Palestine Red Crescent Society Appeals to the International Community to Pressure Israel to Create a Humanitarian Corridor

(Al-bireh, May 11, 2023): The Palestine Red Crescent Society has appealed to international organizations and the states parties to the Four Geneva Conventions of 1949, to pressure Israel, the occupying power, to create a humanitarian corridor to allow the entry of medical supplies and humanitarian aid. This comes due to the deterioration of humanitarian conditions in the Strip, where Israeli occupation checkpoints and barriers surrounding the Gaza Strip remain closed for the third day in a row, a situation developing to be a humanitarian crisis given the severe shortage of medical supplies and materials in the healthcare system. International Humanitarian Law (IHL) obliges the occupying power to agree to relief schemes on behalf of the population of the occupied territory, and to facilitate them by all the means at its disposal.

The number of deaths and injuries since the first day of the Israeli occupation military attack on the Strip reached 25 deaths and 76 injuries, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, including several women and children.

The Strip has witnessed near-total paralysis in all aspects of life, as work in all universities and schools continues to be suspended, and the electricity crisis as well as the shortage in fuel supplies is intensifying, due to the air, land, and naval military blockade imposed by the occupying authorities on the Strip for 16 years, which constitutes collective punishment prohibited by the provisions of IHL.

Based on a preliminary statistic of damaged houses, approximately 17 housing units were demolished, and 50 housing units were partially damaged, in addition, many houses were significantly damaged, which forced 32 families to flee their homes.