UN senior official calls Gaza ´a living hell´ at Global Refugee Forum

A top United Nations (UN) official told the 2023 Global Refugee Forum opened in Geneva on Wednesday that Gaza is now "a living hell," calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire, reported Xinhua.

Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), flew to the forum directly from Gaza.

Most of Gaza's population has been forcibly displaced, he said, largely into the southern city of Rafah. The city has now swelled from 280,000 people to well over a million, and has therefore become "a tented community."

"Inside our own warehouses, families live in tiny spaces that are separated by blankets hung on thin wooden structures. Out in the open, flimsy shelters have emerged everywhere," Lazzarini said, adding that the spaces around UNRWA buildings are congested with shelters and desperate, hungry people.

"What can 100 trucks or so per day offer to 2.2 million people?" Lazzarini said. The outside world must roll out "meaningful" humanitarian assistance, he underlined.

"The high-level discussions about the number of trucks per day have taken up so much time and energy that I have no answer to a father of five in Rafah who asked me how he and his children can survive on one can of beans for three days," he said.

According to the UN official, the sight of a truck carrying humanitarian assistance now provokes chaos. Hungry people stop the truck and ask for food, and they eat it on the street. "I witnessed this firsthand when I entered into Gaza on Monday evening," Lazzarini said.

UNRWA is now sheltering more than a million people in its schools and other facilities, distributing whatever food it manages to bring in, "but this is often as little as a bottle of water and a can of tuna per day, per family, often numbering six or seven people."

"I asked one colleague how he managed to remain composed and offer help in a shelter. He told me that he looks for a corner in the building to cry 10 times a day," Lazzarini told the forum.

"More than 130 UNRWA staff are confirmed killed. Many of our staff, who are themselves displaced, take their children to work with them to ensure that they are safe together or die together," he added.

The people of Gaza are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948, Lazzarini stressed, and are running out of time and options as they face bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-shrinking space.

"Today, they feel abandoned by the international community. They feel betrayed as the world fails to act in the face of one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of our time in Gaza," he said.

"They now believe that human lives are not equal and human rights are not universal. This is a dangerous message, and it will have serious repercussions," he added.

He called for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza, and an end to the siege to let in sufficient aid.

"I welcome here the overwhelming support of 153 UN Member States at the General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire," he said.

Israel has been conducting a large-scale offensive against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for Hamas' surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7, which killed around 1,200 people. The death toll in the Palestinian enclave has now exceeded 18,400 since the escalation of the conflict.