UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that acute shortages of food, water, as well as fuel, and medicine are putting people at risk of death in the Gaza Strip, urging an end to Israel’s war on the besieged territories.
“People in Gaza are dying not only from bombs and bullets, but from lack of food and clean water, and hospitals without power & medicine. This must stop,” Guterres said on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday.
UN chief urged an end to the war, adding that he will “not relent” in his call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of Israeli captives held in Gaza.
People in Gaza are dying not only from bombs and bullets, but from lack of food & clean water, and hospitals without power & medicine.
This must stop.
I will not relent in my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and the immediate & unconditional release of all hostages.
— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) January 20, 2024
Elsewhere in his speech addressing the summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) on Saturday, Guterres said “the wholesale destruction of Gaza and the number of civilian casualties in such a short period are totally unprecedented during my mandate.”
“Although humanitarians are doing their best to deliver aid, they face constant bombardments and daily dangers, amid enormous constraints posed by damaged roads, communication blackouts, and access denials,” he said adding that 152 UN staff have been killed so far.
Meanwhile, disease and hunger are deepening, he said.
Two mothers killed every hour in Gaza: UN
UN Women estimated in its latest report on Friday that two Palestinian mothers are killed every hour in Gaza as 70 percent of the civilians killed since October 7 are women and children.
Gaza conflict “is fundamentally a protection crisis for women and girls” at a time when nowhere in the enclave is safe, the report said.
Women are facing unprecedented levels of death and catastrophic levels of humanitarian needs, it added.
According to the UN, 85% of the population of Gaza is already internally displaced, amid acute shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave’s infrastructure is damaged or destroyed.
Of the 1.9 million people now displaced, close to a million are women and girls, it said.
According to the report, at least 3,000 women have lost their husbands and now are the head of their households while 10,000 children may have lost their fathers.
“These women and girls are deprived of safety, medicine, health care, and shelter. They face imminent starvation and famine,” the report said.
The Israeli regime began the war on October 7, following an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance movements, dubbed Operation al-Aqsa Storm. Tel Aviv has simultaneously been exercising an all-out siege against the Palestinian territory, preventing the flow of water, food, electricity, fuel, and medicine into the coastal sliver.
The relentless Israeli military aggression has so far killed at least 25,000 people in Gaza, while 62,000 others have been wounded.
