The United Nations agency mandated to assist Palestinian refugees Monday described the situation in Gaza as \u201chell on earth\u201d following a deadly Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah that killed at least 45 people.<\/p>\n
\u201cInformation coming out of Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying,\u201d the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said. \u201cThere are reports of mass casualties including children and women among those killed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Humanitarian partners including the International Medical Corps\u2019 field hospital team in Rafah, have been crucial to the aid effort, the agency said about the latest gruesome development in more than seven months of Israeli attacks.<\/p>\n
Unconfirmed images posted online showed shelters burned to the ground and charred bodies at the site of the Rafah attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are reports of mass causalities including children and women among those killed. Gaza is hell on earth. Images from last night are yet another testament to that,\u201d UNRWA said.<\/p>\n
Tor Wennesland, UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, condemned the airstrikes, underscoring the need for a \u201cthorough and transparent\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n
He noted the claim by the Israeli military that they had struck a Hamas installation and killed two senior Hamas fighters in the strikes, and added that he was \u201cdeeply troubled\u201d by the deaths of many women and children in an area where people had sought shelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI call upon the Israeli authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation into this incident, hold those responsible for any wrongdoing to account, and take immediate steps to better protect civilians,\u201d Wennesland said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll parties in the conflict must refrain from actions that set us further away from achieving an end to hostilities and further jeopardize the already fragile situation on the ground and the broader region.\u201d<\/p>\n
He reiterated UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres\u2019 call for an immediate ceasefire, and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United Nations remains steadfast in its commitment to supporting all efforts aimed at ending the hostilities, reducing tensions, and advancing the cause of peace.\u201d<\/p>\n
Echoing those comments and widespread international condemnation of the attack, the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, called for \u201cconcerted global action\u201d to halt the war, days since the UN\u2019s top court called for an end to Israel\u2019s expanding military operation in Rafah.<\/p>\n
\u201cAttacking women and children while they cower in their shelters in Rafah is a monstrous atrocity,\u201d Rajagopal said. \u201cWe need concerted global action to stop Israel\u2019s actions now.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a separate social media post the UN agency also expressed concern about the safety and status of colleagues in Gaza with whom contact has been lost after the attack in Rafah.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not have an established communications line with our colleagues on the ground. We are not able to confirm their location and are extremely concerned for their wellbeing, and the wellbeing of all the displaced people sheltering in this area. No place is safe. No one is safe.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the deadly threat of violence, UN humanitarian officials insisted that famine is still a daily danger for the people of Gaza.<\/p>\n
The warning comes amid an almost total halt to life-saving aid convoy deliveries since the Israeli military seized Rafah crossing from Egypt into Gaza earlier this month, in response to a rocket attack on Kerem Shalom crossing on May 5 that resulted in the deaths of four Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers.<\/p>\n
According to UNRWA\u2019s online portal for UN relief items and fuel entering Gaza via Rafah and nearby Kerem Shalom, no aid trucks have made it into the enclave since last Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAid is there, tens of kilometres away on the boundaries- while the population gets closer to famine,\u201d UNRWA Director of Planning, Sam Rose, said in a post on X late Sunday.<\/p>\n
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) also confirmed serious ongoing challenges receiving and delivering aid throughout Gaza, citing frequent delays, arbitrary checks access restrictions by the Israeli authorities.<\/p>\n
Between May 1 and 23, 31 aid missions were denied access and 40 were impeded, including by \u201cextensive delays, detaining aid workers, firing warning shots and forcing the abortion of officially approved missions\u201d, OCHA said in a post on X on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf food and humanitarian supplies do not begin to enter Gaza in massive quantities, desperation and hunger will spread, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) also warned on Monday, after UN chief expressed concern that the humanitarian operation was \u201cnear collapse\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General emphasizes that the Israeli authorities must facilitate the safe pickup and delivery of humanitarian supplies from Egypt entering Kerem Shalom to those in need,\u201d his spokesperson said in a statement on Sunday, after the reported passage of aid relief and fuel from Egypt into Gaza via Kerem Shalom.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Secretary-General reiterates his call for an immediate ceasefire and for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages to end the suffering of civilians,\u201d the statement noted, adding that Mr. Guterres had been \u201cdismayed\u201d by the lack of implementation of the recent orders of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) regarding the situation in Gaza.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe decisions of the Court are binding,\u201d the statement continued.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations agency mandated to assist Palestinian refugees Monday described the situation in Gaza as \u201chell on earth\u201d following a deadly Israeli attack in the southern city of Rafah that killed at least 45 people. \u201cInformation coming out of Rafah about further attacks on families seeking shelter is horrifying,\u201d the UN Relief and Works …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":60053,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65401","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65401"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65401\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65415,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65401\/revisions\/65415"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}