Up to “14,000 babies” in Gaza might perish “within the next 48 hours” if humanitarian help doesn’t get to them quickly, a United Nations head said on Tuesday. According to Tom Fletcher, UN humanitarian chief, thousands of trucks loaded with baby food and nutritional supplies are poised to enter Gaza but remain halted at the border. He highlighted the gravity of the situation in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today program.
“This is not food that Hamas is going to steal,”
Fletcher said.
“We run the risk of looting. We run the risk of being hit as part of the Israeli military offensive. We run all sorts of risk trying to get that baby food through to those mothers who cannot feed their children right now because they’re malnourished.”
Is Israel’s aid delivery too little and too late?
Israel made the first such delivery in almost three months on Monday night when it opened the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border at the southern point of the Gaza Strip to five aid trucks with infant food and other necessities. However, Fletcher called the delivery a “drop in the ocean” and highlighted that the towns that needed the relief had not yet received it.
Due to Israel’s complete embargo, which has severely limited the flow of fuel, food, and medication into the area, the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza has drastically worsened over the last 11 weeks. Approximately 71,000 children under the age of five face the threat of acute malnutrition, and one in five individuals in Gaza may starve, according to the UN-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification.
Will international pressure force Israel to lift the embargo?
Recently, there has been increased international pressure on Israel to lift the embargo. The United Kingdom, France, and Canada warned Monday that unless Israel lifted assistance restrictions and stopped its ongoing attack in Gaza, they will take “concrete actions” against the country. Israel was also asked to completely begin impartial humanitarian activities in a second joint declaration signed by 22 nations.
On Sunday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was compelled to lift the crippling 11-week humanitarian embargo, claiming that Israel needed to do so for “diplomatic reasons” in order to avoid a “starvation crisis” in Gaza.
At least 60 Palestinians were murdered overnight Monday by Israeli airstrikes that have escalated throughout Gaza, with over half of them being women and children. The health ministry states that over 300 Palestinians were killed in just the past three days.
Are Israeli airstrikes targeting functioning hospitals in Gaza?
The UN reports that assaults on hospitals hinder access to medical care and dissuade individuals from pursuing treatment. Meanwhile, people are succumbing to preventable diseases as essential medications remain at the border. Recent Israeli airstrikes have rendered the Indonesian Hospital in northern Gaza and the Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis, in southern Gaza, nonfunctional. This has compelled hundreds to evacuate and deprived already at-risk populations of critical health services.
