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'Inexcusable devastation': UN chief urges immediate ceasefire in Gaza as genocide rages

Palestinians survey the damage following the Israeli military bombardment of the UNRWA-run Abu Oreiban school, in the central Gaza Strip on July 14, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The United Nations secretary general has called for a ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip, calling the devastation and deaths in the war-battered territory “inexcusable.”

Antonio Guterres in a social media post on Monday described the extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza as “incomprehensible and inexcusable.”

“It is high time for the parties to show the political courage and political will to finally reach a deal,” UN chief wrote.

Nowhere in Gaza is safe, Guterres said, adding that everywhere is a potential killing zone.

The extreme level of fighting and devastation in Gaza is incomprehensible and inexcusable.

Nowhere is safe. Everywhere is a potential killing zone.

It is high time for the parties to show the political courage and political will to finally reach a deal.

— António Guterres (@antonioguterres) July 15, 2024

Earlier on Monday, the UN chief also condemned an Israeli airstrike on the al-Mawasi area of Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, a designated "humanitarian zone" for displaced Palestinians, stating that he was "shocked and saddened" by the attack, which “underscores that nowhere is safe in Gaza."

The Gaza Ministry of Health said that at least 90 Palestinians, including women and children, were killed and more than 300 others wounded after Israelis airstrikes on the al-Mawasi refugee camp on Saturday.

The UN agency’s schools and shelters across the Gaza Strip are filled with displaced Palestinians hoping for some protection, though they know nowhere is safe.

Israeli forces have consistently targeted schools and shelters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), leaving thousands homeless and causing numerous casualties and injuries.

On Sunday, the Israeli forces targeted a school run by UNRWA in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, killing at least 15 people and injuring 80 others.

“It speaks volumes to the blatant disregard for international humanitarian law because to date 190 – one, nine, zero – of UNRWA’s facilities in Gaza, most of which serve as shelters for displaced people, 190 have been damaged during the conflict, killing more than 500 people inside them,” UNRWA spokesperson Tamara Alrifai said.

She stated that more than 1,600 individuals have been injured in attacks on buildings protected by international law, as they seek shelter at UNRWA facilities for protection under a UN flag.

Over nine months into the Israeli war, large areas of Gaza are now devastated and face severe shortages of essential supplies such as food, water, and medicine due to a crippling blockade.

The war has so far claimed the lives of nearly 38,664 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured more than 89,097 besides turning almost the entirety of the Palestinian territory into a scene of utter devastation.


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