GENEVA, Dec 14 — People of Gaza are running out of time and options, as they face Israeli bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-ever-shrinking space, stressed United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.
“They are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948. And it has been a painful history,” Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported he said at the Global Refugee Forum.
He said the people of Gaza are now crammed into less than one-third of the original territory, near the Egyptian border, adding that “It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude.”
Lazzarini said Rafah, which used to be home to 280,000 people are now hosting over a million people.
“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the siege to let in sufficient aid. I welcome here the overwhelming support of 153 UN Member States at the General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he said.
He also affirmed the need to roll out humanitarian assistance worthy of its name.
“What can 100 trucks or so per day offer to 2.2 million people? The high-level discussions about the number of trucks per day have taken up so much time and energy that I have no answer to a father of five in Rafah who asked me how he and his children can survive on one can of beans for three days.
“We are very far from an adequate humanitarian response,” WAFA quoted him said.
