Northern Gaza’s healthcare nears collapse; Valencia braces for post-flood mental health struggles
This fortnight at the People's Health Dispatch
As Israeli attacks continue to pound northern Gaza, medics are warning that hospitals are nearing a total exhaustion of supplies. Health facilities, already operating with only a few remaining doctors, are rationing critical levels of fuel and medicine supplies. The constant threat of kidnapping by Israeli soldiers only adds to the precarious situation hospital workers are facing. If health workers’ warnings come to pass, healthcare could vanish entirely from northern Gaza.
In Gezira, Sudan, gender-based violence has become a weapon of war, according to the UN. The Rapid Support Forces are targeting Sudan’s agricultural heartland, including by assaulting and trafficking women and girls, subjecting them to sexual slavery and forced marriages. Despite even conservative reports counting hundreds of survivors, support remains largely unavailable.
In Valencia, Spain, torrential floods recently destroyed homes and workplaces, hitting working-class neighborhoods hardest. Institutional support in the aftermath has been underwhelming, leaving communities to rely on self-help and volunteer aid. The floods and their aftermath are expected to strain mental health resources and possibly disrupt health services in the coming months.
In the US, 80-year-old political prisoner Leonard Peltier has been hospitalized due to ongoing health issues. Denied parole in July, Peltier has spent almost 50 years in prison, with his continued imprisonment widely described as “political vengeance” for his activism with the American Indian Movement.
In focus: Health in Palestine and Lebanon
Israeli attacks persist on northern Gaza’s last hospitals
Hospitals in northern Gaza continue to endure Israeli attacks as Palestinians’ health deteriorates amid rising hunger and infectious disease
“No treatment, no pain relief, no escape,” UN says on healthcare in Gaza
Intensified Israeli attacks have devastated hospitals and healthcare in Gaza, with patients left to suffer amid a blockade of medical resources and repeated denials of evacuation permits
Featured articles
Widespread anger in Valencia as survivors of floods grapple with delayed emergency response
Over 200 people were killed in Valencia’s devastating floods, whose effects were exacerbated by a delayed regional emergency response
UN decries “systematic use of sexual violence as a weapon of war” in Sudan’s agricultural heartland
Widespread rapes, sexual slavery and forced marriages under torture have been reported in Sudan’s Gezira state, amid the ongoing depopulation campaign unleashed by the paramilitary RSF last month
Short reads
Longest-held US political prisoner Leonard Peltier is hospitalized
Supporters demand the 80-year-old Indigenous freedom fighter be transferred to a medical facility
