Without fuel, many basic installations cannot work, from water treatment factories to medical infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the Gazans now on the brink of famine have been reduced to taking desperate measures in their search for food, traveling the roads taken by convoys, said Olga Cherevko, worker of the UN aid, Olga Cherevko UN News.
“While we were driving, I saw an elderly man on the side of the road completely alone, on my knees, and he picked up handles of lenses that had spread on the ground in one of the previous convoys that had passed,” she said.
“He picked them up with his hands and simply put them in his t-shirt because it is obviously the only option he has at the moment to find food, because it is how desperate the situation has become. »»
Desperate actions
Gaza’s latest reports indicate that mothers who are not able to breastfeed because they do not eat enough to feed their babies, chickpeas, bread and rice, which are not suitable for infants.
In a Social media messageThe United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) stressed that “this is a condition that we can prevent”, calling for increased humanitarian access.
Furthermore, the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO)) underlines that “the health needs in Gaza are immense. A continuous flow of medical supplies is critical. “
Meanwhile, health officers reported on Wednesday that at least 50 gasans had been killed and 400 others injured while waiting for food near Zikim Crossing in the North.
Ms. Cherevko, who works with the United Nations Coordination Office, Ochhaexplained that his mission to Kerem Shalom on Thursday morning had been delayed at a “maintenance point” for two hours before being authorized to go to the crossing point separating Gaza from Israel.
“Tactical breaks” are not enough
Although fuel supplies are welcome, they are far from sufficient, she insisted.
“We need hundreds of thousands of liters of fuel to enter every day so that we can even feed our most basic installations of power, water, sanitation, health care, emergency telecommunications and other critical installations,” she said.
The announcement of daytime military breaks by Israel last weekend seems to have slightly reduced the duration of aid to wait for permission to continue, noted the OCHA worker.
There has also been a “slight reduction” of security incidents involving gasans that take food from the United Nations trucks, she said.
In its last update on the emergency, OCHA said that four days since the start of the tactical breaks declared by Israel: “We always see losses among those looking for help and more deaths due to hunger and malnutrition … Unilateral tactical breaks do not allow the continuous flow of supplies necessary to meet the levels of immense needs in Gaza. »»
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First published in this link of The European Times.
