Half of Gaza's population is hungry and 9 out of 10 people cannot eat every day, the World Food Program (WFP) has warned.
Carl Skau, deputy director of this UN agency, assured that only a fraction of the necessary supplies were able to reach the Gaza Strip because conditions in Gaza made deliveries “almost impossible.”
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This lack of food contributes to the overcrowded conditions in which hundreds of thousands of refugees find themselves, which encourages the spread of disease, and contributes to the terrible state of the health system in Gaza.
“The impact of the conflict on health is catastrophic,” denounced the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, assuring that “Gaza’s health system is devastated and collapsing.”
In the town of Khan Younis, which witnesses say is surrounded on two sides by Israeli tanks and where a fierce battle is raging between Hamas militants and Israeli forces, the situation has become untenable and the population is completely frightened.
Israel says it must continue airstrikes on Gaza to eliminate Hamas and release hostages, and that “every death and suffering of civilians is painful, but we have no alternative,” Israeli army spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht told the BBC .
The Israeli army has stepped up its operations in the Gaza Strip. Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi was filmed telling soldiers that the army needed to “take stronger action” because “we are seeing terrorists surrendering… a sign that their network is collapsing.”
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has urged the population to leave the center of Khan Younis for safer areas, but residents say there are no areas left that could be considered safe.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as “hell on earth” and reiterated his call for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as “the dehumanization of Palestinians has led the international community to endure continued Israeli attacks on Gaza.”
“It is the worst situation I have seen in my life,” the official said.
According to the Gaza Strip's Ministry of Health, around 17,700 people, including more than 7,000 children, have died in Gaza since the war began. (Portal).
Lazzarini warned that UNRWA, the United Nations relief agency for Palestinian refugees in the Middle East, was on the verge of collapse: “People are seeking protection at the United Nations, but not even the blue flag is protected anymore.” In any case, it has “The situation has reached catastrophic proportions.”
Freedom of movement in and out of Gaza has been severely restricted since October 7, when Hamas militants breached the border fence and launched an attack that Israel said killed 1,200 people and took 245 hostage.
In response, Israel closed its borders with Gaza and began airstrikes on the area, limiting aid deliveries on which Gazans depend heavily.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, more than 17,700 people have died in Gaza as a result of the Israeli operation, including more than 7,000 children.
Only the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt was opened to a very limited extent, allowing limited aid to reach the Gaza Strip. This week, Israel also agreed to open the Kerem Shalom crossing south of the Israel-Gaza border, but only for the inspection of aid trucks. These vehicles then have to go to Rafah in order to get to Gaza.
International humanitarian aid organizations complain that the aid received is inadequate. The careful Israeli controls also slow down the transport of products and the constant bombing makes it very difficult for the aid supplies to reach the locations from which they are distributed.
Carl Skau said nothing prepared him for the “fear, chaos and desperation” he and his WFP team faced during their trip to Gaza this week.
They witnessed “mayhem in warehouses, at distribution points with thousands of desperate and hungry people, in supermarkets with empty shelves and overcrowded shelters with overflowing toilets,” he said.
International pressure and a temporary seven-day ceasefire last month allowed much-needed aid to enter Gaza, but the WFP insists a second border crossing is now needed to meet demand.
According to international humanitarian organizations, more than half of the houses in the Gaza Strip have been destroyed. (Portal).
According to Skau, in some areas nine out of 10 families “spend an entire day and night without eating.”
The people of Khan Younis, where hundreds of thousands of people from the northern Gaza Strip sought refuge last month, describe the situation there as terrible.
Dr. Ahmed Moghrabi, head of the plastic surgery and burns department at the city's only active medical center, Nasser Hospital, fought back tears as he spoke to the BBC about the lack of food.
“I have a three-year-old daughter, she always asks me for sweets, an apple, some fruit. I cannot provide them to you. “I feel helpless,” he lamented.
“There is not enough food, only rice, can you believe it? “We only eat once a day,” the doctor added.
Collapsed healthcare system
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has denounced that the Israeli operation has forced Palestinians to live in an ever smaller area, creating “ideal conditions for the spread of disease.”
According to the WHO chief, there is only one shower per 750 people and one toilet per 150. Furthermore, “only 14 of the original 36 hospitals (in the Gaza Strip) are partially functioning,” two in the north and 12 in the south.
Conditions for health workers, already very difficult in 2018, are “impossible and they are directly in the line of fire,” Ghebreyesus said.
Since the conflict began on October 7, the WHO has recorded 449 attacks on health centers or teams in Gaza and the West Bank and 60 in Israel.
Hospitals are overwhelmed, there is a lack of medication or anesthetics to operate, and health workers are exhausted. (Portal).
Khan Yunis has been the subject of intense air strikes in recent days. The situation has reached such a point that the head of the hospital, Nasser, assured that his team had “lost control of the number of dead and injured arriving at the facilities”.
Israel says Hamas leaders are hiding in Khan Younis, possibly in an underground network of tunnels, fighting house to house and “hole to hole” to destroy the group's military capabilities.
But the advance of Israeli troops and bombings are pushing people further south into the Gaza Strip, where they are huddling in desperate conditions, prompting the UNRWA chief to accuse Israel of laying the groundwork for the mass expulsion of Gazans to Egypt Lazzarini wrote in an editorial published by the Los Angeles Times.
“The first stage of such a scenario,” the U.N. official said, was widespread destruction in northern Gaza and the resulting displacement, while civilians were forced to leave the southern town of Khan Younis, closer to the border with Egypt .
“If this path continues and leads to what many are already calling a second Nakba, Gaza will no longer be a land for the Palestinians,” Lazzarini said, referring to the forced expulsion of more than 700,000 Palestinians from their homes during the simultaneous war with the Gaza Strip Declaration of the State of Israel.
Israel denies this is its intention. “There is, never was and never will be an Israeli plan to resettle Gaza residents in Egypt. “That is simply not true,” a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Ministry’s office responsible for Palestinian civil affairs told AFP.
On Saturday, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas accused the United States of complicity in war crimes after it vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
Of the 15 members of the Security Council, 13 countries voted for the resolution calling for a ceasefire. The United Kingdom abstained and the United States was the only country to vote against the resolution.
Joe Biden's government has also approved the sale of around 14,000 tank ammunition worth more than $106 million to Israel through emergency law.
Abbas, head of the Palestinian Authority, has blamed Washington for “the bloodshed of Palestinian children, women and the elderly in Gaza by occupying forces.” [israelíes]“.
The US has approved the sale of more weapons to Israel. (Portal).
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Robert Wood defended the veto, saying the resolution called for an “unsustainable ceasefire” that would “enable Hamas to repeat what it did on October 7.” .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday he welcomed the “right stance” taken by the United States in the Security Council.
A temporary seven-day ceasefire ended just over a week ago. During the ceasefire, Hamas released 78 hostages in exchange for 180 Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
More than 100 Hamas hostages are still in custody in Gaza.
On Saturday, one of them, 25-year-old Israeli Sahar Baruch, was confirmed dead, his kibbutz and a hostage relief group said in a statement.
This came after Hamas' armed wing released a video on Friday showing the bloody aftermath of a botched IDF operation to free an Israeli hostage.