Israel will kill Palestinians just fine without US heavy payload weapons; humanitarian crisis spirals – Day 216

Al Jazeera reports: Gaza’s Government Media Office has reiterated its warning about the ramifications of Israel’s attacks on eastern Rafah and the closure of the vital Rafah border crossing with Egypt as well as the Karem Abu Salem (Kerem Shalom) border crossing.

It warned of a “deep humanitarian catastrophe” unfolding in the overcrowded southern Gaza city, where more than 1.4 million displaced and hungry Palestinians have sought shelter.

The halt of aid and humanitarian supplies entering Gaza as well as the tens of thousands of sick and wounded who desperately need to leave the enclave for treatment will only worsen the already dire situation, it said.

In the past 48 hours, Israeli forces banned the entry of more than 400 aid trucks, the office said. People will have no food or water within the next few days across the southern governorates of Gaza, it warned, adding that famine would soon take hold in the south. Famine has already gripped the territory’s north.

MIDDLE EAST EYE ADDS: Reportedly, no aid has entered the Gaza Strip since Tuesday, and aid operations could shut within days due to dwindling food and fuel stocks, United Nations aid agencies said on Friday.

A spokesperson for UNICEF said at a virtual briefing: “we are scraping the bottom of the barrel…in a matter of days, if not corrected, the lack of fuel could grind humanitarian operations to a halt.”

The administration of al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital said it would cease operations within 48 hours if it doesn’t receive more fuel.

The hospital in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah is the last remaining big medical facility in the Gaza Strip after al-Shifa and Nasser hospitals were destroyed by Israel.

HA’ARETZ ADDS: About 150 protesters blocked a road for hours Thursday in order to stop a convoy of humanitarian aid trucks from Jordan bound for Gaza.

The protesters, mostly far-right religious Israelis, were from Tzav 9 – a movement whose mission is to block aid to Gaza until the last hostage returns. The group blocked the entrance from 8 A.M., and were only dispersed at 4 P.M. after police fired a water cannon toward them. Among the protesters was mayor of Mitzpe Ramon, Elia Winter.

There have been regular demonstrations at Kerem Shalom in an effort to disrupt the aid shipments, primarily organized by Tzav 9. It bills itself as a group comprised of hostages’ families, army reservists and residents of the south. But in practice, most of the protesters are well-known far-right activists from West Bank settlements who arrive either by bus or by car. And they have succeeded in disrupting a significant portion of the aid shipments.

ALMOST 400,000 EVACUEES FLEE AMID BOMBARDMENT

As of the early hours of Wednesday evening, Israeli airstrikes expanded beyond the eastern part of Rafah – where Israel had announced it would attack – to the central and western part of Rafah city forcing more people – an estimate of close to 400,000 – to head to the evacuation zone.

Now they are forced to take dangerous routes to central Gaza.

The vast majority of the people are taking either the coastal road where Israeli gunboats keep firing at them, or Salah al-Din Street – that is a very dangerous area right now given that the entire eastern part of Rafah, Khan Younis and the central area have been targeted repeatedly.

Hamas urges halt to airdrops of aid in Gaza after two killed

AFP reports: Hamas on Thursday called for an end to airdrops of aid after two Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza when an aid pallet crashed into a warehouse after its parachute failed to open.

Several countries, including the United States, Britain and France, have resorted to regular aid airdrops in northern Gaza, where humanitarian agencies have warned of a looming famine.

On Tuesday, two people died when an aid parachute fell on the roof of a warehouse where residents had gathered to collect relief supplies.

The latest fatalities take to at least 21 the number of people killed when airdrops of aid have gone disastrously wrong, according to the Hamas authorities.

“We reiterate that airdrops pose a real danger to the lives of citizens and do not provide a real solution to alleviate the food crisis plaguing northern Gaza,” Salama Marouf, head of the government’s media office in Gaza, said in a statement.

“We call for an immediate halt to the delivery of aid in this ineffective and erroneous manner, and we call for the full activation of the land crossings to deliver humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.”

With only a trickle of aid reaching the starving north and the United Nations warning of “imminent famine”, foreign governments have turned to airdrops to get aid into the territory.

Aid agencies say the situation has deteriorated this week after Israeli forces closed the Rafah border crossing with Egypt after taking control of it.

Israeli forces attack ‘middle, western parts’ of Rafah