Gaza is dying, being strangled, basic services are crumbling: UN

NT Correspondent

Gaza Strip/Tel Aviv: People in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave relentlessly bombed by Israel blocking aid deliveries, “feel shunned alienated and abandoned,” as the humanitarian crisis there worsens, with the U.N. saying that recent supply convoys were “a distraction,” doing little as “Gaza is strangled.”

The warnings, from the head of the United Nation’s relief agency for Palestinian refugees, the main aid organization in the territory, were the starkest yet — painting a horrifyingly grim picture of an enclave packed with more than 2 million people.

The Israeli military has been bombing the territory in response to the October 7 attacks in Israel by Hamas, which rules over Gaza.

“As we speak, people in Gaza are dying, basic services are crumbling," Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East, or UNRWA as the agency is known, told reporters in Jerusalem on Friday.

Food and water in the enclave were running out, and the streets in Gaza, he said, had started “overflowing with sewage.”

“Gaza is on the brink of a massive health hazard and the risk of diseases are looming,” Lazzarini said, according to the BBC.

“A few days ago, I warned that we would not be able to continue our humanitarian operation if we do not get fuel supplies. My warning still stands.”

“Gaza is being strangled,” he added.

Israel conducts second ground raid

The Israeli army, backed by fighter jets and drones, has carried out a second limited ground raid into Gaza in as many days and struck targets on the outskirts of Gaza City, according to its military, as it prepares for a widely expected ground invasion.

The Israeli military said on Friday that ground forces entered Gaza overnight and struck dozens of Hamas targets during its raid in the Shujaiya area.

Israel-Hamas ceasefire, mediated by Qatar, at advanced stage: Report

According to an Al Jazeera report, negotiations mediated by Qatar, on a ceasefire and prisoner exchange deal between Israel and Hamas are “progressing and at an advanced stage”.

The report on negotiations for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas officials in Qatar progressing comes in line with Israel’s recent readiness to pay a price for the release of hostages, America’s concern over the implications of a land invasion in Gaza, and Palestine’s imminent need for a ceasefire.

In recent days, Israeli public opinion has also begun pressuring the government to hold off on invading Gaza to ensure the release of hostages.

But any ceasefire talk has to come with serious guarantees. That’s where the Qataris come in as mediators, to ensure the Israelis and Hamas fulfil any obligations.

The key is for all the parties to play by the same rules Nawaf Bin Mubarak Al Thani, a Qatari foreign affairs told Al Jazeera that the current heavy bombing of Gaza may jeopordise any such moves.