UN chief says situation in Gaza is ‘without parallel’
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council Gaza is a “horror show with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times”.
“Malnourishment is soaring. Starvation is knocking on every door. And now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles,” Guterres said.
“That system is being denied the conditions to function. Denied the space to deliver. Denied the safety to save lives,” the UN chief urged.
Guterres added between the Israeli military’s latest operation in Deir el-Balah and the forced displacement orders issued, devastation is being “layered upon devastation”.
A displaced Palestinian walks in the aftermath of an Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah, central Gaza
‘There is nothing left’: Key aid group runs out of supplies for Gaza
The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) says its aid stocks are completely depleted in Gaza, with some of its staff now starving. NRC says, for the last 145 days, it has not been able to get its hundreds of truckloads containing tents, water, sanitation, food and education materials into Gaza.
“Our last tent, our last food parcel, our last relief items have been distributed. There is nothing left,” Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the council, told the Reuters news agency.
“Hundreds of truckloads have been sitting in warehouses or in Egypt or elsewhere, and costing our Western European donors a lot of money, but they are blocked from coming in … That’s why we are so angry because our job is to help,” Egeland said.
“Israel is not yielding. They just want to paralyse our work.”
The NRC said its supplies of safe drinking water, which have reached 100,000 people in central and northern parts of Gaza in recent weeks, are also running out as fuel availability to run desalination plants reaches its limit.
