UN agency chief warns of ‘unbearable suffering’ in Gaza

The commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has warned of “unbearable suffering” and the spread of disease in the Gaza Strip, as a nightmare of bloodshed in Gaza is unfolding due to Israel’s incessant bombing of the coastal territory. 

The UN agency’s commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini in a social media post on Wednesday said that three months of the war in Gaza had led to “mass displacement, mass human losses and injuries, and mass destruction.”

“Unbearable suffering made worse by constant dehumanization and promotion of hate speech going unchecked,” he said in a post on X.

The warning comes as UNRWA has already sounded the alarm on the spread of disease in the Israeli-bombarded besieged Palestinian territory. The agency has warned that the situation in Gaza was dire after nearly 90 days of Israeli aggression.

“Overcrowded streets of Rafah witness the alarming spread of disease. Famine looms, exacerbated by restricted access. It’s critical for a humanitarian ceasefire to provide urgent aid and end this forced continuous displacement.”

 Gazans ‘exposed to epidemics, diseases’ due to lack of food: Palestinian PM

Meanwhile, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh in a government meeting in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah said on Wednesday that Gaza was witnessing “a state of hunger and starvation in scenes that are shocking to us and to the world”.

“People have lost their strength, are no longer able to support their emaciated bodies and have become exposed to epidemics and diseases,” the prime minister said.

He further noted that Gaza was suffering from hunger and starvation which was especially affecting children and infants.

Israel is committing crimes by starving Gaza’s population and preventing the delivery of food, the premier said.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Shtayyeh thanked South Africa for filing a case against Israel on charges of genocide at the International Court of Justice.

Gaza laborers ‘stripped naked, attacked by dogs’

Separately, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said Israel held thousands of Gaza laborers.  They were held without charge in incommunicado detention for weeks after October 7.

Some were stripped naked and photographed, put in diapers, attacked by dogs, dragged face down in gravel and cuffed for days.

“The released Palestinian workers gave media interviews, describing abuses and degrading conditions in detention, including being subjected to electric shocks, urinated on, attacked by dogs, as well as held for several days without food or water,” the group said. “Human Rights Watch was not able to verify these accounts.”

Palestinian officials have already said testimonies from released Palestinian abductees from the besieged Gaza Strip revealed they had been subjected to torture by Israeli forces. They stated that the abductees were subjected to all forms of beatings and ill-treatment during their detention.

Death toll rises in Gaza

The relentless Israeli military campaign against Gaza has killed thousands of civilians, most of them women and children.

The Palestinian health ministry says the death toll from Israel’s aggression on Gaza now stands at 22,313 Palestinians. At least 57,296 Palestinians have also been wounded.

Thousands more are trapped under the rubble of their homes and are presumed dead.

In the past 24 hours,  at least 128 Palestinians have been killed and 261 others were injured in Israeli attacks.

However, almost three months into the war, Tel Aviv has failed to achieve its declared objective of eliminating the Hamas resistance movement and finding Israeli captives in Gaza.