Special envoy Satterfield will lead U.S. diplomacy to urgently address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, including work to facilitate the provision of life-saving assistance to the most vulnerable people and promote the safety of civilians, in coordination with the United Nations and U.S. partners.
According to the Gaza health ministry, 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the war erupted more than a week ago when Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel killing more than 1,300 Israelis.
Two million civilians in the Gaza Strip face a deepening crisis for food, water and medical care. Medics in Gaza are warning that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people run desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.
Hundreds of thousands have fled from northern Gaza into the south of the territory through two corridors that the Israeli military has said it would not target for several hours. Heeding Israel’s warnings to leave the north, Gazans are still scrambling to evacuate en masse before an Israeli ground assault begins.
With the situation in Gaza growing increasingly desperate, in his new role, Satterfield will oversee efforts to get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. A former U.S. ambassador to Turkey, Satterfield has years of experience in Middle East diplomacy, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement Sunday.
Hospitals in Gaza are expected to run out of generator fuel within two days, endangering the lives of thousands of patients, according to the U.N. Gaza’s sole power plant shut down for lack of fuel after Israel sealed off the 40-kilometerlong territory following the Hamas attacks on October 7.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
