Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Coordinator, said the situation in the northern Gaza Strip was "horrendous", noting that bodies of the dead were left on the streets and people were on the brink of starvation.
"Colleagues who have managed to reach the north in recent days describe scenes of utter horror - corpses left on the road. People with obvious signs of hunger stop the trucks in search of anything that can help them survive. Even if people could return home, many no longer have homes to go to," said Griffiths at the UN Security Council session.
He warned that the risk of starvation is growing by the day as food and water supplies run out, while the health system is "in a state of collapse," reports CNN.
"Women can't give birth safely and children can't get vaccinated, while there are more cases of infectious disease and people seeking shelter in hospital yards," Griffiths said.
He added that his team's efforts to send humanitarian convoys to the north "have been met with delays, prohibitions and the imposition of impossible conditions", while "the lack of respect for the notification system puts humanitarian workers' every step at risk".
Griffiths also stressed that his agency's access to Khan Younis is limited, and the UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Coordination has accused Israel of withholding critical supplies to the Palestinian enclave.
"Evacuation orders are inexorable. As ground operations move south, aerial bombardment has intensified in areas where civilians have been told to relocate for their safety. There is no safe place in Gaza. A dignified human life is almost impossible," Griffiths said regarding Israel's policy of encouraging the Palestinian population to leave their homes before expanding military operations in various regions of Gaza.
About 1,9 million people have been displaced, some multiple times, representing 85 percent of Gaza's population, since the start of the conflict between Israel and Hamas, according to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the UN aid organization for the Palestinians.
