Griffiths emphasized the indescribable horrors, including bodies left on roads and starving individuals desperately searching for sustenance. Humanitarian relief facilities faced israeli targeting, endangering aid workers.
Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs, quoted the UN staff who were able to go to northern Gaza as saying that what they saw was indescribably horrific, as bodies were left on the roads, and people who showed clear signs of starvation stopped trucks searching for anything they can get to survive.
Griffiths stated that humanitarian relief facilities were subjected to Israeli targeting, which led to exposing humanitarian aid workers to serious danger, adding that his team’s efforts to send humanitarian convoys to the northern Gaza Strip were met with delay and rejection (from the Israeli side) amid impossible circumstances, while endangering the safety of relief workers.
He explained that many people no longer have homes to return to, as shelters in the Strip are housing a much larger number of people compared to its normal capacity.
Griffiths pointed out that shelter centers are overcrowded and water and food are about to run out, noting that 134 facilities belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) were bombed and 148 UN employees were killed.
He said the health system was in a state of collapse, as women could not give birth safely, children could not be vaccinated, infectious diseases were on the rise, and people were seeking shelter in hospital courtyards.
Griffiths expressed his dissatisfaction with the evacuation orders issued by the Israeli army, stressing that airstrikes were concentrated in the places where civilians were asked to head to, adding that there is no safe place in Gaza and a decent human life has become almost impossible.
For her part, Ilse Brands-Keres, Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations for Human Rights, said that the mass forced displacement began on October 12, after the Israeli administration issued an order to evacuate the northern part of Gaza.
Keres stressed the need not to prevent the return of Palestinians who were forcibly expelled from Gaza, noting that a strong guarantee must be provided to enable these people to return to their homes.
Since October 7, the zionist occupation army has been waging a devastating war on Gaza, leaving more than 90,000 martyrs, missing and wounded, most of them children and women, in addition to massive destruction of infrastructure and an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe. (ILKHA)