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Humanitarian crisis in Gaza could get far worse, warns UN relief chief
Fierce hostilities continue across Gaza from the air, sea, and on the ground, the UN’s top humanitarian official told Member States on Friday, reporting that 41,000 houses have now been destroyed or severely damaged.

More than 1.5 million Gazans are displaced, 18 hospitals have shut down, and hundreds of thousands are living in fear and under continuing Israeli bombardment.

“Casualties continue to mount, with the dead reportedly exceeding 11,000 people – the majority of them children and women,” said Emergency Relief Coordinator and Humanitarian Affairs chief, Martin Griffiths.

“The actual total, however, is likely much higher as figures have not been updated for five days due to a collapse of communication networks in Gaza,” he added.

Mr. Griffiths further stated that across Gaza, but particularly in the north, food and water supplies are running perilously low, and the lack of fuel means communications and essential services like water desalination are progressively failing.

Free the hostages
Across the border, civilians in Israel endure deep pain of their own as they mourn the brutal, inhumane killing of 1,200 people, he added, stressing that the nearly 240 hostages - from babies to octogenarians - must be released immediately and without condition.

Mr. Griffiths reiterated the UN’s 10-point plan setting out the necessary requirements for an effective humanitarian response.

He called on UN Member States to help achieve these objectives.

Basic needs
“We are not asking for the moon. We are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis,” he stressed.

In conclusion, Mr. Griffiths warned that for as dire as the situation is in Gaza, “it could get far worse.”

“If we do not take action now, this is a conflict that could spread its tendrils further into other parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory and beyond, and drag the region into a conflagration with even more catastrophic consequences,” he said.

Our work ‘mission impossible’: UNRWA official
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Natalie Boucly, Acting Deputy Commissioner-General for the UN agency assisting Palestine refugees, UNRWA, said that no part of the Gaza Strip has been spared from the bombardment.

“Hospitals, mosques, churches, bakeries, and over 60 UNRWA buildings and schools have been hit across Gaza,” she said.

Most of the agency’s impacted facilities were in the middle areas and in the south, Ms. Boucly added, noting that this was where people were told to go for safety.

“They came to UNRWA buildings to be protected by the UN flag,” she said.

The UNRWA official stressed that the work of the agency has become “mission impossible”.

“We cannot fully protect people in UN premises, under the UN flag. We cannot reach people in need, including thousands still trapped in the north. We cannot provide sufficient assistance to those we can reach,” she said.

UNRWA’s fuel stocks are almost depleted, with massive implications for the civilian population, including its 13,000 staff.

Concluding her briefing, Ms. Boucly said that there is a collective responsibility on the part of the international community to ensure that the war ends now.

“We must remain steadfast in our determination, and I must quote from a famous text: ‘to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person’,” she said, recalling the preambular text from the UN Charter.