2023-10-09 08:27:58
The spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Adnan Abu Hasna, said on Monday that the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip even before the outbreak of the current war was catastrophic, revealing the numbers of displaced people to the agency’s schools since the outbreak of the war and speaking about its modest capabilities.
Candidate number to rise
Adnan Abu Hasna added in an interview with Sky News Arabia: “As of four o’clock yesterday evening, 74,000 displaced people were in 66 schools affiliated with the agency, after their schools were turned into shelters.” He continued: “This number is likely to increase in light of the intensification of military operations and in light of the destruction occurring inside and outside the Palestinian camps.” He stated that the agency expects the numbers of displaced people to rise.
Conditions of shelter centers
He said: “From previous experiences in Gaza in previous wars, there are huge numbers resorting to the Agency’s schools. For example, in the 2008 war, there were 290,000 displaced people in UNRWA schools.” The agency, according to the spokesman, has prepared 56 schools as shelters with capabilities such as solar energy, but the rest of its schools are not so equipped. Abu Hasna said that the agency’s schools’ capacity does not exceed 150,000.
Video showing the extent of the destruction in Gaza
He added that the residents of the Gaza Strip resort to UNRWA schools thinking that they are safe, knowing that the presence of the United Nations flags will provide a kind of security, but these schools have previously been subjected to strikes, and they are relatively safe, but frankly, there is no safe place in Gaza. He said the agency provides food, cleaning materials, drinking water, medical care and psychological support units to people who left everything behind. He stated that the agency provided services limited to a few days, and the matter could not continue for long in light of the closure of the crossings through which fuel and food supplies pass. People in Gaza view UNRWA, according to its spokesman, as the only organized body that can provide services because 75 percent of the population of the Gaza Strip are refugees, and it provides relief services to more than 1.2 million refugees.
The situation is already catastrophic
The UNRWA spokesman said that the situation in the Gaza Strip was catastrophic even before the start of the new operations. Gaza has been under siege for more than 15 years. He added that the infrastructure in all sectors is dilapidated, as 79 percent of the water is not suitable for drinking. He pointed out that electrical power comes for two or three hours, and since yesterday there are areas that have not received it, and this may affect humanitarian operations such as hospitals. The agency is suffering from a financial crisis, according to Abu Hasna. It does not have funding to cover expenses for the months of November and December, such as salaries in the agency’s work areas in the West Bank, Gaza, Jerusalem, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, and this process increases the burden on the agency. He stressed that the agency’s capabilities were modest even before the war began, as it complained of the absence of financial funds.
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