Wednesday afternoon. The new Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Far East (UNRWA), visited several shelled areas in the Gaza Strip, including the main power plant that was shelled two weeks ago.
Karen Abu Zeid expressed her dismay over the Israeli shelling of power generators in the central Gaza Strip that left more than 750,000 residents without electricity for the past two weeks.
The shells damaged four main power feeds in addition to completely destroying the main power generators.
Abu Zeid also visited several areas in the northern Gaza Strip, including the badly damaged Al Atatra area, and expressed sorrow over the bad living conditions the Palestinians face on daily basis.
“We need the international community to help us overcome this crisis. We need every form of support,” Abu Zeid stated, “The aid we need is larger than our capacities, but there are several institutions [belonging]to UNRWA [that can help], such as the International Bank and the UN development program. These institutions will contact the Palestinian government to rebuild the power generators.”
Abu Zeid added that the services provided by UNRWA are regarding health, education and social welfare.
UNRWA created a $170 million emergency relief program to help curb the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. The initial amount of the program was $95 Million but was increased after the current Israeli invasion made it clear that more aid was necessary.
“The residents are living without water or electricity for more than two weeks. This will affect their life and wellbeing,” she stated, “These conditions will spread disease. These crimes against the Palestinian people must end and aid should be immediately provided to the Palestinians."
Abu Zeid added the Israeli military escalation will only increase the Palestinian public support for Hamas and will increase the suffering of the residents. She added that a number of Israeli officials agree that the attacks on Palestinian infrastructure and civilians are counterproductive, and reflect poorly on Israel.
