'Please save Gaza, I beg you. It's dying': UN staff

United Nations: Staff and personnel working with the UN agency for Palestine refugees on Sunday described the situation in the Gaza Strip as "catastrophic” amidst Israeli bombardment and appealed for immediate supplies of food, water and medicines for children, pregnant women and elderly in their shelters.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has issued an emergency appeal to support Palestinian refugees in Gaza, saying that hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugees are suffering the consequences of the heavy escalation in violence on the Gaza Strip.

"Please save Gaza, I beg you, save Gaza. It's dying. It's dying. It's dying,” Rawya Halas, head of the UNRWA shelter in Khan Younis, Gaza, said in a video posted by UNRWA on the site X on Sunday.

Since the unprecedented attack on Israel by Hamas militants on October 7, the Israeli military has warned 1.1 million Palestinians living in north Gaza to evacuate south, and thousands of families have been fleeing by vehicle or on foot.

"There are children, elderly and adults for whom I cannot provide. I am UNRWA. I'm the head of the shelter and I cannot offer them anything, neither food nor water.”

In the video, Halas makes an emotional appeal for help, the desperation and sadness in her voice of not being able to provide essential medicines and food to the refugees in the shelter, palpable.

"The situation we are in now is unprecedented and cannot be described with words,” Halas said in the video adding that 15,000 Palestinian refugees are in the shelter.

"They left their homes without food or drink.” She said that in the shelter, there are people who have diabetes, disabled babies and some children who have now contracted smallpox.

“The centre cannot accommodate this number, neither in terms of food, bathrooms, water nor electricity. The electricity will be cut off shortly. We will not be able to attend to people,” Halas said.

“We don't know how to meet their needs. There is nothing, nothing. “We are looking for someone to give them food and water. They came with nothing. They are not beggars. They have their money but where can we buy supplies? We need insulin, people are dying. We can't provide them with anything. The situation is a catastrophic, catastrophic, catastrophic situation.”

In another post on X on Sunday, UNRWA staff Azzam said that “being in Gaza these days is all about surviving, not just living. Having some water for a shower is like being in a five-star hotel while having the phone fully charged is a dream.”

With the hashtag ‘Hear Their Voices', UNRWA is posting messages of desperation from its colleagues who are on the ground in Gaza, trying to help hundreds of thousands of people displaced over the last week of escalating violence and attacks.

The Hamas attack last Saturday was followed by Israeli bombardment of Gaza that has killed more than 2,300 people. 

Gaza hospitals warn 1000s may die

Medics in Gaza warned Sunday that thousands could die as hospitals packed with wounded people ran desperately low on fuel and basic supplies.

Palestinians in the besieged coastal enclave struggled to find food, water and safety ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive in the war sparked by Hamas' deadly attack.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 2,329 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting erupted, more than in the 2014 Gaza war, which lasted over six weeks.

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says an estimated 1 million people have been displaced in Gaza in a single week.