In Rafah, in southern Gaza, drinking water is being collected.
The threat of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip, has put Gaza civilians in a "constant state of fear" as the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) told reporters in Geneva today that the threat of an all-out Israeli assault on Rafah, the southernmost city in the Gaza Strip.
"An extraordinary deep anxiety is spreading in Gaza, and now everyone is asking whether [Rafah] will be attacked militarily," Lazzarini said. ”
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has reported that dozens of people have been killed in "intensive air strikes" in Rafah. Lazzarini believes that a full-scale invasion of the city, which is currently hosting nearly a million displaced people, will depend on "whether a ceasefire can be reached this week."
Despite ongoing pressure from the international community, including the United States, to establish a temporary humanitarian ceasefire, no breakthrough has yet to be announced in the relevant negotiations.
Hunger remains a threat
At the same time, the hunger crisis in Gaza has not gone away. Lazarini noted that especially in the north of Gaza, "hunger is spreading and famine is imminent".
"The good news is that, according to my colleagues, there is now more food available in the market, but that doesn't mean people have access to food, because there is no cash flow in the northern Gaza Strip," he said. ”
Safe water emergencies
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has raised this concern in its regularly updated status reports and has stressed that the situation in southern Rafah remains dire. The report notes that local residents face serious challenges in accessing basic services, including health care, clean water and sanitation.
The report also shows that Gaza's coastal water department has warned that the enclave is "on the verge of collapse" of the entire water sanitation system.
To meet the growing demand for safe drinking water, Gaza's utilities and UNICEF launched a solar-powered desalination station in Rafah last week. It is enough to produce drinking water for 400 families, who are now clustered in a school for displaced people.
To help meet the still-urgent nutritional needs, UNICEF and more than a dozen humanitarian partners have also expanded outpatient treatment for severely malnourished children to more than 100 sites across Gaza, including more than 50 sites in Rafah and more than 30 sites in the north.
Some progress has been made in aid transportation
At the same time, Lazzarini brought rare good news: the humanitarian supplies that have been able to enter Gaza in the past few weeks have exceeded the levels of previous months. But he still stressed that this is "far from enough to reverse the negative trend we are witnessing".
He further noted that UNRWA's requests to send aid convoys continued to be "systematically denied" by Israel, and that delays were exacerbated by the delays in the delivery of aid convoys due to the daily changing opening hours of the Gaza crossings, as well as the lengthy process of unloading and reloading the convoys for inspection.
Inhumane treatment
After reiterating his call for the "unconditional and immediate release" of all Israeli hostages still being held in Gaza, Lazzarini also reiterated his deep concern about all Gazans detained by Israeli security forces.
He said the Israeli side would leave behind the bodies of some detainees and even [Palestinians] at the crossings into Gaza. And according to the testimonies of some released detainees, they were "often gathered together and forcibly stripped down to their underwear, then loaded onto trucks, blindfolded and with their hands tied."
The detainees were allegedly held in solitary confinement after their arrest and faced "appalling inhumane treatment, including waterboarding, severe beatings, dog bites, and being forced to remain in a stressful position for hours, sometimes up to 12 hours, 24 hours."
Moreover, testimonies revealed that detainees suspected by Israel of being associated with Hamas were not allowed to go to the toilet and were therefore forced to wear diapers, and that they were forced to state that UNRWA had violated its neutral status and had "political ties" with Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
182 UNRWA employees lost their lives
Israeli attacks have killed at least 34,500 Palestinians and injured more than 77,700 since October 7 last year, according to reports from health authorities in Gaza. Lazzarini also said that so far, 182 UNRWA staff members had lost their lives and that more than 160 of the agency's premises had been damaged or completely destroyed.
He noted that most of these facilities had been used to house displaced people, and that more than 400 people had lost their lives in these facilities alone. Lazarini condemned the fact that these facilities are used for military purposes when they are idle, particularly in northern Gaza.
He insisted that this "blatant disregard for the United Nations" must be investigated immediately after the end of the war to prevent it from becoming the "new standard" in war.
