“There are around 65,000 people in the besieged areas” of the northern Gaza Strip, scene of a large-scale offensive, launched on October 6 by the Israeli army on the town of Jabaliya and its surroundings, a door told Agence France-Presse (AFP) on Monday – spokesperson for the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), Louise Wateridge, from Gaza City, where many northerners have fled since the bombings.
“There is no access to food or drinking water” in the north of the enclave, she reports. “ We hear that they're looking through trash in buildings, through rubble, trying to find old cans, any food they can find. We hear with horror that the bombings continue on hospitals and shelters,” she continues.
The UN agency estimates that between 100,000 and 130,000 people have fled the northern Gaza Strip since the start of the operation, which, according to the Israeli army, aims to prevent the Hamas movement from reconstituting its forces there. strengths. “In Gaza City, they arrive in charred, destroyed buildings, in the rain, and it’s really cold”continues Louise Wateridge. “They have no mattresses, no tarpaulins, no tents… Not even blankets. (…) The conditions in which people are forced to live here are worse than appalling. »
« Ici, she saidI meet people who have fled to avoid dying and they show me terrible videos of them running through the streets and making their way through the rubble. There are corpses of children around them, corpses of killed people everywhere in their path, and they have to step over them. Fifty days of siege – the destruction, the death, the pain… – is inconceivable. »
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