51 dead in Israeli raids as Red Cross seeks safe access

GAZA STRIP: Israeli military strikes across Gaza killed at least 51 more people on Wednesday, Palestinian medics said, as the Red Cross called for safe and unhindered access to bring desperately needed aid into the war-torn Palestinian territory where babies are freezing to death.

An air strike killed at least 10 people in a multi-storey house in the Sheikh Radwan neighbourhood of Gaza City, while another killed five in the nearby Zeitoun suburb, medics said. In Deir Al-Balah city in central Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians are sheltering, and in Jabalia, the largest of Gaza’s eight historic refugee camps, a total of seven people were killed, they said.

As Israel continued its bombardments, the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said 51 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 45,936. The ministry also said at least 109,274 people had been wounded in last 15 months.

The health ministry warned that Nasser Hospital and the Gaza European Hospital might stop operations in a few hours unless the Israelis stop restricting the flow of fuel to the hospitals.

Death toll nears 46,000 amid last-ditch effort for peace in the Middle East

The Israeli campaign has laid waste to much of the enclave. Most of the territory’s 2.1 million people have been displaced multiple times and face acute shortages of food and medicine, humanitarian agencies say.

On Wednesday, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said heavy rains and flooding had left families living in damaged tents with up to 30cm of water in them, “clinging on to survival without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets”.

While Israel accused Hamas of blocking a ceasefire, the Palestinian group stood by its demand that the ceasefire was possible only when Israel agreed to end the atrocities and withdraw its troops from Gaza.

On the other hand, the Red Cross called for safe and unhindered access to Gaza. Heavy rain and flooding ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30cm (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.

The dire weather conditions were “exacerbating the unbearable conditions” in Gaza, it said.

Citing the UN, the IFRC highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures. Those deaths “underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there”, IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said.

“I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance,” he said. “Without safe access — children will freeze to death. Without safe access — families will starve. Without safe access — humanitarian workers can’t save lives.”

According to a UN count, more than 330 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel unleashed its war there in 2023.

Mr Chapagain issued an “urgent plea to all the parties […] to put an end to this human suffering. Now”.

The IFRC lamented the “continuing attacks on health facilities across the Gaza Strip”, which it said meant people were unable to access the treatment they need. It said the closure of the main Rafah border crossing last May had had a dramatic impact on the humanitarian situation. “Only a trickle of aid is currently entering Gaza,” it warned.

The Doctors Without Borders charity warned that access to healthcare had also become “seriously compromised” in parts of the West Bank. It was seeing “a dramatic decline in children’s mental health”, it added.

Meanwhile, the United States, Qatar and Egypt continued with their efforts to reach a ceasefire deal, with one source close to the talks saying the latest one was the most serious attempt to reach a deal so far.

The outgoing US administration has called for a final push for a deal before President Biden leaves office, and many in the region view president-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan 20 as an unofficial deadline.

“Things are better than ever before, but there is no deal yet,” the source told Reuters.

Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff said overnight he hopes to have good things to report about prisoners swap deal by the time Trump is sworn in as president.

Published in Dawn, January 9th, 2025