United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths said with the renewed in the fighting, the people in Gaza have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on.
While the past week offered us a glimpse of what can happen when the guns fall silent, the situation in Khan Younis today is a shocking reminder of what happens when they don’t, he said.
‘Over the past seven days, hostages were released, families were reunited and more patients received some medical care,’ he said in a statement.
‘The volume of aid into and across Gaza increased. And while it barely scratched the surface of what people need, it still allowed aid agencies to provide some basic supplies, reach areas which have been cut off for weeks, and offer some respite to deeply traumatized families,’ he added.
‘Today, in a matter of hours, scores were reportedly killed and injured. Families were told to evacuate, again. Hopes were dashed,’ said the UN official.
‘Almost two mont
hs into the fighting, the children, women and men of Gaza are all terrified. They have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on. They live surrounded by disease, destruction and death. This is unacceptable. We need to maintain – and build on – the progress in aid delivery. We need civilians and the life-sustaining infrastructure they rely on to be protected,’ he said, calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and an end to the fighting.
Source: Palestine News and Information Agency – WAFA
Prime Minister Najib Mikati pursued on Saturday his meetings in Dubai on the sidelines of his participation in the “COP2” Conference, where he conferred with French President Emmanuel Macron on the situation in Gaza and southern Lebanon.
Talks also touched on the outcome of the visit by President Macron’s envoy to Lebanon, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and the deliberations he held with Lebanese officials and leaders.
The Prime Minister later held talks with Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar, renewing Lebanon’s appreciation for Ireland’s effective and valuable contribution to the UNIFIL peacekeeping forces in the South, hailing “the sacrifices that UNIFIL is making to maintain peace in south Lebanon, ensuring stability for the people of the southern region and for Lebanon as a whole.’
PM Mikati met as well with his Italian counterpart, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, with whom he discussed Lebanese-Italian bilateral relations.
He later held a meeting with Scottish Prime Minister Hamza Yusuf, praising his position r
egarding the Israeli attacks on Gaza and southern Lebanon.
“The issue of Palestine does not concern the Arabs only, but rather it is an international humanitarian issue in the first place and requires a just and comprehensive solution that preserves the rights of the Palestinians,” Mikati underlined.
Source: National News Agency – Lebanon