Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 28th Feb. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Tuesday said that the UN wants a strengthened and empowered Palestinian government in response to the resignation of the Palesytinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Dujarric told reporters that the Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted Monday’s announcement by Shtayyeh that he handed his government’s resignation to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“A strengthened, empowered Palestinian government that can administer the whole of the occupied Palestinian territory is critical as part of a path to achieve the establishment of a fully independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable Palestinian state, on the basis of the 1967 lines, of which Gaza is an integral part, which remains the only way to achieve a lasting peace,” Mr. Dujarric said in a regiular press briefing in New York.
He told reporters that UN stands ready to continue supporting efforts aimed at overcoming the humanitarian, political, financial and security challenges facing the Palestinian people.
On the situation on the ground, Mr. Dujarric said the Palestine Red Crescent Society, supported by the WHO and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has completed the evacuation of 72 critical patients from Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.
UN Population Fund reported that newborns are dying in Gaza because their mothers are unable to attend prenatal or postnatal checkups while the incessant bombings, fleeing for safety and anxiety are leading to premature births, Dujarric stated.
OCHA said intense Israeli bombardment from air, land and sea continued to be reported across much of the Gaza Strip on Monday, resulted in civilian casualties, displacement, and destruction of civilian infrastructure.
Ground operations and heavy fighting between Israeli forces and Palestinian armed groups also continued.
OCHA said between Friday and Monday, tens of rockets were fired by armed Palestinian groups toward Israel.
