NEW YORK CITY: Palestinians in Gaza, whose rights for years have been \u201ccomprehensively restricted,\u201d are now enduring a bombardment of an intensity \u201crarely experienced in this century,\u201d as well as ongoing urban warfare, a leading UN official said on Friday.
\nVolker Turk, the high commissioner for human rights, added that one in every 57 people living in the Gaza Strip has been killed or wounded in the past five weeks.
\nSpeaking during a meeting of the General Assembly requested by the UN\u2019s Arab Group and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to discuss the humanitarian situation in Gaza, he said: \u201cThe levels of distress are unimaginable; the situation is a living nightmare.\u201d
\nMore than 11,100 people have been killed in the territory, more than 4,600 of them children, according to figures from the Gazan health ministry. More than 26,000 people have been injured, many of them severely, and at least 2,000 are presumed trapped under the rubble of damaged or destroyed buildings, with no means available to reach or rescue them. Israeli airstrikes have struck many civilian locations, including hospitals, schools, markets, bakeries and homes.
\n\u201cAn entire population is being deeply traumatized, and the impact on children in particular will have far-reaching consequences,\u201d Turk told the large gathering of ambassadors and heads of UN agencies.
\nHe lamented the fact that many Palestinians have been unable to comply with instructions from Israeli forces to move from northern Gaza, scene of the most intense military action, to the south of the territory. Hundreds of thousands of people, including many children, disabled people, and the sick and wounded, remain stuck in the north, where the shelling is intense and humanitarian access has been impossible.
\nTurk dismissed the current Israeli proposal for the establishment of a so-called \u201csafe zone\u201d as \u201cuntenable,\u201d warning: \u201cThe zone is neither safe nor feasible for the number of people in need.\u201d
\nHe joined the heads of other UN agencies, including the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, in warning that fuel supplies in Gaza are on the verge of completely running out.
\n\u201cAlready, this is leading to the collapse of water, sewage and crucial healthcare services, and could end the trickle of humanitarian assistance that Israel has to date permitted to enter Gaza,\u201d Turk said.
\nHe also repeated a warning from the WFP that Gazans \u201care facing the immediate possibility of starvation.\u201d
\nHe then sounded \u201cthe loudest possible alarm bell about the West Bank\u201d and East Jerusalem, expressing great concern about the intensification of violence there and \u201csevere discrimination against Palestinians.\u201d
\nHe said: \u201cI am alarmed by the rise in killings of Palestinians by Israeli security forces and by settlers, displacement of Palestinian communities due to settler violence, a sharp increase in seemingly arbitrary arrests and detention, and the ill-treatment of Palestinians in detention.
\n\u201cThese heighten a potentially explosive situation that is well past the early-warning level.\u201d
\nTurk called for a humanitarian ceasefire and an end to the fighting, \u201cnot only to deliver urgently needed food and provide meaningful humanitarian assistance but also to create space for a path out of this horror.\u201d
\n\u201cAll forms of collective punishment must come to an end. Israelis\u2019 freedom is inextricably bound up with Palestinians\u2019 freedom. Palestinians and Israelis are each other\u2019s only hope for peace.\u201d
\nMartin Griffiths, the UN\u2019s humanitarian chief, told the General Assembly that \u201cinternational humanitarian law appears to have been turned on its head.\u201d
\nHe said that more than 41,000 housing units have been destroyed or severely damaged, amounting to about 45 per cent of the total housing stock in Gaza, and it is estimated that more than 1.5 million people are internally displaced.
\n\u201cMany of them have fled southward in search of relative safety, only to be now told to relocate \u2014 many of them for the second time \u2014 westward,\u201d he added. \u201cNevertheless, hundreds of thousands remain in the north, where the fiercest fighting and bombardment is taking place.
\n\u201cThere is little-to-no medical care available in northern Gaza. Out of 24 hospitals with in-patient capacity in the north, only one, Al-Ahli in Gaza city, is presently operational and admitting patients. Eighteen hospitals have shut down and evacuated since the start of hostilities.\u201d
\nAcross the Strip, food and water supplies are running \u201cperilously low,\u201d Griffiths said, and the chronic lack of fuel means communications networks and other essential services, such as water desalination plants, \u201care progressively dropping offline.\u201d
\nHe urged Hamas to release all the hostages that are still being held, and stressed the need for the humanitarian effort to shift from \u201cad hoc delivery of assistance to a continuous flow of aid.\u201d To help facilitate this he called for the opening of additional border-crossing points and permission for fuel deliveries to begin.
\nGriffiths also pleaded for \u201ca humanitarian ceasefire \u2014 call it what you will but the requirement, from a humanitarian point of view, is simple: stop the fighting to allow civilians to move safely. Do it for as long as possible, to facilitate an unimpeded humanitarian response. Give the people of Gaza a breather from the terrible, terrible things that have been put on them these last few weeks. And, without condition, release all the hostages.
\n\u201cWe are not asking for the moon, we are asking for the basic measures required to meet the essential needs of the civilian population and stem the course of this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK CITY: Palestinians in Gaza, whose rights for years have been \u201ccomprehensively restricted,\u201d are now enduring a bombardment of an intensity \u201crarely experienced in this century,\u201d as well as ongoing urban warfare, a leading UN official said on Friday. Volker Turk, the high commissioner for human rights, added that one in every 57 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":341456,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-368793","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n