The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) says that two additional members of staff have been killed by Israeli air strikes against the Gaza Strip, bringing the death toll since October 7 to 101. This is the highest number of United Nations aid workers killed in a conflict in the history of the United Nations.
Meanwhile, intense bombardments and shelling continue across the Gaza Strip, including in central and southern areas, killing hundreds of civilians every day; the majority of them are children and women.
Indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians and wounded nearly 27,000 within a month. While two thirds of the fatalities are reportedly children and women, the dead include more than 4,500 children and at least 667 elderly persons. Among those killed are at least 101 UN staff, 195 health workers and 47 journalists. More than 2,650 people - including 1,400 children - have been reported missing and may be still trapped dead or alive under the rubble.
More than a month ago, the humanitarian situation of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip drastically deteriorated following attacks by the Israeli military due to atrocities committed by Palestinian armed groups in Israel. The increasing escalation of violence and the complete blockade imposed on Gaza by the Israeli government has led to a humanitarian catastrophe for the people of Gaza.
The world has been watching the unfolding catastrophe in the Occupied Palestinian Territory as the numbers of lives lost spiral.
Almost 1.6 million people – more than two thirds of the total population of Gaza - have been displaced due to the attacks by the Israeli military or the Israeli evacuation order. More than 747,000 civilians are sheltering in 151 UNWRA installations in increasingly dire conditions. According to the UN agency, an estimated 160,000 IDPs remained in UNRWA schools in Gaza City and the North. UNRWA is no longer able to assist or protect them.
Since November 4, Israel has opened a "humanitarian corridor" along the main North–South Road in the Gaza Strip from 10 am to 2 pm. As a result, between 50,000 and 100,000 people - mostly walking – were forced to move from north to south. Clashes and shelling on and around the road reportedly continued, endangering evacuees as they moved South, with reports of corpses along the road.
The UN Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, stressed Thursday that “the UN cannot be part of a unilateral proposal to push hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians in Gaza into so-called safe zones.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) says that, amid intense hostilities, people in the north of Gaza continue to flee to the south, mostly on foot, facing thirst and exhaustion along the way. Hundreds of thousands of people who still remain in the north of Gaza are facing a dire humanitarian situation, struggling to secure the minimum amounts of water and food to survive.
The number of IDPs continues to rise as airstrikes from the Israeli Air Forces and operations of Israeli ground forces continue, and hundreds of thousands of civilians are seeking shelter, despite being unable to leave Gaza and the lack of safe havens as even hospitals and UN facilities, which under international humanitarian law are given special protection, are attacked.
The Israeli government said it will start to implement four-hour pauses in its military operation in areas of northern Gaza each day, to allow civilians to move south. Griffiths said the UN has not been involved in preparing for the arrival of displaced people in any prospective “safe zone” in Gaza.
On behalf of the humanitarian community, he expressed concerns – first, about the safety of civilians in any so-called safe zones if there is no agreement between all the parties on their establishment. He also said he is concerned that satisfactory conditions do not exist anywhere in Gaza to ensure adequate shelter, food, water, sanitation and health.
Any plans for short-term pauses in the fighting in Gaza must be carried out in coordination with the UN, especially on the issue of timings and location, and following agreement by all sides, the Spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General said on Thursday during his regular press briefing from New York.
Also on Thursday, Secretary-General AntĂłnio Guterres addressed the International Humanitarian Conference for the Civilian Population in Gaza by video message. This Conference, taking place in Paris, was organized by France.
“Now civilians in Gaza — including children and women — face a never—ending humanitarian nightmare. Their neighborhoods wiped out. Their loved ones killed. Bombs raining down, while being denied life’s very basics — food, water, medicine, electricity,” Guterres said.
“Some life-saving aid is beginning to trickle into Gaza. But, let’s face it, it’s a drop in the ocean. The needs are enormous. We must step up to assist and protect civilians in Gaza,” he urged.
That, Guterres said, means an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, ensuring full respect of international humanitarian law.
“It means protecting hospitals, UN facilities, shelters, and schools. It means unfettered, safe, and sustained access to bring in and distribute supplies at much greater scale, volume, and frequency — including fuel,” he said.
Guterres told the Paris Conference that it also meant investing in the $1.2 billion humanitarian appeal that the United Nations had just launched to help the people of Gaza.
On November 7, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) issued a plan that outlines the minimum necessary to scale up humanitarian operations in support of 2.2 million people in the Gaza Strip and 500,000 of the most vulnerable in the West Bank. An estimated US$1.2 billion is required to deliver existing humanitarian services amid ongoing hostilities.
In response to the unprecedented devastation in the Gaza Strip and increasing needs in the West Bank, UNRWA has also launched an expanded Flash Appeal for the occupied Palestinian territory. The UN agency is requesting US$481 million to address the most critical humanitarian needs of people impacted in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, until the end of this year.
Speaking in Amman, Jordan today, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂĽrk said the extensive Israeli bombardment of Gaza, including the use of high impact explosive weapons in densely populated areas, razing tens of thousands of buildings to the ground, was clearly having a devastating humanitarian and human rights impact.
"After four weeks of bombardment and shelling by Israeli Forces in Gaza, the indiscriminate effects of such weapons in a densely populated area is clear. Israel must immediately end the use of such methods and means of warfare, and the attacks must be investigated," he said.
The UN Human Rights Office continues to monitor strikes and in a number of incidents with high numbers of fatalities across Gaza, including strikes on residential areas in Jabalia, Gaza City, Al Bureij, Al Nuseirat, Al Meghazi, and Khan Yunis.
“Considering the predictable high level of civilian casualty and the wide scale of destruction of civilian objects we have very serious concerns that these amount to disproportionate attacks in breach of international humanitarian law,” Türk said.
He noted that the complete siege now lasting over one month - while bombings on Gaza from air, land and sea continue - has made it an agony for residents in Gaza to find basic necessities, and to survive.
“All forms of collective punishment must come to an end,” he urged.
OCHA warned today the deteriorating food situation in the Gaza Strip is continuing. In the north, UN food security partners have not been able to deliver assistance in the past eight days. As of November 9, no bakery was active due to lack of fuel, water and wheat flour as well as damage sustained by many.
According to the UN humanitarian office, in the south, access to bread is also challenging, as the only operative mill cannot operate due to lack of electricity and fuel. Only one of the bakeries contracted by the World Food Programme (WFP), along with eight other bakeries in the south, are able to provide bread intermittently to shelters, obviously, also depending on the availability of fuel and flour.
People are lining up for hours in front of bakeries and are exposed to airstrikes. Some essential food items, such as rice and vegetable oil, are nearly depleted in the public markets. Other items – including flour, dairy products, eggs, and mineral water – have disappeared from the shelves in shops across Gaza in the past two days.
Further information
Full text: Statement by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker TĂĽrk on Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territory, November 10, 2023
https://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2023/11/statement-un-high-commissioner-human-rights-volker-turk-israel-and
Full text: Remarks at the International Humanitarian Conference for the Civilian Population in Gaza, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, November 9, 2023
https://www.ochaopt.org/content/remarks-international-humanitarian-conference-civilian-population-gaza