Gaza ‘makes Hell look like a tea party’, humanitarian doctor warns as Hamas claim 80 people are killed in overnight Israeli airstrikes and hospitals run out of fuel
- LIVE: Over 100 civilians killed in the occupied West Bank since Gaza war began
- A top doctor said that the Gaza Strip ‘makes hell look like a tea party’
- It comes as 80 people died overnight in Gaza following Israeli airstrikes, Hamas claimed
The state of the near-destroyed Gaza Strip ‘makes Hell look like a tea party’, a top humanitarian doctor has claimed.
Dr. Mads Gilbert, from the Norwegian Aid Committee, said that his medical colleagues have painted a ‘horrific scene’ of what the Gaza Strip currently looks like following nearly three straight weeks of Israeli airstrikes.
‘Imagine a hospital with 5,000 to 15,000 civilian refugees, overcrowded with patients needing surgical care, and then the lights are going out. I think you can imagine how difficult that is,’ he told the BBC.
He placed blame for the injuries suffered by thousands of Gazan civilians at the IDF’s feet.
Dr. Gilbert said that the stress of constant Israeli bombing has forced several pregnant women to prematurely give birth.
‘It makes Dante’s Inferno look like a tea party,’ he said.
Dr. Mads Gilbert said Israel’s military was to blame for the severe injuries suffered by Palestinian civilians
Overnight, Palestine’s health ministry reported that 700 people died in Israeli attacks
Israel has hit Gazan homes, schools, hospitals and mosques, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council
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The constant barrage of missiles from Israel’s military have hit homes, schools, hospitals and mosques, displacing more than one million Gazans, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council.
Overnight, Hamas claimed that 80 people were killed in Israeli strikes.
Dr. Gilbert’s warning comes as the UN has warned that it will be forced to shut down its humanitarian aid operations in Gaza due to a lack of fuel and power supplies.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said last night: ‘If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip.’
In response, Israel’s military mocked the humanitarian agency, sharing a purported picture of fuel tanks inside the Gaza Strip in a post on X, formerly Twitter, and adding: ‘They contain more tan 500,000 litres of fuel. Ask Hamas if you can have some.’
Last night’s Gaza death toll was the highest suffered in the bloodiest conflict between Israel and Hamas in decades
Israel has been constantly bombing Gaza for nearly three weeks
The UNRWA said: ‘If we do not get fuel urgently, we will be forced to halt our operations in the Gaza Strip’
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Israel also called for the UN’s top official, secretary general António Guterres, to resign after he said that the bombardment and refusal to allow aid trucks in was tantamount to the ‘collective punishment of the Palestinian people.’
‘To ease epic suffering, make the delivery of aid easier and safer and facilitate the release of hostages. I reiterate my appeal for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,’ he added.
Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, called on Guterres to resign immediately: ‘His comments … constitute a justification for terrorism and murder. It’s sad that a person with such views is the head of an organisation that arose after the Holocaust.’
Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, cancelled a planned meeting with the top UN official following the diplomatic row.
The UN already warned on Sunday that its humanitarian operations in the Gaza Strip, the tiny 141-square-mile enclave that was home to more than two million before war broke out, would cease within days.
The agency’s director general Philippe Lazzarini said on Sunday: ‘Without fuel, there will be no water, no functioning hospitals and bakeries. Without fuel, aid will not reach those in desperate need. Without fuel, there will be no humanitarian assistance.
UN’s top official, secretary general António Guterres, called on Israel to make the delivery of aid easier
Israel has cut supplies to Gaza since war broke out between itself and Hamas, and has only allowed limited aid to flow into the the Strip
Gaza’s citizens are in a dire situation, with no way to support themselves and little aid coming in
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‘Without fuel, we will fail the people of Gaza whose needs are growing by the hour, under our watch. This cannot and should not happen.’
Currently, Israel controls around 90% of Gaza’s land and sea borders, and provides the Strip with much of its infrastructure, including electricity and water. Egypt controls Gaza’s southern border, and supports Israel’s blockade, seeing Hamas as a threat to its own safety and stability.
Israel has cut supplies to Gaza since war broke out between itself and Hamas, and has only allowed limited aid to flow into the the Strip.
As a result, food, clean water, medicine, electricity and fuel are in short supply in the small strip of land, leaving the remaining citizens in a dire situation.
Several UN agencies have begged Israel to allow more aid into Gaza.
‘We are on our knees asking for sustained, scaled up, protected humanitarian operations,’ WHO’s Emergencies Director for the Eastern Mediterranean Region Dr. Rick Brennan said.
A spokesperson for the UNRWA said that before war broke out between Hamas and Israel, 500 aid trucks would enter the strip every day, with at least 45 of them carrying fuel.
Gaza’s two main sources of electricity, Israeli power lines and the Gaza power plant, have stopped functioning. Israel cut off Gaza’s electricity immediately after the Hamas attack on October 7, while the power plant stopped working after its fuel ran out.
More than one million Gazans have been displaced, according to the Norwegian Refugee Council
Thousands of civilians have died as a result of bombing in Gaza
Medics and aid groups have warned that hospitals, treating the thousands of people critically injured by Israeli airstrikes
Palestine’s Civil Defence agency said that its workers are unable to find the huge number of people trapped under the rubble of their homes
Gaza’s citizens have been forced to rely on small generators, fuel for which is rapidly diminishing due to the lack of outside supplies.
Medics and aid groups have warned that hospitals, treating the thousands of people critically injured by Israeli airstrikes, are on the brink of running out of power.
The lack of electricity has also hampered search and rescue efforts. Palestine’s Civil Defence agency said that its workers are unable to find the huge number of people trapped under the rubble of their homes, destroyed by Israeli airstrikes, without consistent power.
Even before the latest blockade, Israel enforced a strict blockade on the Gaza Strip, imposing severe restrictions on imports and exports as well as controlling who gets to go in and out of the 141 square mile region.
Before war broke out, the World Food programme estimated that over 60% of Gaza’s residents faced food insecurity, a problem that has only grown since October 7 when Israel cut off supplies.
Palestine’s food imports grew sharply over the past decade, according to World Bank figures, while the amount of food produced fell.
Gaza’s fishing industry, which used to make up a significant part of the economy, has been restricted to just 6 miles of the Mediterranean Sea, with Israel’s navy blocking it to prevent weapons being smuggled into the region.
90% of Gaza’s fresh water supply was undrinkable before Israel cut the region off, according to Palestine’s water authority.
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