– The situation is desperate in Gaza now, and there is an enormous need for supplies and help. Senior doctor Mads Gilbert told news from his hotel room in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Monday. He is there together with a Norwegian delegation from the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC). For two weeks, they have been trying to get into Gaza to assist a heavily pressured Palestinian healthcare system. On Tuesday evening, they announce that they are giving up. The Norwegian delegation from the Norwegian Aid Committee (NORWAC) has been waiting in Cairo for two weeks. Photo: Private – NORWAC’s surgical team to Gaza was told today by the Egyptian authorities that we will not be allowed into Gaza now because of the security situation, writes Fosse to news. More than 2,000 children killed On October 7, Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing over 1,400 people and taking at least 220 hostages. Israel responded with a massive bombing of the Gaza Strip, which has so far resulted in more than 5,700 deaths. More than 2,000 of these are children. The reason why Gilbert and his colleagues do not enter Gaza is that the Sinai desert is closed off by the Egyptian authorities. Without being able to pass it, they cannot reach the border crossing at Rafah. – Not even a drop in the ocean Until the weekend, no emergency aid had been allowed into Gaza since before the attack on 7 October. According to the UN, the two million inhabitants there depend on a hundred trucks of food, water, medical equipment and fuel every day. At the weekend, 34 trucks finally got in. On Monday, several media reported that at least twelve trucks had been allowed in. When news spoke to Gilbert on Monday, he said that there are completely insignificant amounts of emergency aid. Mads Gilbert hopes he will soon be allowed into Gaza. Photo: Private – It’s not even a drop in the ocean. – They must get fuel for the generators so that breathing machines, incubators, operating lights and other medical equipment can be kept running. He says that the blockade must be lifted, as the Norwegian authorities also demand. NTB reports that no emergency aid reached the Gaza Strip from Egypt on Tuesday. Received video of attack The doctor says that his colleagues in Gaza warn that they lack everything. The hospitals are overcrowded – with wounded people and thousands of internally displaced Palestinian refugees. At the weekend, Gilbert was sent a video from a colleague at al-Quds hospital. It shows how the rockets fall in the area around the hospital. Gilbert believes Israel is attacking the areas to frighten the hospital staff. Watch the video here: Now the health workers in Gaza are about to become completely exhausted, says Gilbert. – Our colleagues have worked night and day for two weeks, with great concern for the lives of their own families hanging over them. – Must end Gilbert points out that many of the thousands of injured people will need extensive and long-term treatment. – It is unbearable to sit and watch what is happening in Gaza now, says Gilbert. – This must end. It is not just a humanitarian crisis, it is one of the greatest humanitarian disasters of modern times.
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Mads Gilbert gives up being allowed into Gaza – news Troms and Finnmark
