U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk is appealing for an end to the violence and carnage in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli forces continue daily airstrikes in response to the brutal October 7 assault by Hamas militants on Israel.
Türk said Friday that thousands of Palestinian civilians in Gaza have endured relentless bombing by Israel for almost three weeks. He said thousands have been killed and injured, and many residential buildings, mosques, health facilities and bakeries have been destroyed.
His spokesperson, Ravina Shamdasani, said entire families have been killed by airstrikes on their homes, including the families of their own staff members. She said terrified people have been spending sleepless nights in the open air.
“Despite its repeated orders to residents of northern Gaza to move to the south, suggesting it is safe, Israeli forces’ strikes on two southern governorates and Middle Gaza have intensified in recent days," Shamdasani said. "Meanwhile, heavy strikes on northern communities, including in Gaza city, Continue. Nowhere is safe in Gaza.”
The World Food Program has warned that the catastrophic conditions facing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza risk getting worse.
Israel partially lifted its siege of Gaza a week ago. Since then, around 74 trucks carrying food, water and medication have been allowed to enter through the Rafah crossing with Egypt. U.N. aid agencies call this just a drop in a big ocean. Before this crisis, they said, 450 trucks of humanitarian supplies were going into Gaza every day.
Speaking from Jerusalem, the WFP representative for Palestinians, Samer Abdeljaber, said Israel was not allowing essential supplies of fuel to enter Gaza. He warned that severe fuel shortages were threatening to bring food and other humanitarian operations to a standstill.
He warned that bakeries that had been providing bread would shut down within days if fuel was not allowed in.
“In the beginning, WFP worked with bakeries to provide fresh bread that was supposed to be reaching 200,000 people in shelters," Abdeljaber said, "but with the shortage of fuel today, only two bakeries are able to operate. Tomorrow there might be none. We cannot sit and wait for people to starve.”
Abdeljaber said WFP was continuing to position food in different locations outside Gaza, so it could immediately respond once access was granted. He said WFP planned to reach more than 1 million people over the next two months with a lifeline of food.
However, he added, this will not be possible without safe, scaled-up access and additional fuel to allow bakeries to run and food to be distributed.
