International aid charities warn of ‘apocalyptic’ situation in Gaza

International aid charities have raised the alarm about an “apocalyptic” situation in the Gaza Strip and warned of starvation and disease outbreaks amid Israel’s long-running brutal aggression on the besieged territory.

In a video conference with journalists this week, international organizations depicted a bleak picture of what UK-based Save the Children called the “horrors” unfolding in Gaza after more than two months of a fierce Israeli bombardment campaign against the coastal silver.

“Those who survived the bombardment now face imminent risk of dying of starvation and disease,” said Alexandra Saieh of Save the Children.

“Our teams are telling us of maggots being picked from wounds and children undergoing amputations without anesthetic,” lining up by the “hundreds” for a “single toilet” or roaming the streets in search of food, she added.

Bushra Khalidi of Oxfam, another UK-headquartered charity, described the situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic” and said there was no such a thing as a safe zone in the territory.

“The situation in Gaza is not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic... with potential irreversible consequences on Palestinian people,” Khalidi said. “Israel safe zones within Gaza are mirage.”

Sandrine Simon of the Medecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) charity recounted how a colleague was wounded in the southern city of Khan Yunis “when a tank attacked a school where he had taken refuge.”

“It took him hours to reach a hospital,” where “exhausted” nurses were desperately trying to care for hundreds of patients lying on the floor. “Gaza’s hospitals are becoming morgues. That’s unacceptable.”

Doctors Without Borders president Isabelle Defourny told a similar story about Gaza’s hospitals and stressed that fuel and medical supplies were “critically low.”

“We are working in al-Aqsa hospital, receiving an average of 150 to 200 war-wounded patients daily... since the first of December.”

On one day this week, “they received more dead than wounded patients. The hospital is overflowing, the morgue is overflowing, fuel and medical supplies have reached critically low level,” said Defourny.

“Israel has shown a total disregard for the protection of Gaza’s medical facilities,” she added.

Moreover, the World Food Program (WFP) said the risk of “famine” is high in Gaza, while the World Health Organization warned civilization was collapsing in the Palestinian territory.

“Given the living conditions and lack of health care, more people could die from disease than bombings” in Gaza, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

He warned of a number of illnesses and diseases, including acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, skin rashes and chicken pox, which have emerged due to overcrowding and the lack of food, water, basic hygiene and access to medication.

SS