A place of death and despair: UN chief says Gaza is now 'uninhabitable'

06 January 2024 , 21:21

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A family in the ruins in Rafah, Gaza (Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

Gaza is now uninhabitable three months into Israel’s war with Hamas, the UN says.

Humanitarian chief Martin ­Griffiths warns that all of its 2.3 million people face “daily threats to their very existence”. He added: “People are facing the highest levels of food insecurity ever recorded and famine is around the corner.”

Brit Mr Griffiths gave his grim assessment as the war escalates with the involvement of Lebanon. Yesterday Israeli jets blasted Lebanon’s Hezbollah militia after it fired more than 60 rockets at a military base at Mount Meron in northern Israel.

Martin Griffiths (AFP via Getty Images)

Hezbollah’s attack hours earlier was in response to the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Beirut by a suspected Israeli drone. Meanwhile, US secretary of state Antony Blinken was in Turkey yesterday at the start of his fourth Middle East trip since the start of the war to try to stop hostilities from spreading.

In Gaza, families are sleeping in the open as temperatures plummet, and areas where Palestinians were told to relocate for their safety have been bombed.

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An injured woman in Deir Al Balah (MOHAMMED SABER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock)

One man and his four children were pictured taking refuge in the ruins in Rafah on Friday after his wife died in an attack.

But despite hospitals being completely overwhelmed and the critical shortage of medical supplies, around 180 Palestinian women are giving birth every day.

Mr Griffiths says tens of thousands, mostly women and kids, have been killed or injured. Hamas puts the death toll at over 22,000.

Karen Rockett