UNRWA: People of Gaza 'Running Out Of Time and Options

Protesters demanding job opportunities rally in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City in August. (AFP)
Protesters demanding job opportunities rally in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City in August. (AFP)
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UNRWA: People of Gaza 'Running Out Of Time and Options

Protesters demanding job opportunities rally in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City in August. (AFP)
Protesters demanding job opportunities rally in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Gaza City in August. (AFP)

The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned Wednesday that the people of Gaza were "running out of time and options" as Israel's war against Hamas grinds on.

"They face bombardment, deprivation and disease in an ever-shrinking space," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini told the Global Refugee Forum in Geneva.

Lazzarini described the situation in Gaza as "hell on earth".

People in the Palestinian territory were "facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948, and it has been a painful history", he said, AFP reported.

Now in its third month, the bloodiest-ever Gaza war broke out after Hamas gunmen attacked Israel on October 7.

Israel's relentless bombardment and ground operation in Gaza has left the territory in ruins, killing more than 18,400 people, mostly women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.

The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza's 2.4 million people have been displaced and are receiving goods from only around 100 aid trucks per day.

"We are very far from an adequate humanitarian response," Lazzarini said.

When aid was delivered, it was often not more than a can of tuna or beans and one bottle of water for a large family to share, he added.

He described seeing people halting an aid truck and in desperation and swallowing down the food found inside where they stood in the street.

"The people of Gaza are now crammed into less than one-third of the original territory near the Egyptian border, he added, hinting that the dire situation might soon spark an exodus.

"It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude, especially when the border is so close," he said.

The city of Rafah on the Egyptian border, the only crossing where aid is entering Gaza, has seen its population explode from 280,000 to more than a million, Lazzarini said.

And while most aid delivery in Gaza depends on UNRWA, he warned the agency's capacities were "on the verge of collapse".

Addressing journalists at the same event, UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi also warned of the danger of large population movements out of Gaza.

Any such exodus "would be extremely destabilizing for Egypt, for the Sinai region, and it would make a problematic Palestinian problem more difficult", he said.

It is vital that any evacuation of people out of the devastated territory "is not forced", he said.

"Since these people are under bombardment and in a very difficult situation, it must be said that a ceasefire is the only way out of this impasse."



Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
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Netanyahu Denounces Tactical Pauses in Gaza Fighting to Get in Aid

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) attends the Knesset plenum vote on the ultra-Orthodox conscription to military service law, in the Knesset, Israeli parliament in Jerusalem, 10 June 2024. (EPA)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticized plans announced by the military on Sunday to hold daily tactical pauses in fighting along one of the main roads into Gaza to facilitate aid delivery into the Palestinian enclave.

The military had announced the daily pauses from 0500 GMT until 1600 GMT in the area from the Kerem Shalom Crossing to the Salah al-Din Road and then northwards.

"When the prime minister heard the reports of an 11-hour humanitarian pause in the morning, he turned to his military secretary and made it clear that this was unacceptable to him," an Israeli official said.

The military clarified that normal operations would continue in Rafah, the main focus of its operation in southern Gaza, where eight soldiers were killed on Saturday.

The reaction from Netanyahu underlined political tensions over the issue of aid coming into Gaza, where international organizations have warned of a growing humanitarian crisis.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who leads one of the nationalist religious parties in Netanyahu's ruling coalition, denounced the idea of a tactical pause, saying whoever decided it was a "fool" who should lose their job.

DIVISIONS BETWEEN COALITION, ARMY

The spat was the latest in a series of clashes between members of the coalition and the military over the conduct of the war, now in its ninth month.

It came a week after centrist former general Benny Gantz quit the government, accusing Netanyahu of having no effective strategy in Gaza.

The divisions were laid bare last week in a parliamentary vote on a law on conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the military, with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant voting against it in defiance of party orders, saying it was insufficient for the needs of the military.

Religious parties in the coalition have strongly opposed conscription for the ultra-Orthodox, drawing widespread anger from many Israelis, which has deepened as the war has gone on.

Lieutenant-General Herzi Halevi, the head of the military, said on Sunday there was a "definite need" to recruit more soldiers from the fast-growing ultra-Orthodox community.

RESERVISTS UNDER STRAIN

Despite growing international pressure for a ceasefire, an agreement to halt the fighting still appears distant, more than eight months since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas fighters on Israel triggered a ground assault on the enclave by Israeli forces.

Since the attack, which killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners in Israeli communities, Israel's military campaign has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, according to Palestinian health ministry figures, and destroyed much of Gaza.

Although opinion polls suggest most Israelis support the government's aim of destroying Hamas, there have been widespread protests attacking the government for not doing more to bring home around 120 hostages who are still in Gaza after being taken hostage on Oct. 7.

Meanwhile, Palestinian health officials said seven Palestinians were killed in two air strikes on two houses in Al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.

As fighting in Gaza has continued, a lower level conflict across the Israel-Lebanon border is now threatening to spiral into a wider war as near-daily exchanges of fire between Israeli forces and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia have escalated.

In a further sign that fighting in Gaza could drag on, Netanyahu's government said on Sunday it was extending until Aug. 15 the period it would fund hotels and guest houses for residents evacuated from southern Israeli border towns.