Top United Nations officials have warned of an “apocalyptic” situation in Gaza with “nowhere safe to go” for civilians as the war between Israel and Hamas intensifies.
Israel’s war against Hamas has now expanded into the south, where Gazans were previously told to evacuate for their safety.
Martin Griffiths, the top UN emergency relief official, said in a statement: “Every time we think things cannot get any more apocalyptic in Gaza, they do. People are being ordered to move again, with little to survive on, forced to make one impossible choice after another. Such blatant disregard for basic humanity must stop.”
According to UN estimations, 246 Palestinians, including 65 children, have been killed in Gaza’s West Bank since October 7. This toll is more than half of all Palestinians killed in the West Bank this year.
Following Israel’s military expansion into the south of the Gaza Strip, another UN official said “an even more hellish scenario is about to unfold, leaving United Nations humanitarian operations unable to respond, one in which humanitarian operations may not be able to respond.”
The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has said they are taking “aggressive” measures in Khan Younis in the south of the Gaza Strip to fight Hamas and other armed groups.
On Monday, December 4, witnesses in the south reported seeing Irsraeli tanks and armoured vehicles approaching from the east, turning the main road into “a battlefield”.
In response, the UN warned that thousands more people in Gaza could once again have to relocate, after being told the south would provide a safe passage away from danger. The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Israeli evacuation orders created “panic, fear and anxiety” and any notions of safe zones in Gaza are false.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres has urged the IDF to spare civilians from more suffering. Despite their evacuation orders, he said: “There is nowhere safe to go in Gaza.”
Lynn Hastings, UN humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said: “These zones cannot be safe nor humanitarian when unilaterally declared.
“What we see today are shelters with no capacity, a health system on its knees, a lack of clean drinking water, no proper sanitation and poor nutrition for people already mentally and physically exhausted.”
The UN says about 80 percent of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have been displaced.
According to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, at least 15,899 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7.
