It is now almost impossible for Aid workers to deliver food and urgent supplies in the south and centre of Gaza. Fighting and lawlessness brought on by the desperation of a starving people is hampering the delivery of supplies.

The Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Carl Skau, describing the situation he witnessed said:

“Driving through Gaza City to Jabalia, the destruction is unbelievable. 

“In the North of Gaza, I didn’t see one single building intact and there was constant shelling with drones buzzing overhead.

“The people here are traumatised and exhausted. One woman who had lost her husband told me this war has been going on for 250 days – but to her it felt like 250 years.” 

In Orkney people will again gather on the Kirk Green outside St Magnus Cathedral on Broad Street, Kirkwall, on Saturday 15th June between 1 and 2pm in their vigil for Gaza – calling for an immediate ceasefire, the return of all hostages and the delivery of humanitarian relief supplies.

Makeshift encampments have been set up in support of the people of Gaza at University campuses around the world and at other notable sites, including outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

 This week’s Security Council resolution endorsing a ceasefire for hostages deal  has been welcomed by those caught up in the ongoing genocide being committed by Israel, but most fear that this may come to nothing.

In Gaza 60 per cent of all residential buildings and at least 80 per cent of commercial facilities have been damaged by Israeli bombardment with health facilities and educational institutions reduced to rubble.

Welcoming the ceasefire resolution  UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that there were more than one million “deeply traumatized children in Gaza” who need psychosocial support and the safety and hope their schools used to provide. He said that only UNRWA has the capacity, skills, and networks needed to support the Palestinian people to face the immense challenge on health, on education and so much more.

The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that almost 3,000 malnourished children are at risk of “dying before their families’ eyes” as the Rafah offensive cuts them off from treatment. This figure equates to approximately three-quarters of the children who were estimated to be receiving life-saving care prior to the escalating conflict in Rafah.

“Unless treatment can be quickly resumed for these 3,000 children, they are at immediate and serious risk of becoming critically ill, acquiring life-threatening complications, and joining the growing list of boys and girls who have been killed by this senseless, man-made deprivation,” said UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa Adele Khodr.

It is  estimated that over the past eight months, more than two-thirds of water and sanitation facilities and infrastructure in Gaza have been destroyed or damaged due to the conflict. UNICEF’s spokesman, James Elder, said that one of the agency’s trucks carrying medicines and nutrition supplies for 10,000 children in Gaza was turned back on Wednesday – despite approvals for the mission. Mr. Elder says they were held for eight hours at checkpoints, and it took 13 hours to move just 40 kilometres.    

The people attending the Vigil for Gaza in Orkney extend a warm welcome for anyone who wishes to join them on Saturday calling for an end to the killing and for an immediate ceasefire.

Fiona Grahame