The consequences and scale of losses are already devastating, and last weekend’s attack – and the war that now follows – will likely shape global politics for years to come.
Team Clarion
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — The world has “lost its humanity”, the head of the UN’s agency supporting Palestinian refugees said here late Sunday.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, said he had called the press conference to “raise the alarm” that his colleagues in Gaza could no longer provide any humanitarian assistance in the enclave, a report in The Guardian said on Monday.
“Gaza is being strangled and it seems that the world right now has lost its humanity.
“If we look at the issue of water – we all know water is life – Gaza is running out of water, and Gaza is running out of life. Soon, I believe, with this there will be no food or medicine either.
“There is not one drop of water, not one grain of wheat, not a litre of fuel that has been allowed into the Gaza Strip for the last eight days, he said.
Lazzarini said an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe” was unfolding and warned, “no place is safe in Gaza”.
While condemning Hamas’ attack on Israel, he said: “The answer to killing civilians cannot be to kill more civilians.”
He said the scenes unfolding in Israel and Gaza mark a new chapter in the Middle East conflict. The consequences and scale of losses are already devastating, and last weekend’s attack – and the war that now follows – will likely shape global politics for years to come.
Meanwhile, in an interview with UN News, UN humanitarian coordinator Lynn Hastings said the situation in Gaza is “unprecedented” and “catastrophic” and that what is happening in the enclave is “simply inhumane”.
She said the healthcare system in Gaza had collapsed due to lack of fuel and called for an immediate ceasefire to allow aid into Gaza.
She also said the UN was still trying to get the Israeli military to rescind its order for more than 1 million Palestinians to leave northern Gaza, saying the order was “impossible”.
“For 1 million people to leave – many of whom have absolutely no transportation, no cars, even if they have a car, there’s no fuel in Gaza anymore – is impossible.”
Israel is on course “to destroy Gaza”, Lynn Hastings warned.
She called for the unconditional and immediate release of hostages being held by Hamas, but also urged “immediate unconditional access” into Gaza for the delivery of life-saving aid.
Israel is connecting humanitarian assistance into Gaza with the release of the hostages.
