Gaza Devastation is Incomprehensible, Inexcusable’ – UN Secretary-General
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said
“nowhere is safe” in the besieged Gaza Strip as the death toll rises to more
than 38,580.
“The extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza
is incomprehensible and inexcusable,” Guterres said on X on Tuesday.
“Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a potential killing
zone,” he added, emphasizing that it was “high time for the parties to show the
political courage and political will to finally reach a deal.”
Separately, Guterres’ spokesperson Stephane Dujarric
said that “with each new evacuation directive, families in Gaza are forced to
make impossible choices: stay, amid active hostilities, or flee to areas with
little space and services – and of course, no guarantee of safety as we saw
this weekend.”
‘So-called Humanitarian Zones’
Citing the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian
Affairs (OCHA), Dujarric said the “horrors witnessed in recent days only
underscore what we have said repeatedly over the past nine months: There is no
safe place in Gaza. Not shelters, not hospitals – and not the so-called
humanitarian zones.”
According to UNRWA, Israeli warplanes struck five UN
schools that were sheltering the displaced, in the last ten days.
“We call yet again for all parties to this conflict to
respect their obligations under international humanitarian law,” Dujarric said.
He added: “They must take constant care to spare
civilians and civilian objects. This includes ensuring safe passage for those
who flee. And wherever they are in Gaza, civilians must receive the essentials
they need to survive: food, shelter and health care.”
At least 13 Palestinians were killed and 70 injured on Sunday when an Israeli raid
targeted the Abu Oreiban school in the Nuseirat camp.
The attack followed two horrific incidents in Khan
Yunis and Al-Shati refugee camps west of Gaza City the previous day, which
caused hundreds of casualties.
The death toll from the Al-Shati Camp prayer hall
massacre west of Gaza City rose to 22, with dozens injured.
Women and Children
Currently on trial before the International Court of
Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating
war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 38,584
Palestinians have been killed, and 88,881 wounded. Moreover, at least 11,000
people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes
throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were
killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published
reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly
fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that
the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine,
mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly
children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the
forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza
Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded
southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become
Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of
Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search
for safety.
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