Oxfam warns: Not a single square metre is safe in Gaza

A regional manager of the UK-based charity Oxfam has described the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip as “a real catastrophe”, warning that all of Gaza is now under attack and that “nowhere is safe”.

In an interview with the agency, Mustafa Tamaizeh, Economic Justice Programme Manager at Oxfam, who is based in Ramallah, stressed that the deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip has become “a real catastrophe”.

“There is no single square metre in Gaza that is safe. It’s all under attack,” he noted.

In response to a question about how Israel’s cutting off of all services to Gaza has affected the situation on the ground, Tamaizeh recalled that even before the beginning of the ongoing escalation, there was only up to 12 hours of electricity a day in the area, when supplies were good.

“So what about the situation now? There is zero electricity now in Gaza. Imagine how people live without electricity. Imagine how hospitals would work without electricity,” he noted.

He said that thousands of wounded people in Gaza are coming to hospitals, which are now out of electricity.

It’s a collective punishment for 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza

Tamaizeh added.

Reiterating Oxfam’s calls for an “immediate end” to this catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, he said humanitarian corridors should be established in the short term.

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However, he mentioned that the first thing that must be immediately applied is the “end for this catastrophe”.

Tamaizeh noted that the international community is also responsible for the situation and should press the Israeli government to stop “this massacre” in Gaza now.

Tamaizeh said that all humanitarian work in Gaza has been suspended since the start of the ongoing escalation, saying NGOs can’t work there under 24-hour attack.

“So it is collapsed, everything is collapsed there, no one can work there under the attack unless there is a ceasefire,” he added.

Warning of a collective killing of civilians in Gaza, he pointed out the lack of medicine, adding people who survived the attacks could die because of the lack of medicine.

“The hospitals are out of basic needs to treat old people or for example chronic cases, thousands and thousands of people every minute coming to the hospitals.”

Stressing the need for pressure on the Israeli government, he said: “Every minute, we are losing innocent people for no reason.”