Gaza is a place of death: UN

NT Bureau, Agencies

London/Gaza: In a statement on January 5, Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and the emergency relief coordinator of the United Nations, said that “Gaza has become a place of death and despair," reports The Wire.

It has almost been three months since Israel attacked Gaza, in apparent retaliation to a Hamas attack.

Griffiths noted that the devastation of Gaza has been entire and across various parameters. Tens of thousands of people, mostly women and children, have been killed or injured.

Families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet. Areas where civilians were told to relocate for their safety have come under bombardment.

Medical facilities are under relentless attack. The few hospitals that are partially functional are overwhelmed with trauma cases, critically short of all supplies, and inundated by desperate people seeking safety.

The UN official noted that a public health disaster is unfolding. Infectious diseases are spreading in overcrowded shelters as sewers spill over.

The statement says that 180 Palestinian women are giving birth daily and that a famine is around the corner.

The UN notes the effect his has had on children.

“Gaza has simply become uninhabitable. Its people are witnessing daily threats to their very existence – while the world watches on.