The head of the United Nations Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) warned the Security Council on Monday that Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip were being subjected to forced displacement and collective punishment.
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini also said a communication blackout over the weekend had accelerated the breaking down of civil order and warned that if that breakdown worsened it “will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible” for the U.N. to continue operating in Gaza.
Israel has renewed warnings for civilians to move from the north of Gaza to the south as it began an advance late on Friday to pursue Hamas militants it says are hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza City.
At the same time, Israel said its forces freed a soldier from Hamas captivity, one of 239 hostages Israel says were captured on October 7 by Hamas gunmen from Gaza who rampaged through southern Israeli communities, killing over 1,400 people.
It identified her as Ori Megidish and said she had since undergone medical checks and is “doing well,” the military said. It gave no details on the circumstances of her release.
Israel’s military said it had struck more than 600 militant targets over the past few days as it expanded ground operations in the territory, where Palestinian civilians are in dire need of fuel, food and clean water as the war enters its fourth week.
Palestinian medical authorities in Gaza said on Monday that 8,306 people – including 3,457 minors – had been killed in Israel’s three-week-old air and ground onslaught.
Significantly fewer humanitarian aid trucks have reached the besieged enclave than are required, say U.N. Officials, and civil order has broken down with people storming U.N. warehouses in search of food.
That has put four U.N. aid distribution centres and a storage facility out of action, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Monday.
“It’s a disaster on top of a disaster. Health needs are soaring and our ability to meet those needs is rapidly declining,” World Health Organization regional emergencies chief Rick Brennan told Reuters, reiterating international calls for a ceasefire to enable a larger humanitarian operation.
The White House said it was working to get more aid trucks into Gaza.
MANY PALESTINIANS STAY PUT DESPITE WARNINGS
Israel renewed warnings for civilians to move from the north of Gaza to the south as it began an advance late on Friday to pursue Hamas militants it says are hiding in a labyrinth of tunnels under Gaza City.
Many Palestinians have stayed put, some fearing they might become homeless as in previous generations and some alarmed by Israeli aerial strikes further south.
Fadi, who lives in the Jabalia refugee camp on Gaza City’s northern outskirts and declined to give his last name, said the area was now in mortal danger from Israel’s ground offensive with tanks rumbling on its fringes. He vowed not to flee.
“No one in the entire neighbourhood has left. We are staying,” he told Reuters by phone. “Whether tanks or planes, there will not be another displacement (of Palestinians). That is our decision even if that will mean our martyrdom (death).”
Islamist militants said they had repelled an attempted thrust by Israeli tanks into Gaza City from the east and were fighting them along the border with Israel in north Gaza.
“Our duty today is fight and fight,” the Islamic Jihad militant group, fighting alongside Gaza’s ruling Hamas, said in a statement, adding that now was not the time for a ceasefire.
The Israeli military said it had killed four prominent Hamas operatives. “IDF troops killed dozens of terrorists who barricaded themselves in buildings and tunnels, and attempted to attack the troops,” it said in an update, using the abbreviation for the Israel Defense Forces.
In a statement, Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said that the army would continue to expand the ground operation.
“Additional infantry, armor and combat engineering forces are entering Gaza for the continued coordinated operations by land, air and sea at full force,” Hagari said.
Neither side commented on the other’s reports.
(REUTERS)
