Un Warns Israel Not To Target İts Buildings İn Gaza

The United Nations on Tuesday warned Israel not to target UN premises in Gaza.



"In 2008, some of the UN buildings in Gaza were targeted and some of the refugees in these buildings were injured, we reiterate the fact that Israelis need to respect that these are U.N. buildings and they have the GPS codes for these buildings," United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) Spokesperson Sami Mshasha said in a teleconference from Gaza to correspondents at the UN headquarters in Geneva. 



"As of midnight, 17 thousand people were sheltered in twenty UNRWA schools which we converted to temporary shelters as we did in 2008 and 2009. We have a capacity in the UN schools to house up to 50 thousand displaced people," Mshasha said.



The Israel Defence Forces (IDF) continues to send SMS phone messages to 300,000 Gazans urging them to leave their homes to find safety elsewhere ahead of their imminent attacks, UNRWA said in a statement. 



"The local mosques are asking communities not to relocate. This is a time of incredible uncertainty, turmoil and suffering for the women, men and children of Gaza," UNRWA noted. 



UNRWA said preparations for a ground offensive will imminently lead to large-scale displacement from areas in northern Gaza near the border with Israel. 



Additionally, Gazans face water shortage as according to Mshasha, 90 percent of the drinking water is not fit for human consumption.



At the press briefing, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Public Relations Officer Nada Doumani said "Hundreds of thosands of people in Gaza are now without water."



"Within days, the enter population of the Gaza Strip may be desperately short of water," Doumani warned.



www.aa.com.tr/en - Alabama