Palestinian Death Toll Increases to 15,899, UN Secretary General: There is No Safe Place in Gaza

JAKARTA - There is no safe place to go in the Gaza Strip for people ordered to evacuate, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement on Monday, as the Palestinian death toll rose drastically following the end of the Hamas-Israel ceasefire last week. Then.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) ordered civilians to leave most of the Gaza Strip, including several neighborhoods in the south, after they decided to continue their military operations at the weekend, including starting operations in the southern Gaza region.

"For people who have been ordered to evacuate, there is no safe place to go and very few places to survive," said the UN Secretary-General, reported by CNN, December 5.

Secretary General Guterres further said that he was very worried about the resumption of fighting between Israel, Hamas, and other Palestinian armed groups in Gaza.

He urged Israeli forces to spare civilians from greater suffering, avoiding actions that would worsen the "catastrophic humanitarian situation," according to a statement issued by Stéphane Dujarric, the secretary-general's spokesman.

"Civilians – including health workers, journalists, and UN personnel – and civilian infrastructure must be protected at all times," the statement said.

Secretary-General Guterres also said he was deeply concerned by the increasing violence in the occupied West Bank, including the high number of deaths and arrests, the intensification of Israeli security operations and settler violence, as well as attacks on Israeli citizens by Palestinians, the statement said.

Separately, the death toll of Palestinians as a result of Israel's massive military campaign in the Gaza Strip has jumped to 15,899, the Ministry of Health in the blockaded enclave said Monday, quoted by Anadolu.

"More than 42,000 other people were injured in the attack," ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said at a news conference.

He also said that around "70 percent of the victims of Israeli aggression in Gaza are women and children."

"The occupation (forces) destroyed 56 health centers (in Gaza) and arrested 35 medical staff," al-Qudra added.

On the same occasion, he also asked the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) to pressure the Israeli government to release medical staff from prison.

"We call for the protection of hospitals, medical and humanitarian staff and to secure safe corridors that allow the entry of medical supplies and fuel, as well as for the transfer of injured people (outside Gaza for medical treatment)," stressed al-Qudra.