Gaza ‘choked off’ from aid
The two main crossings into the southern Gaza Strip remain shut, virtually cutting off the enclave from outside aid with very few stores stationed inside, said UN agencies yesterday.
The global agency's humanitarian office spokesperson Jens Laerke told journalists that Israel had shut both the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings for aid and people as part of its so-called "limited scope" military operation in Rafah where around 1 million uprooted people are sheltering.
"The two main arteries for getting aid into Gaza are currently choked off," he said, adding that UN agencies had very low stocks inside the Gaza Strip since humanitarian supplies are consumed straight away. The enclave has just a one-day buffer of fuel stocks, he added.
"If no fuel comes in for a prolonged period of time it would be a very effective way of putting the humanitarian operation in its grave," he added. A World Health Organization spokesperson said in response to a journalist's question that no exceptions were being made for sick and injured patients.
Red Crescent sources in Egypt said shipments had completely halted.
Meanwhile, Israeli tanks pushed into the southern Gazan town of Rafah after a night of air strikes on the Palestinian enclave.
The Gaza health ministry said Israeli airstrikes across the enclave had killed 54 Palestinians and wounded 96 others in the past 24 hours. A total of 34,789 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been now killed in the conflict, the Gaza Health Ministry said yesterday.
More than one million people have sought refuge in Rafah, living in tented camps and makeshift shelters. Many are trying to leave, heeding Israeli orders for them to evacuate, but with large areas of the coastal enclave already laid to waste, they say they have nowhere safe to go to.
As the ceasefire talks stumbled, mediator Qatar said its delegation would head to Cairo to resume indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas.
An official briefed on the talks said the Israeli delegation had arrived in the Egyptian capital Cairo, though Israel has reiterated its objective remained the destruction of Hamas.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to Israel and Hamas to spare no effort to get a truce deal and warned Israel that a full assault on Rafah would "be a strategic mistake, a political calamity, and a humanitarian nightmare."
- Gaza may run out of fuel in days
- Qatari delegation heads to Cairo to resume truce talks
- Death toll in enclave rises to 34,789
Comments