United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for the Palestinian Territories, Lynn Hastings
Middle East
Hastings said that “the catastrophic devastation and destruction that has occurred in Gaza is impossible to describe in words.”
Lynn Hastings, U.N. humanitarian coordinator in the Palestinian territories, said the situation in Gaza “is beyond what we have seen before, not just in the region but almost everywhere in the world.”
“The catastrophic devastation and destruction that has occurred in Gaza is impossible to describe in words,” Hastings said Monday at a briefing on the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. He went on to say: “The number of deaths in Gaza in the last five weeks is approximately equivalent to the number of those killed in Ukraine during 18 months, and the number of those killed in Sudan during six months of war.”
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Hastings said that, according to United Nations estimates, 55% of the water supply infrastructure in the Strip needs repair or rehabilitation, and the rate of water consumption in Gaza is 90% lower than the rate of consumption in the previous period to October 7.
The United Nations Coordinator underlined the need to open the crossings for the entry of commercial goods into Gaza, with the aim of strengthening and completing the work carried out by humanitarian workers.
“The flow of humanitarian aid must be increased. The commercial and public sectors must work together. We cannot do it alone. More crossings must be opened. One crossing is not enough,” he said.
The displacement of over 700 thousand children
In this context, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Monday that more than 700,000 children in the Gaza Strip have been displaced from their homes, as they were forced to leave behind all their belongings.
The organization declared the
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) had previously said that 70% of the Strip’s population of more than two million people had become displaced, most of them who lived in horrible conditions.
UNRWA said nearly 1.6 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip since October 7 and indicated that there are approximately 748,000 displaced people now residing in 151 agency-affiliated facilities in all five governorates of the Strip.