Two months into Israel’s full blockade on aid into Gaza, Red Cross described Friday horrific scenes of starving, bloodied children and people fighting over water, with aid operations on the “verge of total collapse.”
The United Nations also sounded the alarm at the dire situation in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, demanding international action.
“The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned in a statement.
“Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.”
Israel strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war.
Since the start of the blockade, the United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming.
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said a week ago that it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks” to kitchens.
Aid boat attacked
A group of activists organizing an aid boat for Gaza said it was attacked on Friday by drones in international waters off Malta as it headed towards the Palestinian territory.
The Maltese government and Cypriot rescuers said they had responded to a distress call from the vessel, while Malta said all crew members were safe and made no mention of an alleged attack.
The activists said they suspected Israel could be behind the attack, and Cyprus’s rescue agency said it had been informed by the island’s foreign ministry of an Israeli drone strike.
The Israeli military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP.
“At 00:23 Maltese time, the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a statement.
“Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull.
“Israeli ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.”
Asked whether the group believed Israel was behind the attack, a spokesperson told AFP they “suspected” that was the case.
“While we cannot confirm 100%, we suspect it’s Israel,” Hay Sha Wiya said, calling the country “the primary entity interested in keeping us and any aid out of Gaza.”
Israel is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later.
The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat’s generator.
Following the distress call, the Malta Vessel Traffic Services body dispatched a tugboat and offered support.
“The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 0128 hrs, the fire was reported under control,” the Maltese statement said.
‘Abomination’
“Food stocks have now mainly run out,” Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva Friday via video link from Gaza City.
“The blockade is deadly.”
Water access was also “becoming impossible,” she warned.
She also decried the mass displacement, with nearly the entire Gaza population being forced to shift multiple times prior to the brief ceasefire.
Since the resumption of hostilities, she said “over 420,000 people have been once again forced to flee, many with only the clothes on their backs, shot at along the way, arriving in overcrowded shelters, as tents and other facilities where people search safety, are being bombed.”
Pascal Hundt, the ICRC’s deputy head of operations, also cautioned that “civilians in Gaza are facing an overwhelming daily struggle to survive the dangers of hostilities, cope with relentless displacement, and endure the consequences of being deprived of urgent humanitarian assistance.”
Gaza’s civil defence agency said Israeli strikes killed at least 29 people Friday in the Palestinian territory.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies director Mike Ryan said the situation was an “abomination.”
“We are breaking the bodies and the minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza,” he told reporters on Thursday.
Cherevko slammed decision makers who “have watched in silence the endless scenes of bloodied children, of severed limbs, of grieving parents move swiftly across their screens, month, after month, after month.”
