Monday, November 25, 2024
Islamabad (News International / Pakistan New - 25th November, 2024) For 50 days, the besieged northern Gaza Strip has been devastated by Israeli bombardment. Humanitarian aid has been cut off in the area, and people fleeing in search of refuge are facing death and destruction everywhere.
Lucy Whitridge, the emergency coordinator for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told UN News that people evacuating from the besieged northern Gaza Strip are leaving their homes and shelters in only the clothes they wear.
Aid agencies have been trying to deliver aid to the area for almost 50 days, but access to people in need is extremely limited.
Those displaced from Jabaliya have said that only death reigns in the area.
People have neither food nor drinking water available to them.
Attacks on shelters
Many displaced people have sought safety in UNRWA schools, but they have not been spared from the bombings. The UN shelters in northern Gaza have been attacked six times in recent days.
Many people have said that when the siege began, they fled to Gaza City for safety, but death and destruction have followed them there too.
Lucy Wetridge says that no building in northern Gaza is safe. There are currently about 300,000 people in Gaza City, which has become a pile of rubble. Since they have nowhere to shelter, they turn to UN facilities.
Struggling to protect themselves from the cold
With the arrival of winter, people are looking for places where they can protect themselves from the cold.
They need tarpaulins, tents and shelters. They have no blankets or mattresses and are lying in the open.
Access to northern Gaza has been blocked or restricted for nearly two months. People say they are forced to drink tap water to survive. Eight UNRWA wells in Jabaliya have been damaged or destroyed by shelling.
Hospitals have been hit several times and all UNRWA medical centers have run out of medicine.
Aid workers killed
They say 247 UNRWA aid workers have been killed in the fighting so far. People working for the agency and their families are being injured or killed. For weeks, these workers have been scattered across Gaza for safety.
Sometimes they lose contact with each other for days, and no one knows where the other is.
Sometimes when an aid worker is killed, his colleagues don’t hear from him for days, and sometimes missing people come back online. It is a very frustrating situation.
Lucy Whitridge said that UN aid convoys have been targeted several times. She herself experienced one such attack in July. It is becoming increasingly difficult for aid agencies to operate in these conditions.
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