WASHINGTON
A UN official said “hopes were dashed” after strikes hit Khan Younis in the Gaza Strip on Friday following a weeklong humanitarian pause that ended in the enclave.
“The past week offered us a glimpse of what can happen when the guns fall silent. The situation in Khan Younis today is a shocking reminder of what happens when they don’t,” Martin Griffiths, UN under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, said in a statement.
Griffiths said = hostages were released, families were reunited and more patients received medical care, and the volume of aid into and across Gaza increased during the past seven days.
“Today, in a matter of hours, scores were reportedly killed and injured. Families were told to evacuate, again,” he said. “Almost two months into the fighting, the children, women and men of Gaza are all terrified. They have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on. They live surrounded by disease, destruction and death. This is unacceptable.”
The official reiterated the need for a humanitarian cease-fire and the immediate release of remaining hostages.
“We need the fighting to stop,” he said.
The Israeli army resumed attacks across the Gaza Strip early Friday after the end of a humanitarian pause, causing hundreds of causalities among the Palestinians.
At least 109 Palestinians were killed and several others injured as Israel resumed striking various areas in the Gaza Strip following the end of the pause, said the Health Ministry in Gaza.
The pause between Israel and Hamas went into effect Nov. 24.
