GENEVA, April 16. /TASS/. The Gaza Strip has effectively become a mass grave for Palestinians as well as the medical and humanitarian workers assisting them, Amande Bazerolle, emergency coordinator in the enclave for the Medecins sans frontiers (MSF) international humanitarian organization said.
"Gaza has been turned into a mass grave of Palestinians and those coming to their assistance. We are witnessing in real time the destruction and forced displacement of the entire population in Gaza," the organization’s press release quoted her as saying.
Bazerolle pointed out that for over a month, Israel’s authorities have been preventing any aid from entering the embattled enclave. According to her, the humanitarian workers have to watch people suffer and die. She urged Israel to "end their collective punishment of Palestinians," and its allies - "to end their complicity and stop enabling the destruction of Palestinian lives." "This is not a humanitarian failure — it is a political choice, and a deliberate assault on a people’s ability to survive, carried out with impunity," she added.
On March 30, the Ministry of Health of the Gaza Strip urged the United Nations to investigate the killing of the staff members of the Palestine Red Crescent Society and civilian defense services, which, according to the agency, was committed by Israeli troops. The ministry reported that 14 bodies had been discovered in a mass grave (eight Red Crescent medics, five rescuers and one unidentified body). Communication with some of them was lost several days prior to the discovery. According to the Health Ministry, some of the deceased had their hands tied.
Earlier on Wednesday, Al Jazeera reported at least 23 Palestinians killed over the past 24 hours in Israel’s military operation in Gaza. According to the TV channel, Israeli troops are conducting strikes across the entire territory of the Palestinian enclave.
On March 18, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) resumed fighting in the Gaza Strip, launching massive strikes on the enclave and thus breaking the ceasefire established in January. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said that Israel had restarted military operations in the enclave after the Gaza-based Palestinian movement Hamas rejected the US proposals put forward by mediators and US Special Presidential Envoy Steve Witkoff. The office stated that the Israeli military had resumed strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza to secure the release of hostages and that the army would escalate its campaign in the enclave. The Gaza-based movement has blamed the United States for the renewal of Israeli aggression.