Fear and uncertainty are daily staples for Gaza’s most vulnerable: UNMAS
In Gaza, ongoing Israeli military operations and the aid blockade have continued to add to daily fears and hardships confronting those in the devastated enclave, the UN Mine Action Service, UNMAS, said on Wednesday.
“What people are doing currently right now is they're scared,” said Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT). “They are concerned that word for their safety, they're focusing on that day-to-day, survival, if you like, on how they would stay safe, how they stay fed, how they stay watered. This is the reality in Gaza at the moment.”
Escalating Israeli bombardment of Gaza between 3 and 8 April has killed 287 Palestinians and injured 912, according to Gazan health authorities.
Between 7 October 2023 and 8 April 2025, the same authorities say that at least 50,810 Palestinians have been killed and 115,688 Palestinians injured.
The UN humanitarian affairs office (OCHA) meanwhile reported that rockets were fired from Gaza on 3 and 6 April towards Israel including one which struck the city of Ashkelon, injuring at least 12 Israelis.
Aid workers continue to be killed in Gaza; since 7 October 2023 the number has risen to 412. In recent weeks, Israeli forces targeted and killed 14 staff on duty in Rafah from the Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestinian Civil Defence and one worker from the UN Palestine refugee agency, UNRWA, prompting widespread condemnation from UN senior officials.
“It is a very, very, very challenging time and evidence would show me that we're not protected at the moment,” said Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Speaking to UN News, he appealed for the protection of colleagues trying to help others in an active combat zone “because the people need it, civilians need it”.
UNMAS provides specialist support to keep humanitarians safe and its teams were doing so while carrying out an assessment mission after a UN-marked guesthouse was hit in Deir Al-Balah, central Gaza last month.
“On 19 March, they were doing exactly that. They were reviewing a UN-notified building that was hit the night before and they were checking it was safe from any unexploded ordnance and people could return to that structure. Unfortunately, at some point there was an incident when they were carrying out that mission, which was an explosive weapon and it caused a death and injury to UN personnel.”
It is now five weeks since Israeli authorities stopped all commercial and humanitarian relief supplies from reaching Gaza.
Medicines and other medical provisions “are rapidly running out”, with blood units and other supplies for maternal and child health at critically low levels, UN aid teams report.
“There has been no humanitarian aid getting in and the situation is becoming - already is dire - it's becoming increasingly dire and serious,” Mr. Irving said.
“It’s been a blockade, so no humanitarian aid whatsoever is getting in. Also, we're very limited on movements because of the risk it poses to go out and do our missions, et cetera, this is across the UN agencies.”
Unexploded weapons remain a major threat across Gaza and have added to the hardships caused by the total ban on relief entering the Strip.
“We come across, you know, rockets, bombs, grenades, all this type of items that fail to function when they are used in conflict,” Mr. Irving said. “We’ve got these different ways that unexploded ordnance will materialize. It'll be very, very important when we start doing rubble removal, reconstruction, recovery, that we have the ability to locate these items, to warn people - which we can do now - but down the line we want to destroy these munitions. We want to dispose of these munitions. We want to get rid of them.”
Making Gaza safe is crucial if the enclave’s people are to return to their fields, the UNMAS officer said: “Sixty, 70 per cent, I understand, of Gaza's exports before the conflict was agriculture. So, obviously there's a lot of that activity going on again in peacetime, in ceasefire time. So, when they return to the fields there could be unexploded ordnance in those fields; they need to understand that risk and understand that they shouldn't be touching it.”
ends
STORY: Gaza update - UNMAS
TRT: 03’24”
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 9 APRIL 2025 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, includes cutaways taken 08 APRIL 2025, GAZA CITY
Speaker:
Luke Irving, Chief of the Mine Action Programme in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT)
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
“Deadly attacks on distraught civilians trying to access the paltry amounts of food aid in Gaza, are unconscionable. For a third day running, people were killed around an aid distribution site run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. This morning, we have received information that dozens more people were killed and injured,” Jeremy Laurence UN Human Rights spokesperson said at the biweekly press briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA
Gaza ‘hungriest place on earth’ with aid stymied – UN humanitarians
Starving Gazans continue to be deprived of aid as international relief efforts are being severely constrained by the Israeli authorities, the UN humanitarian affairs coordination office OCHA said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , UNRWA
As a controversial United States and Israel-backed aid distribution plan gets underway in Gaza, the UN called on Tuesday for an “immediate surge” of its own pre-positioned supplies to help prevent starvation.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani today urged Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to reject a bill that was recently endorsed by parliament allowing trials of civilians in military courts. The Uganda People’s Defence Forces Amendment Bill 2025, which was passed on 20 May and now awaits presidential signature to become law, among others broadens the jurisdiction of military courts, authorising them to try a wide range of offences against civilians.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Seif Magango today warned of a further deterioration in the human rights situation in South Sudan at the bi-weekly briefing in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OCHA , WHO
Syria: ‘Staggering’ needs amid insecurity, health care crisis - UN humanitarians
Millions of people in Syria continue to face mortal danger from unexploded munitions, disease and malnutrition and urgent support is required, UN humanitarians said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , OCHA , WHO
UN life-saving aid allowed to trickle into Gaza as civilian needs mount
Amid calls for more humanitarian trucks to enter the food and medicine-deprived Palestinian enclave of Gaza, UN humanitarians have received permission from Israel for “around 100” more aid trucks to cross into the Strip after only five were let in yesterday, But the scale of relief efforts allowed remains entirely insufficient to meet the urgent needs of people there, humanitarian workers say.
1
1
1
Edited News
A war reporter from Lebanon who lost a limb in the line of duty is calling for an end to impunity for attacks against journalists.
1
1
1
Edited News | ITU
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) commemorated 160 years dedicated to connecting the world on Saturday, 17 May in Geneva, Switzerland, during the annual World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , OCHA
Gazans ‘in terror’ after another night of deadly strikes and siege
Amid reports that Israeli strikes across Gaza into Friday killed at least 64 people, aid teams once again pushed back strongly at allegations that aid is being diverted to Hamas and pleaded for the blockade to end.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Deportations over recent months of large numbers of non-nationals from the United States of America, especially to countries other than those of their origin, raise a number of human rights concerns, the UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk warned on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Gaza: Over 50 child malnutrition deaths amid aid blockade; entire generation will be ‘permanently affected’ - WHO
In the aid desert of Gaza, malnourished children are dying while survivors can expect a lifetime of dire health problems, the UN World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday.