The fourth UAE aid ship, which departed from the Port of Fujairah, is carrying 4,750 tonnes of food, 590 tonnes of shelter materials….reports Asian Lite News
The fourth UAE aid ship carrying 5,340 tonnes of humanitarian supplies has set sail yesterday for the city of Al Arish, Egypt, destined for the Gaza Strip, as part of Operation “Chivalrous Knight 3” to support the Palestinian people in the Strip.
The ship, which departed from the Port of Fujairah, is carrying 4,750 tonnes of food, 590 tonnes of shelter materials.
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The cargo of the ship was provided by the Emirates Red Crescent, the Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, and the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, and was transported by 313 trucks that unloaded their cargo onto the ship.
As part of Operation “Chivalrous Knight 3”, the UAE has launched a number of initiatives, including the establishment of two field hospitals, one inside the Gaza Strip and the other a floating hospital off the coast of Al Arish city, in addition to the establishment of five automatic bakeries. Flour has also been provided to eight existing bakeries in Gaza, and six desalination plants have been established that produce 1.2 million gallons per day, which are pumped into the Gaza Strip and benefit more than 600,000 people.
The Joint Operations Command recently launched Operation “Birds of Goodness” to airdrop humanitarian aid to isolated areas in the northern Gaza Strip that cannot be reached by land. The total amount of aid dropped so far is 3,382 tonnes of relief and humanitarian supplies.
Weak health capabilities in Gaza hospitals
The health capabilities in the hospitals of the Gaza Strip are weak, and the fuel shortage is a major crisis for the health sector, a Palestinian medical official warned.
Munir al-Bursh, an official with the Gaza-based health authorities, said on Monday in a statement that 34 children have died due to severe food shortages in the northern region, Xinhua news agency reported.
About 25,000 patients urgently needed treatment outside the Gaza Strip, but only 5,000 have managed to travel, he said, emphasising that the situation in the Strip is extremely difficult, demanding the immediate opening of the Rafah crossing.
On Sunday and Monday, the Israeli military instructed tens of thousands of people residing in 19 blocs in Gaza City to immediately evacuate, according to a report published by the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on Monday.
As of Monday, Al Ahli Baptist Hospital and the Patients Friends Association Hospital were evacuated in fear of intensified military activities that would render them inaccessible or non-functional, and critical patients were transferred to the Indonesian and Kamal Adwan Hospitals in North Gaza governorate, it added.
Mahmoud Basal, a spokesperson for Gaza’s Civil Defence, warned that the situation in the Strip is “very dire and bitter” amid the Israeli army’s entry from Gaza City’s eastern areas and the presence of vehicles in the Shuja’iyya area east of the city since about 11 days ago.
He mentioned that injuries and deaths on the roads are difficult for rescue teams to reach, urging for international intervention to pressure Israel to stop these crimes against innocent civilians in Gaza.
Israel has been waging a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip to retaliate against a Hamas rampage through the southern Israeli border on October 7, 2023, during which about 1,200 people were killed and more than 200 were taken hostage.
During the past 24 hours, the Israeli military killed 40 people and wounded 75 others, bringing the total death toll to 38,193 and injuries to 87,903 since the Palestinian-Israeli conflict broke out, the Gaza-based health authorities said in a statement on Monday.
UN: 90% Gazans displaced at least once
UN humanitarians have said 90 per cent of Gazans were displaced, some multiple times, as more evacuations were ordered and poor or no security hampers aid and fuel deliveries.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said on Monday that the Israeli military instructed on Sunday and Monday tens of thousands of people living in 19 blocs of apartments in Gaza City to evacuate immediately.
On Sunday, some residents were ordered to evacuate to western Gaza City, while the order on Monday included areas that people had fled to a day earlier and instructed them to evacuate to shelters in Deir al Balah, Xinhua news agency reported.
“The two directly affected areas encompass 13 health facilities that were recently functional, including two hospitals, two primary healthcare centres and nine medical points,” OCHA said, adding that 13 out of 36 hospitals in the Gaza Strip are only partially functional.
The office said that with nine out of every 10 people estimated to be displaced in Gaza, new waves of displacement are mainly affecting people who have already been displaced multiple times, only to find themselves forced to flee again under shelling. They were forced to reset their lives repeatedly without any of their belongings or any prospect of finding safety or reliable access to essential services.
“People, especially children, spend long hours queueing to collect water each day,” OCHA said.
“Access to emergency health care is also a challenge, particularly given limited communications coverage to contact emergency services, high transportation costs to reach hospitals ($26 roundtrip) and the long walking distance of at least 3 km to reach the nearest medical point.”
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