WHO chief says northern Gaza in ‘catastrophic’ danger
The World Health Organization chief warned of a disastrous situation in besieged northern Gaza with “intensive military operations unfolding around and within healthcare facilities”.
“The situation in northern Gaza is catastrophic,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, adding that “a critical shortage of medical supplies, compounded by severely limited access, are depriving people of life-saving care”.
He highlighted Kamal Adwan, northern Gaza’s last functioning hospital, which was stormed by Israeli forces on Friday. Israeli troops left early Saturday after arresting 30 healthcare staff.
Tedros said that Gaza’s Health Ministry informed the WHO, which temporarily lost contact with its staff at the hospital, that the siege had ended. “But it came at a heavy cost,” he said.
Northern Gaza is what you imagine hell to be – and probably worse
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/10/24/life-in-northern-gaza-is-what-you-imagine-hell-to-be-and-probably-worse
Can you imagine what it feels like to be told that you and your family may be killed if you do not leave your home? That you all have minutes to leave, with no possessions, or face death? I do. Five times.
Orders are handed down by the Israeli military demanding that we must move on within hours. Other times, we only know to leave when the bullets crack against the walls of our shelter. In these cases, we have to run with nothing but the clothes on our backs and what little we can hold in our hands.
‘Entire population of Gaza at risk of dying’: UN expert
Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has said that “the entire population of Gaza is at risk of dying in a genocide that has been announced and executed under our watch”, in a post on X.
Albanese was responding to an earlier statement from the UN humanitarian chief Joyce Msuya warning that “the entire population of North Gaza is at risk of dying” under Israel’s siege.
EU’s top diplomat calls for global action ‘to end human tragedy unfolding in Gaza’
Josep Borrell has issued a statement underscoring what he called “the urgent need to respect” international humanitarian law in Gaza.
“By signing the Geneva Conventions, signatories have a legal responsibility to ensure adherence to international law by all parties involved. It is our duty to protect civilians and human rights, and it is high time to act on it,” he said.
“The too little information coming out from North Gaza still attests to a catastrophic level of killing, destruction and starvation, in addition to forced displacements of civilians while an entire population is under bombings, siege and risk of starvation, as well as being forced to choose between displacement or death,” he said.
Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Japan, S Korea and UK slam Israel’s UNRWA bill
The foreign ministers of the seven countries expressed “grave concern” over a draft Israeli law that proposes to revoke the “privileges and immunities” and prohibit the presence of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Israel.
The ministers described UNRWA’s work as “lifesaving” and said the halting of its services would have “devastating consequences on an already critical and rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation, particularly in northern Gaza”.
“We urge the Israeli Government to abide by its international obligations, keep the reserve privileges and immunities of UNRWA untouched and live up to its responsibility to facilitate full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian assistance in all its forms as well as the provision of sorely needed basic services to the civilian population,” they said.
