GENEVA: United Nations agencies called “on our knees” on Tuesday for aid to be allowed unimpeded into Gaza, saying more than 20 times current deliveries were needed to support its Palestinian population after two weeks of Israeli air strikes.
UN organisations have been making increasingly desperate appeals since Israel imposed a full blockade on the coastal strip and began bombardments to root out Hamas militants who had killed civilians in a bloody raid into southern Israel on October 7.
Trucks of aid began moving into Gaza from Egypt on Saturday after intense diplomatic efforts, but the agencies say they are far from enough. Half of the enclave’s 2.3 million people are homeless, many people have been wounded and food and clean water is in short supply.
“The aid which resumed from Egypt over the weekend is a mere drop in the ocean of what is needed,” said Jeremy Laurence, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Fuel, which has not been sent to the Gaza Strip along with the humanitarian aid, was crucial, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said. “Fuel is extremely urgent… without fuel, the generators cannot produce electricity for hospitals, for bakeries and for the water desalination plant,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said.
A Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, urged Arab, Islamic countries and the UN to try to halt Israel’s assault on Gaza.
Israel continued its airstrikes on Gaza on Tuesday. Palestine health officials said over 700 people were killed in single day on Monday. Gaza’s health ministry said 5,791 Palestinians had been killed since October 7.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for Britain’s PM Rishi Sunak said 12 Britishers had been killed in Hamas attacks and another five were missing.
The US military is taking new steps to protect its troops in West Asia as concerns mount about attacks by Iran-backed groups, and it is leaving open the possibility of evacuations of military families if needed, officials said. The measures include increasing US military patrols, restricting access to base facilities and hiking intelligence collection, including through drone and other surveillance operations, officials said, seeking anonymity.
The White House said Iran was in some cases “actively facilitating” rocket and drone attacks by Iranian-backed proxy groups on US military bases in Iraq and Syria.
At the same time, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said his country was not looking to wage war with Hezbollah militants on its northern border, but was focused instead on battling Hamas in the Gaza Strip.