UNRWA says 65,000 people live in besieged areas in northern Gaza Strip
“There are around 65,000 people in the besieged areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, scene of a large-scale offensive launched on October 6 by the Israeli army against the city of Jabaliya and its surroundings, a door told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday, spokesman for the United Nations agency. for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, from Gaza City, where many northerners have fled since the bombings.
“There is no access to food or drinking water” in the north of the enclave, he reports. “ We hear that they are searching through the trash in the buildings, through the rubble, trying to find old cans and any food they can find. We hear with horror that the bombings on hospitals and shelters continue.” she continues.
The UN agency estimates that between 100,000 and 130,000 people have fled the northern Gaza Strip since the start of the operation, which the Israeli military says aims to prevent the Hamas movement from rebuilding its forces there. “They arrive in Gaza City in charred and destroyed buildings, in the rain and in very cold weather”continue Louise Wateridge. “They have no mattresses, no tarps, no tents… Not even blankets. (…) The conditions that people are forced to live in here are worse than appalling. »
” Here, she saidI know people who have fled to avoid dying and they show me terrible videos of them running through the streets and picking their way through the rubble. There are corpses of children around them, corpses of murdered people everywhere in their path, and they have to step over them. Fifty days of siege – the destruction, the death, the pain… – are inconceivable. »
