The World Health Organization has called for the end of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, and the opening of a humanitarian corridor from Egypt to Gaza Strip for vital medical supplies – along with the release of over 100 Israeli and foreign hostages seized when thousands of Hamas militants first crossed the border on Saturday, killing an estimated 1200 Israelis, foreign workers and students.

The dead included infants and children, older people and women shot or bludgeoned to death, or burned alive in their homes and even in their beds. The rampage occurred after the militants broke through an Israeli border fence early in the morning and moved systematically through about a dozen kibbutzim (collective villages) and small towns scattered only a few miles from the Gazan enclave – on a morning when Israeli families had gathered to celebrate the Jewish holiday of Simchat Torah.

The grisly operation has been roundly denounced by US President Joe Biden, the European Union and other world leaders as a massacre.

The Hamas militants, who surprised Israel’s powerful military, also took about 130 as hostages. The captives included young mothers with infants and young children, seen in Hamas social media posts cowering in the back of vehicles as they were hauled back to the Gazan enclave. The hostages, which also include foreign nationals from the US, Canada, Thailand, Nepal, and other nations, are to be used as apparent bargaining chips for the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Since the Hamas operation on Saturday, Israel has responded with massive bombing of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip – as well as cutting off access to vital water, electricity and fuel supplies.  About 900 residents of Gaza have so far died in the Israeli bombings, which have ruined many neighborhoods, many of them only recently rebuilt from a devastating clash with Israel in 2014. Tayyip Erdoğan, president of Türkiye, has denounced the Israeli attacks on Gaza as a “massacre”, as well.

However with Hamas continuing massive missile strikes on southern and central Israel, there is almost no chance that Israel would lift its blockade soon, or that either side would respond to the appeals for calm.

On Wednesday, there were also fresh worries of a widening war front, with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah, a Hamas ally, launching guided missiles into Israel for the third day this week.  However, a report Wednesday evening of a drone incursion from the north, which sent millions of Israelis in northern Israel into shelters, was later determined to be a false alarm.

WHO has offered assistance 

“WHO has offered assistance to health officials in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory,” said the WHO statement, stressing that Gaza’s hospitals and health care facilities face paralysis even as thousands of injured are seeking treatment.

Late Wednesday afternoon Gaza’s central power plant ceased to function due to lack of fuel.

“In the Gaza Strip, hospitals are running on backup generators with fuel likely to run out in the coming days. They have exhausted the supplies WHO pre-positioned before the escalation. The life-saving health response is now dependent on getting new supplies and fuel to health care facilities as fast as possible,” WHO said.

“WHO is urgently working to procure medical supplies locally to meet demand, and preparing supplies from its Global Medical Logistics Hub in Dubai, UAE.

Negotiations on hostages and humanitarian relief

There are widespread reports of negotiations involving Egypt, Qatar, the United States and Israel in an effort to contain the conflict, and open up a channel for hostage exchanges and humanitarian aid.

“On 9 October, WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus met with the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who agreed to a WHO request to facilitate the delivery of health and other humanitarian supplies from WHO to Gaza via the Rafah crossing. Such humanitarian corridors must be protected,” asserted WHO in its statement.

“WHO is urgently working to procure medical supplies locally to meet demand, and preparing supplies from its Global Medical Logistics Hub in Dubai, UAE.

Within Israel, however, there is widespread support for the fuel and power blockade amongst the widening circle of Israelis caught up in the hostilities.

“If you see who has backup fuel and generators in their homes, it is the Hamas militants,” said one media channel, saying that humanitarian aid would merely be syphoned off by Hamas to prolong the hostilities.

The WHO statement also made reference to the hostages held in Gaza, which Hamas has said number 130 – calling for their safe release.

“WHO is also gravely concerned about the health and well-being of hostages, including elderly civilians, seized from Israel by Hamas in attacks on 7 October. The hostages’ health and medical needs must be addressed immediately, and we call for their safe release,” said WHO.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007, when it expelled the PLO’s Fatah, breaking up a unity government formed after Hamas won elections.  Israel withdrew its forces and dismantled its settlements in the tiny enclave in 2005. But since the takeover by Hamas, Israel has maintained a blockade on the tiny enclave, which is only 365 square kilometres, and with more than two million residents, one of the most densely populated places on earth.

Image Credits: @Israel, WHO , M. Schwartz @YWN.