Overwhelmed medics in Gaza on Tuesday continued to try to save victims of missile strikes including attacks near refugee camps in the centre of the devastated enclave that have reportedly killed well over 100 people, the UN health agency said.
The scale of the conflict in Gaza is having an “unprecedented” effect on UNRWA, with staff operating under fierce bombardments, whilst grieving for colleagues killed in the fighting. Juliette Touma, Director of Communications at UNRWA, tells UN News that the agency, whose staff in Gaza are operating under fierce bombardments, whilst grieving for colleagues killed in the fighting.
The resumption of hostilities in Gaza and its terrifying impact on civilians underscore the need for the violence to end and a long-term political solution between Palestinians and Israelis to be found, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Sunday.
The look on people’s faces in Gaza reveals “the trauma, the stress, as if sorrow and sadness have taken root here in Gaza”, according to James Elder, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) spokesperson who has joined the aid effort in the besieged enclave.
Spikes in casualties, attacks on schools and shelters, including the death of a UN worker, and crippling fuel shortages blocking aid deliveries rippled across Gaza over the weekend, as the World Health Organization (WHO) helped to evacuate 31 babies in critical condition at the besieged Al-Shifa Hospital and the UN chief called for a humanitarian ceasefire amid the ongoing Israel-Palestine crisis.
Children have been killed, maimed, abducted and denied assistance in Gaza, and the parties to the conflict must “stop this horror”, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) chief Catherine Russell said during a visit to the enclave as humanitarian operations there ground to a halt on Wednesday for lack of fuel.
More funding is urgently needed for lifesaving aid in Gaza while concern is deepening over high numbers of civilians killed since the beginning of the crisis and human rights violations against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
The first humanitarian convoy into Gaza following two weeks of conflict crossed the border from Egypt on Saturday morning.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres reiterated his call for sustained humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza and for Hamas to free all hostages, in remarks to the Cairo Summit for Peace on Saturday.
Hundreds of trucks are waiting for a green light at the Rafah border in Egypt, poised to deliver lifesaving aid to 2.3 million besieged people in the Gaza Strip. What's inside the convoy?
