‘We need a humanitarian ceasefire’: UN says destruction and death in Gaza must stop

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The UN has said that fighting in Gaza must end after Israeli strikes killed dozens of Palestinians, including children and women, following the failure to extend a truce with Hamas.

The Gaza Health Ministry said that 178 Palestinians had been killed and 589 injured in Israeli strikes on Friday, hours after the temporary truce expired.

More than 15,000 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed during eight weeks of war. The toll is likely to be much higher, with the Ministry reporting that thousands more are dead under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The UN says 1.7 million people in Gaza have been displaced with water, food, medicine, and other essentials in short supply.

“Almost two months into the fighting, the children, women and men of Gaza are all terrified,” said Martin Griffiths, under secretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief co-ordinator.

“They have nowhere safe to go and very little to survive on. They live surrounded by disease, destruction, and death,” he added.

“This is unacceptable. We need a humanitarian ceasefire. We need the fighting to stop.”

The seven-day truce negotiated by Qatar and Egypt expired despite international pressure to extend it or reach a permanent ceasefire.

On Friday, Washington blamed Hamas for the breakdown in talks to extend the pause in fighting, saying that the US was working on resuming the entry of aid into Gaza, but that Hamas needed to produce a list of hostages that would be released.

During the temporary truce, Hamas released 80 Israeli hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons. Aid also flowed more freely into Gaza. Hamas released another 25 hostages, most of them Thai citizens, under a separate agreement.

“The past week offered us a glimpse of what can happen when the guns fall silent,” said Griffiths. But “in a matter of hours” after the war resumed, “scores were reportedly killed and injured. Families were told to evacuate, again. Hopes were dashed.”