Palestinian children run as they flee from Israeli bombardment in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on November 6, 2023, amid continuing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas. – AFP photo
GENEVA (Nov 8): A month after the war between Israel and Hamas erupted, the Red Cross demanded Tuesday an end to the horrific suffering of civilians, and especially children, decrying a “moral failing”.
“One month on, civilians in Gaza and Israel are being forced to endure tremendous suffering and loss. This needs to stop,” the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said in a statement.
The Israeli military has relentlessly bombarded Gaza and is scaling up ground operations in response to the October 7 attack by Hamas militants, who killed 1,400 in Israel, most of them civilians, and seized around 240 hostages, according to Israeli authorities.
The Hamas-run health ministry has said the death toll in Gaza has surpassed 10,300 people, also mostly civilians.
“Massive bombardments are gutting civilian infrastructure across Gaza, sowing seeds of hardship for generations to come,” the ICRC statement said.
The organisation’s president Mirjana Spoljaric said she had been particularly shocked to see the suffering that children have had to endure.
“Children have been ripped from their families and held hostage. In Gaza, ICRC surgeons treat toddlers whose skin is charred from widespread burns,” she said in the statement.
“The images of suffering, dead and wounded children will haunt us all. This is a moral failing,” she added.
Spoljaric also called for the immediate release of hostages seized by Hamas.
“They play no part in this conflict and we reiterate our offer as neutral actor to facilitate any future release operation,” she said.
“Until then we continue all our efforts to urge Hamas and all those with influence to allow ICRC personnel to visit the hostages,” she added.
The organisation insisted that all parties to the conflict “must uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and spare all civilians from the conduct of military operations.”
It pointed out that the military siege of Gaza had deprived people there of food, water and medicine, and warned that the “sparse aid” trickling in was not able to provide people with the essentials to survive.
“Safe and sustained humanitarian access across Gaza is urgently needed,” it said, stressing that “critical services like health care, water, and electricity must be immediately restored in Gaza as a lifesaving priority.”
It also decried attacks on healthcare, emphasising that “scenes of damaged hospitals and ambulances are unacceptable”. — AFP