Similarly, aid workers in the border town of Rafah in the Gaza Strip on Friday reported the devastating conditions of the city.
“I have been working on large-scale humanitarian emergencies for the best part of the last 30 years and I’ve never been involved in a situation as devastating, complex or erratic as this,” said Hamish Young, UNICEF emergency relief coordinator.
“The current situation in Gaza has reached unprecedented emergency levels,” said Georgios Petropoulos, representative of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
Both were in Rafah and spoke to reporters in Geneva via video link.
Petropoulos said five hospitals, 17 smaller hospitals, five field hospitals, 10 mobile medical teams and 28 ambulances will have to stop their services within 24 hours if urgently needed new fuel is not delivered.
According to Young, more than 100,000 people have left the region within five days following evacuation calls by Israel, which announced major military operations in Rafah. The roads to the north are congested.
The al-Mawasi area near the coast, designated by Israel as a security zone, is completely overcrowded. Families are digging holes in the ground next to their tents to relieve themselves, he said.
Petropoulos said that practically no relief supplies, especially petrol, had been entering the Gaza Strip via the Rafah and Kerem Shalom border crossings for days.
Without this, the most basic needs of the people can no longer be met, he added.
Hospitals, banks, communications companies and drinking water treatment plants need petrol for generators to maintain rudimentary services. Waste collection has been partially halted, as has sewage disposal in certain areas.
“We need fuel immediately,” Young asserted. “Aid must flow. Hostages must be freed. Rafah must not be invaded. And children must be protected, not killed.”
Similarly, aid workers say Rafah is a ‘very frightening place’ for children
The aid organisation, Save the Children spoke of “chaotic scenes” on Friday.
The streets were full of cars, people were clinging to lorries, and children were crowded onto donkey carts between the last of their families’ belongings.
“If you don’t have a vehicle, you walk with everything you can carry,” said Rachael Cummings, head of operations for Save the Children in the Gaza Strip.
“Children were desperately trying to keep up with adults.
“We see barefoot children, no older than six, struggling to carry water bottles and other supplies,” Cummings said, adding that “it really is a very frightening place for children right now.”
She said there were children crying and screaming on the roadsides, completely overwhelmed by the panic and chaos they were experiencing.
dpa/NAN
