Some UN agencies have appealed for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire to allow more lifesaving aid into Gaza as the Israel-Palestine crisis enters the second month.
Among those uniting behind the message that “enough is enough,” is UN relief chief Martin Griffiths who renewed earlier pleas for the immediate and unconditional release of the more than 240 hostages captured by Hamas and held in Gaza since Oct. 7.
All parties should respect their obligations under international humanitarian and human rights law, the UN agency leaders insisted, amid media reports of huge explosions from airstrikes across northern Gaza overnight.
“Civilians and the infrastructure they rely on – including hospitals, shelters and schools – must be protected,” they said.
The humanitarian leaders, in a joint statement, called the killings of large numbers of civilians in Gaza an “outrage.” So too was the fact that the Strip’s 2.2 million residents continue to be cut off from food, water, medicine, electricity and fuel.
The humanitarian officials stressed that an entire population is besieged and under attack, denied access to the essentials for survival, bombed in their homes, shelters, hospitals and places of worship.
“This is unacceptable,” they insisted.
United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that in Gaza people are braving airstrikes to line up outside bakeries in the hope of buying bread, while power sources continued to dwindle.
Multiple solar panels on the roofs of buildings, particularly in Gaza City, have reportedly been destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in the past few days, OCHA said.
This has eliminated one of the remaining sources of energy for hospitals and water and food production as fuel continues to be banned from entering the Strip by the Israeli authorities.
Meanwhile, massive displacement prompted by an Israeli Defence Forces’ order to Gazans to leave Gaza City and the north of the enclave on Oct. 13 has aggravated the already fragile health situation in Gaza.
Over 700,000 of the 1.5 million internally displaced people across the Strip are sheltering in 149 facilities run by the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), which are severely overcrowded.
Several cases of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoea and chicken pox have been reported among people taking refuge at UNRWA shelters.
UNRWA has deplored the fact that its shelters have been repeatedly hit by Israeli fire and are no longer safe for those seeking refuge there.
On Saturday, an UNRWA school in Jabalia camp north of Gaza City was directly hit by strikes which killed 15 people and injured 70.
The agency said over 160,000 displaced people were sheltering in 57 of its facilities in Gaza City and the North Gaza governorate, as of Oct. 12, before an evacuation order was issued by the Israeli Authorities.
However, UNRWA warned that, “it is not able to access these shelters to assist or protect the internally displaced persons and does not have information on their needs and conditions.”
Since Oct. 7 the agency has mourned the loss of 88 of its own staffers – the highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict.
