Today's Edition
ISIDORA CIRIC (ABU DHABI)
Exactly one year has passed since the onset of the war in Gaza. The enclave and its residents have seen and experienced a gut-wrenching cycle of crises - death, trauma, disease, famine, thirst, repeated displacement, bombings, and injury. While the world has joined forces to provide humanitarian assistance and pursue diplomatic efforts, the one thing that would effectively end the civilian suffering - a ceasefire - is nowhere to be seen.
In other words, the past year has been nothing but "a year of profound loss, grief and suffering," as UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini described it in a commemorative statement on X.
The Gaza Strip, once full of people roaming markets and living their regular lives, is now a place of shattered communities and empty streets. Homes lie in ruins, families are torn apart, and virtually the entire population - 2 million people - struggles for survival.
"The war that has followed the terrible attacks of one year ago continues to shatter lives and inflict profound human suffering for Palestinians in Gaza and now the people of Lebanon," UN chief Antonio Guterres warned in a video message on Monday.
While the ceasefire is elusive, airstrikes and evacuation orders continue. The OHCHR reported on Monday that, within the last 48 hours, intense Israeli strikes targeted areas including Beit Lahia, Jabalya, and a sports club sheltering displaced people, killing dozens of Palestinians, including children and a journalist. The military also encircled Jabalya by re-positioning troops from Rafah to North Gaza on October 6, trapping Palestinian residents and further "cutting them off from access to the essentials of life," the UN agency added.
Besides safety, the residents have a hard time finding food, with over half a million of them facing "catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity", according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC). The "catastrophic" phase is the highest level of food insecurity on the IPC scale, assigned to populations that have "almost no food and cannot support their basic needs" and experience "starvation, death, and destitution," as described by USAID.
Reports reveal that the little available food is priced unreasonably high.
Three potatoes cost over $40, almost a hundred times more than before the war, Reuters reported earlier in August. Other aid organisations revealed that a kilogramme of onions costs over $100, tomatoes over $60, and eggs - one of the few protein sources left - are around $40 a dozen. Such prices are beyond reach for most, with families unable to work and their savings nearly gone. The only option left is humanitarian aid, which UN agencies say has been consistently blocked by the Israeli authorities.
"The past year has seen Israel blocking humanitarian access into and within Gaza, crippling aid operations. As a result, a weakened population is left to battle disease, hunger and death," OCHA warned in a statement posted on Monday.
Against this backdrop, UN officials have continued calls for an end to the violence and suffering.
"It's time to silence the guns, it's time to stop the suffering that has engulfed the region," said Guterres, while Lazzarini pointed out that "there are no winners in wars."
UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, stressed in a statement on Monday that peace and security for both Israelis and Palestinians "are essential for a shared future". OCHA Acting Under-Secretary-General Joyce Msuya added that an immediate ceasefire and lasting peace are "long overdue."
