UN chief calls Gaza 'uninhabitable' as it has become a place of 'death and despair'

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths declared on Friday that Gaza was now “uninhabitable” due to Israeli forces’ constant bombing of the territory in retaliation for the militant Hamas group’s October attack.

In a statement, Griffiths stated, “Gaza has become a place of death and despair, three months after the horrific 7 October attacks.”

“Gaza is just no longer livable. As the rest of the world looks on, its people face daily threats to their very existence.

“The humanitarian community has been left with the impossible mission of supporting more than two million people.”

With much of the Gaza Strip already reduced to rubble, air strikes continued through the night in the southern cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah as well as parts of central Gaza, AFP correspondents reported Friday.

The Israeli army said its forces had “struck over 100 targets” across Gaza over the past 24 hours, including military positions, rocket launch sites and weapons depots.

“We continue to demand an immediate end to the war, not just for the people of Gaza and its threatened neighbors, but for the generations to come who will never forget these 90 days of hell and of assaults on the most basic precepts of humanity,” Griffiths said.

“This war should never have started. But it’s long past time for it to end.”

The Hamas assault on October 7 resulted in the deaths of around 1,140 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.

In response, Israel launched a bombardment and ground invasion that have killed at least 22,600 people, most of them women and children, according to the Gaza health ministry.