“Israel safe zones within Gaza are a mirage,” she added.
Israel designates safe zone in Gaza. Palestinians and aid groups say it offers little relief
Israel designates safe zone in Gaza. Palestinians and aid groups say it offers little relief
“There’s not enough food. People are starving,” WFP Deputy Director Carl Skau wrote Friday on X, formerly Twitter, following a visit to the sealed-off coastal strip.
He said his team had reached more than 1 million people, “but the situation is untenable. We need to get our supplies in,” said Skau.
The health ministry in the Hamas-run Gaza says 17,487 people have been killed in the war, which has displaced an estimated 1.9 million of the territory’s 2.4 million people and reduced vast areas to rubble.
Only 14 of the 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are currently functioning in any capacity, according to UN humanitarian agency OCHA, and little aid is reaching those in need.
Why Israel’s propaganda war has been just a complete mess
Why Israel’s propaganda war has been just a complete mess
“Those who survived the bombardment now face imminent risk of dying of starvation and disease,” said Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children.
“Our teams are telling us of maggots being picked from wounds and children undergoing amputations without anaesthetic,” lining up by the “hundreds” for a “single toilet” or roaming the streets in search of food, she added.
Medecins Sans Frontieres president Isabelle Defourny said: “We are working in Al-Aqsa hospital, receiving an average of 150 to 200 war-wounded patients daily … since the first of December.”
On one day this week, “they received more dead than wounded patients. The hospital is overflowing, the morgue is overflowing, fuel and medical supplies have reached critically low level,” said Defourny.
The situation is also dire at the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis where “20 per cent of the patients arriving … are already dead”, she added.
“And among the dead, 70 per cent are women and children.”
Speaking of “indiscriminate carnage”, Defourny said: “Israel has shown a total disregard for the protection of Gaza’s medical facilities.”
Additional reporting by dpa