The smell of death is everywhere in northern Gaza

Head of UN agency to aid Palestinian refugees calls for ceasefire, UNDP says war has returned Gaza to 1950s

8139 views 0 comment(s)
Palestinians flee from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Photo: Reuters
Palestinians flee from Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, Photo: Reuters
Disclaimer: The translations are mostly done through AI translator and might not be 100% accurate.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) yesterday called for a temporary ceasefire to allow residents to leave northern Gaza. Health officials say they are running out of supplies to treat those injured in the three-week Israeli offensive.

The head of UNRWA, Filipe Lazarini, said that his staff were reporting a lack of water, food and medicine, and that the "smell of death" could be felt everywhere throughout the territory as bodies were left under the rubble or lying on the roads, the "Guardian" reported.

“Missions to remove bodies or provide humanitarian aid have been rejected. In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel abandoned and without hope. They live hour by hour, fearing death at every moment," Lazarini said in a post on IX.

He called for an "immediate truce" if only for a few hours so that Palestinian families could escape safely, without the risk of being killed in the "continuous" Israeli bombardment. "This is the minimum necessary to save the lives of civilians who have nothing to do with this conflict," said Lazarini.

Gaza
photo: Reuters

US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel yesterday to try to revive negotiations on a cease-fire in Gaza. At a meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he emphasized the need for Israel to increase humanitarian aid in Gaza, Reuters reported.

The Guardian reports that evacuation orders for the approximately 400.000 people still living in the northern third of the territory, the blockade of aid and food supplies, and the targeting of civilian infrastructure have led to accusations that Israel is committing a war crime by attempting to forcibly displace the remaining population.

The UN Development Agency (UNDP) said the war between Israel and Hamas has devastated the Palestinian economy and pushed nearly all of Gaza's population into poverty, with quality of life indicators such as health and education falling to levels of 70 years ago.

Chitose Noguchi from UNDP stated that the economy of the Palestinian territories, Gaza and the West Bank, is now 35 percent smaller than at the beginning of the Israeli invasion a year ago.

Gaza
photo: Reuters

She said that according to some standards, the level of poverty in Gaza is now close to 100 percent, and unemployment is 80 percent.

"The State of Palestine is experiencing unprecedented levels of regression," Noguchi said.

"It is estimated that the development in Gaza goes back 70 years, to 1955".

Even under optimal conditions, with international aid remaining at current levels and flowing unhindered to Gaza and the West Bank, it would still take at least ten years for the economy to recover to pre-war levels, the UNDP official said.

The war, launched by Israel after a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7 last year, which killed around 1.200 people, has brought massive destruction to the Gaza Strip. Schools, hospitals and other basic infrastructure have been razed to the ground. According to the Ministry of Health, almost 43.000 Palestinians died in Gaza.

Gaza
photo: Reuters

The report stated that around 3,3 million Palestinians need urgent humanitarian aid, of which 2,3 million are in Gaza and 1,5 million are children.

The cost of repairing the damaged infrastructure is expected to be $18,5 billion, which is almost the entire annual economic output of the Palestinian territories in 2022.

The war has also taken a serious toll on human capital, the report added, with 625.000 students in Gaza having no access to education at the end of September and 93 percent of school buildings severely damaged.

The situation is similar in the field of health care. A total of 986 health workers had been killed by the end of September, and less than half of the primary health centers were even partially functional.

Bonus video: