International Committee of the Red Cross chief Jakob Kellenberger has arrived in the Gaza Strip at the start of a three-day visit to the Occupied Territories and the Zionist entity, his agency said Tuesday.Kellenberger, the agency's president, is planning to hold talks with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials and to visit the embattled Al-Shifa hospital in the Gaza Strip, the ICRC said in a statement. A spokeswoman for the agency reported that he had already arrived in Gaza.
The ICRC, which has a dual role as a relief agency in conflicts and the guardian of the Geneva Conventions, has been unusually outspoken over the past week about the impact of the fighting on civilians and health workers.
Last Thursday, the agency accused Israel of failing to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for the wounded after it found a group of wounded people and corpses unattended near an Israeli army position. Kellenberger has backed up repeated calls for unrestricted safe passage for ambulances at all times.
On Tuesday the agency complained in a daily report that access to the wounded was still limited due to the fighting between Israeli occupation forces and the Palestinian Resistance. "We now have to assess on a case-by-case basis whether we can go on a rescue mission to evacuate people in need," said Antoine Grand, head of the ICRC office in Gaza.
More than 28,000 displaced people had sought refuge in schools that were turned into temporary shelters, while food was becoming scarce and fuel supplies that power generators at Al-Shifa hospital were running low. "Many of the wounded come in with multiple trauma, and the number of amputations is on the rise," said Palina Asgeirsdottir, an ICRC health delegate at the hospital. The ICRC surgical team there "confirms a rise in the number of children arriving at the emergency room.
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