The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) called on Tuesday for a temporary truce to allow people to leave areas of northern Gaza as health officials said they were running out of supplies to treat patients injured in a three-week-old Israeli assault.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the UNRWA relief agency, said the humanitarian situation had reached a dire point, with bodies abandoned by roadsides or buried under rubble, according to Reuters.
“In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die,” he said in a statement on social media platform X. “They feel deserted, hopeless and alone.”
“I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for a few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area & reach safer places,” he added.
The call came as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel for talks in which he urged its leaders to capitalize on the military’s killing last week of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by taking steps to end the shattering year-old war. Sinwar was the leader of the Palestinian group that runs the Gaza Strip.
Washington has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian supplies into northern Gaza and Israel says aid has been delivered in scores of trucks as well as air drops, but Gaza medics say the aid has not reached them.
On Tuesday, Gaza health officials said more than 20 people were killed by the Israeli forces. The bodies of dozens of people were on roadsides and under rubble, inaccessible to rescue teams because of ongoing strikes, they said.
“Many wounded have died before our eyes and we couldn't do anything for them,” said Munir Al-Bursh, the director of the Gaza health ministry, who is currently in northern Gaza.
“Hospitals also ran out of coffins to prepare the dead and we have asked people to donate any fabric they have at home.”
The Israeli military, which launched an assault against Hamas militants holding out in the northern town of Jabalia this month, says it is evacuating people along designated routes and has filtered out dozens of militants from civilians going south.
