The head of a United Nations agency said during an emergency meeting Monday that “an immediate humanitarian ceasefire has become a matter of life and death for millions.”
Philippe Lazzarini, the Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), warned against additional fighting in Gaza, where Israeli forces are launching a ground invasion to eliminate Hamas, which governs the territory.
Lazzarini warned Israel against the “collective punishment” of Palestinians and said a further breakdown of civil order following the looting of the agency’s warehouses by Palestinians searching for food and other aid “will make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the largest U.N. agency in Gaza to continue operating.”
Lazzarini, flanked by the head of the U.N. children’s agency UNICEF and a senior U.N. humanitarian official, provided briefings to the Security Council, where the officials painted a dire picture of the humanitarian situation in Gaza after more than a million people have been displaced. The meeting comes 23 days after Hamas’ surprise Oct. 7 attacks in Israel that killed over 1,400 people.
ISRAEL AMBASSADOR BLASTS UN ‘SILENCE’ OVER HAMAS ATROCITIES; TO…
