In Gaza, the humanitarian catastrophe continues

In mid-January, returning from Gaza where he spent five weeks, Sean Casey, coordinator of emergency medical teams for the World Health Organization (WHO), was outraged to see patients in the north of the enclave. “Waiting to die in hospital without fuel, electricity or water”. Following a three-day visit to the Palestinian enclave by the Israeli army following a Hamas attack against the Jewish state on October 7, UNICEF Deputy Director General Ted Chaiban condemned the attack on January 18. “Stunning deterioration of children’s living conditions in Gaza”.

Call for their end “Genocide”.

The testimonies of these UN envoys reflect anything but the relief of civilian suffering in Gaza, which is the main objective of Resolution 2720, which was adopted by the UN Security Council a month ago, on December 22. The text demanded that all parties to the conflict facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the Palestinian Territory. “We are rather in a state of stagnation, which in such a context, is a step backwards”A UN source estimates.

Among the rare changes recorded in the field, a “small rise” According to Martin Griffiths, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the number of aid trucks authorized by Israel to enter the enclave. It is insufficient to meet the needs.

“The aid that is coming is a drop in the ocean. Given the rush of patients to hospitals, it does not make it possible to break the vicious circle: surgeries performed without anesthetics, shortage of drugs for chronic diseases, etc. », Judge Tommaso Della Longa, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). The organization provides logistical support to the Egyptian Red Crescent (charged by Cairo to coordinate international aid to Gaza that passes through Egypt) and its Palestinian counterpart (which runs ambulance and medical services in the enclave).

“We need minimum security”

For the rest, nothing has really changed. When the resolution calls for routing “Safe and unimpeded” Also helps “Protection of Humanitarian Workers and (…) His freedom of movement »Access to northern Gaza, today the most deprived area “repeatedly denied by Israeli authorities”According to OCHA spokesperson Jens Lerke.

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