A Caritas worker walks through destroyed buildings in Gaza City on March 16, 2024. Photo: OSV News/courtesy Caritas Poland. Trócaire partner Caritas Jerusalem’s medical point in Deir al-Balah, Gaza completed evacuation on Tuesday morning, July 22. The medical facility and the medicine supply warehouse are located in the Al-Bourka area of Deir al-Balah.
The evacuation process started on Sunday, July 21 as a precautionary measure taken following an Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) evacuation order for the area, as Deir al-Balah, which houses most of the humanitarian aid centres, is now under threat.
“The forced evacuation of aid agencies from their medical centres is a sinister development that exacerbates the genocide we are witnessing in Gaza,” said Chris McElhinney, Head of Humanitarian Programmes for Trócaire. “These evacuations come just days after a strike on Gaza’s only Catholic Church while Palestinian’s queued for water and medical aid.
“It is clear that Israel’s weaponised ‘humanitarian’ aid distribution system, backed by the US is failing. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed or injured at or near aid distribution points since the end of May. Families are being forced into an impossible choice: die of hunger or die trying to access food. Militarised and politicised humanitarian aid isn’t just a crisis; it’s a death sentence,” Mr McElhinney concluded.
In a statement, Trócaire said “what is happening in Gaza is not merely a humanitarian crisis; it is a crisis of humanity, and we cannot look away. There is no safe place in Gaza—gunfire and airstrikes are pervasive.”
They said the consequences of extreme overcrowding are severe: sanitation is nearly non-existent, and infectious diseases are spreading. Almost all hospitals have been destroyed. Beyond the physical impact, living under constant threat, hunger, and displacement is inflicting immense suffering and trauma on 2.1 million Palestinians.
Trócaire is calling for immediate and unhindered access to allow international and local humanitarian agencies to deliver aid into Gaza and to distribute it to wherever it is most needed in the Gaza Strip.