An urgent ceasefire is a matter of life and death for millions of people in the Gaza Strip, an official warned at a United Nations Security Council emergency briefing, stressing increasing child casualties as Israel continues to bomb the enclave.
Palestinians in Gaza face a life-or-death crisis compounded by the struggle to deliver aid to the strip’s more than two million residents, said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), during Monday’s meeting.
“The level of destruction is unprecedented, the human tragedy unfolding on our watch is unbearable,” the official said. “The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment. »
More than half a million Palestinians forced from their homes by Israel’s three-week bombing campaign are now sheltering in crowded UNRWA schools and buildings, with little food and of water and often without a place to sleep, he reported.
“Hunger and despair are turning into anger at the international community,” Lazzarini said, adding that the meager aid allowed to pass through Egypt starting last week was far from enough.
Israel began allowing limited aid into Gaza on October 21, but extensive inspections of each convoy led to long delays. Israel has also flatly refused to allow the delivery of fuel, leaving the enclave’s few operational hospitals at risk of closure.
“Last remaining lifeline”
On Sunday, Palestinians, desperate by the continued blockade and bombing, broke into UN warehouses, taking wheat, flour and other essential goods.
“A further breakdown in civil order will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the UN’s largest agency to continue its operations in Gaza,” Lazzarini warned the UN Security Council assembly.
“I say this while being fully aware that UNRWA is the last lifeline for the Palestinian people in Gaza,” he added.
To increase the flow of much-needed aid, U.N. officials have urged Israel to open the Karem Abu Salem border crossing, known as Kerem Shalom, with Gaza to Israelis, saying it is the only equipped crossing to accommodate enough trucks. Israel has so far refused to open any of its crossing points with the enclave, on which it has imposed a land, air and sea blockade for 16 years.
“This can’t be collateral damage.”
U.N. officials also highlighted the growing number of casualties in Gaza, particularly among children, an unprecedented toll even in the bloodiest contemporary conflicts.
“More than 420 children are killed or injured every day in Gaza – a number that should shake every one of us,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell.
Lazzarini added: “This exceeds the number of children killed each year in the world’s conflict zones since 2019,” emphasizing: “This cannot be ‘collateral damage.’
Israel has warned that even greater danger looms as it intensifies its ground offensive in the enclave. He ordered Gaza residents to evacuate to the southern part of the territory or risk being treated as “terrorist accomplices.”
However, Palestinians in Gaza also did not find safety in the south, where Israel continued to bomb their homes.
“I have said it many times, and I will say it again: ‘no place is safe in Gaza,’” Lazzarini said.
His appeal to the United Nations Security Council came after the body failed to pass four separate resolutions calling for a ceasefire or “humanitarian pauses.” One was vetoed by the United States and the other by Russia and China. The others did not obtain the minimum of nine votes.
The United Nations General Assembly voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce on Friday, but the resolution is not binding. The United States and Israel were among 14 countries to vote against the resolution.
The emergency summit also expressed concern that the war in Gaza risks escalating into a wider regional conflagration.
Geir Pedersen, the UN special envoy to Syria, said the fallout in Syria had already begun and raised “a terrifying prospect of a potential wider escalation.”
Israel has also carried out numerous air raids in Syria and Lebanon since its war with Hamas began three weeks ago, hitting critical military infrastructure and airports.
