‘Get us out of this hellhole,’ UN staff say as situation worsens in 'locked-down' Gaza

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) is the largest UN agency working in Gaza, both in terms of operations as well as the number of staff.

“Our staff is … terrified and tired. They want all of this to come to an end and the message we're getting is: ‘Get us out of this hellhole. This has become hell’,” UNRWA director of communications Juliette Touma said through video conference.

Touma said the desperate appeals for help have worsened by the day amidst Israel's weeklong siege and unceasing bombardment.

"The mood is going down. I feel the level of desperation is going up. Uncertainty, really from one hour to another, fear. That's what our staff has been sharing with us," she told the media at the UN headquarters.

The staff in Gaza includes teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, warehouse workers, logisticians, technicians and drivers.

Million displaced

About one million Palestinians have been displaced and nearly half of them are sheltering in UNRWA schools in Gaza ever since the Hamas’ massacre of Israel on October 7 has led to heavy bombing of the strip.

The UNRWA has lost 14 of its staff members in Gaza while several others working with the UN agency have been displaced since the start of the conflict ten days ago.

Touma said many UNRWA staff members have taken refuge with friends and relatives but scores more have taken shelter in UNRWA facilities, including in units that were not meant to become shelters.

Israel has issued an ultimatum that the entire population of Gaza north of Wadi Gaza, some 1.1 million people, should relocate to southern Gaza within 24 hours.

The situation is rapidly deteriorating with each passing hour as Gaza runs out of food, water, fuel and essential supplies.

The UN official said UNRWA colleagues who continue to be in Gaza and aim to deliver for people in the strip are themselves down to one litre of water a day.

“Our own staff are impacted as well, terrified, very, very worried for what the next hour will bring, let alone what the next day will bring,” she said.

Toilet crisis

The UNRWA wants the Israeli siege on the Gaza Strip to be lifted so that UN agencies and other humanitarian bodies are able to bring in much-needed supplies into Gaza.

"We are getting reports that hundreds of people are sharing one toilet,” she said.

Gaza has been under full electricity blackout for the sixth consecutive day.

On Sunday, the Israeli authorities resumed partial water supply to the eastern Khan Younis area, providing less than four per cent of the water consumed in the Gaza Strip prior to the hostilities.

According to the Israeli military, at least 199 people are held captive in Gaza by the Hamas, including Israelis and foreign nationals.

Since the start of hostilities, as many as 2,778 Palestinians have been killed and 9,938 have been injured.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has shown foreign correspondents in Tel Aviv a grisly montage of video and photographs of Hamas's massacre of hundreds of civilians across southern Israel last week.

Horrific evidence

The footage showed on Monday included a photo of a burnt baby.

It also showed gunmen shooting the dead bodies of civilians in cars, militants in the process of beheading a body with a hoe and burnt corpses thrown in a dumpster.

“This is not just a war against Israel, it's a war against humanity,” said Israeli military spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari.

The military has described horrific atrocities committed by Hamas militants against towns, small farming communities and a music festival near the Gaza border.

It had previously released just a few snippets of video to back the claims.

The latest footage was an unceasing display of horrors. Some of it came from Hamas body cameras and videos posted by Hamas militants to social media and later verified by Israel.

Some was taken by civilians as they tried to escape, some by first responders.

It showed bodies of people who had been bound. A room with at least seven bodies reduced to ash. Civilians shot in bedrooms, bathrooms, front yards. Blood so thick it nearly obscured hallway floors.

The evidence showed the ease with which Hamas militants moved around inside Israel.

Massacre of Israelis

In Kibbutz Be'eri, people slept as the militants peered into people's dark living rooms. They toyed with outdoor decorations, using a cigarette lighter to set a dreamcatcher hanging on someone's window ablaze.

Israel's rescue service later found more than 120 bodies there.

Dozens of militants in trucks whooped and celebrated on Israeli roads as bodies and cars burned around them.

Hagari said Israel has detained some of the militants and is interrogating them to find out how the attack was coordinated.

According to official Israeli sources, at least 1,300 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed in Israel and at least 4,121 have been injured, the vast majority on October 7.

(With inputs from agencies)