Beirut - Gaza: Europe and the Arabs
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Lebanon said that the conflict has deeply and widely affected civilians, especially in the south of the country, and that the people of Lebanon are living with the constant threat of violence, displacement and loss of livelihoods.
In a special interview with UN News, Fadel Saleh, Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Lebanon, stated that the conflict has resulted in a large number of casualties and widespread displacement, as more than 130 civilians have been killed since October 2023, including 33 women and children, while more than 110,000 people have been displaced.
Saleh, who works within the Humanitarian Access and Civil-Military Coordination Team at the UN Office, said that "the situation on the ground is very worrying," adding that if there is no increase in humanitarian funding and improved access to the villages most affected by the exchange of fire, many needs will remain unmet, increasing the suffering of civilians on the ground. In preparation for the possibility of further escalation, the official in the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Lebanon confirmed that “humanitarian organizations working in Lebanon have developed a contingency plan that addresses two scenarios. The first scenario is an uncontrolled conflict that could affect one million people, while the second scenario is a controlled conflict that could affect 250,000 people.” In Gaza, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Muhannad Hadi, said that this month witnessed the issuance of evacuation orders in the Gaza Strip at a rate of one evacuation order every two days, forcing up to a quarter of a million Palestinians to flee their homes again. According to the UN Daily News Bulletin, a copy of which we received today, Friday. In a statement issued yesterday, Thursday, Hadi explained that if these evacuation orders are intended to protect civilians, the reality indicates that they lead to the exact opposite. They force families to flee again, often under bombardment with the few belongings they can carry with them, to an ever-shrinking area that is witnessing overcrowding, pollution, limited services and insecurity – as is the case in the rest of Gaza. He noted that just yesterday, tens of thousands of civilians in four neighborhoods in Deir al-Balah and Khan Younis were ordered to leave, and humanitarian workers from a number of UN agencies and NGOs and their families were also affected. Hadi said civilians were exhausted and terrified, running from one destroyed place to another with no end in sight, adding that this could not continue. The UN official renewed calls for the protection of civilians, the release of hostages, facilitation of humanitarian access and an agreement on a ceasefire.