No single square-meter in Gaza is safe, warns Oxfam official

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Defining the situation in Gaza as "a real catastrophe," a regional manager of the UK-based charity Oxfam said that all of Gaza is now under attack and that "nowhere is safe" for people.

In an interview with Anadolu, 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 meter in Gaza 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 up to 12 hours of electricity in the region in the best-case scenario.

"So imagine before this is before the escalation, 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," stated Tamaizeh.

Reiterating Oxfam's calls for an "immediate end" to this catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, which is now under full siege, he pointed out the idea of establishing a humanitarian corridor for the short term.

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 nowadays.

- 'All humanitarian efforts suspended'

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 in there under the attack unless there is a ceasefire."

Saying that Israel guaranteed NGOs during previous escalations to continue their humanitarian works, Tamaizeh stated that this time, Israel has not ensured anything like this.

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 like old people to treat like 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."

In a dramatic escalation of Mideast tensions, Israeli forces have launched a sustained and forceful military campaign against the Gaza Strip, responding to a military offensive by the Palestinian group Hamas in Israeli territories.

The conflict began when Hamas initiated Operation Al-Aqsa Flood against Israel, a multi-pronged surprise attack including a barrage of rocket launches and infiltrations into Israel via land, sea, and air, which Hamas said was in retaliation for the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem and Israeli settlers' growing violence against Palestinians.

In response to Hamas' actions, the Israeli military launched Operation Swords of Iron against Hamas targets within the Gaza Strip.

Over 1,200 Palestinians and 1,300 Israelis have been killed since the start of the Israel-Palestine conflict on Saturday.