According to the organization, a Red Cross convoy carrying medical supplies was attacked in Gaza city. As announced by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), two of the five trucks were damaged and one driver was slightly injured on Tuesday. The transport was, among other things, on its way to the Palestinian Red Crescent Al-Quds Hospital.
“African humanitarian workers cannot work in these circumstances,” said ICRC representative William Schomburg. He highlighted that parties to the conflict are obliged under international law to ensure the supply of essential goods to health facilities.
Israeli forces advanced deep into the Palestinian coastal strip of the Mediterranean, a month after the October 7 massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists. According to Israeli information, ground troops were sent to the city of Gaza.
The ICRC also called for more help for the people of Gaza. The deliveries that have so far reached the isolated coastal area are just “a drop in the ocean”, Imene Trabelsi, the ICRC’s regional spokeswoman for the Near and Middle East, told the German Press Agency on Tuesday. The humanitarian situation of the population of the Gaza Strip is deteriorating day by day.
The situation is particularly bad for the hundreds of thousands of families who have fled because emergency shelters are overcrowded. “Many are forced to sleep on the streets, in open spaces,” said Trabelsi. They were missing things like blankets and baby food.
“Thousands of people seek refuge in hospitals, further increasing pressure on the health sector,” said the ICRC spokeswoman. Another problem is that there is still a lack of fuel to run generators that provide electricity. “If there is no electricity, the health sector also does not work, and that is the nightmare,” said Trabelsi.
According to the UN, 70 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip has been displaced since the start of the war. According to the UN’s Palestinian aid agency, UNRWA, emergency shelters are sometimes overcrowded to four times their capacity. There would be less than two square meters available per person in an accommodation. At least 600 people would share a bathroom there. There are thousands of cases of infectious and diarrheal diseases, as well as chickenpox.