UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Valerie Amos told the UN Security Council on Thursday “no place is safe” in Gaza today. Amos told the Council that “over 103 UN facilities have come under attack including an UNWRA school hosting over 3,300 displaced yesterday. 19 people were killed and over a hundred injured. The United Nations has lost seven staff and other humanitarian workers have been killed since the outbreak of hostilities.”
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Beyond the direct killing there are increasing problems with electricity and water.
Amos said, “Gaza’s only power plant was struck on Tuesday, destroying the fuel tanks. Parts of Gaza will remain without any electricity while others will only receive 2 hours of electricity a day. Repairs are expected to take months to complete under the best of circumstances.”
Health problems are threatened by a lack of water. Amos told the Security Council that “sewage systems are also severely damaged and I am deeply concerned about possible contamination of water systems. Hundreds of thousands of people are without access to regular water. And the ongoing violence is preventing urgent repairs to systems.”
In this humanitarian crisis, Amos concluded that “We need the violence to stop and the root causes of the conflict to be addressed. The people of Gaza want to live in safety, security, and dignity. The people of Israel want the same thing. I hope the international community can help them to achieve it.”
The Security Council went into closed-door consultations on Gaza. The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he hoped there would be an outcome document from the Security Council.
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