COVID-19 has entered Gaza
The Coronavirus has entered Gaza. It's a catastrophe underway. Tell the World Health Organization and the U.N. to issue statements and resolutions. Israel must lift the siege immediately.
Please sign the petition (you will be automatically redirected) to the WHO and the U.N. telling them to speak out and issue statements and resolution and
Join the webinar Monday, March 23, 2020 at 11:00 Eastern time. We will be talking with Raed Shakshak in Gaza and Geri Haynes, a palliative care consultant who just returned from Gaza two weeks ago with Washington State Physicians for Social Responsibility. The webinar will be co-hosted by We Are Not Numbers and the U.S. Boat to Gaza.
Dear World Health Organization and U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres,
Palestinian officials have announced the first two cases of COVID-19 in the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to Deputy Health Minister Youssef Abulreesh, the two cases are Palestinian men who returned from Pakistan through Gaza's Rafah on Thursday, March 21 and were placed under quarantine. On Saturday, March 22 their tests were confirmed positive for COVID-19.
The two are now in a field hospital in Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Gaza's two million residents are being asked to practice social distancing. Hamas has shut down restaurants, reception halls and Friday prayers at mosques. Gaza is not only one of the most densely populated place on earth and the world's largest open-air prison, but 97% of the water there is unfit for human consumption, electricity is rationed, and there was already an extremely severe shortage of resources, medical supplies and personnel.
Israel has supplied Gaza with only a few hundred COVID-19 tests for its almost 2 million people. It's a catastrophe in the making. Health officials warn that containment and treatment under the Israeli blockade will be impossible.
This crisis has been building since Israel's life-threatening blockade began 13 years ago. By supporting this siege, the U.S. is complicit in any Gaza COVID-19 crisis that might occur. Please use your voice to compel Israel to immediately lift its siege.
Sincerely,