Fighting in Gaza, situation of civilians and more

According to Martin Griffiths, the top UN emergency relief official, famine is “just around the corner” as the people of Gaza face “the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded”.

(Credit: Ahmed Hasballah/Getty Images)

Griffiths says Gaza has become “a place of death and despair”, saying in a press release on Friday that the death toll has reached thousands, medical facilities are under attack and there is a shortage of functioning hospitals. .

“Hope has never been more elusive,” Griffiths wrote in the report published by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on October 7, 2023, nearly three months after Hamas launched attacks on Israel.

Griffiths said a public health disaster was looming as sewers overflowed and infectious diseases spread in overcrowded shelters. “Around 180 Palestinian women are giving birth every day amid this chaos,” the UN official said.

“Gaza is simply uninhabitable. People here face daily threats to their existence while the world watches,” Griffiths said.

“Meanwhile, rocket attacks on Israel continue, more than 120 people are still being held hostage in Gaza, tensions are rising in the West Bank and the threat of a regional expansion of the war is coming dangerously close,” he said.

Fears of a wider war in the Middle East, fueled by incidents involving the Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iranian-backed groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, are the main focus of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s current visit to the region.

Griffiths urged all involved in the ongoing war to respect international law, including “protecting civilians and meeting their essential needs and immediately releasing all hostages.” He called on the international community to use all its influence to help make this happen.

He said, “We demand an immediate end to the war, not only for the sake of the people of Gaza and their threatened neighbors, but also for the sake of future generations who will endure these 90 days of hell and the most basic principles of humanity.” Will never forget the attacks.” ,

Griffith said, “This war should never have started. But it’s time for it to end.”