Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip are being forced to live in buildings or camps next to huge piles of rubbish, a UN spokeswoman said on Friday, denouncing “intolerable” conditions in the territory.
Louise Waterridge, from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), presented the “extremely harsh” living conditions in the Gaza Strip.
“It is truly unbearable,” she told reporters in Geneva via video communication technology from central Gaza.
Waterridge returned on Wednesday after spending four weeks outside the Gaza Strip, noting that the situation during that period had “deteriorated significantly.”
“Today must be the worst of the worst. I have no doubt that tomorrow will be the worst of the worst again,” she added.
misery
Waterridge stressed the difficulty of bringing fuel into Gaza and distributing it safely, which affects the ability to deliver aid.
“Without fuel, the humanitarian response will effectively grind to a halt,” she warned.
Waterridge spoke from a guest house where she could not go out on inspection missions because of a lack of fuel.
150 metres away, she described the accumulation of about 100,000 tons of waste with temporary tents erected around it.
She stressed that “the population lives in the middle of this,” warning that “with the rise in temperatures, this increases the misery of living conditions.”
“It is unacceptable for people to suffer all this and be treated this way,” she added.
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