New York: Oman pressed for lifting Gaza siege immediately to allow humanitarian aid. Dr Mohammed al Hassan, Permanent Representative of Oman to the UN, said in a statement on Thursday at the Gulf Cooperation Council meeting at the UN headquarters in New York that what is happening in the Palestinian territories is not new, and the result is victims on both sides, a state of instability and a lack of security. The reason for this is double standards, which pushed Israel to continue committing massacres against the Palestinian people.
There must be a clear position by this Council against the use of starvation and cutting off water and electricity as a means of war.
He added that the massacre of the Baptist Hospital in Gaza, which claimed the lives of nearly 600 people, most of whom were women, children and the elderly, and hundreds of wounded and innocent people, is nothing but clear evidence of the Israeli violation of Geneva Conventions of 1949.
Oman's call for ceasefire comes even as Palestinians in war-torn Gaza on Thursday eagerly awaited aid trucks promised in a deal struck by US President Joe Biden with Egypt and Israel.
The conflict has claimed at least 3,785 lives in the Gaza Strip, its Hamas-controlled health ministry said, with entire city blocks levelled, water, food and power cut off, and more than one million displaced.
"The pace of death, of suffering, of destruction... cannot be exaggerated," UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said about the situation in the crowded territory of 2.4 million people.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged "rapid, unimpeded humanitarian access" to the besieged Gaza Strip on Thursday as Israel kept up its retaliation for shock Hamas attacks.
"We need food, water, medicine and fuel now. We need it at scale and we need it to be sustained, it is not one small operation that is required," Guterres said.
"In plain terms, that means humanitarians need to be able to get aid in and they need to be able to distribute it safely."
The World Health Organization's chief said he was worried about the chances of humanitarian aid reaching the Gaza Strip on Friday from Egypt, given the delays thus far.
"We have been waiting for more than six days since the supplies have been delivered to the border area... we hope there will be a crossing tomorrow, but for sure, based on the experience we had the last few days, we are also at the same time worried whether this will happen," Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told journalists in Geneva.
ONA, Reuters and AFP
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