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA to be allowed to continue its work.

Israeli military offensives in two West Bank refugee camps have displaced nearly 5,500 Palestinian families since December, local and UN officials said this week, amid escalating violence in the occupied territory.

Jonathan Fowler, spokesman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, said an estimated 2,450 to 3,000 families have been displaced from the Tulkarem refugee camp.

Faisal Salama, head of the camp’s popular committee, estimated that 80 percent of its 15,000 residents had been displaced.

Both Salama and Fowler said that obtaining precise figures was challenging because of the security situation within the camp and its fluctuating population.

“The displaced people from the camp are scattered in the suburbs and in the city of Tulkarem itself,” Salama said.

He said that six people had been killed and dozens wounded since the offensive began on Jan. 25.

“The bombing of residential homes in the camp continues, along with destruction and bulldozing of everything.”

Salama also reported that the violence has severely restricted the movement of goods into the camp.

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is planning to visit the Middle East in mid-February, Axios reported on Thursday, citing two Israeli officials and two other unidentified sources.
Rubio is planning to travel to the region after the Munich security conference, which begins on Feb. 14, and visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and possibly more countries, according to Axios.