image1
UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths

The United Nations humanitarian chief has strongly deplored the situation in the Gaza Strip, which has been suffering under nearly three months of an unrelenting genocidal Israeli war.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Martin Griffiths, made the remarks in a statement on Friday.

"Gaza has become a place of death and despair," the statement read.

"Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured," it said, adding, "Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment."

More than 22,600 people have died since October 7, when the Israeli regime launched the war in response to an operation staged by Gaza’s resistance groups.

On Thursday, Gaza’s Government Media Office said the Israeli regime had dropped more than 65,000 tons of missiles and bombs on Gaza throughout the war.

The weight of the explosives, it added, was more than the weight of three nuclear bombs like those, which were dropped by the United States on the Japanese city of Hiroshima in 1945.

The office noted that two-thirds of the bombs and missiles used in the onslaught were unguided and imprecise projectiles, which are commonly known as dumb bombs.

Disastrous medical situation, ’famine around corner’

Griffiths regretted that the coastal sliver’s medical facilities were under relentless attack, noting that the few remaining hospitals that were partially functional had become overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by displaced people.

"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," he said.

Gazans were also facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded, he said, warning, "Famine is around the corner."

The military campaign has not spared the humanitarian community, rendering it impossible for it to implement relief missions.

The community’s "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," the statement read.

The UN official, meanwhile, said children had suffered the brunt of the onslaught, noting that the war had deprived the young ones of food, water, and education.

He demanded an "immediate end" to the warfare after declaring that "Gaza has simply become uninhabitable."

The urgent plea for cessation of the military campaign came while the US, Israel’s most dedicated ally, has torpedoed the prospect of termination of the Israeli onslaught by stonewalling ratification of all UN Security Council resolutions that have been calling for implementation of a permanent ceasefire.

Washington has also supplied the regime with more than 10,000 tons of advanced weaponry since the beginning of the regime’s military aggression.