The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of “total collapse” amid ongoing hostilities and a two-month-long blockade of aid supplies entering the enclave, the Red Cross said yesterday.
Fights are erupting over dwindling supplies in Gaza, a United Nations aid official said yesterday, as Israel’s total blockade on supplies into the enclave hit the two-month mark.
Since March 2, Israel has completely cut off all supplies to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip, and food stockpiled during a ceasefire at the start of the year has all but run out.
It is the longest such closure the Gaza Strip has ever faced. Palestinian residents and aid officials said at least five incidents of looting took place across the enclave on Wednesday.
Olga Cherevko, an aid worker with the UN humanitarian office (OCHA) in Gaza City, said that inter-communal violence over supplies had intensified.
She told reporters she witnessed one such fight yesterday.
“Supplies are becoming depleted while the war rages on; food stocks have now mainly run out,” she told a Press conference in Geneva via video link. “Water access has become impossible. In fact, as I speak to you, just below, downstairs from this building, people are fighting for water. There’s a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water.”
Some aid groups say they have already run out of food stocks in the past week and community kitchens are at risk of closure.
Cherevko said hungry people were scavenging in mounds of waste for “anything that would help them survive”.
“I am seeing children and I’m seeing elderly people rummaging through these piles of trash, not only in search of things to burn, but also things to eat daily,” she said.
Meanwhile, Israel intercepted a second missile fired from Yemen yesterday, its military said, as the US intensified its strikes in Yemen against the Iran-backed Houthi group.
The fighter group claimed responsibility for firing two missiles thousands of kilometres north targeting Israel’s Ramat David air base and the Tel Aviv area.
Alarms were sounded in several areas, the military added, after the launch of both missiles, but there were no reports of damage or casualties.
The military said it had intercepted both missiles.
US President Donald Trump in March ordered large-scale strikes against the Houthis to reduce their capabilities and deter them from attacking ships in the Red Sea.
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