UN Agency Head Calls for Temporary Truce in Northern Gaza
22/10/2024 19:13
The United Nations Palestinian refugee agency called on Tuesday for a temporary truce to allow people to leave areas of northern Gaza as health officials said they were running out of supplies to treat patients hurt in a three-week-old Israeli offensive. Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UNRWA relief agency, said the humanitarian situation had reached a dire point, with bodies abandoned by roadsides or buried under rubble. "In northern Gaza, people are just waiting to die," he said in a statement on social media platform X. "They feel deserted, hopeless and alone." "I am calling for an immediate truce, even if for a few hours, to enable safe humanitarian passage for families who wish to leave the area & reach safer places," he said. The call came as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Israel looking for ways of reviving attempts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza, following the death of former Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar almost a week ago.
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