GENEVA, Thursday, December 14, 2023 (WAFA) - UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini at the Global Refugee Forum stressed that the people of Gaza are running out of time and options, as they face Israeli bombardment, deprivation, and disease in an ever-ever-shrinking space.
“They are facing the darkest chapter of their history since 1948. And it has been a painful history, He said addressing the plenary of the Global Refugee Forum.
He said the people of Gaza are now crammed into less than one-third of the original territory, near the Egyptian border, and that “It is unrealistic to think that people will remain resilient in the face of unlivable conditions of such magnitude.”
He stressed that the city of Rafah is now hosting well over a million people. “It used to be home to 280,000 people.”
The UNRWA Commissioner-General said the entire humanitarian response heavily relies on UNRWA’s capacity, which he stressed “is now on the verge of collapse.”
“We need an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the siege to let in sufficient aid. I welcome here the overwhelming support of 153 UN Member States at the General Assembly calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he said.
He also affirmed the need to roll out humanitarian assistance worthy of its name. “It needs to be meaningful. “What can 100 trucks or so per day offer to 2.2 million people?” he said, adding that the high-level discussions about the number of trucks per day have taken up so much time and energy that I have no answer to a father of five in Rafah who asked me how he and his children can survive on one can of beans for three days, he added. “We are very far from an adequate humanitarian response.”
