<\/p>\n
The Gaza Strip has only \u201c24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left\u201d, the regional head of the United Nations\u2019 World Health Organisation said on Monday, as Israeli forces kept up their bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n
If aid is not allowed into the besieged territory, doctors will have to \u201cprepare death certificates for their patients,\u201d WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari, said in an interview with AFP<\/em>.<\/p>\n Israel stopped piping water to Gazans as part of a siege imposed<\/a> to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid in response to a surprise Hamas offensive<\/a> on October 7 that left 1,300 Israelis dead, according to officials.<\/p>\n After it suffered the deadliest attack in its history, Israel unleashed a relentless bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip. The health ministry in Gaza said around 2,750 people have been killed and 9,700 wounded while, according to the UN, one million have been displaced.<\/p>\n Key developments:<\/strong><\/p>\n Power outages threaten to cripple life-support systems, from seawater desalination plants to food refrigeration and hospital incubators.<\/p>\n Even everyday functions \u2014 from going to the toilet, showering and washing clothes \u2014 are almost impossible, locals say.<\/p>\n With emergency responders overwhelmed, doctors working around the clock and a dire lack of space, \u201cbodies cannot be properly taken care of\u201d, Mandhari said.<\/p>\n Overcrowding has paralysed hospitals, where \u201cintensive care units, operating rooms, emergency services and other wings\u201d are all on the brink of collapse, he said.<\/p>\n Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz on Sunday said water supplies to southern Gaza had been switched back on, a week after Israel announced a \u201ccomplete siege\u201d cutting water, power and fuel supplies to the territory where it wants to crush Hamas.<\/p>\n Depriving civilians of goods essential for survival is banned under international law, the UN human rights chief has said.<\/p>\n During the air and artillery bombardment, the WHO has recorded 111 medical facilities targeted, 12 health care workers killed and 60 ambulances bombed \u2014 in violation of both \u201cinternational law and the principles of humanity\u201d, Mandhari said.<\/p>\n A total of 22 hospitals in northern Gaza are treating more than 2,000 patients, including \u201csome on ventilators, some who need regular dialysis, in addition to children, infants and women\u201d.<\/p>\n The enclave\u2019s hospitals have run out of clean water, while \u201cfuel shortages threaten electricity supply,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n As medical resources dry up, Mandhari said doctors \u2014 who know they cannot save everyone \u2014 are having to make impossible choices.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to triage the patients who are coming in. They have no other choice. There are too many people, so some are left to die slow deaths.\u201d<\/p>\n Aid must be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip within one day before the situation becomes completely unmanageable, Mandhari said.<\/p>\n Convoys of international aid are waiting just across the border with Egypt, but they have been allowed no closer than the Egyptian town of El Arish, 50 kilometres (31 miles) away from the Rafah border crossing \u2014 the only passage in and out of Gaza not controlled by Israel.<\/p>\n Cairo has refused to allow foreign nationals to exit without humanitarian aid coming in.<\/p>\n Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry accused Israel of blocking the aid, despite \u201crepeated requests\u201d from Cairo.<\/p>\n Under a joint Israeli-Egyptian blockade in place since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007, Israel has a say in the passage of all goods and people coming in and out of the territory.<\/p>\n United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to Israel on Monday after shuttling between Arab states, hoping to coordinate efforts against Hamas while finding ways to alleviate Gaza\u2019s humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n He announced in Cairo on Sunday that the US had appointed veteran former diplomat David Satterfield to work on aid to Gaza.<\/p>\n The UN\u2019s humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said he would be heading to the Middle East on Tuesday \u201cto try to help in the negotiations\u201d for aid access.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in deep discussions with the Israelis, with the Egyptians and with others,\u201d Griffiths said.<\/p>\n In Gaza\u2019s north, where Israel says Hamas fighters are hiding in a tunnel network, people said Israeli aircraft bombed areas around the Al-Quds hospital early on Monday. Houses were damaged, forcing hundreds of people to take shelter in the Red Crescent-run hospital.<\/p>\n Israeli planes also bombed three offices of the Civil Emergency and Ambulance Service in Gaza City, killing five people and paralysing the rescue services, health officials said.<\/p>\n Israel has told Gazans to evacuate south, which hundreds of thousands have already done in the enclave, home to about 2.3 million people. Hamas has told people to ignore Israel\u2019s message.<\/p>\n In southern Gaza, five members of a family were killed in Khan Younis refugee camp.<\/p>\n With hundreds of people trapped in collapsed buildings, rescuers and residents were frantically tearing away rubble, sometimes pulling out barely breathing children.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were inside the house when we found bodies scattering, flying in the air – bodies of children who have nothing to do with the war,\u201d said resident Abed Rabayaa, whose neighbour\u2019s house in Khan Younis was hit overnight.<\/p>\n Reserves of fuel to power generators at all hospitals across the Gaza Strip are expected to last only around 24 more hours, putting thousands of patients at risk, the United Nations Humanitarian Office (OCHA) said early on Monday.<\/p>\n More than one million people \u2013 almost half the population of Gaza \u2014 have been displaced within the enclave, the United Nations said, and it is struggling to cope with their needs.<\/p>\n For the fifth consecutive day, Gaza has had no electricity, pushing vital services, including health, water and sanitation to the brink of collapse. People are consuming brackish water from agricultural wells, raising concerns over the spread of disease.<\/p>\n US officials have warned that the war between Israel and Hamas could escalate after cross-border clashes between Israel and militants from Lebanon\u2019s Iranian-backed Hezbollah.<\/p>\n As US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for talks on Monday, Iran said the United States should be held to account for its role in the conflict.<\/p>\n The Israeli military said earlier on Monday it would refrain from striking two roads in the Gaza Strip marked for residents to move south and out of the way of a possible ground offensive.<\/p>\n \u201cThe IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) will refrain from targeting the designated axis from 8am until 12pm,\u201d military spokesman Avichay Adraee said on X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n \u201cFor your safety take advantage of this short period of time to move south from the north of the strip and Gaza City.\u201d<\/p>\n Military spokesman Jonathan Conricus pledged in a separate statement that the two designated roads \u201cwould be safe to use\u201d for that duration.<\/p>\n As the humanitarian crisis in Gaza depends, Pakistan has decided to immediately dispatch humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian enclave.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the wake of indiscriminate Israeli aggression and siege of the Gaza Strip, the already oppressed people of densely-populated Gaza are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance,\u201d a press release issued by the Foreign Office said.<\/p>\n It stated that the government was coordinating with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, relevant UN agencies, Egypt and Pakistan Missions abroad to finalise modalities of the delivery.<\/p>\n Earlier today, Interim Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar said that Israel\u2019s \u201cdeliberate, indiscriminate and disproportionate\u201d targeting of civilians in Gaza was against \u201call norms of civility and in manifest violation of international law\u201d.<\/p>\n In a statement on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Kakar said, \u201cPakistan is deeply concerned on the ongoing violence and loss of life in Gaza. We stand in solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire and lifting of the blockade in Gaza.\u201d<\/p>\n He said that the violence needed to be viewed in \u201cthe context of years of forced and illegal occupation of Palestinian territory and repressive policies against its people\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe UN and international community must immediately act to open safe and unrestricted humanitarian corridors for transportation of urgently needed relief supplies to the besieged Gaza,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The prime minister added that Pakistan was closely coordinating with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and its member states on the \u201cfast deteriorating situation\u201d in Gaza.<\/p>\n He said that the foreign minister would also be attending an emergency meeting of the OIC\u2019s executive committee on October 18 and \u201ccall for urgent action to alleviate the suffering of people of Gaza\u201d.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani on Monday said he spoke to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian and discussed the crisis unfolding in Gaza including the killing of civilians and large-scale displacement of Palestinians.<\/p>\n \u201cWe agreed that urgent steps were needed to prevent conflict from escalating and provision of humanitarian assistance,\u201d he said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).<\/p>\n \u201cGaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity,\u201d said United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini, in an urgent appeal<\/a> for critical aid to be allowed in.<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know water is life \u2014 Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Lazzarini feared that soon there would be no food or medicine in the Palestinian enclave. \u201cThere is not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel that has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for the last eight days.<\/p>\n \u201cThe number of people seeking shelter in our schools and other UNRWA facilities in the south is absolutely overwhelming, and we do not have any more the capacity to deal with them,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n \u201cAn unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding under our eyes,\u201d the UN official stated, highlighting that UNRWA has lost 14 of its members in the war so far and Gaza had even run out of body bags.<\/p>\n \u201cAll parties must facilitate a humanitarian corridor so we can reach all those in need of support,\u201d Lazzarini added.<\/p>\n More than one million people have fled their homes in Gaza in scenes of chaos and despair as Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled territory and continued massing troops on Monday in preparation for a full-blown ground invasion.<\/p>\n Following an Israeli order to move to the south of the Gaza Strip, people have fled their homes in the north of the enclave to seek shelter wherever they can, including on the streets and in UN-run schools.<\/p>\n \n
\u2018Left to die\u2019<\/h2>\n
Heavy bombing<\/h2>\n
Israel, Hamas deny border ceasefire<\/h2>\n
Pakistan to immediately dispatch humanitarian assistance to Gaza<\/h2>\n
\u2018Gaza is being strangled\u2019<\/h2>\n
One million Gazans flee as Israel readies for ground attack<\/h2>\n