GENEVA: Humanitarians have described horrific scenes of starving, bloodied children and fights over water in Gaza, two months into Zionist full blockade on aid, with dire warnings that aid operations are on the brink of total collapse. The Norwegian Refugee Council’s humanitarian access manager in Gaza, Gavin Kelleher, said “thousands of people will die” if nothing is done, as other aid agencies called for urgent international action. “The humanitarian response in Gaza is on the verge of total collapse,” the International Committee of the Red Cross warned. “Without immediate action, Gaza will descend further into chaos that humanitarian efforts will not be able to mitigate.”

Zionist entity strictly controls all inflows of international aid vital for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. It halted aid deliveries to Gaza on March 2, days before the collapse of a ceasefire that had significantly reduced hostilities after 15 months of war. Since the start of the blockade, the United Nations has repeatedly warned of the humanitarian catastrophe on the ground, with famine again looming. The UN’s World Food Program (WFP) said last week that it had sent out its “last remaining food stocks” to kitchens, and the 25 bakeries it supports in Gaza have closed due to a lack of flour and fuel.

‘Deadly’ blockade

“Food stocks have now mainly run out,” Olga Cherevko, a spokeswoman for the UN humanitarian agency OCHA, told reporters in Geneva Friday via video link from Gaza City. “Community kitchens have begun to shut down (and) more people are going hungry,” she said, pointing to reports of children and other very vulnerable people who have died from malnutrition and ... from the lack of food”. “The blockade is deadly.” Water access was also “becoming impossible”, Cherevko warned.

“There’s a water truck that has just arrived, and people are killing each other over water,” she said, describing a scene below her window. One friend described that the situation had deteriorated so much that there was no water to save “people burning ... because of the explosions” while hospitals were running out of blood, even as mass casualties arrived.

“Gaza lies in ruins, Rubble fills the streets... Many nights, blood-curdling screams of the injured pierce the skies following the deafening sound of another explosion,” she added. The NRC’s Kelleher meanwhile described an increase in “needs-based looting across Gaza” and condemned what he said was a “manufactured breakdown of civil order”. “(Zionist entity) is not only preventing food from entering Gaza but it has also engineered a situation in which Palestinians cannot grow their own food, they cannot fish for their own food and they continue to attack or deny access to the little left food stocks in Gaza,” he added.

‘Abomination’

Humanitarians also decried the mass displacement, with nearly the entire Gaza population being forced to shift multiple times before the brief ceasefire. Since the resumption of hostilities, Cherevko said more than 420,000 people have been forced to flee again, many “with only the clothes on their backs” and were shot at as they tried to reach overcrowded shelters.

Aid boat ‘attacked’

Meanwhile, a group of activists organizing an aid boat for Gaza said it was attacked on Friday by drones in international waters off Malta as it headed towards the Palestinian territory. The Maltese government and Cypriot rescuers said they had responded to a distress call from the vessel, while Malta said all crew members were safe and made no mention of an alleged attack. The activists said they suspected Zionists could be behind the attack, and Cyprus’s rescue agency said it had been informed by the island’s foreign ministry of a drone strike.

The Zionist military did not provide an immediate response when contacted by AFP. “At 00:23 Maltese time (2223 GMT Thursday), the Conscience, a Freedom Flotilla Coalition ship came under direct attack in international waters,” the group said in a statement. “Armed drones attacked the front of an unarmed civilian vessel twice, causing a fire and a substantial breach in the hull. “(Zionist) ambassadors must be summoned and answer to violations of international law, including the ongoing blockade and the bombing of our civilian vessel in international waters.” Asked whether the group believed Zionist entity was behind the attack, a spokesperson told AFP they “suspected” that was the case. “While we cannot confirm 100 percent, we suspect it’s (Zionist entity),” Hay Sha Wiya said, calling the country “the primary entity interested in keeping us and any aid out of Gaza”.

Zionist entity is known for conducting covert operations beyond its borders, including several during the Gaza war that it only acknowledged later. The activists said the strike appeared to target the boat’s generator. Following the distress call, the Malta Vessel Traffic Services body dispatched a tugboat and offered support. “The tug arrived on scene and began firefighting operations. By 0128 hrs, the fire was reported under control,” the Maltese statement said.

‘Desperately needed aid’

A Cypriot-owned vessel also responded to the distress call. “The Larnaca Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) has been informed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cyprus that a vessel possibly transporting humanitarian aid to Gaza came under missile attack by a Zionist Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while sailing within the Search and Rescue (SAR) Region of Malta,” the Cypriot rescue body said.

It said a Cypriot-owned vessel in the area “participated in firefighting operations”. The activists were on what they called a “mission to challenge illegal and deadly siege of Gaza, and to deliver desperately needed, life-saving aid”. Zionist entity has since March 2 blocked all aid deliveries to Gaza, and resumed major military operations in the territory in mid-March, ending a two-month ceasefire. The International Committee of the Red Cross warned Friday that the humanitarian response in Gaza was on the “verge of total collapse” after two months of aid being blocked. - AFP