He condemned the reported killing of more than a thousand
people, including women and children, since the collapse of
the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas on 18 March.
In
his daily press briefing, UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric
said that large-scale Israeli shelling and ground operations
have resulted in widespread destruction and the displacement
of more than 100,000 Palestinians from Rafah in the past two
days alone, most of whom have been displaced multiple
times.
Deadly attack on medical
personnel
“The Secretary-Generalis shocked
bythe attack of the Israeli army on a medical and
emergency convoy on 23 March resulting in the killing of 15
medical personnel and humanitarian workers in Gaza,” he
said.
Mr. Dujarric stressed that all parties to the
conflict must protect medical, humanitarian and emergency
workers at all times, and respect and protect civilians, as
required by international humanitarian law. He underscored
the need to end the denial of life-saving
assistance.
Since October 2023, at least 408 aid
workers have been killed in Gaza, including 280 UN
humanitarian personnel.
Resume the
ceasefire
Mr. Dujarric said the Secretary-General
honours all humanitarian workers killed in this conflict and
demands a full, thorough and independent investigation into
these incidents.
The UN chief reiterated his strong
condemnation of the 7 October 2023 attacks on Israel by
Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups, stressing that
there was no justification for the terror attacks or the
collective punishment of the Palestinian people.
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Mr.
Guterres renewed his urgent call for the immediate
resumption of the ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional
release of all hostages, and unhindered humanitarian access
throughout Gaza.
UN rejects any attempt at
demographic or territorial change
Mr. Dujarric was
asked about the plans Israel has announced to take control
of more land in Gaza.
“The Secretary-General also
reminds that Security
Council resolution 2735 (2024) rejects any attempt at
demographic or territorial change in the Gaza Strip,
including any actions that reduce the territory of Gaza,”
he said.
In this regard, the UN chief is increasingly
concerned about inflammatory rhetoric which calls on the
Israeli military to “capture extensive territory that will
be added to the State of Israel’s security
areas.”
‘Even ruins have become a
target’
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of
the Palestine refugee agency (UNRWA), reported on
Wednesday that Israeli forces shelled one of its buildings
in Jabalia in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
He
said in a social media post that the building was previously
a health centre and had been badly damaged earlier in the
war. In Gaza, “even ruins have become a target,” he
remarked.
Initial reports indicate that the facility
was sheltering more than 700 people when it was bombed, and
that “among those killed are reportedly nine children,
including a two-week-old baby,” Mr. Lazzarini said, noting
that displaced families had stayed in the shelter after it
was hit because “they have nowhere else to
go.”
Investigate all attacks
Since the war
began, more than 300 UN buildings have been destroyed or
damaged, although the coordinates of these locations have
been shared regularly with the parties to the conflict. He
said more than 700 people had been killed while seeking UN
protection.
Mr. Lazzarini added that too many UNRWA
premises have also reportedly been used for military and
combat purposes by Palestinian armed groups, including
Hamas, or by Israeli forces.
“The total disregard of
UN staff, premises or operations is a profound defiance of
international law,” he said.
“I call once again
for independent investigations to find out the circumstances
of each of these attacks and the serious violations. In
Gaza, all lines have been crossed over and over
again.”
Gaza ‘a death trap’
Jonathan
Whittall, acting director of the UN Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, described the situation in the Gaza
Strip on Wednesday as a “war without limits.”
He
described what is happening there as “an endless loop of
blood, pain, death,” saying “Gaza has become a death
trap.”
Mr. Whittall was briefing reporters at UN
Headquarters in New York via video link from Deir Al-Balah
in central Gaza.
The top official noted that he was
not sure what he could say to describe the situation on the
ground, but decided against mincing his words especially
after having coordinated
a mission on Sunday that uncovered the mass grave of a
number of humanitarian workers who were killed in
Rafah.
The dead paramedics were “still wearing their
uniforms, still wearing gloves” and killed while trying to
save lives, he said. He added that their ambulances “were
hit one by one” as they entered an area where Israeli
forces were advancing.
He noted that the grave where
they were buried had an emergency light from one of the
ambulances.
Mr. Whittall said he began by highlighting
this case as it was emblematic of where the Strip stands
today: “What is happening here defies decency, it defies
humanity, it defies the law,” he said. “It really is a
war without limits.”
He said that forced
displacement orders resumed after the collapse of the
ceasefire, and 64 per cent of the Gaza Strip is now under
active forced displacement orders by Israel or within the
so-called “buffer zone.”
One month since Israeli
aid blockade began
“Nowhere and no one is safe,”
according to Mr. Whittall, who said his colleagues tell him
they “just want to die with their families” and that
their worst fear is to survive alone.
“We cannot
accept that Palestinian civilians are dehumanized to the
point of being somehow unworthy of survival,” he said,
noting that a month has passed since aid supplies were
blocked from entering Gaza.
Responding to reporters’
questions, he said there was nowhere else in the world, to
his knowledge, where an entire population of 2.1 million
people is under siege, denied all forms of humanitarian aid,
and the commercial sector is destroyed and then expected to
survive entirely dependent on aid in a besieged and
bombarded area.
He added that the humanitarian crisis
in Gaza was spiraling out of control, with all bakeries
supported by the UN World Food Programme (WFP) closed, markets reduced
to rubble, ambulance teams being killed, and people living
on an aid system which is under attack.
Mr. Whittall
emphasized the lack of humanitarian solutions to the
problems facing Gaza. He stated that the crisis requires
political action that begins with accountability, stressing
that aid cannot compensate for political
failures.
End the cruelty
“I think it’s
important for us to acknowledge that what is happening in
Gaza is not going to stay in Gaza,” he warned. “We
cannot let the rules-based order be replaced by one set of
rules for some people, and another set of rules for
others.”
The UN official expressed hope that Member
States would use their political and economic influence to
enforce international law, that a ceasefire would be reached
to stop the slaughter and free the hostages, that
“Palestinians would be finally seen as human, and that this
cruelty will
end.”
