GAZA – Philippe Lazzarini, who heads the UN agency for Palestinian refugees in Gaza (UNRWA), has said the resumption of Israel’s military operation was repeating “horrors from past weeks” by displacing people who had been previously displaced, overcrowding hospitals and further strangling the humanitarian operation due to limited supplies.
“The evacuation order pushes people to concentrate into what is less than one-third of the Gaza Strip. They need everything: food, water, shelter, and mostly safety. Roads to the south are clogged,” Reuters quoted Lazzarini as saying.
“We have said it repeatedly. We are saying it again. No place is safe in Gaza, whether in the south, or the southwest, whether in Rafah or in any unilaterally so-called ‘safe zone’.”
Israel cuts off Gaza’s north-south route, says it ‘constitutes a battlefield’
Israel largely captured the northern half of Gaza in November, and since a week-long truce collapsed on Friday, they have swiftly pushed deep into the southern half.
According to Reuters, Hamas ally Islamic Jihad’s armed wing said its fighters engaged in fierce clashes with Israeli soldiers north and east of Khan Younis, Gaza’s main southern city.
Israeli tanks have driven into Gaza across the border and cut off the main north-south route, residents said. The Israeli military said the central road out of Khan Younis to the north “constitutes a battlefield” and was now shut.
Israel intensifies southern Gaza offensive; US, UN urge civilian protections
Israeli forces pressed ahead with their air and ground bombardment of southern Gaza Strip, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, even as the United States and the United Nations repeatedly urged them to protect civilians, Reuters reports.
Israel’s closest ally the United States has said the Israeli offensive in the south should not repeat the “massive” civilian toll it has had in the north.
But residents and journalists on the ground said the intense Israeli air strikes in the south of the densely populated coastal enclave included areas where Israel had told people to seek shelter.
“The Secretary-General is extremely alarmed by the resumption of hostilities between Israel and Hamas… For people ordered to evacuate, there is nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
A wounded Palestinian lies as he is rushed into Nasser hospital following Israeli strikes, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas, in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, December 4, 2023. — Reuters
UN foresees ‘hellish scenario’ as aid to Gaza stalls
A UN official has warned that “an even more hellish scenario” looms in Gaza in which humanitarian aid simply grinds to a halt, according to AFP.
“The conditions required to deliver aid to the people of Gaza do not exist,” said Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories.
Since the end of a seven-day truce, Israeli forces have pushed into southern Gaza, “forcing tens of thousands… into increasingly compressed spaces, desperate to find food, water, shelter and safety,” Hastings said.
“Nowhere is safe in Gaza and there is nowhere left to go.”
“If possible, an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond,” Hastings said in a statement. -Agencies
