(Geneva) Humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip are “on the verge of total collapse”, warned the International Committee of the Red Cross on Friday, after two months of total blockade of any assistance entry by Israel.
Posted at 6:42 a.m.
“If the rescue routing does not immediately resume, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will not have food, drugs and basic necessities it needs to pursue many of the programs it leads to Gaza,” said the ICRC in a statement.
“The authorities must allow the entry of humanitarian aid to Gaza. The hostages must be released. Civilians should be protected. It is necessary to act urgently, failing which Gaza will sink even deeper into chaos which no humanitarian effort can take it out, “warns the organization based in Geneva.
Since March 2, no humanitarian aid is authorized to enter the territory where 2.4 million people live, to force, according to the Israeli authorities, the Islamist Hamas movement to release the hostages taken on October 7 in its hands.
“For civilians in Gaza, every day is a fierce struggle to survive the dangers of fighting and bear the consequences of incessant movements – all this without being able to count on emergency humanitarian aid,” said Pascal Hundt, deputy director of CICR operations, quoted in the press release.
Photo Eyad Baba, Agency France-Presse
A man holds his son in his arms after losing three of his children, in the Al-Bureij camp, in the center of the Gaza Strip, 1is May.
“We cannot allow this already critical situation to worsen more,” he insists.
Thursday, Mike Ryan the deputy director general of the WHO denounced what is happening in Gaza as “an abomination”.
Obligation to help
However, if the blockade continues, programs such as CICR collective kitchens – which provide many people with their only daily meal – cannot be maintained for more than a few weeks, the press release said.
Since the establishment of the blockade, the UN has continued to denounce the humanitarian and health disaster and the risk of famine.
The World Food Program announced a few days ago that it “had exhausted all its stocks”.
The ICRC also recalls that in accordance with international humanitarian law, Israel has the obligation, to the extent of its means, to ensure that the essential needs of the civilian population placed under its control are satisfied.
The situation at the organization’s campaign hospital is also critical, certain drugs and health products being exhausted.
“Hospitals and other health structures reorganize their reservations and establish priorities to be able to continue to work. Without rapid replenishment, they may no longer be able to provide vital care to patients “, underlines the ICRC, which also denounces” the repeated attacks which prevent health personnel from doing their work “.
The war of reprisals waged by Israel since October 7 has left more than 52,400 dead in Gaza, mainly civilians, according to data from the Ministry of Health of the Government of Hamas, deemed reliable by the UN.
The attack on Hamas on October 7, 2023 on Israeli territory resulted in the death of 1218 people on the Israeli side, for most civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
Among the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still retained in Gaza, including 34 dead, according to the Israeli army.
A ship loaded with aid targeted by a strike
Freedom flotilla activists have said that one of their ships responsible for humanitarian aid on the road to the Gaza Strip had been attacked on Friday by Israeli drones in international waters off Malta. “At 0:23, Maltese time (6:23 p.m. Eastern hour), conscience, a ship in the coalition of the Freedom Flotilla, was directly attacked in international waters,” the organization said in a statement. “Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian ship twice, causing a fire and a large breach in the hull,” she added, by attributing the attack to Israel. Israel did not immediately comment on these allegations.
