The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is encouraged that a ceasefire has been agreed that would end the fighting and help bring some hope and stability to a region exhausted by conflict.
The ceasefire must be upheld and enforced across all levels of command to ensure much-needed respite for civilians on both sides of the border. It must also facilitate the rapid and unimpeded flow of humanitarian aid for civilians wherever they are.
The charity said that Israeli forces had made these demands on Saturday via a drone speaker as it launched smoke bombs to encourage staff to leave the facility.
It added that one of the injured Palestinians left in al-Amal hospital was also shot dead by Israeli forces.
Five months into the escalation of hostilities, which began with the horrific events in Israel on 7 October, the situation in the Gaza Strip degenerates by the hour. There is nowhere safe for people to go. The civilian death toll and the ongoing captivity of hostages are shocking and unacceptable.
This brutal war has ruptured any sense of a shared humanity.
„As an occupying power, Israel must provide for the basic needs of the population or facilitate the safe and unimpeded delivery of humanitarian relief,“ Spoljaric said.
The war had „ruptured any sense of a shared humanity“, she said.
„The situation in the Gaza Strip degenerates by the hour. There is nowhere safe for people to go. The civilian death toll and the ongoing captivity of hostages are shocking and unacceptable,“ Spoljaric said.
(2 January 2024 17:19 GMT)
Israeli forces killed 207 Palestinians and wounded 338 people over 24 hours in Gaza, the Palestinian health ministry said.
That brought the total number of Palestinians killed in Gaza since 7 October to 22,185, and the wounded to at least 57,00o.
Mirjana Spoljaric, the Red Cross president, has accused the international community of moral failure over the humanitarian crisis and ongoing bombardment of Gaza.
“I have been speaking of moral failure because every day this continues is a day more where the international community hasn‘t proven capable of ending such high levels of suffering, and this will have an impact on generations, not only in Gaza,” she said.
On 9 December 2023, a WHO team, in collaboration with the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and with support from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), completed a high-risk mission to Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City to deliver medical supplies, assess the situation in the hospital, and transfer critically-injured patients to a hospital in the south. The mission delivered trauma and surgical supplies, enough to treat 1500 patients, to the hospital, and transferred 19 critical patients with 14 companions to Nasser Medical Complex in south Gaza, where they can receive a higher level of care.
On the way north, the UN convoy was inspected at the Wadi Gaza checkpoint, and ambulance crew members had to leave the vehicles for identification. Two PRCS staff were detained for over an hour, further delaying the mission. WHO staff saw one of them being made to kneel at gunpoint and then taken out of sight, where he was reportedly harassed, beaten, stripped and searched.
(November 25, 2023)
The freight included food, water and emergency medical supplies. Eleven ambulances, 3 coaches and a flatbed were delivered to Al Shifa hospital to be used to assist with evacuations.
Also on Saturday, another 200 trucks were dispatched from Nitzana, with 187 of them successfully entering Gaza by 19:00 local time.
In addition, 129,000 liters of fuel crossed into Gaza, said the UN humanitarian affairs office, known as OCHA.
The Red Cross team of three cars carrying nine staff members had aimed to lead a convoy of about 54 Ukrainian buses and a number of private vehicles out of the city, where up to 170,000 people are without power and have limited food, according to the mayor.
(08.02.2022)
“This situation is really apocalyptic for people, it is getting worse, they are running out of essential supplies,” said Ewan Watson, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). “And so, our call today is really for lifesaving aid to reach these people.”
He added: “We‘ve depleted our stocks, as I said; it stands to reason that people are coming to the end of whatever supplies they had. So, when you ask if this is a matter of life or death, or if it is lifesaving? Yes. For us, it is essential that humanitarian aid gets into a city like Mariupol, and to other cities that are in the midst of conflict in Ukraine today.”
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has stated on its certified Twitter account that they have noticed „some people not affiliated with Red Cross Colombia and Red Cross Venezuela wearing Red Cross emblems at Colombia-Venezuela and Brazil-Venezuela border.“
The international organization has urged these people “ to stop doing this. They might mean well but they risk jeopardizing our neutrality, impartiality & independence.“
We urge them to stop doing this