UN agency calls for truce in northern Gaza
Published: 04:10 PM,Oct 22,2024 | EDITED : 08:10 PM,Oct 22,2024
Displaced Palestinians flee amid an Israeli military operation, in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip. — Reuters
CAIRO: The UN Palestinian refugee agency called on Tuesday for a temporary truce to allow people to leave areas of northern Gaza as health officials said they were running out of supplies to treat patients hurt in a three-week-old Israeli offensive. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNRWA relief agency, said the humanitarian situation had reached a dire point, with bodies abandoned by roadsides or buried under rubble. 'In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die,' he said in a statement on X. 'They feel deserted, hopeless and alone.' 'I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for a few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area & reach safer places,' he said.
The call came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to try to revive Gaza ceasefire talks following the death last week of Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian group Hamas. Washington has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza and Israel says aid has been delivered in scores of trucks as well as air drops but Gaza medics say the aid has not reached them.
On Tuesday, Gaza health officials said more than 20 people had been killed by Israeli forces. Dozens of bodies of people killed by Israeli fire were on roadsides and under rubble. Rescue teams could not reach them because of ongoing strikes, they said. 'Many wounded have died before our eyes and we couldn't do anything for them,' said Munir Al-Bursh, the director of the Gaza health ministry, who is currently in northern Gaza. 'Hospitals also ran out of coffins to prepare the dead and we have asked people to donate any fabric they have at home,' he said in a statement.
Israeli drones circled overhead, calling on Palestinians to evacuate areas around the town of Beit Lahiya, just north of Jabalia where the offensive began earlier this month. Many Palestinians fear the evacuation orders are part of an Israeli plan to clear the area to create a buffer zone that will enable Israel to control Gaza after the war.
The war in Gaza has devastated the Palestinian economy, which is now 35 per cent smaller than it was at the start of Israel's invasion a year ago, the United Nations' development agency said on Tuesday. UNDP said quality of life indicators such as health and education had been knocked back 70 years to the 1950s. — Reuters
The call came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel to try to revive Gaza ceasefire talks following the death last week of Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Palestinian group Hamas. Washington has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza and Israel says aid has been delivered in scores of trucks as well as air drops but Gaza medics say the aid has not reached them.
On Tuesday, Gaza health officials said more than 20 people had been killed by Israeli forces. Dozens of bodies of people killed by Israeli fire were on roadsides and under rubble. Rescue teams could not reach them because of ongoing strikes, they said. 'Many wounded have died before our eyes and we couldn't do anything for them,' said Munir Al-Bursh, the director of the Gaza health ministry, who is currently in northern Gaza. 'Hospitals also ran out of coffins to prepare the dead and we have asked people to donate any fabric they have at home,' he said in a statement.
Israeli drones circled overhead, calling on Palestinians to evacuate areas around the town of Beit Lahiya, just north of Jabalia where the offensive began earlier this month. Many Palestinians fear the evacuation orders are part of an Israeli plan to clear the area to create a buffer zone that will enable Israel to control Gaza after the war.
The war in Gaza has devastated the Palestinian economy, which is now 35 per cent smaller than it was at the start of Israel's invasion a year ago, the United Nations' development agency said on Tuesday. UNDP said quality of life indicators such as health and education had been knocked back 70 years to the 1950s. — Reuters