UN calls for a temporary ceasefire in Gaza: the enclave is running out of medicine
Kyiv • UNN
UNRWA calls for a temporary ceasefire in northern Gaza to allow for the evacuation of people. Medical workers report a critical shortage of medicines and supplies to treat those injured in the Israeli offensive.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) on Tuesday called for a temporary truce to allow people to leave northern Gaza. Doctors in the enclave say they are running out of supplies to treat patients injured during the three-week Israeli offensive. UNN reports this with reference to Reuters.
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The head of the UNRWA aid agency, Philippe Lazzarini, said that the humanitarian situation in Gaza has reached a terrible point, with bodies abandoned on the sides of roads or buried under rubble.
"In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die. They feel abandoned, hopeless and alone," he wrote in a statement on the X website.
"I call for an immediate ceasefire, even if it is for a few hours, to allow safe humanitarian passage for families who want to leave the area and reach safer places," he said.
The call for a truce came as U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Israel to try to resume ceasefire talks in Gaza after the death last week of the leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, Yahya Sinwar.
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Washington has called on Israel to allow more humanitarian aid to enter northern Gaza. Israel claims to have sent aid in dozens of trucks and by air, but Gaza's medical workers say the aid has not reached them.
On Tuesday, Gaza health officials said that Israeli forces had killed more than 20 people.
The Israeli military, which this month launched an offensive against Hamas militants holding positions in the northern city of Jabalia, says it is evacuating people along established routes and separating dozens of militants from civilians heading south.
Many Palestinians fear that the evacuation is part of an Israeli plan to clear the territory to create a buffer zone that will allow Israel to control Gaza after the war.
The Israeli military denies that the evacuation is part of a larger plan and says it is moving people to separate them from Hamas militants.
