Red Cross in Gaza: “All hope lost now”

The Ceasefire between Israel and the Islamist Hamas In the Gaza Strip on the tilt.

“If Hamas does not soon expose the hostages, the gazas goals will be closed and the gates opened to hell,” said Israel’s Minister of Defense Israel Katz According to his office. Katz said that they will only be negotiated for a few days and threatened to resume fighting.

According to Israeli information, Hamas still holds 24 hostages and 35 corpses of deported. In return, Israel calls for the continuation of the ceasefire for the return of the kidnapped, as is a proposal of the US special envoy Steve Witkoff Provisions. The Hamas, on the other hand, insists on the immediate admission of negotiations on the second phase of the agreement, which provides for an end to the war and the withdrawal of Israel troops. The Israeli hostages could only be released in this way.

Israel stops aid deliveries

In response, Israel stopped all aid deliveries in Gaza Strip and announced further measures. This is how Israel is preparing loudly Jerusalem Post to cut off the sealed coastal strip from the water and power supply. All of these measures would above all take the needy Palestinian civilian population in the coastal area.

Freest toddlers and babies

The auxiliary stop could be fatal for millions of people in Gaza, warns Jürgen Högl from the Austrian Red Cross (ÖRK) in an interview with the APA. “Any hope is now lost.” Högl is currently stationed in the office of the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Cross Societies (IFRC) in Cairo and coordinates the aid for Gaza from there.

He reports: “The entire Gaza strip is in ruins, people live between rubble and garbage in catastrophic conditions. Children sleep outdoors in the cold, more than 100 toddlers and babies are frozen. At the same time there is no clean water and no food. If the help is now stopped, hundreds of thousands of families lose their last hope.” A persistent blockade would demand many human life, warns the experienced disaster manager, who had previously headed ÖRK operational team in Ukraine for over a year.

Auxiliary jam on the border

Even if the cooperation with the Egyptian government works very well, more is still needed to adequately supply the civilian population. Högl summarizes: “Thousands of truck loads are ready in the warehouses at the borders to Gaza. We demand that all border crossings are opened as soon as possible and we can continue our life-saving help!”

Because at the moment, each individual truck and every single palette are scanned and controlled. “That costs valuable time,” the Austrian makes clear.

Humanitarian aid becomes more difficult or abolished

In addition to blocking the aid deliveries, the situation for international aid organizations is intensified. “The fact that the Unrwa can only work very limited are now tied to the greatest auxiliary player.” At the end of January, Israel hired the collaboration with the United Nations aid organization for Palestine refugees in the Middle East (Unrwa). The attitude of the US Development Authority, USAID now decided by Trump is also dramatic. “This will not only have catastrophic consequences worldwide. Many regions that rely on help will suffer.”

Those humanitarian helpers who are still on site are exposed to massive risks. A total of 300 helpers have been killed since the beginning of the war. The Red Cross complains of 28 employees – 22 of them died in Gaza, six in Israel. The demands of the Red Cross – in addition to the protection of humanitarian helpers – are very clear. Högl formulated: “It takes a peace decision as soon as possible, the unconditional release of all hostages and the unhindered access for humanitarian aid.”

The work of the Red Cross

Since May 2024, the Red Cross has been running a Feldspital in Rafah that treats up to 300 people every day. The injured suffer from severe burns, bleeding and often need amputations. 370 births have also been accompanied since then and almost 20,000 people were cared for psychosocial. More than a third of the patients are children. The Austrian Red Cross provides a water treatment plant for clean drinking water.