Officials warn of worsening health, humanitarian situation in Gaza amid continuous Israeli blockade

Palestinian and UN officials warned Sunday that the health and humanitarian situation in Gaza will further deteriorate if Israel continues its blockade on the enclave.

Gaza health authorities said in a statement that Gaza has run of most essential medical supplies, warning that the humanitarian crisis could further deteriorated due to ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza by Israel.

They said that the medicine shortage is particularly severe in Gaza, with 64 percent of medical supplies in Gaza being depleted due to Israel's continued closure of the crossings.

The number of critically ill patients is on the rise, but emergency departments, operating rooms, and intensive care units are facing medicine shortage, according to the statement.

Also on Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said that Israel's act of deliberately creating famine for political purposes is extremely cruel.

The Gaza Strip has been besieged for more than nine weeks, it said. The longer this blockade continues, the more irreversible harm is being done to countless lives.

Water supply services in the Gaza Strip have almost completely come to a halt, due to Israel's continuous attacks on the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian water department warned that Gaza is on the verge of dying of thirst.

Officials warn of worsening health, humanitarian situation in Gaza amid continuous Israeli blockade

Officials warn of worsening health, humanitarian situation in Gaza amid continuous Israeli blockade

The death toll from a landfill collapse in the central Philippine city of Cebu has risen to eight by Monday morning as search and rescue operations continued for another 28 missing people.

The landfill collapse occurred on Thursday as dozens of sanitation workers were working at the site. The disaster has already caused injuries of 18 people.

Family members of the missing people said the rescue progress is slow, and the hope for the survival of their loved ones is fading.

"For me, maybe I’ve accepted the worst result already because the garbage is poisonous and yesterday, it was raining very hard the whole day. Maybe they’ve been poisoned. For us, alive or dead, I hope we can get their bodies out of the garbage rubble," said Maria Kareen Rubin, a family member of a victim.

Families have set up camps on high ground near the landfill, awaiting news of their relatives. Some people at the site said cries for help could still be heard hours after the landfill collapsed, but these voices gradually faded away.

Bienvenido Ranido, who lost his wife in the disaster, said he can't believe all that happened.

"After they gave my wife oxygen, my kids and I were expecting that she would be saved that night because she was still alive. But the night came and till the next morning, they didn't manage to save her," he said.

Death toll in central Philippine landfill collapse rises to eight