Remarks , press conference of UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini - 24 November 2023: Visit to the Gaza Strip
UNRWA
24 Nov 2023
**EAST JERUSALEM UNRWA HEADQUARTERS **
As Delivered
Good afternoon,
Thank you very, very much for being here this afternoon.
I know you are all very busy following the developments related to the humanitarian pauses so I appreciate you coming.
I wanted to share with you what I saw in Gaza, during my second visit there since the war began.
Since my first visit two weeks ago, it was evident the humanitarian situation in Gaza has become much, much worse for the people there.
I went to Rafah and Khan Younis.
Some of the streets were almost empty, it was eery.
Solid waste piled up everywhere.
Most shops and pharmacies were closed.
A few vendors set up some vegetable stalls, queues at the few bakeries left were very long. Wherever we drove during the day, there were children.
Bombardment was constant.
At certain points, whole buildings shook. Just like what happened when I was meeting staff in Khan Younis, at the health centre.
This is the daily reality of life in Gaza, whether in the North, Middle or Southern area.
Constant fear and anxiety for over 2 million people in Gaza, whether children, women or older people,
People are going to sleep holding their children tight while not knowing if they will wake up alive the following morning.
We meet today at a very sombre milestone, as UNRWA records more than 1 million people now sheltering in our facilities across the Gaza Strip.
This is more than half of the total number of people displaced. They live in over 150 UNRWA schools and buildings.
Gaza is one of the very few places in the world where the United Nations opens its premises to host people forced to leave their homes.
It is a sign of trust of the local communities in the UN flag and UNRWA It is also a huge responsibility especially given the fact that we are not able to provide the basic of the basic for the displaced people to survive with dignity in our shelters.
This week, I visited one of those shelters.
Before this war, the shelter was UNRWA's pride and joy: a vocational training centre in Khan Younis for young people to join the job market.
Now, it is home to 35,000 people living in frightful conditions.
The place looks like an overcrowded prison with substandard living conditions with few toilets and sewage flooding.
But the most painful is t the shock, trauma and sadness in people's eyes.
They told their stories of how they have been forced to flee their homes, some as recently as last week, living their life behind:
They left under the bombs.
They left everything behind.
They lost loved ones.
They lost their homes and escaped by sheer miracle.
All were stripped of their dignity, overnight. This is how they feel. This is what many told me.
I met a father, who burst into tears as he told me how he was forced to run for his life and tried to save his family.
His home now is barely a four-square metre makeshift space in the UNRWA shelter covered with plastic sheeting. He lives there with his wife and five children.
He and his family sleep on the floor, with no mattresses or blankets. He uses their shoes as pillow.
He is one of over 1.7 million other displaced people.
Many have not changed their clothes for 45 days now.
People are struggling to have one meal a day.
It takes hours of waiting to use the couple of toilets available for hundreds of people in this shelter.
Winter is very fast approaching, and it is getting colder in Gaza.
Skin diseases and diarrhoea have exponentially increased as a result of unsanitary conditions made much worse by the rain.
In some places, the rates of diseases are 45 times more than it was in previous years.
Like I said before, it's only a matter of time before people in Gaza start dying due to the siege and the lack of basics not just because of the bombardment.
During the night I spent in Rafah, all I could think about were the children, older people and parents I met.
How it feels to be awoken in the middle of the night by the sound of an airstrike, bombardment, by the screams and shouts of your neighbours.
As we were heading out of Gaza, I started to get news of yet another UNRWA school in Jabalia the north of the Gaza Strip that was hit.
It was struck for the second time. I would like to stress that since the war began, 69 UNRWA shelters were hit, some more than once, some directly. Half of them are not in the north; they were in the southern and middle areas.
Most were sheltering thousands of displaced people. Nearly 190 people have been reported killed in UN premises.
Even the UN flag can no longer provide protection for people in Gaza. This is a blatant disregard to rules of war including international humanitarian law.
I confirm once again that UNRWA shares the coordinates of all its facilities across the Gaza Strip with all parties to the conflict.
I follow with great concern, reports of unauthorized entry and military use of our facilities mainly in the north.
Which also takes me to the floating idea and proposals to establish so-called "safe zone, or humanitarian zones".
I would like to reiterate the Humanitarian's community's position again. There is no such thing as safe zone when if it is declared unliterally in a war zone.
Safe zones in all cases, do not absolve the responsibility to abide to International Humanitarian Law, especially when civilians seek protection and shelters in UN schools and hospitals. They cannot be a military target and should continue to provide safety.
Before I close, let me say a few words on our response and humanitarian work.
Since the war began, UNRWA has remained in Gaza to deliver much needed humanitarian assistance.
We are committed to stay and scale up our operations. I was heartened to pay tribute to UNRWA staff in Gaza whom I respect and take inspiration from.
They are sharing the same living conditions, fear, and mourning, as everyone else in the Gaza Strip.
Yet, they go to work every day and make the impossible possible, with very few resources in an increasingly darkening environment.
They are like you and I.
I asked a colleague how he copes and keeps his composed attitude. His answer was, I don't.
Every day I find a place in the corner where I can cry. This is the only way I can keep going. I feel so powerless and helpless in front of my children and the communities.
Finally, as we all anticipate the beginning of the much-awaited pause, I reiterate my call for a long-standing humanitarian ceasefire.
People need respite, they deserve calm, they deserve to sleep at night without being anxious whether they will make it through.
The pause is also an opportunity to reach people in need including in the north and start repairing civilian infrastructure.
UNRWA calls for the expansion of the humanitarian operation to respond to the scale and volume of the overwhelming humanitarian needs and we are far from that.
We are committed to continue bringing assistance to people in need. We stand ready to receive at least 200 trucks of aid including fuel per day.
At the same time, I call for the reopening of commercial supply lines to get the private sector back on its feet and replenish the empty markets. For this we need the reopening of Kerem Shalom.
In closing, the longer this war goes on, the deeper the polarization, the anger, the frustration, and the further we are from a prospect of a political solution.
Thank you and ready to take your questions.
**ENDs- **
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