Israel has been repeatedly accused of preventing humanitarian convoys from reaching Gaza, but the Israeli side denies the accusations
Ahmed al-Mandari, director of the World Health Organization (WHO) office for the Eastern Mediterranean, said the closure of crossings into the Gaza Strip contributes to the humanitarian crisis in the enclave. Al-Mandari’s words were quoted by Reuters on Thursday.
“The closure of checkpoints for [access to] victims as well as for [the delivery of] humanitarian aid, as well as the strict restrictions on medicines entering Gaza, all exacerbate the health crisis [in the enclave]”, – al-Mandari stressed.
Earlier, Israel was repeatedly accused of preventing humanitarian convoys from reaching Gaza. The Israeli side vehemently denied the accusations, claiming that militants from Hamas, which controls Gaza, deliberately opened fire at the checkpoints as goods were passing through, thus disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave.
Palestinian radical groups in the Gaza Strip and the Israeli army have been exchanging strikes since May 10. The rocket attacks follow riots outside the Al-Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem, which began following an Israeli court decision to seize homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighbourhood from Arab families living there. The latest figures from the Palestinian Health Ministry put the death toll at more than 250, 230 of them in Gaza, including more than 60 children and more than 30 women. On the Israeli side, at least 12 people were killed.