Government Media Office: We are following with deep anger and sorrow the worsening humanitarian catastrophe striking the Gaza Strip

Government Media Office:

▪We are following with deep anger and sorrow the worsening humanitarian catastrophe striking the Gaza Strip, which was manifested in its most horrific form with the onset of the first weather depression, as Deir al-Balah city witnessed a new real tragedy represented by the flooding of hundreds of tents and the collapse of a sand embankment onto the tents of displaced people, which resulted in the martyrdom of four people, the loss of two others, including children and women, and the injury of others, in a scene that shames humanity and reflects the scale of the complicity and abandonment to which our afflicted Palestinian people are being subjected.

▪What happened in Deir al-Balah, from the flooding of shelter camps and the collapse of sand over the heads of unarmed displaced people, is an inevitable result of the ongoing crime of genocide, the suffocating siege, and the arbitrary measures of the "Israeli" occupation represented in reducing displacement areas and moving the "yellow line", which forced citizens to resort to geographically highly dangerous areas that lack the minimum requirements of life and safety.

▪In light of this ongoing tragedy, and the harsh scenes of buildings on the verge of collapse and displaced people's tents being swallowed by water and sand, we in the Government Media Office affirm the following:

▪We hold the "Israeli" occupation, the American administration, and the entire international community fully and directly responsible for this humanitarian catastrophe, as a result of the absolute silence over the crimes of the occupation, and the complicity in preventing the entry of shelter supplies, building materials, mobile homes (caravans), fuel, and spare parts necessary to operate municipal and civil defense machinery.

▪We strongly denounce and condemn the state of failure and the complete absence of the "Peace Council" as well as the "National Committee for Managing Gaza", as if the matter does not concern them, since this nonexistent role and the blatant abandonment of the responsibilities assigned to them in these exceptional circumstances raise major questions about the usefulness of the existence of these bodies, which stand as spectators before the suffering and blood of our afflicted Palestinian people, and suffice with empty slogans without any real movement on the ground to save the displaced or strengthen their resilience.

▪We direct an urgent and loud appeal to all international and human rights institutions, foremost among them the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross, to intervene immediately and urgently, and to work seriously to provide protection for civilians, and to oblige the occupation to open the crossings and allow in all humanitarian and relief needs, heavy equipment, and the requirements for the destroyed infrastructure, to enable civil defense and municipal crews to perform their duty and save what can be saved.

▪We call on all members of our Palestinian people to stand together and support one another in this ordeal, and we appeal to the shelter committees in the Gaza Strip and to the honorable citizens to fully cooperate with municipal crews and facilitate their work, especially regarding the opening of the private sand quarry in Deir al-Balah municipality, to enable it to protect the remaining tents from flooding.

▪We affirm that issuing statements does not absolve anyone of their responsibilities, and that what is required now is real and genuine action, material and moral, to strengthen the capacities of our local institutions, especially the civil defense and municipalities, which are working with nearly nonexistent capabilities, instead of waiting for new disasters to occur whose consequences everyone will bear.