Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 25th Jan. UN emergency relief chief Martin Griffiths on Wednesday said that there had been “no let-up in the atrocities inflicted in Gaza since 7 October when Israeli bombardment began in response to Palestinian terrorist attacks by Hamas in Israel that left some 1,200 dead and 250 taken hostage.
Mr. Griffiths said over 25,000 people have been killed “including two mothers every hour.”
He cited data from the Gaza health authority, as hospitals continue to be “overcrowded, besieged and under fire; homes have been reduced to rubbles and places of safety have become places of danger”.
UN agency for Palestinian refugees said the new arrivals had now set up large plastic tents along the border fence separating Rafah in southern Gaza from Egypt and reported continuing “massive displacement” southwards from the Khan Younis area in response to intensified fighting since this week.
UN aid coordination office OCHA in its latest update said that escalating hostilities in the Khan Younis area on Monday had left dozens dead.
UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna said “The situation in general is deteriorating dramatically” .
He noted that Rafah city was home to 1.3 million people and “absolutely unable to cope” with such an influx, witnessed in person in Rafah on Tuesday by top officials Sigrid Kaag, the UN Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, and Jamie McGoldrick, interim Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
Mr. Hasna warned that diseases such as meningitis and hepatitis C are spreading along with a doubling of the number of people with intestinal and skin diseases that threaten to push health services to breaking point.
He added that more humanitarian relief needed to enter the Strip where “everyone is at risk whether in Khan Younis or in Rafah.
“There is absolutely no safe place, but we think that pushing more Palestinian residents to Rafah city is pushing things towards explosion.”
International Education agency reported that all of its schools in Gaza remain closed and most are home to displaced Palestinians over 1.2 million, in all.
It stated 340 internally displaced people have been killed while seeking safety in UNRWA shelters with more than 1,100 injured.
UNRWA said that 3 in 4 school buildings across Gaza have sustained damage along with numerous institutions of higher education.
It noted that attacks on educational facilities and UN premises “violate international humanitarian law”.
UNRWA added more than 625,000 students and 22,564 teachers in Gaza “have been deprived of education and a safe place for over three months”.
UN agency noted that “thousands of learners and education personnel” were among those killed and rocket fire continues from Gaza into Israel.
UNRWA said that in the West Bank, “escalating violence” has also disrupted access to lessons, repeating its call to end the conflict.
UN Security Council held a debate on the situation in the Middle East in search to put an end to the devastating conflict in Gaza after growing tensions in the region as UN humanitarians reiterated grave concerns for extremely vulnerable Palestinians forced once again to flee the war and evacuation orders.
UN chief Antonio Guterres in a tweet on X said that that in addition to the threat of being killed, Gazans faced a growing risk of disease, just as health services were collapsing.
Mr. Guterres said only 16 out of 36 hospitals “are even partly functional”.
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