A new report has revealed that Hamas has made an urgent plea to international relief organisations to deliver essential medical and humanitarian supplies to Gaza, where Israel’s ongoing airstrikes have exacerbated a deepening humanitarian crisis.
The region faces the risk of starvation and the imminent depletion of fuel resources as Israel has withheld critical supplies in response to Hamas’ terror attacks. In a statement, Hamas urged "all relief, health, and charitable institutions in the Arab, Islamic, and international communities to swiftly provide necessary medical and humanitarian aid, as well as fuel, to save the lives of over two million Palestinian residents," as reported by CNN.
On Thursday, Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said Israel would deprive the strip of electricity, water and fuel until Hamas returns the hostages.
“No electrical switch will be turned on, no water hydrant will be opened, and no fuel truck will enter until the Israeli abductees are returned home,” Katz wrote on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter). “And no one will preach us morals,” he added.
This comes as the multi-pronged attacks against Israel by Hamas militants from Gaza since October 7 and the subsequent Israeli retaliation have left around 2,600 people dead. Israel has launched a massive counter-offensive in Gaza to avenge the attacks by Hamas. Reportedly, Hamas has taken 150 hostages during its incursion.
Meanwhile, the United Nations said Israel's military informed it late on Thursday that 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza should relocate to the enclave's south within the next 24 hours, in what Palestinians fear could be a precursor to a planned Israeli ground offensive following a deadly Hamas militant attack.
UN officials in Gaza "were informed by their liaison officers in the Israeli military that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza should relocate to southern Gaza within the next 24 hours," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement in New York, as per Reuters.
"This amounts to approximately 1.1 million people," Dujarric added, or nearly half of Gaza's 2.3 million population. The areas north of Wadi Gaza include Gaza City, the enclave's largest city.
Dujarric said the UN "considers it impossible for such a movement to take place without devastating humanitarian consequences."
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