Lazzarini labels Gaza ‘hell on earth’

Palestinian Territories – AFP

Israeli forces bombed more areas in the devastated Gaza Strip on Tuesday as the UN General Assembly was due to vote on a new demand for a cease-fire.

More than two months into the war, the visiting chief of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, likened Gaza to “hell on earth”.

The health ministry updated the death toll in Gaza to 18,412, mostly women and children.

Hamas said Israeli forces raided a hospital in Gaza City, the biggest urban centre.

“Israeli occupation forces are storming Kamal Adwan hospital after besieging and bombing it for days,” Ashraf al-Qudra said, accusing troops of rounding up men in the hospital courtyard, including medical staff.

The army did not immediately comment.

The UN humanitarian agency OCHA said earlier that “the hospital remains surrounded by Israeli troops and tanks, and fighting with armed groups has been reported in its vicinity for three consecutive days”.

It said two mothers were killed in a strike on the maternity ward and that about 3,000 internally displaced people were trapped in the facility amid reports of “extreme shortages of water, food and power”.

UN agencies and aid groups fear the Palestinian territory will soon be overwhelmed by starvation and disease and are pleading with Israel to boost efforts to protect civilians.

– ‘WWII-level devastation’ –

The war has deepened the suffering in Gaza, whose devastation the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has compared to that of Germany during World War II.

The UN estimates 1.9 million of Gaza’s 2.4 million people have been displaced by the war, half of them children.

Israeli air strikes killed at least 24 people in Rafah near the border with Egypt, where tens of thousands are seeking shelter, the health ministry said.

One strike left a deep crater and gutted surrounding buildings. Teenagers were salvaging belongings from the debris with their hands, a young girl retrieving some notebooks.

“There are still people under the rubble,” said local resident Abu Jazar, 23. “We call on the Arab people and the world to put on pressure to stop the strikes on Gaza.”

At Rafah hospital, bereaved father Hani Abu Jamaa was holding the body of his young daughter Sidal, who was killed by shrapnel.

He said there had been strong explosions overnight and that he only found she was dead when he tried to wake her in the morning.

“Even if I live 100 years, I will never find another like her,” he said, crying. “May God have mercy on her, oh Lord.”

– ‘No water, no power, no bread’ –

Israel’s military claimed it had struck a rocket launch site in Jabalia near Gaza City that had fired on Sderot in southern Israel, and found hundreds of shells and rocket-propelled grenade launchers in a Hamas compound.

The army has lost 105 soldiers in the offensive, it said Tuesday, including 13 killed by friendly fire and others in accidents.

Fighting and heavy bombardment in the south of Gaza, where Israel had previously urged civilians to seek safety, have left people with few places to go.

In central Gaza, Al-Aqsa hospital was inundated with victims Monday, including dozens of screaming children, after Israeli strikes on the Al-Maghazi refugee camp.

In Gaza City, thousands of Palestinians set up camp at a UN agency headquarters after nearby homes and shops were destroyed by Israeli strikes.

An AFP correspondent said both the Islamic and adjacent Al-Azhar universities had been reduced to rubble, as had the police station.

“There is no water. There is no electricity, no bread, no milk for the children, and no diapers,” said Rami al-Dahduh, 23, a tailor.