“Israel’s” new embargo on the Gaza Strip could have life-threatening repercussions, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has warned.
The Israeli occupation barred humanitarian supplies from entering Gaza a day after the first phase of a ceasefire agreement with Hamas ended on March 1, prompting the agency to warn against the imminent death of Palestinian children.
Rosalia Bollen, UNICEF’s communication expert and spokeswoman, said on Saturday that the embargo risks undermining much of the work done by humanitarian agencies during the truce.
“It’s not just the aid that is halted from coming into Gaza, it’s also fuel.”
She stated that the coastal area lacks “sufficient electricity, and that its critical infrastructure – from desalination plants to hospitals – are dependent on the entry of fuel,” stressing the critical need to “scale up water production [and] fuel is a key element for that.”
Bollen reported seeing “a very small baby that was born at 28 weeks” before the truce went into force in January and detailed how a lack of ventilators and CPAP machines in the hospital caused the death of the baby 3 weeks later.
The Israeli military has violated the ceasefire agreement practically every day since it went into force on January 19.
On Saturday, “Israel” launched airstrikes on displaced Palestinians east of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, killing at least two individuals.
Israeli shelling and drone attacks have been targeting Rafah since Friday, with reports of bombing in various civilian districts.
Israeli blockade to kill Palestinians, captives alike
The Palestinian Resistance movement, Hamas, held Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu completely accountable for the consequences of the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip.
In a Saturday statement, Hamas said “the government of the terrorist Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court, is deepening the humanitarian catastrophe it itself has created in the Gaza Strip, by committing the aggravated war crime of imposing collective punishment on more than two million Palestinian citizens, through starvation and deprivation of basic means of life, for the seventh consecutive day.”
It emphasized that the consequences of this crime affect not only the residents of the Gaza Strip but also the Israeli captives held by the Resistance, “as they face the same restrictions and deprivation of food, medicine, and care.”
The movement called on Arab nations and the UN to urgently end the “brutal crime of starvation and siege that the occupation is committing against our people in the Gaza Strip and to hold the fascist war criminals accountable for their ongoing crimes against humanity.”
Source: Al Mayadeen