According to data released by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than fifty people died in one of the attacks on the Tal Az Zaatar school in Beit Lahia.
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, said this Sunday that he was “shocked” by the bombing, in less than 24 hours, of two schools managed by the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Gaza Strip.
“Dozens of people – many women and children – were killed and injured while seeking refuge in UN facilities,” António Guterres said in a statement.
According to data released this Sunday by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, More than fifty people were killed in one of the attacks on the Tal Az Zaatar school, in Beit Lahia, near the border with Israel, in the far north of the Strip.
The agency recalled that between October 7, the day hostilities between Israel and Hamas began, and November 16, at least 71 internally displaced people were killed and 573 injured in attacks on UNRWA shelters throughout the Gaza Strip. .
In his statement, Guterres insisted on the “inviolability” of UN facilities in the Palestinian enclave, where hundreds of thousands of people are seeking refuge from relentless Israeli bombing and intensifying fighting.
This war is causing an impressive and unacceptable number of civilian victims every day, including women and children. This has to end. “I reiterate my call for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire.”defended the general secretary.
Guterres also thanked Qatar for its mediation in the conflict. The Arab country is leading negotiations between Israel and Hamas to release 50 hostages, mainly women and children, in exchange for the release of Palestinian women and children detained in Israeli prisons and a temporary five-day ceasefire.
A Hamas source told Efe that both sides are close to reaching a prisoner exchange agreement, according to which the Palestinian group would release Israeli women and children in exchange for the Jewish State doing the same with detained Palestinian women and children. in Israeli prisons.
According to the same source, there is already a “preliminary agreement” to carry out this exchange of civilians, but “there is disagreement regarding the number”, since “Hamas wants to release 50, while Israel insists on releasing 100 detainees.” .
The Washington Post reported Saturday that the deal could come into effect in the coming days, allowing for the first sustained pause in the Israeli offensive on the enclave since the start of the war. The agreement would also facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid through the Rafah crossing on the border between Egypt and Gaza.
This Sunday, Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer told NBC News that the United States is “closer” than ever to reaching an agreement, although he refused to specify the number of hostages who will be released, noting that there are more than 12. The agreement, according to the official, also aims to suspend the bombings in Gaza.
Source: Observadora
