GAZA, (PIC)
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said, “Key crossing points [in the Gaza Strip] continue to be closed… They need to be reopened without any delay.”
He added in a post on X on Tuesday evening, “The area of Al-Mawasi is overcrowded with more than 400,000 people. It does not have the facilities to take more people and is not safer than other areas of Gaza.”
For his part, the United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Israel to reopen the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings immediately.
Guterres said in a press statement, “The closure of both the Rafah and Karem Shalom crossings is especially damaging to an already dire humanitarian situation. They must be reopened immediately.”
“The two crossings must be allowed to reopen, to allow humanitarian aid to enter the Gaza Strip,” he said, calling for “a halt to the escalation.”
“Closing the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings at the same time is particularly harmful to the already desperate humanitarian situation,” Guterres underlined.
“An assault on Rafah would be a humanitarian catastrophe,” he noted, as the city is overcrowded with civilians.
The United Nations announced earlier on Tuesday that Israel “prevented its crews from reaching the Rafah land crossing in the southern Gaza Strip.”
