Situation in Gaza 'hell on earth', warns head of Red Cross

The president of the Red Cross yesterday described the humanitarian situation in Gaza as “hell on earth” and warned that its field hospital will run out of supplies within two weeks.

“We are now finding ourselves in a situation that I have to describe as hell on earth …People don’t have access to water, electricity, food, in many parts,” Mirjana Spoljaric told Reuters at the headquarters of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Geneva.

No new humanitarian supplies have entered the Palestinian enclave since Israel blocked the entry of aid trucks on 2 March, after it refused to agree to a deal on the second phase of the truce. On 18 March, occupation forces resumed their indiscriminate bombing of the enclave.

Spoljaric said supplies were running critically low.

“For six weeks, nothing has come in, so we will, in a couple of weeks’ time, run out of supplies that we need to keep the hospital going,” she said.

The World Health Organisation said supplies of antibiotics and blood bags were dwindling fast. Twenty-two out of 36 hospitals in the enclave are only minimally functional, Dr. Rik Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video link in Jerusalem.

The Red Cross president also raised concern about the safety of humanitarian operations.

Israeli evacuation orders leave Palestinians with less than a third of Gaza to live in: UN

“It is extremely dangerous for the population to move, but it’s especially also dangerous for us to operate,” Spoljaric said.

In March, the bodies of 15 emergency and aid workers, including eight members of the Palestinian Red Crescent, were found buried in a mass grave along with their crushed vehicles in southern Gaza.

The UN and Red Crescent accused Israeli forces of killing them, with video footage from the scene showing occupation forces opening fire on clearly marked medical teams and vehicles.