Key activities such as the work of the ICRC surgical team at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City will continue. However, the ICRC will not be conducting relief convoys outside Gaza City today, 9 January.

"Work continues, even though the ICRC won't be moving outside Gaza City today," said Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's head of delegation in Israel and the occupied territories. "We hope to be able to send out convoys and staff from Gaza City as soon as the circumstances of the incident have been clarified with the authorities concerned."

Meanwhile, the medical team headed by a war surgeon has been working flat out to assist medical staff at Shifa Hospital, which is the main referral hospital in the Gaza Strip.

"We are impressed by the professionalism and efficiency of the medical personnel," said Alice Nielsen, a nurse with the surgical team. "Wounded people are arriving all the time. Despite the chaotic situation, the seriously wounded can be on the operating table within 20 minutes of arriving at the hospital. Many come in with multiple stomach and head wounds. In many cases, we are forced to amputate limbs.”

The ICRC and the Palestine Red Crescent Society continue to evacuate casualties in Gaza City and surrounding areas. Access to wounded people remains a top priority.