Palestinian relief efforts nearly paralyzed in a desperate Gaza Strip

L'Orient-Le Jour

08-05-2025

Palestinian relief efforts warned Thursday that they were on the brink of paralysis in a Gaza Strip facing a humanitarian disaster, where Israel has been blocking aid deliveries for more than two months.
Dismissing any humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian territory where they plan to expand their military offensive, Israeli authorities state that the blockade aims to force Hamas to release the hostages still held in Gaza since the unprecedented attack by the Islamist movement on Oct. 7, 2023.
'Seventy-five percent of our vehicles are immobilized due to a diesel shortage,' said Mahmoud Bassal, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Gaza, to AFP. 'We are suffering from a severe shortage of electric generators and oxygen devices,' he added.
For weeks, U.N. and NGO officials have been warning about the shortage of food, medicine, and fuel in the Gaza Strip, where humanitarian aid is vital for its 2.4 million residents. Pierre Krähenbühl, humanitarian director of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), deemed it 'unacceptable' that aid cannot enter. 'The coming days will be absolutely decisive because there is a moment when we will run out of medical supplies and other aids,' he stated during a meeting with journalists in Geneva.
At the Kuwaiti field hospital in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinians are lining up to donate blood, an AFP journalist observed. 'In these difficult circumstances, we came to support the injured and sick by giving our blood,' explained Moamen Sheikh al-Eid, lying on a bed with a needle in his arm.
Vital Blood
Lab chief Hind Joba notes, 'There is nothing to eat, nothing to drink, crossing points are closed, and we have no access to nutritious or protein-rich food.' 'Despite this, people have responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating their blood despite the exhaustion it causes afterward,' she adds. 'But this blood is vital, they know every drop can save the life of an injured person.'
Israel, which resumed its offensive in Gaza on March 18 after a two-month truce, announced Monday a 'conquest' plan for the territory, foreseeing a massive displacement of its population, sparking numerous condemnations worldwide. An Israeli security official had nonetheless affirmed that there remained a 'window' for negotiations for the release of hostages until the end of U.S. President Donald Trump's visit to the Middle East, scheduled for May 13-16. Hamas, calling for a 'comprehensive and complete agreement' to end the war, denounced Wednesday an attempt to impose a 'partial agreement.'
According to Civil Defense, at least 19 people were killed Thursday in new Israeli bombings and artillery fire in the Gaza Strip, including nine in an airstrike on a house in Beit Lahia (north).
The war was triggered by a bloody Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which resulted in the death of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped in Israel that day, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army. Hamas also holds the body of an Israeli soldier killed in a previous war in Gaza in 2014. The Israeli offensive in retaliation for the October 7 attack has resulted in at least 52,760 deaths in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to data from the Hamas Health Ministry, deemed reliable by the U.N.