Commissioner General of UNRWA: A humanitarian “tsunami” Will hit the Gaza Strip

WORLD, Dec. 02 (YPA) – Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) , stated that a humanitarian catastrophe may strike the Gaza Strip as a temporary truce between Israel and Hamas ended and Israeli forces resumed their offensive on the besieged strip.

“Gaza risks being plunged into a humanitarian “tsunami”, Philippe Lazzarini the Financial Times on Friday.

He added that the population of Gaza had been weakened so much that he feared many people would start dying from diseases as well as Israel’s bombardment of the enclave.

“I’m very worried about entering winter, having seen the impact of the siege . . . having seen the weakening of the immunity of the people after such a war, their deprivation and suffering, that we might be on the eve of a perfect kind of humanitarian catastrophe-tsunami,” Lazzarini said.

Lazzarini also added that health workers were already warning of a “significant increase in waterborne disease, the emergence of hepatitis and skin disease” due to a “combination of not having enough food, access to clean water, and increasingly unsanitary conditions”.

A return to full-scale hostilities “will precipitate and accelerate large-scale dying”, Lazzarini said. “You will most likely see more and more people dying because of the impact of the siege . . . they will not stand additional weeks and months of total deprivation.”

On Friday morning, the Israeli occupation army resumed its military operations on the Gaza Strip, seven days after a declared truce brokered by international and Arab mediation, led by Egypt and Qatar.

E.M