Israel has destroyed 10 UNRWA buildings in Gaza City over past 4 days: Agency’s chief

ISTANBUL

Israeli strikes destroyed 10 of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees’ (UNRWA) buildings in Gaza City over the past four days, including seven schools and two clinics serving as shelters for thousands of displaced Palestinians, the agency’s commissioner-general said Sunday.

“No place is safe in Gaza. No one is safe. Airstrikes in Gaza City and the north are intensifying. More and more people are forced to leave, disoriented and uncertain, heading into the unknown,” Philippe Lazzarini wrote on the US social media company X’s platform.

Lazzarini noted that UNRWA was forced to suspend health care at the Al-Shati refugee camp.

“We were forced to stop health care in Beach (Al-Shati) Camp, the only health care available north of Wadi Gaza. Our vital water and sanitation services are now only at half capacity,” he said.

“Our teams – 11,000 in total – continue to provide critical services in other parts of northern Gaza and the rest of the Gaza Strip,” he added, praising their determination to serve communities under “inhumane circumstances.”

Lazzarini concluded by saying: "How much longer until action is taken to reach a ceasefire?”

The Israeli army has been targeting high-rise buildings across Gaza City as part of its ongoing offensive to occupy Gaza City, ordering residents to move southward to a “safe humanitarian zone” in Al-Mawasi, Khan Younis, which has come under Israeli fire more than 100 times, killing hundreds of civilians.

According to Gaza’s Government Media Office, the Israeli army has destroyed 1,600 towers and residential buildings in Gaza City since Aug. 11, in addition to 13,000 tents, displacing more than 100,000 Palestinians.

The vast majority of Gaza City’s residents are now crowded into its western neighborhoods, which have witnessed concentrated and intense Israeli bombing since Friday.

Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza has killed nearly 65,000 Palestinians since October 2023 and devastated the enclave, which faces famine.

Israel is facing a genocide case at the International Court of Justice over its war on the territory.