The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has disclosed that more than 625,000 pupils and about 22,500 teachers “are in an extremely vulnerable situation” in Gaza.
UNESCO reiterated calls for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The UN’s culture agency said it reminds “actors” in the conflict of their obligation to humanitarian law, especially Resolution 2601, which condemns attacks on civilians connected to schools, including students and teachers and “urges all parties to armed conflict to immediately cease such attacks and threats of attacks”.
Among the rising death toll, UNESCO said dozens were UNRWA employees, the vast majority being teachers and educators.
In a separate statement, UN’s humanitarian coordinator for Palestine, Lynn Hastings said that Israel “clearly” opposes the delivery of humanitarian aid to northern Gaza.
“So our staff will have to assume certain security risks if we determine the assistance that we have to be lifesaving and needs to be delivered,” Hastings said.
“I’ve said it before that over a million people cannot just pick up and move to the south where there have been repeated bombings. There is no service delivery, there is no shelter there. We need to be able to deliver [assistance] to those people and we need to be able to deliver assistance to wherever people are in need.”
Lynn Hastings
Additionally, the World Food Programme (WFP) noted that the catastrophic conditions facing thousands of Palestinians in Gaza risk getting worse due to severe fuel shortages.
It added that the shortage of fuel threatens to bring food and other humanitarian operations to a standstill.
The WFP warned that just two of their contracted bakeries, compared to 23 at the start of the war, have enough fuel to produce bread at the moment “and tomorrow there might be none.”
WFP Representative in Palestine, Samer Abdeljaber said in a statement, “This would be a terrible blow to the thousands of families living in shelters who have been relying on the daily bread deliveries.”
“The people of Gaza need continuous aid delivery at a level that corresponds to the enormous needs. To ease the suffering and enable the delivery of life-saving assistance, we echo the Secretary General’s appeal for a humanitarian ceasefire.”
Samer Abdeljaber
Medical Delegation Enters Gaza
Also on Friday, a medical delegation consisting of 10 foreign doctors entered Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, along with 10 trucks importing water, food and medicine.
This brings the total number of trucks since the beginning of the introduction of aid into the besieged enclave to only 84 trucks.
Hospital workers urgently need medical supplies and fuel for their generators as they treat thousands of people wounded in the bombings.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) later disclosed that its war surgery team and a weapons contamination specialist are among the 10 experts who arrived in Gaza, along with six ICRC trucks carrying medical and water purification supplies.
The ICRC said in a statement that their war surgery kits can be used to treat between 1,000 and 5,000 people, depending on the severity of their injuries.
The water purification supplies contain chlorine tablets that can treat 50,000 litres of drinking water.
Fabrizio Carboni, the ICRC’s Regional Director for the Near and Middle East, said, “This crucial humanitarian assistance is a small dose of relief, but it´s not enough.”
“Our surgical team and medical supplies will help relieve the extreme pressure on Gaza’s doctors and nurses. But safe, sustained humanitarian access is urgently needed. This humanitarian catastrophe is deepening by the hour.”
Fabrizio Carboni
“The ICRC urges all parties to the conflict and states with influence to enable rapid and unimpeded humanitarian access in line with international humanitarian law,” the statement noted.
“Sustained humanitarian access, and a sustained supply of humanitarian assistance, is desperately needed across Gaza,” it added.
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