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Photos:
Scenes in Gaza. Published by IMEMC News

Palestinians line up for a free meal in Rafah, Gaza Strip, last month. Credit: Fatima Shbair/AP Photo Published by Haaretz
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Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, January 5, 2024

News and Press Release Source OCHA
Posted 5 Jan 2024
Originally published 5 Jan 2024

(New York, January 5, 2024) Three months since the horrific October 7 attacks, Gaza has become a place of death and despair.

Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured. Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet.

Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment.

Medical facilities are under relentless attack.

The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.

A public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over.

Some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily amidst this chaos.

People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded.

Famine is around the corner.

For children in particular, the past 12 weeks have been traumatic: No food. No water. No school.

Nothing but the terrifying sounds of war, day in and day out.

Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on.

The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than 2 million people, even as its own staff are being killed and displaced, as communication blackouts continue, as roads are damaged and convoys are shot at, and as commercial supplies vital to survival are almost non-existent.

Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still held hostage in Gaza, tensions in the West Bank are boiling, and the specter of further regional spillover of the war is looming dangerously close.

Hope has never been more elusive.

Gaza has shown us the worst of humanity, as well as moments of great heroism.

We have seen how violence cannot resolve differences, but only inflame passions and build new generations of danger and insecurity.

We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbors, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity.

It is time for the parties to meet all their obligations under international law, including to protect civilians and meet their essential needs, and to release all hostages immediately.

It is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen.

This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end.

MEDIA CONTACT: In New York: Eri Kaneko, kaneko@un.org, +1 917 208 8910

Disclaimer
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.
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UN Humanitarian Chief Says 'Famine Around the Corner' in 'Uninhabitable' Gaza

Martin Griffiths also warned of a looming public health disaster, saying Gaza's few partially functioning hospitals are overwhelmed and critically short of supplies, while medical facilities are under relentless attack and infectious diseases are spreading,

The Associated Press and Haaretz
Jan 6, 2024

The UN humanitarian chief described Gaza on Friday as "uninhabitable" three months into Israel's war with Hamas, warning that famine was looming and a public health disaster unfolding.

In a grim assessment of the devastating impact of Israel's military response to the horrific Hamas attacks on October 7, Martin Griffiths said that Gaza's 2.3 million people face "daily threats to their very existence" while the world just watches.

He said tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured, families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet, and areas where Palestinians were told to relocate have been bombed.

"People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded [and] famine is around the corner," Griffiths said. The few partially functioning hospitals are overwhelmed and critically short of supplies, medical facilities are under relentless attack, infectious diseases are spreading, and amidst the chaos some 180 Palestinian women are giving birth every day.

"Gaza has simply become uninhabitable," the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said.

He said the humanitarian community is facing an "impossible mission" – trying to help more than two million people while UN staff and aid workers from partner organizations are killed, communications blackouts continue, roads are damaged, truck convoys are shot at, and vital commercial supplies "are almost non-existent."

Griffiths reiterated UN demands for an immediate end to the war and the release of all hostages, declaring that "It is time for the international community to use all its influence to make this happen."

Meanwhile, Scottish First Minister Humza Yousaf accused Israel of carrying out "a textbook definition of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip" in a Friday post on the social media platform X. Yousaf called on British government ministers to use their influence to pressure Israel to stop its attacks in Gaza, saying they went beyond any legitimate response to Hamas' attack.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna told CNN that calls from far-right Israeli ministers for the "voluntary relocation" of Gazans were "irresponsible" and not in Israel's fundamental interests.

"It's not up to Israel to determine the future of Gaza, which is Palestinian land," Colonna said. "We need to return to the principle of international law and respect it … We support the two-state solution, which is the only viable option. Gaza and the West Bank must together be part of the future Palestinian state."

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said more had to be done to protect civilians in Gaza and that there could not be any Israeli occupation after the war.

The October 7 attack into southern Israel by Hamas, which controls Gaza, killed around 1,200 people, and took some 250 people hostage. More than 120 remain in captivity.

Israel's air, ground, and sea assault in Gaza, aimed at obliterating Hamas, has killed more than 22,400 people, two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-controlled Health Ministry in Gaza. The count does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.

The three-month conflict has displaced some 85 percent of Gaza's residents, and the United Nations has identified more than 37,000 structures destroyed or damaged in the war so far.

The UN children's agency UNICEF said Friday that most young children and pregnant women aren't getting enough nutrition, with fewer than 200 aid trucks entering Gaza every day – less than half the prewar level – and distribution hampered by the fighting.

A survey by UNICEF found that 90 percent of children under the age of two are eating two or fewer of the five essential food groups each day, mainly bread or milk. A quarter of pregnant women said they only eat one food group per day.

UNICEF says cases of diarrhea among children under the age of five have risen from 48,000 to 71,000 — an indication of poor nutrition. Normally, only 2,000 cases of diarrhea are reported each month in the Gaza Strip.

Israel cut off food, clean water, medicine, electricity, and fuel deliveries to Gaza immediately after the Hamas attack. In response to U.S. pressure, it allowed a trickle of aid in through Egypt in late October, and the number of trucks has increased from about 100 to up to 200 every day.

Israeli authorities have repeatedly said there is enough food in the territory, and that they have taken the necessary steps to allow aid in, blaming any shortages on UN bodies.

But UN associate spokesperson Stephanie Tremblay reiterated Friday that "the current response is only meeting a fraction of people's needs."

She repeated what UN Secretary-General said last month: "It's a mistake to quote the effectiveness of the humanitarian operation in Gaza based only on the number of trucks. An effective aid operation in Gaza requires security. It requires staff who can work in safety. It requires good logistical capacity and the resumption of commercial activity."

Tremblay said until those requirements are met, Gazans will not receive enough aid.

Nonetheless, the UN World Food Program reported that in December it reached 975,000 vulnerable people with food across Gaza and in the West Bank, she said.

In an indication of difficulties getting aid into Gaza, some international efforts are resorting to dropping supplies from planes. France announced Friday that French and Jordanian C-130 planes dropped a total of seven tons of medical aid to the Jordanian field hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis in a joint operation overnight.

''The humanitarian situation remains critical in Gaza,'' French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday on X, formerly Twitter. ''In a difficult context, France and Jordan delivered aid to the population and to those who are helping them.''

The airdrop, a first from a Western country in the Gaza Strip, was agreed during Macron's recent visit to Jordan, where he met with King Abdullah II last month, the French presidency said.