In a statement released here, the UN chief called on Hamas to immediately release the hostages and called on Israel to be given rapid and unhindered access to aid to Gaza.
Both humanitarian appeals, he said, should not become bargaining chips and should be implemented because it is the right thing to do.
Gaza lacks water, electricity and other essential supplies, the agency’s top official stressed.
The United Nations has stockpiles of food, water, non-food items, medical supplies and fuel in Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Israel, he assured.
These products can be shipped within hours, but to ensure delivery, UN staff on the ground, along with other NGOs, must be able to “transport them safely and unhindered across Gaza to deliver them to those who need them.” “, he remarked.
This Sunday, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (Unrwa) warned of the urgent need for relief supplies to continue its operations.
“Not a drop of water, not a grain of wheat, not a liter of fuel has been allowed to enter the Gaza Strip in the last eight days,” said the organization’s commissioner general, Philipe Lazzarini.
This enclave, he denounced, “is being strangled and it seems that the world has currently lost its humanity.”
UNRWA operations are the United Nations’ largest presence in Gaza and we are on the verge of collapse.
Lazzarini recalled that Gaza had been blockaded for 16 years before the conflict broke out on October 7.
More than 60 percent of the population was already dependent on international food aid; Even before the war it was a humanitarian welfare society, he admitted.
Over the last week, he added, the number of people seeking shelter in our schools and other facilities in the south has been absolutely overwhelming and we no longer have the capacity to care for them.
Most of our 13,000 staff in the Gaza Strip are now displaced or away from home, the representative added.
In one week alone, at least a million people had to leave their homes; A stream of people continues to flow south, he complained.
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