The Polish Medical Mission on Monday announced it would provide blankets, mattresses and warm clothing, public broadcaster Polish Radio’s IAR news agency reported.
The organisation’s Jakub Belina-Brzozowski said: “Our aim is to supply the victims of this conflict with with the things they will need the most after leaving their homes in these winter months.”
Meanwhile, Caritas Poland has teamed up with longtime partner Caritas Jerusalem to transfer PLN 100,000 (EUR 22,390) towards humanitarian aid for the Gaza Strip, according to officials.
Residents face shortage of food, water, fuel, electricity and medicines, according to news outlets.
Caritas Poland is part of the Caritas Internationalis network, which will provide medical care, as well as food and hygiene supplies, for 1,000 Gaza residents over the next two months, the IAR news agency reported.
Caritas Internationalis is also set to provide cash support for 400 displaced families, according to officials.
Father Marcin Iżycki, who heads Caritas Poland, said Caritas was “calling for peace and ways to provide humanitarian aid on a permanent basis,” such as humanitarian corridors.
In 2020, Caritas Poland provided humanitarian assistance to 350 families in the Gaza Strip, the IAR news agency reported.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, some 1.5 million Gazans, or three-quarters of the territory’s population, have fled their homes, according to the United Nations.
Most of them have found shelter in the relatively safe southern Gaza region, including the thousands staying in the streets of the city of Khan Younis, the IAR news agency reported.
Many families lack food, clothes and money, according to officials.
Meanwhile, the UN plans to house 700,000 people in schools across the Gaza Strip, the IAR news agency reported.
UN calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza
The heads of all the major UN agencies on Monday called for an “immediate humanitarian ceasefire” in Gaza, saying in a rare joint statement that “enough is enough,” British broadcaster BBC reported.
The leaders of UN agencies such as UNICEF, the WHO and the World Food Programme, as well as charities including Save the Children, said the war had brought “horrific” loss of life on both sides, and demanded that Hamas unconditionally release hostages it had taken during its attack on Israel on October 7.
They said: “For almost a month, the world has been watching the unfolding situation in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory in shock and horror at the spiralling numbers of lives lost and torn apart."
The UN officials added: “However, the horrific killings of even more civilians in Gaza is an outrage, as is cutting off 2.2 million Palestinians from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel."
According to the statement, 88 people working for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) have been killed since October 7, the highest number of UN fatalities "ever recorded in a single conflict," Polish state news agency PAP reported.
There have been growing calls internationally for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, amid the mounting death toll from Israeli strikes, the IAR news agency reported.
The leaders of Arab countries, including Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon, have been among those urging Israel to halt the bombing of Gaza, according to news outlets.
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there will be no ceasefire until Hamas releases all hostages, the IAR news agency reported.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was on Monday set to meet with his counterpart in Turkey as he continued touring the region to push for pauses in fighting, the BBC reported.
Israel-Hamas war
The war between Israel and Hamas broke out on October 7 when the Palestinian militant group launched an attack from Gaza that killed over 1,400 people, the BBC reported.
Some 240 Israelis were kidnapped as hostages, according to PAP.
Israel has since been bombing Gaza, killing more than 9,700 people, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.
A ground offensive by Israel has cut the Gaza Strip in two, reaching the Mediterranean coast and completing the encirclement of Gaza City, military officials in Tel Aviv said on Sunday night, according to the BBC.
(pm/gs)
Source: IAR, PAP, BBC, UNHCR
