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Death seems to be the “only certainty” for 2.4 million Palestinians in war-torn Gaza as they are unable to escape relentless Israeli bombardment, a United Nations official said on Tuesday, telling of growing desperation in the region.
“It feels like people are waiting to die. In this situation, it seems that death is the only certainty,” Louise Waterridge, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), told AFP in Gaza.
Watridge has been in the Gaza Strip for the past two weeks, witnessing the humanitarian crisis, fear of death and spread of disease brought about by the raging war.
“There is no safety in the Gaza Strip, absolutely no safety. It is absolutely devastating,” Watridge said in the central Gaza area of Nusserat, which is subject to frequent Israeli air strikes.
Since fighting broke out in October, Israeli forces have launched a fierce assault on the besieged area from air, land and sea, razing much of it to the ground.
Now in its eleventh month, the war has triggered a severe humanitarian crisis, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced and running out of basic food and clean drinking water, most of whom have been displaced multiple times.
“We are facing unprecedented challenges in terms of disease transmission and hygiene. Part of the reason is the blockade that Israel has imposed on the Gaza Strip,” said Watridge.
The war, which began with an unprecedented attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on southern Israel on Oct. 7, has killed 1,199 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Since then, Israel’s retaliatory military operations have killed at least 40,173 people, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-controlled areas, but the ministry did not provide details on civilian and militant deaths.
Most of the dead in Gaza were women and children, according to the UN human rights office.
– Rats, mice, scorpions –
Tens of thousands of people have taken refuge in schools in the Gaza Strip, which has increasingly been targeted by Israeli missiles.
The Israeli military says the schools are used as command and control centres by Hamas, a charge the Islamist group denies.
“Even schools are no longer safe places,” Watridge said.
“Now it feels like you’re only a few blocks from the front lines.”
Tired of reacting to the Israeli army’s “continuous” evacuation orders, more and more Gazans are unwilling to continue moving from one place to another, Wattridge said.
“They feel like they are being chased around … it’s hot, it’s hard to move, there are children, elderly people and people with disabilities,” she said.
Many Gazans interviewed by AFP said they no longer wanted to relocate their families, tents and the few remaining belongings.
They criticized Israel’s evacuation orders, which included maps dropped from planes, for being unclear, and Gaza faces communications challenges as it lacks regular internet access, electricity and telecommunications coverage.
Those who are still on the move say that wherever they go “there are rats, there are mice, there are scorpions, there are cockroaches,” Watridge said, adding that the insects “transmit diseases from one shelter to another.”
Last week, Gaza’s Health Ministry said the territory had reported its first case of polio in 25 years.
Wattridge said the UN is awaiting Israel’s approval to vaccinate children on a tent-by-tent basis to prevent the spread of polio.
Although the talks have been deadlocked for months, Watridge said Gazans “always want a ceasefire” and are “watching the negotiations closely.”
In the coming days, international mediators the United States, Qatar and Egypt will hold a new round of talks in Cairo to once again try to reach a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas.
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