Since 7 October, water, food, electricity and fuel supply problems have worsened by the day in the Gaza Strip, and mobile phone and Internet services have been halted due to the fuel running out the previous day. Thus, while the region’s communications with the outside world were cut off, the United Nations announced the cessation of shipping humanitarian aid convoys through the Rafah border crossing under the current circumstances.
Networks are not working
Telecommunications companies in Gaza announced the cessation of mobile phone and Internet services throughout the Gaza Strip, the previous day, due to the lack of fuel needed to operate generators. The telecommunications companies Paltel and Jawwal announced the exhaustion of all power resources in their networks, while NetBlocks, which monitors access to the global Internet, announced a major Internet outage in the Gaza Strip. A statement by Company X said that telecommunications services, including landline, mobile and Wi-Fi, were not available to most residents. Israel has blocked all but one fuel shipment to Gaza since the war with Hamas began five weeks ago.
“Coordination is impossible”
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) announced yesterday that there will be no entry of aid through the Rafah border gate. In a statement issued by the institution
While the Israeli forces agreed, on Wednesday, to allow 24,000 liters of fuel to enter the area for use by the United Nations, they stipulated that the fuel not be used anywhere else. However, it is reported that the fuel in question has also run out. A few days ago, the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Aid, Martin Griffiths, said that approximately 200,000 liters of fuel are needed per day to reach all those in need in the entire Gaza Strip.
Hamas published a statement entitled “Israel commits genocide in Al-Shifa Hospital with a green light from the United States of America.”
Al-Shifa Hospital turned into a prison
While the Israeli raids on Al-Shifa Hospital, the largest health complex in Gaza, spoke to Al Jazeera, the hospital director, Muhammad Abu Salamiya, said that the hospital had turned into a large prison and a mass grave. Salmiya stated that there are 7,000 people in the hospital, and the medical staff is still struggling to care for patients in the facility, but they have lost all the patients in intensive care, and she said: “We have nothing left.” We have neither food nor water. We lost 22 people in one night, and the hospital has been under siege for the past three days. He added: “This is a full-fledged war crime.” Noting that they had submitted a request to leave the hospital, the Palestinian director stated that the Israeli forces did not accept this.
A call for investigation
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitoring Organization called for an independent and international investigation into Israel’s allegations that Palestinian groups are using hospitals in the Gaza Strip for military purposes. The statement said that the failure of neutral international organizations to participate in the process “raises widespread doubts about the Israeli narrative.”
On the other hand, Richard Peppercorn, the representative of the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territories, said that they want to establish field hospitals in Gaza.
Desert Hospital from the World Health Organization
The World Health Organization official, who met with journalists in Geneva from Jerusalem via video conference, stated that there were 3,500 beds in Gaza hospitals before the war began, and now 1,400 beds remain. Peppercorn also stated that patients in serious condition must be transferred to Egypt from the Rafah border gate every day.
“They were taken”
Speaking to the American CBS channel about the controversial operation in Al-Shifa Hospital, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that one of the reasons for the operation was the hostages, but they were no longer there during the raid. “If they had been there, they would have been taken out,” Netanyahu said, adding that he could not reveal further details.
(Tags for translation) Israel