13 February 2024<\/p>\n
Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator<\/strong><\/p>\n The scenario we have long dreaded is unraveling at alarming speed.<\/p>\n More than half of Gaza\u2019s population \u2013 well over 1 million people \u2013 are crammed in Rafah, staring death in the face: They have little to eat, hardly any access to medical care, nowhere to sleep, nowhere safe to go.<\/p>\n They, like the entire population of Gaza, are the victims of an assault that is unparalleled in its intensity, brutality and scope.<\/p>\n More than 28,000 people \u2013 mostly women and children \u2013 have been killed across Gaza, according to the Ministry of Health.<\/p>\n For more than four months, humanitarian workers have been doing the near-impossible to assist people in need, despite the risks they themselves were facing and the traumas they were enduring.<\/p>\n But no amount of dedication and goodwill is enough to keep millions of people alive, fed and protected \u2013 while the bombs are falling and the aid is choked off.<\/p>\n Add to this the widespread despair, the breakdown of law and order, and the defunding of UNRWA.<\/p>\n The consequences are humanitarian workers who are shot at, held at gunpoint, attacked and killed.<\/p>\n I have said for weeks now that our humanitarian response is in tatters.<\/p>\n Today, I\u2019m sounding the alarm once again: Military operations in Rafah could lead to a slaughter in Gaza. They could also leave an already fragile humanitarian operation at death\u2019s door.<\/p>\n We lack the safety guarantees, the aid supplies and the staff capacity to keep this operation afloat.<\/p>\n The international community has been warning against the dangerous consequences of any ground invasion in Rafah. The Government of Israel cannot continue to ignore these calls.<\/p>\n History will not be kind.<\/p>\n This war must end.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 13 February 2024 Statement by Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator The scenario we have long dreaded is unraveling at alarming speed. More than half of Gaza\u2019s population \u2013 well over 1 million people \u2013 are crammed in Rafah, staring death in the face: They have little to eat, hardly any […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":299,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"country":[],"document-category":[1338],"document-source":[2169],"committee-meeting":[],"document-subject":[1769,1829,2033,2057,6650,2005,5200,1841],"entity":[1729],"document-language":[6542],"class_list":["post-293355","document","type-document","status-publish","hentry","document-category-statement","document-source-office-for-the-coordination-of-humanitarian-affairs-ocha","document-subject-armed-conflict","document-subject-casualties","document-subject-children","document-subject-food","document-subject-funding-needs","document-subject-gaza-strip","document-subject-humanitarian-relief","document-subject-women","entity-united-nations-system","document-language-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293355","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/document"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293355\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":293358,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document\/293355\/revisions\/293358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=293355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"document-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-category?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"document-source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-source?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"committee-meeting","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/committee-meeting?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"document-subject","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-subject?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"entity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/entity?post=293355"},{"taxonomy":"document-language","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/unispal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/document-language?post=293355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}