The director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA) described the city of Gaza on Tuesday as “hell on earth.”
Philippe Lazzarini wrote the impression on the social network X (formerly Twitter), after a visit to the Palestinian area that was intensively bombed by Israel for more than two months.
“In Gaza the tragedy is getting worse. People are everywhere, they live on the streets, they have nothing. They beg for safety and an end to this hell on earth. We ask the impossible of our colleagues, in this impossible situation,” Lazzarini stated.
Back in #Gaza, endless, deepening tragedy. People are everywhere, living on the streets, needing everything. They argue for safety and an end to this hell on earth.
Our colleagues are asked to do the impossible in an impossible situation. pic.twitter.com/iiBFfk2rBG
– Philippe Lazzarini (@UNLazzarini) December 12, 2023
Lazzarini’s words come on the same day that the Israeli army has re-intensified its offensive against Hamas in the besieged Gaza Strip, where, the UN official stressed, the civilian population is trying to escape the bombs in increasingly desperate humanitarian conditions.
Ground fighting, accompanied by deadly airstrikes, is taking place between Israeli soldiers and Islamist fighters in the area surrounding Khan Younès, the major southern city where hundreds of thousands of civilians have sought refuge after fleeing war in northern Palestinian territory. .
Forced to flee again, tens of thousands of people are now sheltering in makeshift camps in the nearby town of Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where food is scarce despite limited distribution of humanitarian aid.
In the north of the Gaza Strip, the Hamas Health Ministry said the army had launched an attack on the Kamal Adwan Hospital on Tuesday after “surrounding and bombarding” it for several days.
Since the start of the war, several hospitals in Gaza have been hit by the fighting, with Israel accusing Hamas of installing infrastructure there and using civilians as “human shields.”
According to the UN, more than half of homes have been destroyed or damaged by the war in the Gaza Strip, where 1.9 million people – 85% of the population – have been displaced.
Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip and bordering Egypt, was turned into a giant refugee camp, where hundreds of tents were hastily set up with scrap wood, plastic sheeting and sheets.
“There are more and more people who have not eaten for a day, two days, three days? People lack everything,” Lazzarini said on Monday.
“There is no hygiene, there is no food, there is no water… We don’t have access to sanitary pads, we have to use rags,” complained an 18-year-old girl, Samar Shalhoub.
On October 8, one day after Hamas’s unprecedented and surprising attack on Israel, Tel Aviv imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip.
According to the UN, food, medicine and fuel are still coming from Egypt, but aid cannot be transported beyond Rafah because access to the north has been cut off by the fighting.
The UN and humanitarian organizations urged Israel, which controls humanitarian access, to allow more trucks into the territory.
More than 18,200 people, the vast majority of them women and children under the age of 18, have been killed in the Gaza Strip by Israeli bombardments triggered by the Islamist movement’s attack, according to the Hamas Health Ministry.
In Israel, authorities say 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed.
In response, Israel pledged to destroy Hamas, which has been in power in the Gaza Strip since 2007 and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union (EU).
In parallel with its campaign of devastating airstrikes, the army has been conducting a ground offensive against Hamas since October 27, initially concentrated in northern Gaza and later expanding to the entire territory.
On Monday, the Israeli army said that 104 soldiers had been killed since ground fighting in Gaza began.
A seven-day ceasefire, from November 24 to December 1, allowed the release of 105 hostages held by Hamas and affiliated groups, while 137 hostages remain held in Gaza.
Source: DN
