Amid growing pressure over the humanitarian conditions, Israel announced it would be screening aid to Gaza at two additional checkpoints, which would allow more assistance to enter the ravaged strip.
The EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell said in a speech that the “apocalyptic” destruction was proportionally “even greater” than that experienced by Germany in World War II.
Health services have been devastated, with only 14 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals functioning at any capacity, according to UN humanitarian agency OCHA.
Al-Aqsa hospital in Deir al-Balah was inundated with victims on Monday, including dozens of screaming children, after Israeli strikes on the nearby Al-Maghazi refugee camp.
Elsewhere, as basic supplies run out and sanitary conditions deteriorate, women and girls spoke of using scraps of cloth for menstrual periods.
“I cut up my kid’s clothes or any piece of cloth I find,” said 25-year-old Hala Ataya in Rafah.
Unable to obtain gas or even firewood for cooking, Gazans brought decades-old brass stoves to a workshop for repair.
“People have gone back to the old times,” owner Ibrahim Shouman said.
In Al-Rimal, thousands of Palestinians had set up camp at a UN agency headquarters after nearby homes and shops were destroyed by Israeli strikes.
An AFP correspondent said both the Islamic and adjacent Al-Azhar universities had been reduced to rubble, as had the police station.
“There is no water. There is no electricity, no bread, no milk for the children, and no diapers,” said Rami al-Dahduh, 23, a tailor.
Source: CNA
