Plight of trapped Palestinians ‘apocalyptic’: Oxfam

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Amid dire warnings of food shortages and mass displacement in Gaza as a winter chill sets in, aid group Oxfam has warned that the plight of trapped Palestinians “is not just a catastrophe, it’s apocalyptic”.

Palestinian resistance groups reported fighting in Jabalia and Gaza City’s Shejaiya district in northern Gaza, while the Israeli army said early Sunday it had struck “over 250 terror targets” in the previous 24 hours.

Since October 7, Israel has killed at least 17,700 Palestinians in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the enclave’s health ministry.

– Disease and starvation –

Aid groups have warned that Gaza is on the brink of being overwhelmed by disease and starvation.

In Gaza City, an AFP journalist said thousands were sheltering in the Al-Shifa hospital, which was partly destroyed in an Israeli raid last month.

Hundreds of makeshift tents fashioned from fabric and plastic filled the hospital’s courtyards amid collapsed walls.

Suheil Abu Dalfa, 56, from Shejaiya, said he had fled heavy bombardment by Israeli planes and tanks.

“Everything was just strikes and destruction… we didn’t know where to go,” he told AFP.

An estimated 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced, according to UN figures, many now in the south and running out of safe places to go.