Volker Türk’s appeal came as UN humanitarians continued to issue
dire warnings about the full scale of the humanitarian crisis in
the enclave.
‘Crumbs’ of aid
The head of the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), said
that the “few (aid) trucks” which have come in from Egypt since
21 October are “nothing more than crumbs that will not make a
difference for two million people”.
“What is needed is meaningful and uninterrupted aid flow. To
succeed we need a humanitarian ceasefire to ensure this aid
reaches those in need,” he insisted.
UN human rights office (OHCHR) Spokesperson Ravina
Shamdasani told journalists in Geneva about the “harrowing
testimonies” of parents writing children’s names on their arms to
be able to identify their remains.
Staff on the ground tell her that each night they make
calculations on whether to sleep in the open or indoors, weighing
the risks of being killed by a falling ceiling or shrapnel.
A living ‘nightmare’
UN World Food Programme (WFP) Representative in
Palestine Samer Abdeljaber said that people in Gaza described the
situation as a “nightmare – and we have no way to wake up
from it”. He highlighted the dire conditions in
UNRWA-designated shelters which are almost three times over
capacity.
“In the room the size of a classroom 70 people sleep, eat, drink
and take care of their families”, he said, and there are eight
toilets for 25,000 people.
‘Terrible choices’
Speaking from Jerusalem, the UN’s top humanitarian official in
the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Lynn Hastings, stressed that
“all humanitarian assistance and humanitarian issues have
to be unconditional”.
The 224 hostages held in Gaza need to be released “immediately
and unconditionally”, she said, reiterating calls from the UN
chief António Guterres.
Humanitarian aid also has to be able to reach people in Gaza
“unconditionally”, she said.
Ms. Hastings highlighted the “terrible choices” which the aid
community is confronted with, given the very small trickle of aid
that has been coming in, the fuel shortage and the security
situation.
She deplored the need for humanitarians to decide “which
communities to you sent the items to, which bakeries, which
desalination plant should be turned on or off, which hospital do
you send medication to”.
Services collapse due to fuel crisis
Ms. Hastings said that in normal times more than 780 trucks with
fuel would have crossed into Gaza since 7 October. In the absence
of deliveries UNRWA has been relying on a sole fuel pump
situated close to the Rafah border but access has been
“sporadic” and supplies were dwindling very fast.
Forced to ration fuel, bakeries in the Strip will only be able to
bake bread for a million people for another 11 days, Ms. Hastings
warned, while UNRWA warned that some are already going hungry.
WFP’s Samer Abdeljaber said that only two WFP-contracted bakeries
are working, compared to 23 at the start of the operation.
Fuel is also critical for to power water desalination plants so
that they can produce drinking water, and pumping stations.
Ms. Hastings flagged that with sanitation backed up, raw sewage
is being pumped into the sea in Gaza but once fuel runs out,
“whether it’s tomorrow or Monday”, sewage pumping will become
impossible and wastewater will be “overflowing in the streets”.
Babies in incubators at risk
Dr. Richard Peeperkorn, UN health agency (WHO) representative in the
occupied Palestinian territory told journalists that a minimum of
94,000 litres of fuel per day are needed to “keep critical
functions running” at 12 major hospitals in Gaza.
Two in three hospitals in the enclave are “partially functional”
Dr. Peeperkorn said. He underscored that power and medical
supplies shortages were putting at risk 1,000 kidney patients in
need of dialysis, 130 premature babies in incubators, 2,000
cancer patients and scores of others on ventilators in intensive
care units.
Aid ‘a drop in the ocean’
Humanitarians stressed that the lack of fuel is also compromising
the ability of aid trucks entering through the Rafah crossing to
distribute the supplies across Gaza.
Ms. Hastings underscored the difficulty in getting aid to the
north, which is under evacuation orders, but has seen displaced
people move back from the south due to airstrikes and “untenable”
living conditions there.
She also reiterated that the 74 aid trucks which have been
allowed in through Rafah since 21 October, with another eight or
so expected today, were very little compared to the 450 trucks
entering Gaza daily prior to the crisis – “a drop in the ocean”,
according to WHO’s Dr. Peeperkorn.
WFP’s Samer Abdeljaber said that his agency has only been able to
bring in under two per cent of the food
required. WFP has delivered fresh bread and canned tuna
to half a million people in shelters in Gaza but “for every
person receiving assistance, six more are in need”.
Some 39 WFP trucks are at or near the Egyptian border with Gaza
awaiting entry, Mr. Abdeljaber said, and other agencies have also
pre-positioned supplies there.
If sustained access and fuel are granted, the agency plans to
bring life-saving food to more than one million people within the
next two months, he said.
