United Nations, Nov 1: UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini has said the killing of thousands of children in Gaza cannot be “collateral damage.”Nearly 70 per cent of those reported killed in Gaza are children and women, Xinhua news agency reported.
“Save the Children, an international non-governmental organisation, reported that nearly 3,200 children have been killed in Gaza in just three weeks. This surpasses the number of children killed annually across the world’s conflict zones since 2019,” he said. “This cannot be ‘collateral damage.'”
Churches, mosques, hospitals, and UNRWA facilities, including those sheltering displaced people, have not been spared. Too many people have been killed and injured while seeking safety in places protected by international humanitarian law, he told the Security Council.
“The atrocities of Hamas do not absolve Israel from its obligations under international humanitarian law. Every war has rules, and this one is no exception,” he said.
The current siege imposed on Gaza is collective punishment, said Lazzarini.
Two weeks of full siege followed by the trickle of aid last week mean that basic services are crumbling and that medicine, food and water, and fuel are running out. The streets of Gaza have started overflowing with sewage, which will cause a massive health hazard very soon, he said.
In the latest blow, the communications blackout over the weekend has aggravated the panic and distress of people, he said.
The blackout meant that people could not communicate with their loved ones inside Gaza to know who was dead and who was alive, that they no longer knew whether they would receive bread from UNRWA, that they felt abandoned and cut off from the rest of the world, he said.
The communications blackout has accelerated the breaking down of civil order. Panic pushed thousands of desperate people to head to the UNRWA warehouses and distribution centers. A further breakdown in civil order will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for UNRWA to continue operating.
