Over 470,000 Gazans ‘perishing en masse’ in north amid siege: Palestinian UN envoy

The Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations has warned that thousands of people in northern Gaza are facing an imminent massacre as the Israeli military continues its weeks-long siege and heavy bombardment of the region, blocking humanitarian aid to civilians and targeting shelters and hospitals.

Riyad Mansour, in identical letters addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres, President of the UN General Assembly Philemon Yang and rotating President of the Security Council Pascale Baeriswyl, said that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza before of the eyes of the international community, and warned that more than 470,000 individuals in the northern flank of the Gaza Strip are going to perish en masse.

“Israel has been depriving the Palestinian people in the north of food, water, medicine and everything necessary for human life for weeks. Israel bombs hospitals and is preventing civilians from receiving medical care. Israel forcibly deports Palestinian families to the south, even though there is nowhere safe to go,” he pointed out.

Mansour emphasized that the Security Council must protect civilians, demand an immediate ceasefire, ensure that all parties comply with it, and stop Israel from violating the international law.

“Forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people should be stopped, and humanitarian aid should be supplied to the people of Gaza through UNRWA (the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) and other UN agencies,” the senior Palestinian diplomat noted.

Israel after ‘exterminating’ Palestinians in north Gaza: Hamas official

Osama Hamdan, who is Hamas’ representative in Lebanon and also a member of the group’s political bureau, made the remarks on Tuesday.

Bodies left decaying on streets in Jabalia

Meanwhile, Palestinians who fled from the Israeli ground offensive on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza say bodies are left lying on the street after the Israeli military ordered ordinary people to leave a shelter.

A woman said some people left in such panic that they left their children behind.

The Israeli human rights group Btselem says the Tel Aviv regime is “taking advantage of the fact that global attention has been diverted” to commit “ethnic cleansing” in northern Gaza.

“It is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war,” B’Tselem said in a statement, calling on the world’s nations and international bodies to take “immediate, decisive” action.

“Ever since Israel’s current operation in the northern Gaza Strip began on October 5, the area has been under a near complete siege, relentlessly pummeled by the military,” the statement added.

“Israel has cut them off from the world” and “the few testimonies that have trickled out … describe dead bodies lining the streets, hunger [and] drinking water nowhere to be found,” the group said.

Gaza’s Ministry of Health has appealed to the international community to send blankets as the colder months approach, saying that the blankets they have are being used as shrouds for the dead.

“It is very cold these days; blankets are extremely needed, yet they are used to cover the bodies of the slain Palestinians because hospitals have run out of shrouds,” it wrote on its official Telegram channel.

“We don’t need food nor drink as we will be murdered soon. Please *send some shrouds* to cover our corpses so that you won’t be disgusted by the scenes of our blood and wounds,” it added.

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