Geneva [Switzerland], May 2: UN aid coordinator Tom Fletcher on Thursday called on Israel to lift a blockade preventing aid from reaching the Gaza Strip that has been in force for almost two months.
"Yes, the hostages must be released, now. They should never have been taken from their families," Fletcher said.
He added: "But international law is unequivocal: As the occupying power, Israel must allow humanitarian support in." Aid should never be a "bargaining chip," Fletcher said. "Blocking aid starves civilians. It leaves them without basic medical support. It strips them of dignity and hope. It inflicts a cruel collective punishment," Fletcher said.
"To the Israeli authorities, and those who can still reason with them, we say again: lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives," the UN coordinator concluded.
Israel has blocked aid deliveries to the Gaza Strip since March 2. More than 2 million people in the sealed-off coastal area remain in desperate need after more than 18 months of war.
World Health Organisation's (WHO) executive director, Michael Ryan, has implored the international community to act as Gaza's children suffer under a crippling two-month blockade.
"We are breaking the bodies and minds of the children of Gaza. We are starving the children of Gaza. We are complicit," Ryan told reporters at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva. "As a physician, I am angry. It is an abomination."
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks have killed at least 18 people in Gaza over the last 24 hours, the Health Ministry said.
At least 77 people were also wounded in that period, the ministry said. The death toll in Gaza rose to 52,418 killed, with 118,091 wounded, since October 7, 2023, it added.
Israel has killed at least 2,326 Palestinians and wounded 6,050 since it broke the ceasefire on March 18.
An Israeli drone strike killed at least one person in central Gaza's Deir el-Balah, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reports. Dozens of others were wounded in the attack that struck a home near al-Buna bakery, it added.Israeli forces carried out numerous attacks in or around the southern Gaza Strip's Khan Younis, causing numerous casualties.
Source: Qatar Tribune
