BRUSSELS (The Thursday Times) — The European Union on Saturday urged Israel to reopen all crossings into Gaza and allow “immediate, unimpeded” humanitarian access, after heavy rain flooded tent camps across the territory this week.
In a statement issued by the office of Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, the EU expressed grave concern about conditions in Gaza, where flooding and winter weather have left an exhausted population in unsafe shelters. Civilian infrastructure and medical facilities “must be protected,” it said.
“The recent airstrike on the Nasser Hospital is deeply alarming,” the statement said. The Israeli strike on the hospital in Khan Younis on Thursday killed at least six people, including a surgeon. Pakistan and 16 other countries condemned the strike in a joint statement earlier on Saturday.
“Israel must enable the work of the UN and its agencies, and humanitarian organisations including NGOs,” the EU said, and comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law and international human rights law.
The bloc called for aid to be delivered steadily and for early recovery support “at scale”. It also called for the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and restated its commitment to a two-state solution.
Floods reach 106,000 people
Heavy rain has directly affected at least 106,000 people in Gaza in recent days, according to the UN children’s agency, Unicef. Thousands of tents sheltering displaced families have been submerged and latrines have overflowed into camps. Gaza’s media office says more than 700 kilometres of the sewage network has been destroyed, and local officials and the UN say damage to infrastructure has made the flooding worse.
The UN and aid groups said on Friday that the deaths and damage from last weekend’s storm were “preventable” and that more than 150,000 tents are waiting outside Gaza for approval to enter. A nine-month-old baby died of cold in his family’s tent in Khan Younis this week. Israel denies blocking shelter supplies and blames Hamas for conditions in Gaza.
On Saturday, an Israeli drone strike killed two Palestinians as they walked down a street in Jabaliya, on the northern edge of Gaza City, said the director of Shifa Hospital, where the bodies were taken. The Israeli military said it had struck two Hamas members in the area.
