Civil Defense: The occupation continues to prevent us from reaching areas in Gaza City after distress calls

SadaNews - The Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip said today, Saturday, that the Israeli army continues to prevent its teams from accessing several areas in Gaza City, following distress calls from citizens, including the injured, for their rescue. In a statement, it noted that "for the second consecutive week, the Israeli occupation army has rejected the coordination requests sent by the Humanitarian Relief Administration of the Civil Defense through international organizations in the Gaza Strip, allowing the rescue teams to enter areas inhabited by citizens, including the injured, after we received distress calls from them to rescue them." The Civil Defense in Gaza added, "Our Humanitarian Relief Administration sent 73 coordination requests to international organizations in the Gaza Strip, which in turn forwarded them to the relevant authorities at the Israeli occupation army, enabling our teams to reach these areas and work on rescuing the injured there and transferring them to hospitals for treatment, but unfortunately, all were met with rejection." It pointed out that "the areas where the occupation still prevents our teams from reaching and from which distress calls have been issued are Al-Zarqa, Al-Mahatta, and eastern Al-Nafeq in the Al-Tuffah neighborhood, as well as the Sabra area and Tal Al-Hawa in the southern Al-Rimal neighborhood." The Civil Defense confirmed that "a number of injured individuals trapped in these areas have lost their lives, and some of their relatives were able to retrieve them from their homes and transfer them to the hospital under very dangerous conditions." It indicated that "the continued siege by the occupation of thousands of citizens in those areas threatens their lives with death, amid the prohibition of access to basic necessities of life for the second consecutive week." The Civil Defense in Gaza called on international humanitarian organizations to pressure the Israeli occupation to respect international humanitarian law and the Geneva Conventions, which reject restricting the work of humanitarian workers and civil protection; according to its statement.