Pakistan on Monday announced immediately dispatching humanitarian assistance to Gaza, as Israel continued to pound the densely populated territory with air strikes and was preparing for the ground offensive.
“In the wake of indiscriminate Israeli aggression and siege of the Gaza Strip, the already oppressed people of densely-populated Gaza are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance,” read a statement issued by the foreign office here.
In view of the human tragedy unfolding in Gaza, the government of Pakistan decided to immediately dispatch humanitarian relief assistance to Gaza, to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian brothers and sisters, according to the statement.
“The government is coordinating with the Palestinian Red Crescent Society, relevant UN agencies, the Government of Egypt and Pakistan Missions abroad to finalise modalities of delivery,” it added.
Around 2.3 million Palestinians are facing humanitarian catastrophe as Israeli forces on one hand continued with their brutal assault and at the same time cut off water, electricity and other supplies.
Meanwhile, AFP adds the Gaza Strip has only “24 hours of water, electricity and fuel left”, the regional head of the United Nations’ World Health Organisation said on Monday, as Israeli forces kept up their bombardment of the Palestinian enclave.
If aid is not allowed into the besieged territory, doctors will have to “prepare death certificates for their patients,” WHO regional director for the eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed al-Mandhari, said in an interview with AFP.
Israel stopped piping water to Gazans as part of a siege imposed to stop food and fuel from reaching the enclave of 2.3 million people, many poor and dependent on aid in response to a surprise Hamas offensive on October 7 that left 1,300 Israelis dead, according to officials.
Power outages threaten to cripple life-support systems, from seawater desalination plants to food refrigeration and hospital incubators.
