Gaza offensive ‘staining our shared humanity’

A top UN official said that Israeli offensive in Gaza was staining humanity, as the conflict has created a dire humanitarian crisis for 2.4 million people in the Palestinian enclave.

“The massive death, destruction, displacement, hunger, loss and grief of the last 100 days are staining our shared humanity,” the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement on Saturday as he visited the Gaza Strip.

“It’s been 100 days of ordeal and anxiety for hostages and their families,” Lazzarini said.

Israel has pounded Gaza since October 7, killing at least 23,843 people, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

Lazzarini said an entire generation of children were being “traumatised” and would take years to heal.

“People live in inhumane conditions, where diseases are spreading, including among children,” he said.

“They live through the unlivable, with the clock ticking fast towards famine.”

At Rafah’s Al-Najjar hospital yesterday, mourners prayed near the bodies of slain relatives, reports AFP.

One man, Bassem Araf, held up a photo of a child and said: “She died hungry … This is the resistance they are targeting in Gaza, just children.”

The Gaza Strip’s people suffer acute shortages of food, water, medicine and fuel, and the health system is collapsing.

Winter rains have exacerbated the dire conditions for 1.9 million Palestinian displaced by the violence, according to UN estimates.

Telecommunications have been partially restored in southern Gaza, an AFP reporter in Rafah said, after operator Paltel reported a complete outage on Friday.

Paltel said an Israeli strike killed two of its employees in Khan Yunis while they were repairing the network.

Arab-Israeli lawmaker Ahmad Tibi said on social media three of his relatives had been killed in a strike on central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.

At Nasser Hospital, a handful of doctors said they were struggling in a now “collapsed” healthcare system.

Reuters footage showed patients lying on stretchers on the floor inside corridors and doctors using their phone flashlights to examine patients’ eyes.

“Most of the medical supplies in the ICU are missing,” said doctor Mohammad Al-Qidra.

“We don’t have empty beds, no treatments. Most of the medicines inside the emergency room are not enough for patients. We are trying to find alternatives.”

Hospital wards are being shared by many of the displaced.

“When we ask for medicine, they tell us they don’t have it, and the situation is bad. We are here in cold and windy weather,” said Mahmoud Jaber, who has been displaced from his home in Gaza City.

In the occupied West Bank, where violence had already been on the rise before October 7 and has increased since, three Palestinians who were armed with knives, a rifle and an axe tried to break into a Jewish settlement and were killed, the Israeli military said.