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The United Nations has warned that hospitals in Gaza could run out of fuel within 24 hours, putting the lives of thousands of patients at “immediate risk”. Israel has besieged the Gaza enclave amid Hamas’ devastating attacks on its territory.
Israel has been bombarding Gaza and cutting off electricity, water and goods to the coastal enclave since Hamas militants launched their deadliest ever attack on Israeli territory last week.
Israeli forces have also ordered nearly half of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents to leave the northern Gaza corridor as they attack targets around Gaza City ahead of an expected ground invasion. Aid officials warn that the humanitarian situation in the region has reached breaking point.
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, the U.N. agency responsible for dealing with Palestinian refugees, said on Sunday that the agency was “no longer able to deliver humanitarian assistance” and that “an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding before our eyes.”
Lazzarini added: “The number of people seeking asylum in our schools and other UNRWA facilities in the south is absolutely huge and we do not have the capacity to deal with them.”
Negotiations have been underway in recent days to allow some foreigners to leave Gaza and enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing. The U.S. Embassy in Israel on Monday advised those wishing to leave to stay close to the crossing, with reports suggesting it may open briefly at 9 a.m. local time.
But it warned that the situation was “volatile and unpredictable” and it was unclear whether travelers would be allowed to cross, or for how long.
According to Israeli officials, Hamas attacks killed more than 1,400 people, injured more than 3,000, and took about 120 people hostage. Palestinian health officials said late Sunday that Israeli bombings had killed 2,670 people and injured 9,600.
The escalating violence has raised concerns that fighting between Israel and Hamas could turn into a regional conflict. The Iranian-backed militia Hezbollah and Israeli forces in southern Lebanon have exchanged fighting on the border several times in recent days, while violence has surged in the occupied West Bank.
US President Joe Biden on Sunday warned Iran not to escalate fighting between Hamas and Israel, while also saying that Israel’s reoccupation of Gaza would be a “big mistake”.
“Hamas and the extremists of Hamas do not represent all Palestinian people. I think . . . that would be a mistake. . . . Israel is once again occupying Canada,” Biden said in a CBS interview taped Thursday. Sa. “
Biden said Hamas “must be completely eliminated” but “needs to establish the Palestinian Authority” and “a path to a Palestinian state.”
Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gilad Erdan, responded by saying Israel had “no interest in occupying Gaza or remaining in Gaza” but insisted Hamas must be “annihilated”.
However, he did not reveal how Israel expects governance of the enclave to work after Hamas is defeated.
“We want to coordinate with our American allies. But right now, the only focus should be on how to free the hostages and how to secure our future by eliminating Hamas’s capabilities,” he told CNN.
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