United Nations Radio

The head of the UN agency assisting Palestinian refugees –UNRWA- expressed her horror to the extensive destruction visited upon Gaza Strip Monday and her deep sadness at the terrible loss in human life.

During a press conference from Gaza, UNRWA Commissioner-General, Karen AbuZayd, strongly urged the Israeli Government to heed calls for ceasing its bombardment on Gaza.

Karen AbuZayd, UNRWA chief

"Because the targets have moved from being the Hamas institutions - police stations and so on to individual houses - people are being warned to evacuate their houses and houses are being targeted [it's] become very unpredictable - people don't know where to be and those people have had to leave their houses, for example last night there were 200 people who took refuge in two of our schools in Raffah because the houses were told to evacuate. So they were in our schools and this is something we fear will happen more and more and become more of a problem."

AbuZayd says UNRWA will exert all efforts to respond as quickly as possible to relieve suffering and pain. She says the killing and destruction today follows weeks of a tight blockade that prevented UNRWA, and other humanitarian agencies, from assisting the population and mitigating the difficult economic situation. She added that the population is already paying the price of the prolonged blockade, 1.5 million people are unable to fulfill their basic needs, and they now face military escalation.

This is Donn Bobb reporting for United Nations Radio.

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