UNRWA: ‘UN flag no longer enough to protect Palestinians’

A United Nations (UN) official in Gaza confirmed on Friday that the UN flag is no longer sufficient to protect the approximately 600,000 Palestinians who have taken refuge in UN schools in the besieged Gaza Strip, noting that 38 people were martyred there.

As a result of the Israeli occupation’s ongoing aggression against the Gaza Strip and the continuous bombardment by aircraft, artillery and gunboats, more than 600,000 citizens took refuge in institutions affiliated with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), predominantly in schools.

The agency’s director in the Gaza Strip, Thomas White, shared: “These are people seeking shelter under a UN flag seeking protection under international humanitarian law,” as he addressed representatives of UN member states gathered to hear the report on the humanitarian situation in Gaza. “Let’s be very clear, there is no place that is safe in Gaza right now.”

“The truth is that we cannot even provide them with security under the banner of the United Nations,” White added before the representatives of the UN member states gathered to hear a report on the humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip.

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White continued that more than 50 UN facilities were damaged by Israeli shelling, including five that were directly targeted, which so far resulted in the killing of 38 people who sought refuge there. He expressed his fear that this number would rise “significantly,” especially in the northern Gaza Strip, where UNRWA has lost contact with many of its centres.

White conveyed that the UN remains the only hope for the people of Gaza today and that he does not want to reach a day when the UN flag is not raised in Gaza.

He also noted that during his visits to various parts of Gaza in recent weeks, the scene was one of death and destruction, confirming that at least 72 UNRWA employees were killed since the beginning of the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip on 7 October.

The death toll in the Gaza Strip has risen to 9,227, including 3,826 children and 2,405 women, according to the Ministry of Health.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths commented that no one knows how many other victims have not been counted or are still under the rubble.

So far, more than 2,000 citizens have been reported missing, including about 1,100 children, who are still trapped or martyred under the rubble.

Griffiths added that the health system has collapsed and UNRWA is practically out of service.

He continued: “What we’ve seen in Israel and in Palestinian territories is a blight on our collective conscience.”

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