UNITED NATIONS, Jun 19 (NNN-XINHUA) – Attacks on Gaza continue, killing and injuring scores of Palestinian people, including women and children, amid severe shortages of food, fuel, and medical supplies, UN humanitarians said, yesterday.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), said, medical teams at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis had to clear the maternity ward to make space for the injured and turn rooms into emergency operating spaces on Tuesday.
Many patients had to undergo life-saving amputations. This followed an incident where people waiting for aid were murdered or injured, said the office, quoting its partners.
“We’re calling on others, who are doing humanitarian work, to do it in a way that is most beneficial to those who receive it, that doesn’t put people at risk, when they’re just trying to eat – that doesn’t put people at risk, when they’re just trying to get the bare minimum by which to survive,” said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, at a briefing, when asked about a non-UN, Israel- and U.S.-backed militarised aid distribution plan.
The weeks-old scheme has claimed hundreds of Palestinian lives, when thousands-strong crowds rush to a handful of depots, promising to distribute aid adjacent to militarised zones.
By international humanitarian standards, OCHA said, aid is delivered directly to local communities, so that the need to travel long distances or rush to aid hubs is eliminated.
Every day, scores of patients across the Gaza Strip need blood transfusions. As blood stocks are very low, partners are relying on daily collections to meet the increasing demand, said OCHA.
In addition to shortages of medical stocks, partners report that, the lack of food supplies for emergency workers is causing many of them to faint, especially when they are called upon to respond to mass casualty incidents, said the office.
This week in Khan Younis, in-patient admissions at field hospitals have increased threefold, largely due to access challenges at Nasser Medical Complex, which borders a displacement area, it said.
OCHA warned that, dwindling fuel reached dangerously low levels, jeopardising critical lifelines for the population, after more than 100 days with no fuel supplies entering the strip.
“It is critical that the regime’s authorities meaningfully facilitate humanitarians’ attempts to retrieve the fuel needed to power aid operations and life-sustaining services,” OCHA said.
The office said, its operations are on the brink of collapse, adding that, it is urgent more fuel is made available to run the backup generators, needed to sustain a minimal level of life-saving aid operations. For example, the Palestine Red Crescent Society reported it could only operate fewer than two dozen out of its fleet of 58 ambulances throughout the strip.
As hostilities continue, more Palestinian people in Gaza have once again been forced to flee.
OCHA said that, on Tuesday, the Israeli regime issued another displacement order in Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah, affecting hundreds of families living in five neighbourhoods. Five primary health care centres and three medical points are located within 1,000 metres of the displacement area.
“While some of these areas were already under displacement orders, three square kilometres were newly designated, meaning, the area that is currently under displacement orders or located in Israeli-militarised zones, amounts to more than 82 percent of the Gaza Strip,” the office said.
The humanitarians said, partners visited newly established displacement sites west of Gaza City to assess the urgent needs and priorities of the displaced population.
“During the past three months, humanitarian partners estimate that more than 680,000 people have been displaced once again, across the strip,” OCHA said. “This includes almost 250,000 people forced to flee just in the last 30 days alone.”
The office said that, in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis, earlier in the week, hundreds of people, including children, attended teaching sessions on explosive ordnance risks.
“These activities are critical for children, particularly given the disruption of education, emotional distress, and lack of child-friendly spaces,” OCHA said.– NNN-XINHUA
