00:00 One million Palestinians have been displaced since the 7th of October.
00:05 UNRWA sadly has lost 14 staff members who work with the agency in the Gaza Strip since the 7th
00:16 of October. Many of our own staff themselves, they have been displaced. Many have taken refuge
00:24 with friends and relatives, but many, many more are taking refuge in UNRWA facilities,
00:30 including in facilities that were not meant to become shelters. The siege on the Gaza Strip
00:38 continues. UNRWA has not been able to bring in any supplies since the 7th of October,
00:46 and our own supplies are running out, and they're running out fast. Our colleagues who continue to
00:53 be in Gaza, who continue to stay and deliver for people in Gaza, including those impacted by
01:00 this war, are reporting that they are down themselves to one liter of water a day in our
01:11 offices in the south, where we have relocated our center of operations. They tell us that they
01:18 cannot even reassure their children to tell them that it's going to be okay, because maybe it's not
01:26 going to be okay. We feel that the levels of desperation and frustration and exhaustion
01:33 among our staff specifically increases by the hour. The longer this goes on, the longer
01:41 the fatigue, the exhaustion, the frustration. What we are calling for at UNRWA is for the siege
01:48 to be lifted, the siege on the Gaza Strip to be lifted, so that organizations like UNRWA,
01:55 but also other sister UN agencies and other humanitarian agencies are able to bring in
02:01 much-needed supplies into the Gaza Strip to provide assistance to those in need.
02:10 The shelters are overcrowded. The shelters do not have enough sanitation services. We are getting
02:19 reports that hundreds of people are sharing one toilet, for example. So, related to the previous
02:26 question, we do have serious concerns about the spread of waterborne diseases in the Gaza Strip,
02:33 especially among those displaced. Many of those displaced are actually UNRWA colleagues,
02:40 and they tell us that they are shell-shocked. They are shell-shocked simply to lose their home,
02:46 to become homeless, and to come and take refuge in what is a UN facility, whether it's a school
02:52 or a logistics center or a medical facility. Of the 14 colleagues who were killed,
03:02 the vast majority of them were teachers. It was a mix of men and women. We had one woman who was a
03:11 gynecologist. We had one engineer. We had support staff. This is what we have been able to confirm
03:20 thus far. However, it is likely that the numbers of fallen UN colleagues is higher. Some were
03:31 killed in their own homes with their families.
Comments