DOHA: A “new inferno” has been unleashed on Gaza following the restart of war in the Palestinian territory, the director general of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Monday.
“Gaza is experiencing and enduring… death, injury, multiple displacements, amputations, separation, disappearance, starvation and denial of aid and dignity on a massive scale, and just when the all important ceasefire led people to believe they had survived the worst, a new inferno was unleashed,” Pierre Krahenbuhl said.
“This includes the trauma of families of Israeli hostages who face a never ending nightmare, and of the families of Palestinian prisoners, over 400 aid workers and 1,000 health care workers have been killed in Gaza, including 36 from the Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement,” he told the annual Global security forum in Doha.
“This horror and dehumanisation will haunt us for decades to come,” Krahenbuhl added.
A truce in the Israel-Hamas war, brokered by Qatar with Egypt and the United States, came into force on January 19, largely halting more than 15 months of fighting triggered by Palestinian Hamas group October 7, 2023 attack on Israel.
The inital phase of the truce ended in early March, with the two sides unable to agree on the next steps. Israel resumed air and ground attacks across the Gaza Strip on March 18 after earlier halting the entry of aid.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza on Sunday raised its overall death toll to 52,243 people since the war began, after hundreds of missing people were confirmed dead.
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The Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Hamas group also abducted 251 people, 58 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel says its renewed military campaign aims to force Hamas to free the remaining captives.
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