The U.N.'s top humanitarian official says Israel’s latest attacks in the war against Hamas demonstrates a “blatant disregard for basic humanity” that jeopardizes the lives of everyone living in northern Gaza.
What’s new: The attacks could escalate the killing of innocent Palestinian men, women and children to a level not seen in the war-battered area.
“The entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying,” says Joyce Msuya, the acting undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs.
What’s happening now: Israel's parliament, or Knesset, approved measures on Monday aimed at banning the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, from operating in Israel. The laws, which do not immediately go into effect, could threaten much of UNRWA's humanitarian work.
The United States and other countries had advised Israel against the ban.
UNRWA's stafff play "an important role providing services to Palestinians in the West Bank and throughout the region as well," U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller says.
"But they really play an irreplaceable role right now in Gaza, where they are on the front lines getting humanitarian assistance to the people that need it," he says. "There’s nobody that can replace them right now in the middle of the crisis."
In northern Gaza, hospitals have been under siege, with health workers detained, and first responders barred from accessing sites where civilians are trapped under debris.
Shelters were demolished and burned. Humanitarians report hundreds of Palestinian casualties and say tens of thousands people were again displaced.
“Families have been separated, and men and boys taken away by the truckload,” Msuya says. “Such blatant disregard for basic humanity and for the laws of war must stop.”
The World Health Organization says the siege at Kamal Adwan Hospital, one of the last partially operational hospitals in northern Gaza, has ended, though “at a heavy cost.” With 44 male staff members detained, only female staff, the hospital director, and a single male doctor remain to care for nearly 200 patients in urgent need of medical assistance.
The reaction: UN Secretary-General António Guterres says he is shocked by the “harrowing levels of death, injury and destruction” in northern Gaza.
The “widespread devastation and deprivation” caused by Israel’s military operations, particularly around Jabalya, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, have made life “untenable” for the Palestinian population there, Guterres says.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus calls the situation“catastrophic.”
“The whole health system in Gaza has been under attack for over a year. WHO cannot stress loudly enough that hospitals must be shielded from conflict at all times,” he says. “Any attack of health care facilities is a violation of international humanitarian law.”
Guterres and Tedros continue to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
