Babies in incubators will die if more aid doesn't reach Gazan hospitals immediately, an International Committee of the Red Cross spokesperson has warned CGTN.
Imene Trabelsi, ICRC spokesperson for Near and Middle East, said the number of trucks allowed in by Israeli authorities was insufficient to cope with the sheer scale of the disaster and that fuel shortages would lead to increasing tragedy.
The number of aid trucks entering Gaza averages 14 daily, compared to the 400 daily trucks in normal times for a population of 2.3 million.
Speaking from Beirut, Trabelsi told CGTN: "Hospitals are not able to access additional stocks of fuel, which means that at any moment the few hospitals still functioning in Gaza might stop activities completely. That means that babies and incubators might lose their life at any minute. People who need ventilation assistance might lose their lives at any minute."
A medical worker assists a Palestinian wounded in Israeli strikes, at the Nasser hospital in the southern Gaza Strip. /Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters
Distribution of food and medical supplies is faltering in Gaza due to a chronic lack of fuel, looting of stores, the choking of streets with rubble from Israeli shelling and overcrowding caused by displacement of civilians.
Trabelsi said many Palestinians were suffering from psychological distress which she called "the responsibility of the parties to the conflict."
She explained: "I was talking to one of my colleagues who has been living in a shelter for the last two weeks. He (described) significant signs of distress, psychological distress, especially among children. There are signs of anxiety, bedwetting. People, grown-ups as well as children, are afraid for their own lives."
Trabelsi said many Palestinians have been "left by themselves and alone to figure out how to survive." She said: "People are finding shelters in hospitals and yet even that is not guaranteed, in terms of safety. The responsibility falls on the shoulders of the parties to the conflict to protect civilians and grant them dignified access to basic human needs, to respect their legal obligation under international humanitarian law."
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said their Gaza City warehouses had suffered "severe damage" on Monday and were out of service.
Israel is blockading Gaza and refuses to allow in fuel, saying it could be used by the Hamas militant group for their military goals.
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Aid flows to Gaza have fallen sharply since Israel started shelling the Palestinian enclave in response to an attack by the Hamas militant group on October 7 that killed 1,400 people.
The death toll from the bombardment has caused international uproar. Medical authorities in Hamas-run Gaza said on Tuesday that 8,525 people including 3,542 minors had been killed.
Distribution is particularly hard in northern Gaza, the main focus of Israel's military operation, aid officials say, and some have halted all deliveries.
According to Trabelsi: "(The) nine trucks (we have sent) are not enough, nor the 200 trucks (jn total) that made it over the last days towards Gaza. Although we do consider that it is still a positive step, it's still not sufficient in comparison with the huge, immense needs that we are seeing."
The UN refugee agency UNRWA has seen 67 of its workers killed in Gaza in the past 25 days, the highest number of UN staff killed in any conflict in such a short span of time. Trabelsi said conditions were very dangerous for her colleagues on the ground in Gaza.
"We as humanitarian actors do the proper security guarantees in order for us to be able to work to deliver that aid without risking our own lives (but) it's not something that the ICRC or any humanitarian actor can guarantee," she said.
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