GazaHerald – The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, revealed that Israel has bombed ten UNRWA facilities in Gaza City in just the past four days, including seven schools and two clinics that were sheltering thousands of displaced Palestinians.
In a statement shared by UNRWA on its official X platform, Lazzarini said the escalating strikes prove that “there is no safe place in Gaza City and the north.” He warned that the growing intensity of bombardments is forcing civilians into mass displacement, with families fleeing “into the unknown.”
Among the destroyed facilities was the Beach Camp health center, the only medical service available north of Wadi Gaza. UNRWA also reported that its water and sanitation services are now functioning at only half capacity.
Despite the devastation, the agency’s 11,000 staff members continue to provide essential services across northern Gaza and the wider Strip. Lazzarini described their perseverance under “inhumane conditions” as “an inspiration.”
He closed his remarks with an urgent appeal: “How long will it take to take action to achieve an immediate ceasefire?”
The latest wave of attacks comes as the Israeli occupation army escalates a systematic campaign of demolishing high-rise residential towers in Gaza City. Observers warn that the destruction, combined with the repeated targeting of UN shelters, is aimed at forcibly displacing Palestinians southward, in line with an Israeli-American plan to push them outside the Gaza Strip altogether.
Since August 11, Israel has completely destroyed 1,600 residential towers and buildings in Gaza City and severely damaged nearly 2,000 more. According to Gaza’s media office, 13,000 tents have also been obliterated, displacing more than 100,000 people from their homes and shelters.
With U.S. backing, Israel’s war on Gaza since October 7, 2023, has caused catastrophic humanitarian losses. The Gaza media office reports that 64,871 Palestinians have been killed and 164,610 injured, most of them women and children. Hundreds of thousands more have been forced from their homes, while famine has claimed 422 lives, including 145 children.
UN officials and humanitarian workers warn that the ongoing destruction of shelters, schools, and clinics leaves civilians with nowhere to turn, compounding one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
