UN condemns as “catastrophic” resumption of Israeli onslaughts on Gaza
The United Nations has denounced the resumption of Israel’s genocidal war on the Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip warning that “hell on earth has returned to Gaza.”
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The UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday he regrated resumption of military operations in Haza following collapse of the ceasefire.
Israeli warplanes restarted nonstop airstrikes on Gaza as an extended week-long ceasefire between the regime and the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas expired on Friday.
Volker Turk, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, said the “resumption of hostilities in Gaza is catastrophic.”
“I urge all parties and states with influence over them to redouble efforts, immediately, to ensure a ceasefire – on humanitarian and human rights grounds.”
Jens Laerke, the spokesperson for the United Nations humanitarian office in Geneva, said the truce had seen significantly larger humanitarian convoys entering Gaza, even reaching north of Wadi Gaza, which prior to the pause had received almost no supplies. “With the resumption of war, we fear that the continuation of this (aid) is now in doubt.”
“The Rafah crossing is closed as of now. We need a resumption of a humanitarian pause, not a return to war.”
Appealing for a lasting ceasefire, UNICEF has said inaction on Gaza amounts to “an approval of the killing of children.”
“A lasting ceasefire must be implemented,” James Elder, spokesperson for UNICEF, told reporters via video link from Gaza.
“Inaction at its core is an approval of the killing of children.... It is reckless to think more attacks on the people of Gaza will lead to anything other than carnage.”
The World Health Organization has also sounded the alarm, warning about the grave situation of medical and relief operation in the Palestinian territory.
“We are extremely concerned about the resumption of violence,” the WHO representative in the Palestinian territories Richard Peeperkorn told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza.
As the Israelis have resumed airstrikes, hospitals are expected to be witnessing the most horrific scenes as Palestinian casualties turn up at relatively small hospitals “in their tens if not hundreds,” the senior WHO emergency officer Rob Holden told reporters in Geneva via video-link from Gaza.
Holden said Gaza’s “healthcare service is on its knees.”
Since October 7, Israel killed more than 15,000 people, mostly women and children, in Gaza.