UNITED NATIONS, Oct 12 (NNN-XINHUA) – The number of Palestinian people displaced across Gaza has topped 263,000, an increase of 40 percent since Tuesday, said the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), yesterday.
More than 1,000 housing units in Gaza have been destroyed, and some 560 have been severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable. An additional 12,630 sustained lesser damage, it said.
All 13 hospitals and other health facilities in Gaza are only partially operational, due to supply shortages and fuel rationing, it added.
With water supplies cut off from Israel into Gaza, there is a severe shortage of drinking water, affecting more than 650,000 people. Israeli airstrikes have also damaged seven facilities that had been providing water and sanitation services to over 1.1 million people. In some areas, sewage and solid waste are now accumulating in the streets, posing a health hazard, said OCHA.
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, said, 220,000 internally displaced people are sheltering in 88 schools run by the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA. The numbers continue to increase as Israeli airstrikes are continuing.
The spokesman said, 11 UNRWA personnel have been killed in Gaza during Israeli airstrikes since Saturday, while three teachers have been injured. Meanwhile, 30 UNRWA students have been killed and eight others have been injured.
Two UNRWA schools were affected by airstrikes, bringing the total number of installations affected by the conflict to 20 since Saturday. Sixteen internally displaced people sheltering at an UNRWA school were injured, two of them critically, as a result of an airstrike nearby, said the spokesman.
UNRWA staff are working around the clock, to respond to the needs of the displaced in the shelters. However, some are overcrowded and have limited availability of food and other basic items, such as potable water, he said.
Guterres yesterday called for safe humanitarian access to Gaza, which is under Israel’s “complete siege,” following Hamas attacks on Israel over the weekend.
UN premises and all hospitals, schools and clinics must never be targeted. Crucial life-saving supplies, including fuel, food and water, must be allowed into Gaza. There is a need for rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access, he told reporters.
Guterres thanked Egypt for its constructive engagement to facilitate humanitarian access through Rafah, the sole crossing point between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and to make the El Arish airport available for critical assistance.
Dujarric said, the United Nations needs assurances from the Israeli side that Rafah will not be targeted and that humanitarian aid can come through before the opening of the border crossing.
Discussions are ongoing towards that end, he said.– NNN-XINHUA