Sawt Falasteen - First responders in Gaza say running out of supplies

Israel denies a humanitarian crisis is unfolding in the Gaza Strip, where it plans to expand military operations to force Hamas to free hostages held there since the Iran-backed group's unprecedented October 2023 attack.

"Seventy-five percent of our vehicles have stopped operating due to a lack of diesel fuel," the civil defence agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He added that its teams, who play a critical role as first responders in the Gaza Strip, were also facing a "severe shortage of electricity generators and oxygen devices".

For weeks, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations have warned of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water in the coastal territory that is home to 2.4 million Palestinians.

"It is unacceptable that humanitarian aid is not allowed into the Gaza Strip," Pierre Krahenbuhl, director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), told reporters in Geneva Thursday.

The situation in Gaza is on a "razor's edge" and "the next few days are absolutely decisive", he added.

The UN's agency for children, UNICEF, warned that Gaza's children face "a growing risk of starvation, illness and death" after UN-supported kitchens shut down due to lack of food supplies.

Over 20 independent experts mandated by the UN's Human Rights Council demanded action on Wednesday to avert the "annihilation" of Palestinians in Gaza.

Senior civil defence official Mohammad Mughayyir told AFP that Israeli bombardment across Gaza on Thursday killed 19 people, including nine in a strike that targeted the Abu Rayyan family home in the northern city of Beit Lahia.

On Thursday, Palestinians waited in line to donate blood at a field hospital in Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.

"In these difficult circumstances, we have come to support the injured and sick, amid severe food shortages and a lack of proteins, by donating blood", Moamen al-Eid, a Palestinian waiting in the line, told AFP.

- 'No food or drink' -

Hind Joba, the hospital's laboratory head, said that "there is no food or drink, the crossings are closed, and there is no access to nutritious or protein-rich food".

"Still, people responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating blood" despite the toll on their own bodies, she added.

"But this blood is vital, and they know that every drop helps save the life of an injured person."

Israel resumed military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a ceasefire stalled.

On Monday, the country's security cabinet approved a new roadmap for military operations in Gaza, aiming for the "conquest" of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.

An Israeli security official stated that a "window" remained for negotiations on the release of hostages until the end of US President Donald Trump's visit to the Gulf, scheduled from May 13 to 16.

Hamas, which is demanding a "comprehensive and complete agreement" to end the war, on Wednesday denounced what it called Israel's attempt to impose a "partial" deal.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data.

Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas is also holding the body of an Israeli soldier killed during a previous war in Gaza, in 2014.

The Israeli offensive launched in retaliation for the October 7 attack has killed at least 52,760 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas-run health ministry, which is considered reliable by the UN.

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H.Darwish--SF-PST