Gaza: "Heavy bombardment continued overnight in the area including Tel al-Sultan" | United Nations

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)’s Director of Communication said, “According to our teams on the ground, the heavy bombardment continued overnight in the area including Tel al-Sultan, that is north of Rafah where the UN main offices including the UNRWA offices are in Gaza." She added that “people are absolutely terrified.”

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The Agency’s senior official Juliette Touma spoke to reporters from Amman today (28 May) via a video link.

She said, “The teams today said that the aftermath of the harrowing attack on Sunday is huge. According to some international medical sources that our teams spoke to, at least 200 people were killed in that attack amongst them women and children. The attack added to the general fear of death, people are seeing so much death around them.”

On humanitarian supplies, Touma updated reporters that “just over 200 trucks with humanitarian supplies have been picked up in the last three weeks. This is of course a drop in the ocean amid people's humanitarian needs, as they continue to immensely grow.”

She continued, “This very, very small number of trucks that has been picked up is due to several factors. One is the heavy movement restrictions that the Israeli authorities continue to impose on the humanitarian community; the ongoing Israeli forces airstrikes; recent expansion of the military operation in the area; the recent launch of rockets by Hamas delays and limitations in general on the routes that can be used by the humanitarian teams including UNRWA and the fuel coming in by far is not enough to support of humanitarian operations in Gaza.”

The Director of Communications also said, “We're also running out of medical supplies and basic medicines due to shortages of humanitarian deliveries.”

“On the general situation, our teams reported that there's very little to no electricity in Rafah and very patchy internet conditions, the telecommunication’ network continues to be interrupted,” she added.

In closing of her statement, Touma reiterated the call of the UN Secretary General for “an immediate ceasefire, the immediate and unconditional release of hostages to end the suffering of civilians.”

She added, “We also echo the SG’s dismay on the lack of the implementation of the recent order of the International Court of Justice regarding Rafah. These decisions are binding, military operation in Rafah must immediately end and the flow of humanitarian assistance into Gaza must improve without further delay.”

Asked about funding, Touma said, “Most of the donors who have suspended the funding to UNRWA back in January and have now returned, apart from countries that is the United States and the United Kingdom. And the funding that comes to UNRWA also includes funding to our operations in Gaza. We are not at all out of the woods of course and it is very, very hard for us to know what will happen beyond the end of June with regards to operations across the region of the agency including those in Gaza.”

Asked about Israeli Knesset to vote on a bill to designate the Agency as a terror organization, the UNRWA’s Director of Communications said, “this is the last straw, the last attempt in a number of attempts over the past month to dismantle UNRWA.”

She reiterated, “UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Gaza, and it provides human development services to Palestine Refugees around the region, including over half a million boys and girls that go to UNRWA schools.”