MANILA:
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) has called for a ceasefire and unrestricted humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip, where millions of people are experiencing worsening hunger due to Israel’s horrific onslaught.
The besieged Gaza Strip is suffering a humanitarian disaster nearly seven months after Israel launched a devastating offensive in response to Hamas attacks on October 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel.
“We desperately need a political solution that will allow us to have a ceasefire to get aid,” IFRC president Kate Forbes told Reuters in an interview in the capital, Manila.
“We are ready to make a difference. We have to have access, and to have access there has to be a ceasefire,” said Forbes, who in December became the second woman ever to hold the top job at the world’s largest humanitarian network.
Read Israeli army takes control of vital Rafah crossing from Gaza to Egypt
The IFRC president is a volunteer position and oversees a network that unites 191 organizations that work during and after disasters and wars, such as the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, which has ambulance crews in Gaza.
Forbes said he saw the “horrendous” situation in Rafah during a visit in February, months before Israel launched a military offensive on the southern Gaza city, which had sheltered more than a million Palestinians fleeing attacks elsewhere in the pouch.
“There wasn’t enough housing. There wasn’t enough water, there weren’t enough sanitary toilets. We had a hospital without equipment… and unfortunately what I feared happened and that there wasn’t going to be enough food,” Forbes said.
Prospects for resumption of mediated Gaza ceasefire The talks increased over the weekend, even as Israel pressed its offensive in Gaza to root out the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas, after the United Nations’ top court ordered Israel on Friday to stop attacking Rafah.
Hamas denied reports that the talks would resume earlier this week. Both sides have blamed the other for the impasse. Israel has said it cannot accept Hamas’ demand for an end to the war, while the Palestinians want Palestinian prisoners freed.
“I call on governments on all sides to negotiate a ceasefire so we can get help,” Forbes said.
“My job is to make sure that when it (the ceasefire) happens, we can provide the assistance that is necessary. And so they have to do their job so I can do my job,” he added.
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