Northern Gaza under a ‘Near-Total Brutal Siege,’ UN Humanitarian Chief Says

A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Northern Gaza under a ‘Near-Total Brutal Siege,’ UN Humanitarian Chief Says

A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A displaced Palestinian child fleeing Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip, walks on Gaza's main Salah al-Din road on the outskirts of Gaza City, on November 5, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Northern Gaza has been under “a near-total brutal siege” for the past month and Palestinian civilians are starving while the world watches, the acting United Nations humanitarian chief said Tuesday.

Joyce Msuya said in a post on X that Israeli military ground operations have left Palestinians without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes.

“These atrocities must stop,” she said.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters that the humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, visited the Al Moumanya school in Gaza City on Tuesday.

The school was run by the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees known as UNRWA and is now sheltering hundreds of families, most of whom fled the north.

Hadi told UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that conditions in the school “are unbearable,” saying families lack food, water and functioning toilets and are crammed into very overcrowded facilities, the UN spokesperson said.

Hadi told the UN chief that “sewage at the school is running everywhere, and waste is everywhere,” Dujarric said.



UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
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UN Rights Chief ‘Gravely Concerned’ by Lebanon Escalation

Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)
Smoke billows above Beirut’s southern suburbs following an Israeli airstrike on November 26, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hezbollah. (AFP)

The UN rights chief on Tuesday voiced concern about the escalation of hostilities in Lebanon, where his office said nearly 100 people had been reported killed by Israeli airstrikes in recent days, including women, children and medics.

Israel has been locked in fighting with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah since Oct. 2023, and fighting has escalated dramatically since late September of this year.

"UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk is gravely concerned by the escalation in Lebanon with at least 97 people reportedly killed in Israeli airstrikes between the 22nd and 24th of November," Jeremy Laurence, a spokesperson for the Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights, told a Geneva press briefing.

He said that at least seven paramedics had been reported killed in three Israeli strikes in the south of Lebanon on Nov. 22-23, adding to 226 healthcare worker deaths since Oct. 7, 2023. He did not specify how many of the recent deaths had been verified by UN human rights monitors.

Israel says it targets military capabilities in Lebanon and Gaza and takes steps to mitigate the risk of harm to civilians. It accuses Hezbollah, like Hamas, of hiding among civilians, which they deny.