They had given Israel 30 days to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, under penalty of cutting part of arms deliveries. While the war between Israel and Hamas, which has lasted for more than a year, has plunged Gaza into a serious humanitarian crisis, Israel announced the opening on Tuesday, November 12, of a new crossing point for humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip, just before a deadline set by Washington for increasing this aid, which NGOs still consider insufficient.
“It’s an entire society that is now in the cemetery“, denounces Louise Wateridge, of the United Nations Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), in a video posted on the X network, to describe a video from the north of Gaza City, filmed at the beginning of November.
“Yes it's a cemetery. There is nothing left. The buildings are completely destroyed. It's the apocalypse“, she describes by telephone to franceinfo. Her mission, which Israel decided to ban, consisted of distributing chlorine tablets to displaced people in besieged areas to purify the water. According to the United Nations, there are 100,000 to have fled the towns of Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya to take refuge, a little further south, in Gaza City.
“They are desperate, they don’t understand and wonder why the world is watching and doing nothing, why there is no food.”
Louise Wateridgeat franceinfo
“They escaped from the besieged area in the North. There has been no humanitarian aid in this area for a month. They can die from bombings or die from starvation, from disease… There are many ways for people in the Gaza Strip to be killed right now.“, explains Louise Wateridge.
On Tuesday, November 12, Israeli authorities opened a new crossing point in Gaza. It was obviously a message addressed to the Americans. Humanitarian aid trucks are now entering the enclave through Kerem Shalom in the south, Kissoufim in the center and Zikim in the north.
But for Louise Wateridge, it is still insufficient compared to needs. “In October, an average of 37 trucks entered the Gaza Strip for 2.2 million people. It's for food, shelter, everything people need. After 13 months of war and malnutrition, people need everything. 37 trucks per day, no, that's not enough. It's hopeless.”
And for Louise Wateridge, the weakness of American pressure on Israel does not matter. The only solution, to save lives, “It's an immediate ceasefire“, she pleads.
