Gaza: UN relief officials warn of growing humanitarian crisis as conflict continues

“The reality of Gaza on Thursday is that no place is safe,” Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said in her briefing to the Security Council on the latest situation.

“We have all watched in horror the desperation of children, of civilians as they have come under attack,” she added, speaking via videoconference from Trinidad and Tobago.

“Under international humanitarian law, the Government of Israel, Hamas and other militant groups must distinguish between military objectives and civilian objects and between combatants and civilians. They must also avoid harming civilians or civilian objects, and protect them from the effects of military operations.”

Nearly four weeks of conflict have left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead and 6,000 injured,  Amos reported. Over 80 per cent of those killed have been civilians; 251 children. Israel has faced rocket fire, and the hostilities have resulted in the deaths of 3 civilians and 56 soldiers, with dozens injured.

She noted that the current crisis in Gaza takes place against the backdrop of decades of instability, poverty and vulnerability resulting from repeated outbreaks of hostilities and the ongoing blockade on land, air and sea.

Over 80 per cent of Gaza’s population of 1.8 million – more than half of them children under the age of 18 – were already dependent on humanitarian aid before the outbreak of hostilities.

Up to 440,000 people in Gaza are now displaced, almost 24 per cent of the population. Over 240,000 are being hosted in schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), while others are seeking refuge wherever they can; in government buildings, hospital grounds or with families and friends.

“People flee to areas they believe are safe from attack. But these areas are becoming harder to find,” said  Amos, who is also UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.

“So, they come to United Nations facilities for protection when their homes and neighbourhoods come under fire – more than 240,000 people. But over 103 UN facilities have come under attack including an UNWRA school hosting over 3,300 displaced on Tuesday,” she stated.

“The parties to the conflict have an obligation – an absolute obligation – to protect civilians from direct or indiscriminate attacks. Under international law, United Nations operations, personnel and premises, must remain inviolable, and parties to the conflict should protect humanitarian workers. There can be no justification for failing to do so.”

Amos said the relief effort is “stretched,” with ongoing fighting and insecurity hampering the ability of UN agencies to move around and making it difficult to sustain the delivery of assistance to people in need.

“Until a longer-term ceasefire is agreed, we need more humanitarian pauses to enable us to reach those in need. Pauses must be daily, predictable, and adequate in length so that humanitarian staff can dispatch relief to those in need, rescue the injured, recover the dead and allow civilians some reprieve so that they can restock and resupply their homes.

“We urgently need the Government of Israel, Hamas and other militant groups to comply with their international legal obligations, including international humanitarian and human rights law. Each party must be held accountable to international standards; not the standards of the other party,”  Amos added.

Briefing the Council from Gaza City, UNRWA Commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl said the most difficult challenge facing the Agency on Thursday is the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians it is currently hosting.

“We are doing everything possible to provide the displaced with minimum needs – food, mattresses and blankets – but we are now into the fourth week of mass displacement in facilities unequipped to shelter large numbers for such a duration,” he told the Council via teleconference.

“Conditions are increasingly dire in the shelters,” he continued. “There is no water for personal hygiene, very few showers and latrines are totally inadequate. Disease outbreak is beginning, with skin infections, scabies and others. There are thousands of pregnant women in our schools, deliveries are precarious and we are sheltering newborns in these appalling conditions. Our ability to mitigate this situation is of course heavily restricted by ongoing hostilities.”

Stating that the current reality on the ground is not sustainable,  Krähenbühl renewed his call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to be agreed by the parties.

Image: UNRWA