Weeks of intense fighting has left medical services and facilities in the Gaza Strip “on the verge of collapse,” according to senior United Nations officials in the region who today warned that a health disaster of widespread proportions is rapidly unfolding as the conflict grinds on.
“We are now looking at a health and humanitarian disaster”, warned James W. Rawley, the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in the occupied Palestinian territory, adding: “The fighting must stop immediately.”
This latest warning comes in the wake of the collapse yesterday of a humanitarian ceasefire brokered by the United Nations and the United States, which led a “profoundly shocked and disappointed” Secretary-General Ban Ki moon to state that: “Instead of giving both sides, especially Gazan civilians, a much needed reprieve to let them attend to their injured, bury their dead and repair vital infrastructure, this breach of the ceasefire is now leading to a renewed escalation.”
The full article continues at http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=48395#.U-EiB2MzItV on the UN’s website.