United Nations agencies Friday appealed to Israel to rescind its demand that 1.1 million civilians leave northern Gaza and relocate to the south within the next 24 hours, saying this was impossible and would have devastating consequences.
"This will only lead to unprecedented levels of misery and further push people in Gaza into abyss," said Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner general for the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, UNRWA.
In a statement, Lazzarini described the scale and speed of the unfolding humanitarian crisis as "bone chilling" and warned that "Gaza is fast becoming a hell hole and is on the brink of collapse."
Since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, Lazzarini noted that more than 423,000 Palestinians have been displaced, with more than 270,000 of them taking refuge in UNRWA shelters, "where basic food, medicine and support is provided to retain dignity and a glimmer of hope."
The World Health Organization has joined the U.N. appeal for Israel to reverse its evacuation order, noting that "with ongoing airstrikes, civilians have no safe place left to go."
WHO spokesperson Tarik Jasarevic said the Palestinian Ministry of Health has informed WHO that it is impossible to evacuate vulnerable hospital patients from the north of Gaza.
"Vulnerable hospital patients include those already critically injured, and adults, children, and newborns depending on life support in intensive care. The health system in the Gaza Strip is at a breaking point," he said. "Time is running out to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe if fuel, water, food and lifesaving health and humanitarian supplies cannot be urgently delivered to the Gaza Strip amidst the complete blockade."
Israel has vowed not to lift its siege on the Gaza Strip until Hamas has freed all the estimated 150 hostages it seized during its deadly attack on Israeli civilians.
The World Health Organization reports hospitals in Gaza have almost depleted the fuel they need to run their generators. The U.N. agency says there is a shortage of blood, and that medicines and medical supplies to treat the sick and wounded are in short supply.
WHO is calling for a humanitarian corridor into Gaza to allow these and other desperately needed trauma and emergency care drugs into the territory.
"We have a logistical hub in Dubai, and we are ready to move as soon as we get a signal that supplies can move forward," said Jasarevic.
UNICEF is calling for an immediate cease-fire, noting that children comprise nearly half of the 1.1 million people warned to move out of the way ahead of what is expected to be an Israeli ground assault in Gaza.
"Hundreds and hundreds of children have been killed and injured," said James Elder, UNICEF spokesperson. "The images and stories are clear, children with horrendous burns, mortar wounds, and lost limbs. And hospitals are utterly overwhelmed to treat them. Yet the numbers keep rising."
He said international humanitarian law must prevail.
"Israeli children being held hostage in Gaza must be safely and immediately reunited with their families and loved ones," said Elder.
Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that "civilians must never be used as bargaining chips."
"The taking of hostages and summary executions of civilians by Hamas is obviously prohibited under International Humanitarian Law, and these also amount to war crimes," she said.
"The imposition of sieges that endanger the lives of a civilian population of goods essential for their survival including food, medical supplies and electricity are prohibited under international humanitarian law," said Shamdasani. "Intentionally using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare and depriving them of objects essential for their survival is defined as a war crime."
U.N. rights chief Volker Türk has called on the parties to the conflict to immediately implement a humanitarian corridor to ensure safe and unimpeded access to humanitarian aid.
"We should not look back and regret that we did not do everything in our power to avoid a disaster," he said.
The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA, has just launched a flash appeal for $294 million to provide emergency food and other essential aid for 1.2 million people mainly in Gaza, with a small portion allotted for people in the occupied West Bank.
OCHA noted that the most urgent priority was to de-escalate the crisis. It stressed the impossibility of carrying out the order it received from the Israeli military to relocate so many people from northern Gaza to the south.
"Asking people to relocate in the middle of a war zone when people are at the end of a rope — how is that going to happen," asked Jens Laerke, OCHA spokesperson.
"There is only one solution, and that is to rescind this order and allow access for humanitarian agencies to do what they do, which is to save the lives of civilians," he said.
