According to Martin Griffiths, the United Nations’ top emergency relief official, famine is “just around the corner” as Gazans face the “highest level of food insecurity ever recorded”.
(Credit: Ahmad Hasballah/Getty Images)
Griffiths says Gaza has become a “place of death and despair”, saying in a press release issued on Friday that the death toll has reached thousands, medical facilities are under attack and there is a lack of functioning hospitals.
“Hope has never been more elusive,” Griffiths wrote in a report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on October 7, 2023, nearly three months after Hamas launched an attack on Israel.
Griffiths said overflowing sewers and the spread of infectious diseases in overcrowded shelters are creating a public health disaster. About 180 Palestinian women “are giving birth every day in the midst of this chaos,” the UN official added.
“Gaza has become simply deserted. Its people face daily threats to their existence, while the world watches,” Griffiths said.
“Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still hostages in Gaza, tensions are simmering in the West Bank and the specter of further territorial expansion of the war is coming dangerously close,” he added.
Fears of a wider war in the Middle East, fueled by incidents involving Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iranian-backed groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, are the focus of US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s current trip to the region.
Griffiths urged all those involved in the ongoing war to respect international law, “to protect civilians and provide for their essential needs, and to immediately release all hostages.” He called on the international community to use all its influence to help make this happen.
“We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not only for the people of Gaza and their terrified neighbors, but for future generations, who will never forget these 90 days of hell and attacks on the most basic teachings of humanity,” he added. .
“This war should never have started. But it’s time to end,” Griffiths said.
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