Death, suffering and displacement threaten to spread across the Middle East, Filippo Grandi said.
The UN refugee agency has warned that the “catastrophe” unfolding in the Gaza Strip threatens to create additional displacement across the Middle East.
Speaking at the Global Refugee Forum on Wednesday, Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said fighting between Israel and Hamas threatens to destabilize the entire region and further increase the number of displaced people around the world, which is already at a record level. a historic record of 144 million.
“A major human catastrophe is unfolding in the Gaza Strip,” Grandi warned, lamenting that “so far the Security Council has failed to put an end to the violence.”
“We anticipate more civilian deaths and suffering, as well as further displacement that threatens the region,” Grandi warned.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), nearly 1.9 million people – more than 85 percent of Gaza’s population – have been displaced. since the start of Israeli bombings in early October.
Prior to the UN General Assembly ceasefire resolution, the high commissioner had ardently called for a humanitarian ceasefire “to prevent ongoing mass displacement from spreading across borders.” “. #Gaza.”
Further displacement “would be catastrophic for Palestinians, who experience the trauma of exile; and resolving it would be impossible, further compromising any chance of peace,” he posted on X.
A humanitarian ceasefire is also needed in Gaza to prevent the ongoing mass displacements from spreading further. #Gaza: it would be catastrophic for the Palestinians, who are experiencing the trauma of exile; and resolving it would be impossible, further compromising any chance of peace.
– Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) December 10, 2023
Warnings of greater displacement of Palestinians from Gaza have increased as Israeli forces have invaded the entire enclave, without wanting to designate the south as a safe zone.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said Sunday that Israel is implementing a policy to drive Palestinians from the territory through a war that he says meets the “legal definition of genocide.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the head of UNRWA, also accused Israel of seeking to massively expel Gaza residents to Egypt.
“The United Nations and several member states, including the United States, have strongly rejected the forced displacement of Gazans from the Gaza Strip,” he warned on Sunday.
Israeli officials have in recent months suggested “voluntary resettlement of Palestinians, for humanitarian reasons, outside the Gaza Strip”, or resettlement in tent cities in Egypt’s Sinai Desert.
Record travel levels
Grandi also urged U.N. officials, politicians and humanitarian groups meeting in Geneva “not to lose sight of other pressing humanitarian and refugee crises.”
Referring to the Russian-led war in Ukraine, the civil war in Sudan and the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, he said conflicts and crises had already generated record displacement even before the outbreak of the war in Gaza.
“Every refugee is a symptom of our collective failure to ensure peace and security,” Grandi warned, saying the world must work together to mitigate such preventable tragedies.
“Every refugee is a symptom of our collective failure to guarantee peace and security. Refugee situations do not have to turn into crises if we work together to resolve and manage them.
My @Guardian editorial ahead of this week’s Global Refugee Forum.
– Filippo Grandi (@FilippoGrandi) December 11, 2023
The number of displaced people worldwide exceeded 114 million at the end of September, an unprecedented record.
Grandi said that amounts to “114 million broken dreams, disrupted lives, interrupted hopes. “It’s a number that reflects a crisis – many crises – of humanity.”
Grandi called on participants to make the forum “a moment of unity, in which we all join forces to ensure that those who flee because their lives, freedom and security are threatened can find protection, and that everything is done to resolve their exile as it should be. as soon as possible”.
