Key points
- There is nowhere safe for Palestinians: MSF
- Gaza is facing its most severe humanitarian crisis: UN
- 409 aid workers also killed in Gaza: UN
ISLAMABAD: Medical aid agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Wednesday accused Israel of blocking essential aid to the Gaza Strip, adding there was nowhere safe for Palestinians or those trying to help them.
“Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance,” AFP cited MSF’s emergency coordinator Amande Bazerolle as saying.
MSF cited the United Nations as saying that at least 409 aid workers, most of whom were UNWRA staff, the main provider of humanitarian aid in Gaza, have been killed since October 2023. Eleven MSF colleagues, some while on duty, have been killed since the start of the war, including two in just the past two weeks, it said.
Gaza blockade
Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz stated that they would continue to block humanitarian aid from entering the war-battered Gaza Strip, where intense aerial and ground assaults have resumed, according to AFP.
The statement comes days after the UN warned the territory was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began in October 2023. Israel has blocked aid from entering the strip since March 2. Humanitarian organisations are aghast at the unending display of callousness towards the plight of Palestinians in Gaza by the Israeli authorities and the brazen show of stubbornness and utter disregard for human rights by the Israeli decision makers.
Humanitarian crisis
Earlier on Monday the United Nations (UN) said Gaza was facing its most severe humanitarian crisis since the war began, with no aid entering the territory for weeks and conditions rapidly deteriorating.
“The humanitarian situation is now likely the worst it has been in the 18 months since the outbreak of hostilities,” said the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
AFP cited OCHA statement as saying that no supplies had reached Gaza for a month and a half, since Israel ended a two-month ceasefire and began blocking their delivery.
According to Al-Jazeera at least 23 people have been killed in Israeli attacks across the Gaza Strip since dawn on Tuesday, and reports of more attacks and casualties continue.
Over 50,000 dead
Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 51,000 Palestinians are confirmed dead and 116,343 wounded in Israel’s war on Gaza since it began 18 months ago.
The Government Media Office updated its death toll to more than 61,700, saying thousands of people missing under the rubble are presumed dead, Al-Jazeera reported.
