Faizel Patel – 18/05/2021
The UN’s political affairs chief says the international community must do “all it can” to de-escalate the violence in Gaza which has left hundreds dead and injured.
Rosemary DiCarlo was addressing a meeting of the UN Forum on the Question of Palestine on Tuesday.
The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza on Tuesday said 213 Palestinians had so far been killed, including 61 children, 36 women and 16 elderly people while 1442 are wounded after attacks by Israeli occupation forces.
DiCarlo has called on all those involved in the fighting to allow for the “intensification of mediation efforts”, which can also help stem a growing humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.
“If the nine days of spiralling violence so far continues, “humanitarian needs are bound to rise considerably, particularly in Gaza, where the situation was already desperate.”
In a statement released on Tuesday, the UN relief chief who heads OCHA, Mark Lowcock, said the hostilities “must stop”, and were brining nothing but “death, destruction and widespread trauma” to all in occupied Palestinian territories and Israel.
Lowcock said he was deeply troubled by reports of high-frequency Israeli bombardments, noting there was “no safe place” in Gaza where two million people have in effect, “been forcibly isolated from the rest of the world, for over 13 years.”
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