Some 30,000 people are sheltering at the site and the death toll could be higher, said Philippe Lazzarini, UNRWA Commissioner General, who also took to the platform to lament “another horrific day in Gaza.”

“The compound is a clearly marked UN facility and its coordinates were shared with Israeli Authorities as we do for all our facilities,” he said, adding “once again a blatant disregard of basic rules of war.”

Rafah normally has a population of around 280,000 which has swelled to an estimated 1.2 to 1.4 million as people fleeing fighting elsewhere pack into the city, setting up makeshift shelters and tents in the streets.

The squalid and unsanitary conditions have led to outbreaks of respiratory infections and Hepatitis A, both of which had been eradicated in Gaza. Meningitis and other illnesses are also emerging.

Humanitarian workers are being sent into very hostile areas “and they have no radios, they have no communications that work for them to be able to be seen to be safe”, he said, adding that they also do not have enough armoured vehicles.

Furthermore, many of the goods humanitarians are trying to bring into Gaza to support water and sanitation “seem to be prohibited by the Israelis,” he said.

    • fastandcurious@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      but you see, it’s not genocide, they didn’t kill everyone

      /s I think is needed, something I would have never thought before, lot of absolute lunatics here as well

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.worldOP
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        9 months ago

        Yeah unfortunately the /s is needed. A lot of ppl still defend these actions by Israel, even in Lemmy. I wonder how the global dynamic will shift if the ICJ rules Israel is committing Genocide this Friday

    • bob_lemon@feddit.de
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      9 months ago

      The whole genocide or not discussion just distracts from the obvious fact that Israel is commiting war crimes for which they should definitely answer, even if the total extermination of the Palestinian people is not on their agenda.