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The humanitarian situation has greatly deteriorated Libyan capital Tripoli, where "densely populated residential areas are rapidly turning into battlefields", the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said.
Khalifa Haftar's eastern forces and troops loyal to the UN-recognised Government Hospitals are struggling with chronic shortages of medical supplies amid power outages and weakened water pumping stations of National Accord (GNA).
"More than 30,000 people are said to have fled their homes and are sheltering with relative or in public buildings," he said, a figure which the United Nations said has risen to 36,000.
"It is crucial that hospitals, medical facilities, health staff and vehicles transport the wounded are allowed to carry out their activities safely," the ICRC said.
Rabab Al-Rifai, ICRC's spokeswoman in neighboring Tunisia, told Al Jazeera that the healthcare infrastructure has been deteriorating over the last eight years due to the unrest.
"Further prolonged conflict could bring it to its knees, in a country where there is a shortage of medicine, and have a serious effect on people," she said.
"We should be aware of the fact that they should be minimized in the densely populated areas, and their properties and essential infrastructure should be protected."
Al-Rifai urged the warring sides to guarantee safe pbadage to the civilians who want to leave the conflict and access to the humanitarian badistance.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Twitter that 278 people have been killed in the last three weeks, while 1,332 others have been wounded.
Tripoli's southern suburbs and nearby villages have been heavily fought over
Haftar's National Libyan Army (LNA), which is allied to a rival government in eastern Libya, has mounted an offensive on Tripoli but has failed to breach the city's southern defenses.
Today, one of the most common surgeons in the world #Tripoli. WHO's emergency medical teams are helping #Libya's frontline hospitals cope with the influx of wounded, who now 1332. The death toll is 278. @OCHA_Libya
– World Health Organization in Libya (@WHOLIBYA) April 24, 2019
Al Jazeera's Mahmoud Abdelwahed, reporting from Tripoli, said that the GNA forces were advancing towards Asbiah area, about 45km south of the capital, on Thursday.
"If they take control of that area, they will cut the supply route for Haftar's forces from Tarhunah, Tarhunah and Garyan cities are major support for Haftar's forces in the west of Libya," he said.
"They also say that they have switched from their defense strategy to the attack strategy." They say that they are retaking control of several cities by Haftar's forces over the past two weeks.
On Wednesday, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR) evacuated 325 refugees from a detention center on the southern outskirts of Tripoli.
UNHCR Said In a statement on Wednesday, Qasr bin Ghashir was transported to another detention facility in Az-Zawiyah, northwestern Libya, where they were "at reduced risk of being caught" in ongoing fighting.
People running from clashes
About 3,000 refugees and migrants remain trapped in detention centers in Tripoli, according to the UN, and remain at risk from the "deteriorating security situation" around the capital. Many of the detainees fled war and persecution in their home countries.
Tripoli's southern outskirts have been engulfed by the struggle of the LNA launched on the offensive against the capital of the GNA, which is supported by an array of local militias.
The showdown threatens to further destabilizes war-wracked Libya, which splintered into a patchwork of rival power bases following the NATO-backed overthrow of leading Muammar Gaddafi leader in 2011 and has been split into rival eastern and western administrations since 2014.
Both the LNA and the GNA have been conducted with each other's forces.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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