“What we're seeing is really a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis unfolding right before our eyes,” is how the executive director of Unicef in Ireland, Peter Power, has described the situation in Gaza.
“Gaza is completely enclosed, extremely densely populated and relies on food, water, medicines," he told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland.
Mr Power, who is in Jordan close to the border with Israel, estimated that over 60 per cent of the people in Gaza rely on aid and water was of increasing concern to Unicef.
“We have worked for years now on a desalination plant just south of Gaza City. We're very worried that a lack of fuel will cause that to close down. We're very worried that lack of fuel will close the hospital down within the next 24 hours.
“We need unfettered access, at least from the south and humanitarian corridors on the western side, that's the sea front side of Gaza and through the highway, through the middle, right up to the middle and north of Gaza, where so many people have now left Gaza City and now just literally they have nowhere to live.
"They have no shelter, no water, food, sanitation or hygiene. And that's a desperate situation unfolding.”
Mr Power endorsed a call by the UN secretary general for the Israeli forces order to be rescinded. “It's impossible to implement. Knowing the terrain down there, that's just not possible logistically or realistically to do.
“Those who have left have left literally with the clothes that they were wearing. And they have no shelter, no water, no sanitation, or hygiene.
"They don't have any place to go except for some United Nations schools and shelters in the middle section of Gaza. But they're already overwhelmed and there isn't enough water or there isn't enough food to supply them.
“Gaza doesn't grow so much of its own food. It doesn't provide water, electricity, all the basic humanitarian necessities of life.”
Such a mass movement of people, in an already dire humanitarian situation” would have a catastrophic impact, he warned.
Mr Power said diplomatic efforts were underway to assist 40 Irish citizens to leave Gaza through the southern crossing, “if the crossing can be stabilised over the coming days.”
The best case scenario would be for the violence to stop, he said. “A child is a child no matter where they live in Ireland, if they live in Israel, if they're a child kidnaped and brought across the border into Gaza, they're still a child.
"And we would also call on all child hostages to be released immediately. But what we really need is for the violence to stop. It is not going to solve anything. It's only going to make a bad humanitarian situation worse.”
