First Responders In Gaza Run Out Of Supplies

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories: First responders in Gaza said Thursday that their operations were at a near standstill, more than two months into a full Israeli blockade that has left food and fuel in severe shortage.

"Seventy-five percent of our vehicles have stopped operating due to a lack of diesel fuel," the civil defence agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP.

He added that its teams, who play a critical role as first responders in the Gaza Strip, were also facing a "severe shortage of electricity generators and oxygen devices".

For weeks, UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations have warned of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water in the coastal territory that is home to 2.4 million Palestinians.

The UN's agency for children, UNICEF, warned that Gaza's children face "a growing risk of starvation, illness and death" after UN-supported kitchens shut down due to lack of food supplies.

Over 20 independent experts mandated by the UN's Human Rights Council demanded action on Wednesday to avert the "annihilation" of Palestinians in Gaza.

On Thursday, Palestinians waited in line to donate blood at a field hospital in Gaza's southern city of Khan Yunis, an AFP journalist reported.

"In these difficult circumstances, we have come to support the injured and sick, amid severe food shortages and a lack of proteins, by donating blood", Moamen al-Eid, a Palestinian waiting in the line, told AFP.

'No food or drink'

Hind Joba, the hospital's laboratory head, said that "there is no food or drink, the crossings are closed, and there is no access to nutritious or protein-rich food".

"Still, people responded to the call, fulfilling their humanitarian duty by donating blood" despite the toll on their own bodies, she added.

"But this blood is vital, and they know that every drop helps save the life of an injured."

Israel returned to military operations in Gaza on March 18 after talks to prolong a six-week ceasefire stalled.

On Monday, the country's security cabinet approved a new roadmap for military operations in Gaza, aiming for the "conquest" of the territory while displacing its people en masse, drawing international condemnation.

According to the civil defence agency, air strikes at dawn killed at least eight people.

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