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World Health Organisation (WHO) officials called on Thursday for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s bombardment of Gaza to allow access for aid as the health system in the Palestinian enclave faces critical shortages.
“The closure of entry and exit points for patients and humanitarian health team and the severe restrictions on the entry of medical supplies is exacerbating this public health crisis,” WHO regional director Ahmed Al-Mandhari said at a media briefing.
“The severity of injuries is straining an already overwhelmed health system that is facing critical shortages of essential medicines and supplies while also battling the Covid-19 pandemic.”
A United Nations convoy to bring humanitarian aid, including 10,000 Sinopharm coronavirus vaccines, into Gaza and to bring wounded people out was ready to enter as soon as it could get access, WHO head for the West Bank and Gaza Rik Peeperkorn said.
“Until there is ceasefire agreed, all parties to the conflict must agree to a humanitarian pause to ensure access into and out of Gaza,” Mr Peeperkorn said.
Since fighting began on May 10th, health officials in Gaza say 230 Palestinians, including 65 children and 39 women, have been killed and more than 1,700 wounded in air and artillery bombardments.
Ceasefire
A senior Hamas official has predicted a ceasefire within days, but Israel and Gaza militants pursued their cross-border attacks for the 11th day on Thursday, with Israeli warplanes carrying out new air strikes and Palestinians firing more rockets.
President of the United States Joe Biden urged Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to seek a “de-escalation” on Wednesday on the path to a ceasefire. An Egyptian security source said the sides had agreed in principle to a ceasefire after help from mediators but that details were still being negotiated in secret.
“I think that the ongoing efforts regarding the ceasefire will succeed,” the Hamas political official, Mousa Abu Marzook, told Lebanon’s al-Mayadeen TV. “I expect a ceasefire to be reached within a day or two, and the ceasefire will be on the basis of mutual agreement.”
Qatar-based Al Jazeera television reported that United Nations Middle East peace envoy Tor Wennesland was meeting Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Qatar.
But the fighting continued with both Israel and the Islamist militants voicing defiance.

Israeli security forces fire tear gas from an armoured vehicle during confrontations with Palestinian protesters in the mostly Arab city of Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel on Wednesday. Photograph: Ahmad Gharabli/AFP via Getty


Israel carried out more than a dozen air strikes on Gaza after midnight, including two that destroyed two houses in the enclave’s south. Medics said four people were wounded in an air strike on the town of Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
Israel’s military said its aircraft early on Thursday struck what it said was a “weapons storage unit” located in the Gaza City home of a Hamas official and “military infrastructure located in the residences” of other Hamas commanders, including in Khan Younis.
Rocket sirens blared early on Thursday in the southern Israeli town of Beersheba and in areas bordering Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Washington and several Middle East capitals have sought an end to the violence through diplomacy. The 193-member UN General Assembly was due to meet on the conflict on Thursday with the participation of several foreign ministers but was not expected to take action.
The US mission said it would not support a French push for a resolution in the 15-member UN Security Council, saying it believed such actions would “undermine efforts to de-escalate” violence.
Retaliation
Hamas began firing rockets on May 10th in retaliation for what it called Israeli rights abuses against Palestinians in Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The rocket attacks followed Israeli police clashes with worshippers at al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and a court case by Israeli settlers to evict Palestinians from a neighbourhood in Israeli-annexed East Jerusalem.

Israeli soldiers are positioned near the northern Israeli settlement of Shtula along the border with Lebanon. Four rockets were fired from southern Lebanon towards Israel on Wednesday. Photograph: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty


The hostilities are the most serious between Hamas and Israel in years, and, in a departure from previous Gaza conflicts, have helped fuel street violence in Israeli cities between Jews and Arabs.
The conflict has also spilled over to the Israel-Lebanon frontier and stoked violence in the occupied West Bank.
Four rockets were launched towards Israel from Lebanon on Wednesday, the third such incident since the Gaza conflict began, the military said. There was no claim of responsibility.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian woman who the military said had fired a rifle at troops and civilians. At least 21 Palestinians have been killed in clashes with Israeli troops or other incidents in the West Bank since May 10th, Palestinian officials said.– Reuters