AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): The chief of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has described the current conditions in Gaza as the worst he's ever seen.
Philippe Lazzarini said in remarks on Sunday that his agency was on the verge of collapsing in Gaza, adding that an immediate ceasefire was needed to end "hell on earth" there.
The UNRWA chief further said the "dehumanization" of Palestinians had allowed the international community to tolerate the continued Israeli attacks in the besieged territory.
He urged all UN member states to "take immediate actions to implement an immediate humanitarian cease-fire."
“People are coming to the UN to seek protection, but even the blue flag is not protected anymore. By any account, the situation has reached a catastrophic nature,” he added.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled northern Gaza on foot as Israeli forces push deeper into dense urban neighborhoods and attack hospitals where residents have been sheltering.
A never-ending stream of people including many children, the wounded, and the elderly were seen moving south, mostly on foot, carrying only small backpacks and essential belongings.
Israel has repeatedly targeted and attacked civilians who are making their way to the south.
The Israeli military says more than 100,000 Palestinians have moved from the north to the south of Gaza in the last two days.
The UN’s humanitarian office has said it is unable to deliver aid trucks to the north of Gaza, where hundreds of thousands of people still reside.
srael ordered the evacuation of the northern third of the territory, including Gaza City, early in the war, but tens of thousands of people are believed to have remained there, fearing that the south would be no safer or that they would never be allowed to return to their homes.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk, recently called for an investigation into what he called Israel’s use of “high-impact explosive weapons” in Gaza. He said the use of such weapons was causing indiscriminate destruction in the besieged Palestinian enclave.
The UN said earlier this week that at least 1.5 million of Gaza’s 2.3 million residents have fled their homes since the war began.
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