Gaza (Union)
Director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Thomas White, announced that the humanitarian operation in Gaza will stop during the next 48 hours because fuel is not allowed to enter the Strip.
The official did not provide further details, but he said in a tweet on the “X” platform that two water distribution contractors contracted with UNRWA stopped working yesterday morning after they ran out of fuel, explaining that this would deprive 200,000 people of drinking water.
Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described on the “X” platform the situation in Al-Shifa Hospital as “dangerous” after three days without electricity and water.
“The exchange of fire and continuous shelling in the area near the hospital exacerbates the already difficult conditions,” he said, adding that his organization was able to contact medical workers at Al-Shifa Hospital.
In another context, yesterday, United Nations employees observed a minute of silence for more than 100 of their colleagues who were killed in Gaza since the outbreak of the war last month.
United Nations employees stood in Geneva offices with their heads bowed, while candles were lit in mourning for the 101 UNRWA employees who fell in Gaza.
The Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya, said: “This is the largest number of aid workers killed in the history of our organization in such a short time.”
She added: “We are gathered here today, united in this very symbolic location, to show respect to our brave colleagues who sacrificed their lives while serving under the banner of the United Nations.”
Valovaya continued: “I would like to say that we are indeed facing very difficult times for multilateralism in the world, but the United Nations has become more important than ever.”
UNRWA said that some of its employees died while standing in line to get bread, while others died with their families in their homes in the bombing and incursion into Gaza.
Nigeria ranks second only to Gaza as the deadliest conflict for UN aid workers, when a suicide bomber attacked their office in Abuja in 2011 during a period of operations carried out by terrorist groups in the country, resulting in 46 casualties.
In this context, flags were flown at half-mast at United Nations headquarters throughout Asia yesterday, and employees were called to observe a minute of silence for the souls of their colleagues who died in the Gaza Strip.
The blue and white flag of the United Nations was lowered at 09:30 local time in Bangkok, Tokyo and Beijing, the day after the United Nations announced that a large number of deaths and injuries occurred in the bombing of the headquarters of the United Nations Development Program in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that the death toll since Saturday had risen to 34 in Al-Shifa Hospital.
The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Health, Yousef Abu Al-Rish, confirmed, “The number of deaths has risen to 27 patients in intensive care and 7 premature infants due to the power outage, as there is no fuel to operate the electricity generators.”
Abu Al-Rish said in other media statements from inside Al-Shifa Medical Complex: “We have become unable to count the number of deaths,” noting that “patients are forced to leave despite their injuries.”
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