The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has called for an immediate halt to attacks on civilians and humanitarian workers in Gaza, urging Israel to conduct a “prompt investigation” into the incident that injured one of the organization’s employees on Saturday in the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza.
According to the official UNRWA website, the Executive Director of UNICEF, Catherine Russell, demanded in a statement that Israel cease its assault on Gaza and on those trying to help.
She highlighted that the past weekend saw a significant escalation in attacks in northern Gaza, with reports indicating that 50 children in Jabalia were killed of this escalation over the past two days.
Catherine emphasized that all residents of northern Gaza, especially children, are at imminent risk of death due to illness, famine, and continuous bombardment.
On Saturday, the Director of UNRWA in northern Gaza, Firouz Mahmoud Abu Warda, was injured when an Israeli drone dropped a bomb on a UNRWA vehicle on the road to Nazlet Jabalia in northern Gaza.
For nearly a month, northern Gaza has been under siege, with basic aid and life-saving supplies being denied, while bombardment and other attacks continue.
Hospitals have been almost entirely cut off from supplies and have come under attack, killing patients, destroying vital equipment, and disrupting life-saving services. Health workers and patients have also been abducted.
Dozens of schools serving as shelters have been bombed or forcibly evacuated. Tents sheltering displaced families have been shelled, and people have been burned alive.
Rescue teams have been deliberately attacked and thwarted in their attempts to pull people buried under the rubble of their homes.
“The needs of women and girls are overwhelming and growing every day. We have lost contact with those we support and those who provide lifesaving essential services for sexual and reproductive health and gender-based violence,” Firouz said, “Civilians are also being targeted while trying to seek safety, and men and boys are being abducted and taken to unknown locations for detention.”
Livestock is also dying, croplands have been destroyed, trees burned to the ground, and agrifood systems infrastructure has been decimated.
The entire Palestinian population in northern Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and violence. Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to access constraints.
Basic, life-saving goods are not available. Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need.
In a further blow to the humanitarian response, the polio vaccination campaign has been delayed due to the constant bombing, putting the lives of children in the region at risk.
This week, the Israeli Parliament adopted legislation that would ban UNRWA and revoke its privileges and immunities.
If implemented, such measures would be a catastrophe for the humanitarian response in Gaza, diametrically opposed to the United Nations Charter, with potential dire impacts on the human rights of the millions of Palestinians depending on UNRWA’s assistance, and in violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.
