Disabled Palestinians
Updated 2023-11-26
Disability in the State of Palestine – Wikipedia Disability affects 2.1% of the population of the State of Palestine, a total of 92,710 people, according to the 2017 Population, Housing and Establishments Census. The majority (47,109 people) are affected by mobility impairments, while a fifth are under 18 years old. Geographic distribution is almost evenly split between the West Bank (48%) and the Gaza Strip (52%). 75% live in urban areas, 13% in rural areas, and 12% live in the camps https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_in_the_State_of_Palestine
2023-11-19 ‘Where will I leave these children, on the street?’ The struggle for survival faced by disabled Palestinians in Gaza Since Israel’s complete siege on Gaza began, Hazem Saeed Al-Naizi, the director of an orphanage in Gaza City, had been gripped with fear, worried about when food, water and other basic necessities might run out for the dozens of children and young people in his care, most of whom are living with disabilities.
For Palestinians trying to escape the fighting, living with a disability can be its own effective death sentence. People who are deaf or blind are less likely to know about evacuation orders and cannot hear or see the strikes, disability advocates and aid organizations told CNN. Others with intellectual disabilities may be unable to communicate their whereabouts to relatives or rescue workers, while people with physical disabilities who rely on wheelchairs and other assistive devices are unable to navigate rubble, let alone walk miles south.
Carers like Al-Naizi face an impossible choice — stay put and risk being killed or flee somewhere with no promise of safety. “Where will I leave these children, on the street?” Al-Naizi said. “We have no hope, except that this war will end soon.” https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/where-will-i-leave-these-children-on-the-street-the-struggle-for-survival-faced-by-disabled-palestinians-in-gaza/ar-AA1k4Rce
2023-11-19 Israel-Palestine war: Disabled man among two Palestinians killed in West Bank by Israeli raids More than 200 Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been killed by Israeli forces since war broke out. Issam al-Fayed, 45, a disabled Palestinian man, was killed after being shot by Israeli forces during a raid on Jenin that has been described by residents as the largest in the city since 7 October.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its medical teams had received Fayed before transferring him to Jenin Government Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. In Bethlehem, another Palestinian was shot and killed by Israeli forces in the Dheisheh refugee camp. Wafa news agency identified the man as Omar Ali al-Laham, who was shot in the head during an overnight Israeli raid on the camp. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-disabled-man-killed-west-bank-raids
2023-11=18 Israel-Palestine war: The harsh reality of disabled people trying to survive war For nearly seven kilometres, Rewaa Moeen had carried her six-year-old paralysed brother Ahmed on foot, fighting exhaustion and an intense fear that she and her family could be bombed at any moment before they reach the southern areas of the Gaza Strip. But the long journey to “safety” has been made even more arduous by the rubble of flattened buildings for the hundreds of thousands of people who had been ordered by the Israeli military to move to the south of the blockaded strip, using a so-called “safe corridor” while only carrying their ID cards with them. Knowing that they could not take anything, Moeen’s family did not risk taking Ahmed’s wheelchair, fearing that he might be targeted.
“At the beginning of the war when many families evacuated their homes, we refused to evacuate and head to the south. Part of the reason was that moving my brother is not easy, he needs a special environment and a place to be able to do his daily activities easily,” Moeen, 27, told Middle East Eye. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-war-gaza-disabled-people-trying-survive
2023-10-27 People with disabilities not spared by Israel’s war machine on Gaza Strip Bombs, lack of electricity and roads damaged by Israeli offensive make life impossible for disabled people in Gaza. In 2022, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the number of Palestinians with disabilities in the occupied territories was about 93,000, constituting 2.1 percent of the total population. Some 52 percent of that number, or 48,360, live in the Gaza Strip, while the rest reside in the occupied West Bank. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/27/people-with-disabilities-not-spared-from-israels-war-machine-on-gaza-strip
2023-05-14 Family with disabled children among hundreds of Gaza’s homeless after latest fighting with Israel When Najah Nabhan learned that her home was about to be bombed by Israel, she knew she had to get out quickly. What she didn’t know was how she would get her four children with special needs out of the building in time.
With the help of neighbors, her children, who are unable to walk on their own, were carried to safety. But the airstrike flattened the three-story building, leaving 42 members of Nabhan’s extended family homeless and leaving her children without the wheelchairs, crutches and medical equipment they need to move about.
“I needed time to think what to take and what to leave. We have important documents and reports of the children’s conditions and history, medications and tools. All of them are gone,” said Najah, sitting on a mat in the debris-strewn front yard of what used to be her home in northern Gaza. https://apnews.com/article/gaza-israel-airstrike-rockets-islamic-jihad-palestinians-2641e6a497b06df8a6bfdc752b3c2408
2019-03-29 ‘Shoot to maim’: How Israel created a generation on crutches in Gaza Doctors tell MEE that Palestinian protesters’ crippling injuries, especially to lower limbs, were inflicted deliberately.
Israeli snipers have intentionally maimed Palestinians protesting in Gaza over the past year, creating a generation of disabled youth and overwhelming the territory’s already crippled medical system, frontline doctors tell Middle East Eye. According to a United Nations inquiry released this month, over 80 percent of the 6,106 protesters wounded in the first nine months of the Great March of Return were shot in the lower limbs.
Israeli soldiers intentionally shot civilians and may have committed war crimes in their heavy-handed response to the protests, which have been held regularly across Gaza since 30 March 2018, the report concluded. Healthcare providers say the pattern of wounds shows that Israeli soldiers are purposefully shooting to maim protesters, most of whom are in their 20s and now require long-term medical care. “The soldier knows exactly where he’s putting the bullet. This is not random. This is very intimate. This is very planned,” said Ghassan Abu Sitta, professor of surgery at the American University of Beirut (AUB), who treated injured protesters for three weeks at Gaza’s Al-Awda Hospital last May. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/shoot-maim-how-israel-created-generation-crutches-gaza
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Categorized Directory: News and Articles about Israel- Palestine Conflict
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