UN humanitarian agency stresses need for fuel, medical supplies and water in Palestinian territory besieged by Israel.
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations humanitarian agency (OCHA) has warned that preventable diseases in Gaza are on the rise and killing civilians due to the lack of desperately needed medicine and clean water.
OCHA in a statement on Thursday said that in the past two weeks, “more than 19,000 cases of acute watery diarrhoea have been recorded, alongside over 200 cases each of acute jaundice syndrome and bloody diarrhoea “.
“These outbreaks are directly linked to the lack of clean water and sanitation in Gaza, underscoring the urgent need for fuel, medical supplies, and water, sanitation and hygiene items to prevent further collapse of the public health system,” the agency added.
Israel’s blockade on fuel entry into Gaza has paralysed the territory’s desalination plants and water system.
The Israeli military has destroyed much of Gaza, displaced nearly the entire population of the territory and placed a suffocating siege on the enclave. Besides the dire humanitarian conditions, the Israeli military continues to kill dozens of Palestinians in Gaza daily.
Leading rights groups and UN experts have described the Israeli campaign as a genocide.
OCHA said on Thursday that more than 20 people were killed and about 70 others were injured after a strike on Deir el-Balah, central Gaza.
Medical sources told Al Jazeera Arabic that Israeli attacks killed at least 71 people across Gaza on Thursday.
Since Israel’s war on Gaza began in October 2023, at least 56,259 people have been killed, and 132,458 others have been wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
After a more than two-month blockade of essential goods entering Gaza, the Israeli government announced it was allowing aid to re-enter the enclave in May.
However, due to Israeli restrictions, the amount of aid entering has been minimal, with aid agencies referring to it as a “drop in the ocean”.
Much of the aid allowed in has been through the United States and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which has been condemned by aid agencies as a “weaponisation” of humanitarian goods.
On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a video message that the army was being asked to draft a new plan to deliver aid to Gaza after unverified footage showed masked men on top of aid trucks in northern Gaza.
While Israel has claimed the men were Hamas members, Palestinian clan leaders with no affiliation with the group said the masked men were protecting the truck from being looted.
Multiple UN officials have refuted Israel’s claims that Hamas steals humanitarian aid. Last month, Israeli officials acknowledged arming criminal gangs linked to looting the assistance in order to rival Hamas.
On a positive note, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported delivering its first medical shipment into Gaza since March 2, when Israel imposed a full blockade on the strip. Nine trucks carrying essential medical supplies, 2,000 units of blood, and 1,500 units of plasma were transported from the Kerem Shalom/Karem Abu Salem border crossing.
The WHO said the supplies were being distributed to priority hospitals. The blood and plasma were delivered to the cold storage facility at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, to be distributed to hospitals facing critical shortages amid a growing influx of injuries, many linked to incidents at the non-UN, militarized food distribution sites run by the US.
The WHO said the shipment of the badly needed medical supplies is only a drop in the ocean.
Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies
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Cover photo: A premature baby lies in an incubator at Al Helou Hospital, where doctors say a shortage of specialised formula milk is threatening the lives of newborns, in Gaza City, June 25. — Reuters
