As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza grows into an outright catastrophe, CARE West Bank and Gaza Country Director Hiba Tibi urges for more aid and desperately asks for the fighting to stop:
“The misery in Gaza is such, with overcrowded shelters and waterborne diseases spreading, that people who had followed evacuation orders and moved south 12 days ago are heading back to their homes in the north.
My colleagues told me this morning that bakeries are out of bread, which is the staple food. People do not have enough clean water to drink, let alone to cook and keep minimal hygiene. And my colleagues themselves are now rationing their water intake to allow their children to drink.
The humanitarian aid coming via the Rafah border crossing since last Saturday remains a drop in the ocean.
By mid-day on October 25, one third of all hospitals in Gaza have closed down because they’ve run out of medicines and fuel for their generators. Almost two thirds of health clinics have shuttered. The lives of thousands of injured and sick people are on the line.
My colleagues have managed to secure water and hygiene kits inside Gaza and distribute them to people in need, but stocks are being depleted, as is the fuel needed for humanitarian workers to reach the people in need.
Morgues are already overflowing and I’m afraid that more people will die, not just due to the relentless bombing, but also due to the lack of food, water, medicines, and fuel. Over two million people in Gaza need humanitarian aid at scale. They need it now. And they need the fighting to stop.”
For media enquiries, please contact Iolanda Jaquemet, Senior Humanitarian Communications Coordinator, CARE International via: [email protected].