ISTANBUL

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) documented on Thursday the appalling conditions faced by displaced Palestinians in a school-turned-shelter in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip. 

Louise Wateridge, UNRWA senior communications officer, shared a video on X showing the school, which shelters 14,000 Palestinians.

“This school is sheltering 14,000 people in classrooms and in makeshift shelters in the courtyard. […] The facility only has 25 toilets,” she said.

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas.

Over 38,300 Palestinians have since been killed, mostly women and children, and nearly 88,300 others injured, according to local health authorities.

Nine months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.

*Writing by Mohammad Sio

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