Senior UN Official Demands Immediate Action to Halt Gaza Atrocities

Kuwait city: Urgent and decisive measures are essential to halt the ongoing "atrocities" in the Gaza Strip, said Joyce Msuya, the Acting Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator. During a UN Security Council session focused on the Middle East, including the Palestinian issue, Msuya emphasized the dire need for action beyond mere words to address the severe humanitarian crisis in Gaza. According to Kuwait News Agency, Msuya reported distressing developments in Gaza during the council session held on Wednesday. She highlighted the severe impact of Israeli air strikes on the civilian population, citing nearly 400 Palestinian deaths and approximately 1,500 injuries since her last briefing on October 9. "The world has seen the horrific images of patients and displaced persons near Al-Aqsa Hospital, some burning alive, while others suffer from severe, life-altering burns," Msuya stated, underscoring the desperate need for immediate medical care. In he r detailed account, Msuya also touched upon the escalating military offensive in northern Gaza, particularly in Jabaliya, where approximately 55,000 displaced individuals are facing acute shortages of food and water. She recounted a recent tragedy where an airstrike hit a school in Nuseirat, used as a shelter, killing over 20 people. The situation in hospitals is equally grim, with only three out of ten hospitals in North Gaza Governorate functioning, and even then, at minimal capacity. The humanitarian access to the region has been severely hampered, Msuya explained. From October 2 to October 15, no food aid was allowed into northern Gaza, with only a minimal amount permitted thereafter. She criticized the significant restrictions and delays in facilitating humanitarian missions, which saw less than a third of the 286 coordinated missions proceed without major incidents in the first two weeks of October. Despite these challenges, there was a slight improvement in health initiatives, as Msuya noted the comm encement of the second polio vaccination campaign by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), which managed to vaccinate 43 percent of children on the first day. She called for continued international pressure to ensure compliance with international law, protect medical facilities and personnel, and uphold the provisional rulings of the International Court of Justice regarding accountability for international crimes. "The level of suffering in Gaza defies our ability to capture it in words, or even to comprehend its scale," Msuya concluded, pressing the international community and the UN Security Council to take immediate and effective actions to end the suffering in Gaza.