UN refugee chief says military escalation ‘catastrophic’ for Gaza

Tokyo, Japan — AFP

Any escalation of military activities will be “catastrophic” for people in the Gaza Strip, the UN high commissioner for refugees has said.

More than 4,200 Palestinians have been killed across the Gaza Strip in relentless Israeli bombardments since October 7 when Palestinian resistance movement Hamas launched its Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, according to the latest toll from the health ministry in Gaza.

“(I) can tell you with certainty that any further escalation or even continuation of military activities will just be catastrophic for the people of Gaza,” Filippo Grandi told reporters in Japan on Friday.

While stressing that refugee agency UNHCR has no formal mandate in the Palestinian Territories or Israel, Grandi said that he “shares the extreme worry and anguish that has been expressed by many of my colleagues including the UN secretary general” about the war.

“Lebanon is in a very deep political and economic crisis itself. Lebanon hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees; Syrian refugees and Palestinian refugees,” Grandi said.

“So if God forbid Lebanon were to be engulfed in this war, the humanitarian consequences will be incalculable,” Grandi said.

“Let us not forget that we have other situations that are not resolved in the vicinity. The Syria conflict for example. Iraq remains very fragile. Egypt has hosted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Sudan, another conflict on its borders,” he said.

The United Nations says more than one million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced and that the humanitarian situation is worsening by the day.

Italian diplomat Grandi, 66, was in Japan seeking funding for the UNHCR’s activities supporting the 110 million people displaced from other places such as Afghanistan, Myanmar, Syria and Sudan.

“Although crises are growing, funding is not growing. Up to now… almost at the end of the year, the UNHCR is only funded at 42 percent,” he said.