The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees is warning that remaining public services in besieged Gaza are collapsing fast and that people in the territory gripped by war now face food shortages.
Speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini criticizes the international community, saying it “seems to have turned its back on Gaza.”
Lazzarini says the agency was very short on fuel in Gaza and needs about 160,000 liters (42,200 gallons) of fuel a day to supply hospitals and bakeries. The agency had previously warned on Tuesday that it would run out of fuel by Wednesday night.
UNRWA staffers in Gaza are saying their operations are crumbling and “for the first time ever, they report that now people are hungry,” Lazzarini says. “Civil order is collapsing.”
Asked how long supplies will last, Lazzarini says “certainly no more than a few days.” Lazzarini adds that 57 employees of the agency in Gaza have been killed since the war started on Oct. 7.
“To equate Gaza with Hamas is very dangerous and misleading,” he says. “We cannot turn a blind eye to this human tragedy,” Times of Israel reports.
