The British international organization Oxfam warned of a humanitarian catastrophe threatening the Gaza Strip if Israel's air strikes are not halted immediately and aid shipments are not allowed immediate access. Oxfam announced it has been forced to temporarily suspend its humanitarian work in Gaza due to Israeli strikes as well as its activities in a program feeding 25,000 people in the Strip. The statement adds that Oxfam's partners in Gaza's health sector are still helping the wounded. The statement explains that the bombardment has caused large-scale destruction of the Strip's civil infrastructure leaving many areas with no electricity and water. The statement also mentions that the rising death toll has exhausted Gaza's health sector, which was already suffering from limited possibilities. All hospitals in Gaza announced they are working without basic requirements, as the ones they have are running out faster and faster. "Hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza depend on Oxfam and other international aid agencies for the basics of life -- clean water, food and sanitation," said John Prideaux-Brune, Oxfam Great Britain's country program manager in Jerusalem. "The international community must not stand aside and allow Israeli leaders to commit massive and disproportionate violence against Gazan civilians in violation of international law. "Oxfam condemns outright Hamas's rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. However they cannot justify this overwhelming military response which is killing innocent civilians." Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the high number of killed and injured in the Gaza Strip is putting enormous pressures on the Strip's hospitals. "The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is extremely concerned by the mounting number of casualties inside the Gaza Strip, following a series of air strikes by the Israel Defense Forces" says a statement of the Committee. "The strikes have killed at least 275 people and left more than 950 wounded, according to Palestinian health officials", since Israel launched its air strikes on the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas last Saturday morning.
