By Udesinanna Stephen
The United Nations (UN) has said 1.7 million people have been displaced in Gaza due to the ongoing Israeli-Hamas war, adding that “A full humanitarian ceasefire is needed for the people of Gaza, Israel and the region”.
The Global Body made this known lately in a media statement on its X handle @UN.
UN said, it has scaled up the delivery of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza, including in the north, providing food, water, medical supplies, tents and more, and that a full humanitarian ceasefire is needed for the people of Gaza, Israel and the region.
The statement reads in part, “This aid barely registers against the huge needs of 1.7 million displaced people,” a statement from the UN Secretary-General’s office said on Monday, highlighting his call for a full humanitarian ceasefire. “The humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza is getting worse by the day.”
According to the release, the UN emergency relief coordination office, OCHA, reported that people in the south were queuing for kilometres to obtain cooking gas and resorting to burning window frames and doors for cooking, it added that the four-day humanitarian pause agreed upon by Israel and Hamas has been “largely maintained”.
“Under the agreement, Hamas released 17 more hostages taken during the armed group’s terror attacks in southern Israel on 7 October, bringing the total number of hostages released to 58, OCHA said. Some 117 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons have also been released since Friday.
“Meanwhile, over the weekend, new efforts to bolster Gaza’s devastated healthcare system came to fruition as a UN convoy transported life-saving vaccines from Gaza City to the south of the enclave, where they can be refrigerated.” The release noted.