Gazans constantly being in ‘survival mode,' despair must stop: Head of UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees

By Merve Berker

The continuous cycle of displacement, constantly being in “survival mode” and despair must stop, the head of the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) said Friday about atrocities in the Gaza Strip committed by Israel.

“Again & again, the same tragic cycle,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X. “Earlier this week, the Israeli Authorities issued new evacuation orders for people in #Gaza forcing hundreds of thousands out of Khan Younis & Rafah in the south.”

“These evacuation orders - the largest issued since October- impact nearly a quarter of a million people, most of them already displaced, multiple times,” he lamented. “People have no where to go.”

“They desperately search for nonexistent safety, setting up makeshift structures often in the rubble of bombed out buildings,” he said. “The risk of unexploded ordnance (UXO) is spreading.”

Citing a 9-year-old girl who was reportedly killed by a UXO in Khan Younis last week and six children who were injured, Lazzarini stressed: “The risk for children is especially high.”

“They spend hours collecting water and food & walk long distances amid piles of accumulated waste that could be covering UXOs,” he said.

“No more delay for the long overdue #CEASEFIRE_NOW,” he added.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by the Palestinian group, Hamas.

More than 38,000 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and over 87,000 injured, according to local health authorities.

Nearly nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.