Renewal of war in Gaza has ‘unleashed a new hell’, says Red Cross

The resumption of the war in Gaza has "unleashed a new hell", according to the ICRC Keystone-SDA

The resumption of the war in Gaza has unleashed a new hell in the Palestinian territory, the director of the Geneva-based International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned on Monday.

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“This horror and dehumanisation will haunt us for decades to come,” Pierre Krähenbühl said.

“Gaza is suffering and enduring death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separations, disappearances, starvation and a denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the ceasefire […] made people think they had survived the worst, a new hell has broken loose.”

“This includes the trauma of the families of Israeli hostages who are facing an endless nightmare, and the families of Palestinian prisoners,” he added at a security conference in Doha, Qatar, one of the mediating countries.

According to him, “more than 400 humanitarian workers and 1,000 health workers have been killed in Gaza, including 36 Red Cross and Red Crescent workers”.

+ Switzerland cancels Middle East humanitarian law conference

Civilian deaths

The war was triggered on October 7, 2023, by the Palestinian Hamas attack on Israeli territory, which resulted in 1,218 deaths on the Israeli side, most of them civilians, according to an AFP count based on official data. Of the 251 people kidnapped that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, 34 of whom are dead, according to the Israeli army.

Earlier this year, the two sides agreed a truce that lasted almost two months, before Israel resumed its military offensive in the Gaza Strip on March 18.

Since then, the Israeli army’s military operations have claimed at least 2,151 lives, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health, which now reports 52,243 victims since October 7, 2023.

Translated from French by DeepL/ts

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