Gaza Strip: UN Denounces High Levels of Violence and Destruction
Destruction in Gazans Schools, July 2024 Photo: @UN
July 19, 2024 Hour: 4:33 pm
Nearly a million women and girls have been displaced five, six or even seven times, moving to smaller and smaller areas where they are targets of attacks and shelling.
On Friday, Maryse Guimond, UN Women’s Special Representative in Palestine denounced that it is unbearable to witness the daily escalation of violence and destruction in the Gaza Strip today.
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A statement from the agency, released here, quoted her remarks at a UN briefing on her recent week-long visit to the coastal enclave.
In my six years in this job I visited Gaza more than 50 times, many times during previous escalations, but this time nothing prepared me for the utter destruction and inhumanity I saw,” she said.
“What I witnessed defied my worst fears for the women and girls I have been working with for many years,” she stressed.
Guimond highlighted the number of hungry, sick and exhausted people after more than nine months of conflict. More than 10,000 women lost their lives during that time, and more than 6,000 families suffered as a result, she said.
“Women in Gaza live in constant movement, constant fear, being constantly persecuted. There are no safe places to be a woman in Gaza,” she stressed.
She warned that nine out of 10 people living in the territory are refugees.
Furthermore, she also stated that nearly a million women and girls have been displaced five, six or even seven times, moving to smaller and smaller areas where they are targets of attacks and shelling.
“When I arrived in Gaza and the gate closed behind me at the Kerem Shalom crossing I could not recognize the Gaza I knew. I entered a world of devastation and total deprivation,” he said.
He denounced the destruction of homes, hospitals, businesses, schools and universities.
Crowds of men, women and children are trying to survive in makeshift tents and overcrowded shelters surrounded by rubble and total destruction, she said.
UN Women recently stated that at least 557,000 women in the Strip face severe food insecurity and gender-based vulnerabilities.
It warned that “the situation is particularly worrying for mothers and adult women, who often prioritize feeding others over themselves”.
The agency said that this sector of the population suffers from limited services, while their health and food security are compromised and they face increased risks of being subjected to all types of gender-based violence.
According to the agency’s survey, 70 percent of them reported weight loss in the last 30 days, and more than half experience frequent dizziness.
More than 80 per cent of respondents rely on food assistance as their main source of food, yet 87.3 per cent believe that the assistance is not distributed fairly according to family size.
Autor: OSG
Fuente: Aljazeera-The Star
