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The United Nations warned Wednesday that supplies of aid are at risk of running out in Gaza as Israel blocks deliveries to put pressure on Hamas.
Israel halted aid shipments 11 days ago and has disconnected the only power line to a water desalination plant in the Palestinian territory as part of its efforts to push Hamas into agreeing to its terms in truce talks.
After a ceasefire went into effect on Jan. 19, the United Nations made progress with bringing food and medicine into Gaza and getting its damaged hospitals up and running, said Tom Fletcher, head of the UN humanitarian affairs bureau.
But now nothing is getting in, he told a news conference.
“Eleven days is already 11 days too long to prevent aid reaching civilians who so badly need it,” said Fletcher.
“The supplies are clearly running out very, very fast,” he said, forcing the UN to ration stocks to make them last longer.
“The fact that we’re not getting fuel in means that incubators are being switched off,” said Fletcher, adding that Gaza will quickly become a huamnitarian crisis again.
Fletcher said he visited Gaza last month and while he tried to prepare himself, things were much worse than he had anticipated.
He said one of his biggest shocks was seeing dogs fattened from eating corpses as they sniffed through the rubble of Gaza.
“And you notice that the people are thin, and then you see that for miles and miles and miles. And I don’t think anything can prepare you for that,” said Fletcher.
