Beit Lahiya declared ‘disaster’ area amid relentless Israeli bombardment, military siege

Gaza (Quds News Network)- The Municipality of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza has announced the town a “disaster area” amid weeks of relentless Israeli bombardment and military siege.

“We declare that the city is a disaster area due to the Israeli war of extermination and siege, and it has no food, water, hospitals, doctors, services, or communications,” it said.

Sam Rose, the senior deputy director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza, has described scenes in northern Gaza as “catastrophic”.

“Absolutely desperate conditions. It’s horrific, incident after incident being meted out to a population which is on its knees,” he said.

He added that Israel has carried out “relentless attacks on civilian population in the most awful of conditions in Jabalia, and people who fled to Beit Lahiya have themselves been bombed”.

“It’s really difficult for us to know precisely what’s going on given the intensity of fighting and given our lack of access,” he said.

Rose said that Palestinians in Gaza have been “on the verge of famine, on the verge of catastrophic food insecurity for months now”.

“People are already dying, we are reaching close to a point where over 10 percent of Gaza’s population has either been killed or injured. And it’s inevitable what will happen eventually if you are not able to bring in supplies.”

Israel has been conducting air and ground assaults and maintaining a siege on northern Gaza for 26 consecutive days.
According to the Palestinian Civil Defence, more than 100,000 people remain trapped in the north without food and water and dozens remain buried in the rubble of bombed homes, with rescue workers unable to reach them due to Israel’s ongoing siege and attacks.