“Frankly, we do not find words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, hell on earth,” Adim Wa Sorno, an official at the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told the UN Security Council. “The situation (in Gaza) is all that and worse.”

Wesorno presented a briefing to the Council on behalf of Martin Griffiths, Emergency Relief Coordinator, in which she said that living conditions in Gaza are deteriorating as a result of the violent fighting, especially in Jabalia, in the north of Gaza, and east of Rafah in the south, in addition to Israeli bombing from the air, land and sea.

The UN official indicated that the number of victims continues to rise daily. She spoke about the fact that 1.1 million people in Gaza are facing catastrophic levels of hunger while the Strip remains on the brink of famine, and touched on the scarcity of fuel and supplies and the enormous pressure on the health system.

She said: 75% of Gaza's population, or 1.7 million people, have been forcibly displaced inside Gaza, many of them three or four times, including due to repeated evacuation instructions from the Israeli army.

She stressed, unequivocally, that people forcibly displaced within or from Gaza must be guaranteed the right to voluntary return as required by international law. It also stressed the need to meet the basic needs of civilians.

“For evacuated civilians this means ensuring, to the greatest extent possible, that adequate shelter and conditions for hygiene, health, safety and nutrition are available and that members of the same family are not separated,” she said. “These appalling conditions raise serious doubts about compliance with these basic obligations.”

She and Surno identified several requirements for the Security Council: protecting civilians, their housing, and the vital infrastructure on which they depend, facilitating urgent and unhindered humanitarian access to Gaza and throughout the Strip, and ensuring the protection of humanitarian workers and United Nations staff, who are working under extremely difficult conditions in Gaza. Providing adequate funding, especially for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).