Aid organisations demanded Wednesday safe and unhindered aid access in war-torn Gaza, wracked by hunger and where babies are freezing to death, even as more hospitals face closure amid fuel shortages.
Heavy rain and flooding have ravaged the makeshift shelters in Gaza, leaving thousands with up to 30 centimetres (one foot) of water inside their damaged tents, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The dire weather conditions were "exacerbating the unbearable conditions" in Gaza, it said, pointing out that many families were left "clinging on to survival in makeshift camps, without even the most basic necessities, such as blankets".
Citing the United Nations, the IFRC highlighted the deaths of eight newborn babies who had been living in tents without warmth or protection from the rain and falling temperatures.
Those deaths "underscore the critical severity of the humanitarian crisis there", IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain said in a statement.
"I urgently reiterate my call to grant safe and unhindered access to humanitarians to let them provide life-saving assistance."
According to a UN count, more than 330 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since Israel unleashed its war there following Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack.
'Trickle of aid'
Chapagain issued an "urgent plea to all the parties... to put an end to this human suffering. Now".
The IFRC stressed that the closure of the main Rafah border crossing last May had had a dramatic impact on the humanitarian situation, with "only a trickle of aid ... currently entering Gaza".
"The lack of aid deliveries and access is making providing adequate support all but impossible," it warned.
It also lamented the "continuing attacks on health facilities across the Gaza Strip", which it said meant people were unable to access the treatment they need.
"In the north of Gaza, there are now no functioning hospitals," it said.
The Doctors Without Borders (MSF) charity meanwhile warned that three large hospitals further south were on the verge of closing due to a lack of fuel.
"This situation is threatening the lives of hundreds of patients, including newborns, who depend on electricity to stay alive," it said in a statement.
It said it was rushing to transfer fuel to Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza, with 500-bed capacity where MSF provides emergency, maternity, paediatric, burn and trauma care.
'Tipping point'
But MSF medical team leader in Gaza, Julie Faucon, called it "an impossible situation".
"Even if we prioritise the little fuel that is left to the most urgent departments, we know that (those supplies) won't last more than 36 to 48 hours," she said.
Following more than a year of warnings over "the woefully inadequate supply of aid" in Gaza, MSF warned that "we have now reached a tipping point where one of the last specialised hospitals in the South risks... being out of order because of lack of fuel".
The organisation also cautioned that healthcare had become "seriously compromised" in parts of the West Bank, amid a drastic increase in restrictions imposed by Israel since the start of the war in Gaza.
It highlighted in particular the situation in the Jaber neighbourhood inside the H2 area of Hebron City, which is under full Israeli military control.
MSF said it was forced to suspend its operations there for several months last year, and although it had managed to reopen its Jaber clinic, checkpoints and searches of medical staff meant "access remains challenging".
"Access to medical care should never be arbitrarily denied, impeded or blocked," MSF project coordinator Chloe Janssen said.