Medical convoy was stopped
UN denounces Israel’s blockades in the Gaza Strip
February 28, 2024, 3:43 a.m
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The United Nations again criticizes Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. Accordingly, deliveries of humanitarian aid and medical transport are being blocked by Israeli forces. Egypt calls for more humanity.
According to the UN, Israeli forces are blocking access to the Gaza Strip, making it more difficult to deliver aid to the population in the war zone. It has become almost impossible to bring the sick or injured to safety and to bring aid supplies to the north – and increasingly also to the south – of the Palestinian territory, Jens Laerke, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told journalists in genf.
All aid deliveries intended for the north of the Gaza Strip have been prevented in recent weeks. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the last delivery took place on January 23rd. Even trucks previously controlled by Israeli officials were blocked or shot at.
Seven-hour blockade of a medical convoy
Laerke reported an incident over the weekend in which a WHO and Palestinian Red Crescent convoy carrying 24 patients from the besieged Al-Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis was held up for seven hours. “The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of the ambulances and stripped all the paramedics of their clothing,” said Laerke. Among them were a pregnant woman and a mother with a newborn baby. Three paramedics were taken away. One of them has now been released.
The patients could ultimately have been distributed to other facilities. However, 31 seriously ill people could no longer have been transported. They, like around 180 people who had sought refuge in the hospital, and 45 members of the nursing staff remained behind. The hospital was virtually destroyed by around 40 attacks within a month. “This is not an isolated case,” said Laerke. “Aid convoys are repeatedly shot at and systematically denied access to people in need. Humanitarian workers have been harassed, intimidated and detained by Israeli forces, and humanitarian facilities have been hit,” he continued.
When asked, the Israeli army said there were intelligence indications that there were “terrorists” from the Islamist Hamas in the convoy. The measure was taken “in view of the clear evidence” that “Hamas systematically uses hospitals and ambulances to transport terrorists,” it said.
Egypt calls for more solidarity with the Palestinian people
Meanwhile, Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, warned that Israel’s planned ground offensive in the southern city of Rafah would have a “catastrophic impact” on peace in the Middle East and accused the UN Human Rights Council of ignorance. “The world is witnessing the most heinous crimes and violations against the Palestinian people,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Samih Shukri told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, calling for an immediate ceasefire. “Any military action under the current circumstances would have catastrophic consequences that would endanger peace in the region,” Shukri warned.
Egypt’s chief diplomat complained that some of the council’s 47 member states were refusing to take decisive action on Gaza that had been taken in other conflicts. There are double standards, Schukri criticized. “It seems as if the lives of children in Gaza are worth less than the lives of other people,” he said.
The war in the Gaza Strip was triggered by the major attack on Israel on October 7th by Hamas, which the EU and the USA classify as a terrorist organization. The Islamist organization committed atrocities primarily against civilians. According to Israeli information, around 1,160 people were killed and around 250 hostages were taken to the Gaza Strip; around 100 are believed to still be there alive. In response to the Hamas attack, Israel has since taken massive military action in the Gaza Strip, with the declared goal of destroying Hamas. According to Hamas’ latest figures, which cannot be independently verified, more than 29,800 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since then.