UN official: Suffering of people in Gaza Strip unbearable

Acting head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Joyce Msuya has warned that the deteriorating humanitarian conditions in Gaza Strip and the suffering endured by the people there are unbearable.

It is difficult to describe in words the immense struggle of the population to find shelter or other basic necessities for survival,” Msuya told AFP during a meeting on the humanitarian situation in Gaza Strip, which has been subjected to a brutal Israeli aggression and a suffocating blockade since last October.

“Civilians are hungry, thirsty, sick and homeless, pushed beyond the limits of endurance and beyond what any human being can bear,” the UN official continued.

“What we have witnessed in the past 11 months calls into question the world’s commitment to the international legal system that was designed to prevent these tragedies, and forces us to ask: What has happened to our basic sense of humanity?”

“We cannot plan humanitarian assistance more than 24 hours in advance, as we struggle to know what supplies we will receive, when we will receive them or where we will be able to deliver them,” Msuya said, stressing that “the lives of 2.1 million Palestinians cannot depend on luck and hope alone.”

She denounced the increase of evacuation orders issued by the Israeli occupation authorities since the beginning of this month to force Palestinians in Gaza to move continuously and live in uncertainty, not knowing when the next evacuation order will be issued.

Msuya stressed that “in the face of this unacceptable human suffering, the Security Council and all member states must act,” reiterating the call for a ceasefire.

Hamda Mustafa