GAZA: The Gaza health ministry said Friday that hospitals have only two days’ fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned that aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.
The alarm came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza.
Medics in the Palestinian territory said an overnight Israeli raid on Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed.
“We raise an urgent warning as all hospitals in the Gaza Strip will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation’s (Israel’s) obstruction of fuel entry,” Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza’s field hospitals, said during a press conference.
The World Health Organisation had already expressed grave concern on Tuesday for hospitals still partly operating in Gaza.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get the aid in,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said in Geneva.
Late Thursday, the UN’s humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: “The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel, and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt.”
In a statement, he said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities “have been banning commercial imports,” while “a surge in armed looting” has targeted aid convoys.
Gaza’s civil Défense rescue agency could not immediately give an exact toll after the latest Israeli raid, but the health ministry says Israel’s operation in the north has killed thousands.
The UN says more than 100,000 people have been displaced from the area, and an official told the Security Council last week that people “are effectively starving.”
Warrant Issued for Israeli Prime Minister
The International Criminal Court on Thursday issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant for war crimes in Gaza.
Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the ICC said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe they bore “criminal responsibility” for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity, including the lack of food, water, electricity, fuel, and specific medical supplies.
Reacting to the ICC verdict, Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his country will abide by an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Friday Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot in the country.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) arrives at the Netzarim Corridor just south of Gaza City on November 19, 2024 — two days before the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest.
On the day the warrants were issued, a UN representative said an Israeli raid on Syria this week was “likely the deadliest” by Israel on the country so far. On Friday, a war monitor said the strikes on Palmyra killed 92 pro-Iran fighters.
Israel again bombed Gaza on Friday
In Gaza City, just south of Jabalia, one man who said he took his cousins to hospital after a strike urged “the world… to put an end” to the war.
“We’ve had enough,” said Belal, who gave only his first name and said 10 members of his family had been killed.
“I’m the only one left,” he said.
At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza’s health ministry, which the United Nations considers reliable.
The war expanded to Lebanon in late September when Israel escalated air strikes against Hezbollah and later sent in ground troops to southern Lebanon against the group.
Lebanon’s health ministry says more than 3,580 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them since late September.
Israeli air strikes again hit Hezbollah’s south Beirut stronghold Friday, as well as south Lebanon, the official National News Agency said. -AFP.
