Red Cross calls for unhindered aid access to Gaza amid famine, harsh winter
The Red Cross has called for safe and unhindered access to Gaza to bring desperately needed aid into the besieged territory plagued by famine and harsh winter.
The dire weather conditions have been “exacerbating the unbearable conditions” in Gaza, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies warned on Wednesday.
Heavy rain and flooding have destroyed the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimeters of water inside their damaged tents.
Many families were left “clinging on to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets,” the international organization stated.
Urging the United Nations to help bring aid to the besieged territory, it highlighted the death of eight infants due to hypothermia.
These deaths “underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there,” the IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.
“I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance.”
“Without safe access, children will freeze to death. Without safe access, families will starve. Without safe access, humanitarian workers cannot save lives.”
“In the north of Gaza, there are now no functioning hospitals.”
Northern Gaza has been under Israeli siege for more than three months now, with a near-total blockade on aid and relentless air attacks.
The small enclave has three public hospitals, Kamal Adwan, Beit Hanoon, and the Indonesian Hospital, all of which the Israeli regime has forced out of service in recent weeks.
The IFRC chief said the closure of the main Rafah border crossing in May had had a dramatic impact on the humanitarian situation, warning that “only a trickle of aid is currently entering Gaza.”
The Israeli regime has completely closed off or destroyed all the roads in and out of Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Furthermore, as its campaign of destruction and genocide began, its navy put Gaza’s ports in full lockdown, making aid deliveries through the sea virtually impossible.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli regime has slaughtered more than 45,800 Palestinians in Gaza. Roughly 109,190 people are also injured. A considerable number of the casualties are women and children.
The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics says Gaza has lost about 6 percent of its population due to Israel’s campaign of genocide.
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