UNRWA chief says Israel preparing for ‘large scale massacres’ in Gaza City
As we’ve been reporting, Israel has threatened that any Palestinians who remain in Gaza City will be defined as “terrorists or terror supporters”.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has condemned that announcement as an ominous signal that anyone who cannot or will not leave the area will be targeted by the Israeli military.
“Labeling the nearly 250,000 people currently trapped in Gaza City and the north as ‘terrorists or terror supporters’ by the Government of Israel is a statement suggesting planned large scale massacres: killing more women, children, elderly and vulnerable people unable to move out,” Lazzarini said in a social media post.
“No one has the license to kill civilians. Ongoing international crimes in Gaza cannot continue to be implicitly tolerated. More inaction will lead to more complicity to what the UN Commission of Inquiry has already concluded is genocide. Time to act.”
‘No place to go or stay:’ Gaza aid worker recounts bombardment
The secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has shared on social media an account from an NRC shelter and sanitation worker named Haya, who has been forced to flee Gaza City.
Haya explained that the house next to hers was bombed on Saturday night, killing the family inside.
“The next morning, we decided to evacuate to the south. At 11 a.m. [08:00 GMT], we were informed that a five-story building right next to us was going to be bombed. Sure enough, by 12:15 p.m. [09:15 GMT], it was hit. The neighbourhood was devastated, rubble everywhere from the bombing, and we were terrified,” Haya said, according to Jan Egeland’s post on X.
Her family then decided to go south to Deir el-Balah in central Gaza, where they stayed on Sunday.
“We didn’t know if we should pitch tents or not. We’re a family of 13 people. The next day, on Monday morning, we heard they were going to close the checkpoint between the south and north, and we wouldn’t be able to return to Gaza City. So, my brothers said, ‘let’s go back’ and we did, just before afternoon. Later, they closed the checkpoint,” she said.
“Gaza City is now a devastated city, and we are only trying to do our best to protect ourselves and stay alive. There is no medical care.
“Before, it was possible to travel from the north to the south, but now, with the checkpoint at Netzarim, there’s no movement, and it’s dangerous to travel even for medical emergencies. No place for us to go, or to stay.”
Gaza: my NRC colleague Haya, a shelter and water/sanitation assistant, was forced to leave Gaza City because of intense bombardment.
With her family, she fled south.
But now, as a result of having nowhere to stay, and knowing that they may not be allowed to go back to the…
— Jan Egeland (@NRC_Egeland) October 2, 2025
