NEW YORK, (PIC)
The stranglehold on aid reaching Gaza threatens an “apocalyptic” outcome, the UN’s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said on Sunday as he warned of famine in the besieged territory.
“If fuel runs out, aid doesn’t get to the people where they need it, that famine, which we have talked about for so long, and which is looming, will not be looming any more. It will be present,” Griffiths said.
“And I think our worry, as citizens of the international community, is that the consequence is going to be really, really hard. Hard, difficult, and apocalyptic,” he added.
Griffith said some 50 trucks of aid per day could reach the hardest-hit north of Gaza through the reopened Erez crossing.
But battles near the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem crossings in Gaza’s south meant the vital routes were “effectively blocked”, he explained.
“So aid getting in through land routes to the south and for Rafah, and the people dislodged by Rafah are almost nil,” Griffiths added.
The UN said on Saturday that 800,000 people had been “forced to flee” Israel’s assault on Rafah City.
