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.