Bulletin #106: The impact of hunger, from Gaza to North Darfur
This fortnight
The United Nations has officially confirmed that a famine is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where relentless Israeli attacks on healthcare and civilian infrastructure continue to kill dozens daily. We spoke with Claudio Schuftan of the People’s Health Movement about the devastating effects of hunger, especially on children and pregnant women.
Malnutrition is also threatening lives in Sudan, where thousands of cholera cases had been recorded in early August. With access to nutritious food and clean water severely limited, displaced populations are forced to rely on contaminated sources, and children are once again the most vulnerable – at risk of dying from entirely preventable diseases.
In the United States, New Orleans marks 20 years since Hurricane Katrina. The catastrophic government response in 2005 laid bare deep-rooted racial and systemic inequities. At the time, Cuba offered to send 1,500 health workers to support medical efforts, an offer that the Bush administration refused.
In India, a grassroots campaign in Karnataka is mobilizing against plans to privatize hospital services, exposing the failures of earlier public-private partnerships that compromised access to care.
And in mid-September, international health activists will join thousands at ManiFiesta, Belgium’s festival of solidarity, to imagine and organize for a healthcare system based on cooperation, equity, and social justice.
In focus: Health in Palestine
Intergenerational hunger: the effects of Israel’s starvation of Gaza
As more children die from malnutrition under Israel’s genocide, the health impacts of Gaza’s deepening hunger crisis are increasingly devastating.
PHM members aboard humanitarian fleet bound for Gaza
Three members of the People's Health Movement (PHM) will set sail on the Global Sumud Flotilla in an attempt to break the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
Featured articles
Cholera threatens starved IDPs in war-torn Darfur
Once a haven for the displaced, North Darfur’s Tawila is now ground zero for a deadly cholera outbreak.
20 years since Katrina: How the US refused Cuban doctors as New Orleans drowned
As the people of New Orleans suffered from mass devastation and state neglect following Hurricane Katrina, Cuba’s offer of solidarity was rejected.
The people’s campaign against privatization of district hospitals in Karnataka
Health activists and communities resist government plans to privatize district public hospitals through PPPs in Karnataka, India.
Belgium’s ManiFiesta 2025 to emphasize resistance and internationalism
Left organizations in Belgium are preparing for ManiFiesta 2025, set to launch a new political cycle focused on resistance and solidarity.