Israel has cut off the Gaza Strip and with it the supply of fuel, food, water and medicine to the conflict zone. Despite this limitation, the Palestinian Red Crescent, sister organization of the Red Cross, is actively helping in the region. The association runs an ambulance service and two hospitals in Gaza. And that is not entirely without danger: four Red Crescent aid workers in the conflict area had to pay for it with their lives yesterday, says Jonkers.
Humanitarian disaster
The current state of the infrastructure also makes providing aid more difficult for the aid organization. The infrastructure is damaged, according to Jonkers. “As a result, it is no longer possible to reach all areas by ambulance,” she says. The Palestinian Red Crescent has distributed forty ambulances in the neighborhoods, “so that people can still be reached on foot where ambulances can no longer reach.”
Due to the loss of electricity, hospitals in the area are facing major problems, says Jonkers. “There will be no more electricity if the petrol runs out. This will have disastrous consequences for babies in incubators, people dependent on oxygen or patients on kidney dialysis,” she says. “It’s a humanitarian disaster.”
Rafah border crossing
It is also currently impossible to get aids into the area via Egypt. “There are discussions to open the border crossing at Rafah, but yesterday the crossing was bombed. It must also be safe,” said Jonkers. But the Red Cross does not stand still: “We have set up our logistics pipeline there together with the Egyptian Red Moon,” she says. This takes the form of a warehouse where medical goods are kept in stock. So that when the security situation allows it, the Red Cross, together with the help of its sister organizations, can provide assistance in the conflict area as quickly as possible.
Humanitarian corridor
The United States is considering a “humanitarian corridor” as a possible solution to the humanitarian problem, according to NBC News. Egypt has already announced that it does not want a corridor for refugees. So Palestinians have nowhere to go. “Either you may be bombed to death, or you may become a refugee in another country like many other Palestinians,” says Middle East expert Omar Dweik. According to him, Palestinians who fled the country in 1948 are still in refugee camps in the region.
According to Dweik, it remains to be seen whether a humanitarian corridor is the way to get crucial foodstuffs into the area. “We don’t know what the damage is to the Rafah crossing,” he said, referring to the lack of communication due to the power outage in the area. “The fact that it’s already damaged means it will be much less efficient and more difficult.”