International aid orgs sound alarm on 'apocalyptic' situation in Gaza

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: News websites
9 Dec 2023 18:30
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During a video conference this week in the presence of journalists, international aid charities raise concerns about an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza, after illustrating the helplessness of humanitarian aid workers there.

Palestinians wounded in the Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip arrive at a hospital in Khan Younis on Friday, Dec. 8, 2023. (AP)

During a video conference this week in the presence of journalists, international aid charities and organizations raised concerns about an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza, after illustrating a picture of the “horrors” there, as depicted by Save The Children.

Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children said, “Those who survived the bombardment now face imminent risk of dying of starvation and disease,” adding, “Our teams are telling us of maggots being picked from wounds and children undergoing amputations without anesthetic," waiting by the “hundreds” for a “single toilet” or searching for food.

Bushra Khalidi of UK-headquartered Oxfam charity called the humanitarian situation “apocalyptic” and denied there is any safe zone in the Strip.

“The situation in Gaza is not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic... with potential irreversible consequences on Palestinian people,” Khalidi noted, adding, “Israel safe zones within Gaza are mirage.”

Helpless humanitarian workers

Sandrine Simon of the Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) charity spoke of an incident suffered by a colleague wounded in Khan Younis “when a tank attacked a school where he had taken refuge." She stated that after it “took him hours to reach a hospital,” there were “exhausted” nurses trying to care for hundreds of patients lying on the floor.

“Gaza’s hospitals are becoming morgues. That’s unacceptable.”

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) President Isabelle Defourny relayed a similar story, highlighting the urgent matter that fuel and medical supplies are “critically low".

“We are working in Al-Aqsa hospital, receiving an average of 150 to 200 war-wounded patients daily... since the first of December.”

Defourny added that 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,” adding that "Israel" has been displaying “a total disregard for the protection of Gaza’s medical facilities."

In the conference, the World Food Program (WFP) stressed that “famine” is soaring in Gaza, while the World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned of the collapse of civilization, since “given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people could die from disease than bombings."

Blinded by greed

Just today, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that over 130 confirmed UNRWA staff, predominantly with their families, have been killed by Israeli bombings, adding that this number may increase.

Lazzarini noted that following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, several thousand civilians in Gaza preemptively sought refuge in UNRWA premises, anticipating unprecedented aggression and seeking safety under the UN flag.

As of Friday, December 8, this number had increased to 1.2 million, approximately half of the Gaza Strip's population, he added.

"UNRWA is, as of today, still operational in the Gaza Strip, though just barely," he said.

This comes after the United States, on Friday, vetoed a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, shielding its ally.

The US deputy representative at the UN, Robert Wood, said the resolution was "divorced from reality" and "would have not moved the needle forward on the ground."

Thirteen Security Council members voted in favor of a brief draft resolution, presented through the UAE, and Britain abstained. The vote came after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres invoked the UN charter’s Article 99 for it on Wednesday.