2023-10-20 09:27:01
Any escalation or even continuation of Israel’s military action in Gaza will be “catastrophic” for the local population, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, said on Friday.
• Read also: Egypt clears passage for aid to Gaza
• Read also: At the gates of Gaza: insufficient aid that is slow to arrive
“I can tell you with certainty that any further escalation or even continuation of military activities will be simply catastrophic for the people of Gaza,” Grandi said at a news conference in Tokyo.
While emphasizing that the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) had no official mandate in the Palestinian territories or Israel, Filippo Grandi said he “shared the extreme concern and anguish expressed by many of (his) colleagues, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations” regarding the conflict.
He also affirmed that the consequences of the extension of the conflict in Lebanon and elsewhere would be “incalculable”.
On the 14th day of the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by an unprecedented deadly attack by the Palestinian movement in power in Gaza, the UN estimates that the approximately 2.4 million Gazans – half of them children – are on the verge of the “catastrophe” because Israel refuses them any access to water, electricity and fuel.
International aid expected by Palestinians in Gaza is piling up near the border with Egypt on Friday, as entire neighborhoods were razed and more than a million people displaced after the siege imposed by Israel on October 9 to the Gaza Strip, already subject to a land, sea and air blockade since Hamas took power there in 2007.
More than 1,400 people were killed on October 7 on Israeli territory by Hamas men, the majority of them civilians who were shot, burned alive or died from mutilations on the day of the Hamas attack, according to the Israeli authorities.
Around 1,500 Hamas fighters were killed in the counter-offensive which allowed Israel to regain control of the attacked areas, according to the Israeli army. Hamas has kidnapped 203 hostages, including foreigners from more than twenty countries, according to the latest Israeli report.
On the Palestinian side, 3,785 people including at least 1,524 children were killed in the Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Ministry of Health.
1697801729
#Gaza #military #escalation #catastrophic #residents