Aid worker Yousef Hammash has sent out a message telling of desperation in Gaza as Israel prepares for a ‘significant’ ground offensive (Picture: AFP/Getty/@YousefHammash)
An aid worker in southern Gaza has sent out an audio message saying people ‘are trying to find anything to eat’ in order to stay alive.
Yousef Hammash said ‘it is just a catastrophe here’ as he struggles to continue reporting on events through his X profile due to limited internet connectivity in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
He spoke of panic gripping the south, which has been the destination point for a mass exodus after Israel told 1.1 million residents living in the north to evacuate ahead of an expected large-scale ground offensive in response to Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attacks.
The Gaza advocacy officer’s audio message to colleagues via WhatsApp comes with the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) preparing for a ‘significant’ ground offensive in the 25-mile long territory.
His message, sent out during 30 minutes of Internet connectivity yesterday, was accompanied by a warning from a colleague at the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) of an impending humanitarian catastrophe.
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Mr Hammash, who has been documenting events in Gaza via his X profile, said: ‘No one feels safe anywhere, we are panicking everywhere because the bombing doesn’t stop in the south also.
‘We don’t have access to news…so literally we don’t know what’s happening all over Gaza. We are just sitting in our places, whoever can provide a place, in the schools, in a house, someone is hosting them, but literally without anything and a bit isolated inside our houses.
‘People are trying to find anything to eat, anything to maintain them alive.
‘I think the world needs to know it’s a disaster here. We need a truce, even for one day, people need to breathe.
‘There is nothing to provide for people, if you have any way to get anything, you cannot go to find it because it’s not safe in the streets, no one can…it’s just a catastrophe here.
‘The situation in the south is a bit calmer than in the north but people cannot provide water or bread.
‘Thousands of people are waiting in front of bakeries and I don’t think there is capacity in Khan Yunis to provide for all of this amount of people who are thrown in the street everywhere.’
Yousef Hammash reports on social media in front of ruined buildings in Gaza City (Picture: Yousef Hammash/@YousefHammash)
Ahmed Bayram. the NRC’s media advisor for the Middle East, said last night that the independent humanitarian organisation has 52 workers in Gaza unable to provide aid due to the supply and security situation.
Mr Bayram, speaking from Jordan, told Metro.co.uk that Gaza is a ‘scene of carnage, loss and disaster’ and called for a ceasefire.
‘It’s now a case of hours, not days, until we reach a large-scale humanitarian disaster,’ he said. ‘Food, water, electricity and the treatment of the wounded are among the most urgent needs for people.
‘Emergency workers and neighbours are pulling people out from under the rubble with their bare hands. There’s no fuel to go from northern to southern Gaza even though people have been told to go.
‘We are hearing reports of bakeries shutting down because they have no fuel and people are giving their kids anything they can find. I’ve heard reports of kids being given a few biscuits to run on all day.
‘The drinking water situation is horrendous, bottled water has soared in price and there’s not enough for everyone.
‘Our team are staying in shelters where it’s 40 to a room huddled together and people are taking turns to sleep.
‘It’s a scene of carnage, loss and disaster.’
Palestinians search for casualties under the rubble of a house destroyed by an Israeli strike in the Gaza Strip (Picture: Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa)
Israel initially targeted Gaza with air strikes and a blockade of food, fuel and water as it escalated its military response to the Hamas-led mass incursion.
The evacuation order on Friday was met with grim warnings from international agencies, with the United Nations saying it would have ‘devastating’ humanitarian consequences. The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said in a statement the following day that it is preparing for a ‘significant ground operation’ in Gaza from the ‘air, sea and land’.
Mr Bayram said: ‘Gaza has been in conflict, on and off, for decades but people are now in a level of perplexity at what is going on around them.
‘They don’t know if walking on the street or moving from north to south is going to kill them. All we have heard about Gaza for years is siege, conflict and death. Now Gaza, because of a man-made disaster, is getting wiped off the map. This is what my team is telling me, and they can’t even communicate with the outside world to say what is going on.’
A wounded Palestinian boy looks at destroyed buildings near the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip (Picture: Mohammed Abed/AFP)
Mr Bayram called for a humanitarian corridor to allow civilians to access aid, with the most likely option being the Rafah crossing between southern Gaza and Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, which is currently closed.
He said: ‘We are asking for a humanitarian pause to let people breathe for a minute. Aid is waiting at the gate, and we are saying “don’t deprive people of their lives” for preventable reasons. We need to open a humanitarian corridor with Egypt to allow medical aid and personnel in. We have heard of people at risk of death because they can’t find water to drink.
‘This is 2023 and it’s unacceptable.’
The Gaza health ministry said today that the number of Palestinians killed since October 7 has risen to 2,670, with 9,600 others injured.
Israel has said that more than 1,300 people have died in the country due to the Hamas-led attacks, with more than 3,300 injured.
The Rafah crossing may reopen for a few hours this morning, according to unconfirmed reports. US and international mediators are said to be close to reaching a deal for a ceasefire that would allow aid to enter the strip.
Israel said yesterday that a decision to renew water supplies to parts of southern Gaza had been agreed between prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US president Joe Biden.
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An aid agency has warned that a humanitarian disaster is ‘hours, not days away’ in the blockaded Palestinian territory.