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28-10-2023
JERUSALEM/ GAZA CITY: Israel says it has conducted targeted raids in the central area of the Gaza Strip and struck dozens of Hamas targets.
The Israel Defense Forces said Shadi Barud, the deputy head of Hamas’s intelligence arm, was killed in a targeted operation.
The UN’s top humanitarian official Martin Griffiths says aid is “barely trickling” into Gaza, after days of warnings over rapidly depleting fuel supplies.
EU leaders have called for “pauses” in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid to reach civilians.
More than 1,400 people were killed in the initial attacks on Israel by Hamas on 7 October, and Israel says more than 220 are still being held hostage in Gaza.
The Hamas-run health ministry says 7,000 people have been killed since Israeli air strikes on Gaza began.
UNRWA Chief asked if Gaza casualty numbers are credible
Following his statement to the press, the commissioner general for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, is asked about the casualty numbers in Gaza, and whether the numbers shared by the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry are credible.
He explains that in the past figures coming from the Gaza Strip were considered credible and “no one ever really challenged these figures”.
Lazzarini explains that a correlation made by the UN compared the number of staff they have in Gaza and the number of staff killed within the population, and the total population.
Their analysis concluded, he adds, that “we have more or less the same percentage”.
On Wednesday, President Biden said he had “no confidence” in the figures released by the Gaza officials.
In the closing remarks of his statement to the press, Lazzarini says at least 57 of his UNRWA colleagues have been killed in Gaza.
“These are mothers and fathers” who had “dedicated themselves” to Gaza, he says.
Lazzarini goes on to tell the story of one colleague who was killed in a strike while going to the bakery to buy bread.
“He left six children behind,” he adds.
“My colleagues are the face of humanity during what I would describe as one of the darkest hours,” Lazzarini says. “People are turning their despair to UNRWA.”
In the face of shortages, Lazzarini says he is unsure how long UNRWA “can last”, but adds it is “certainly no more than a few days”. (Int’l News Desk)
