UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed shock at reports of attacks on United Nations buildings following the Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip and called for protection from violence.
"I am appalled by the attacks on UN facilities, including those of the UN Office for Project Services and the World Health Organization (WHO), including WHO headquarters," Guterres told the UN Security Council in New York.
The UN's most powerful body meets regularly to discuss the war in the Gaza Strip. Guterres further stated that all warring parties had been informed of the locations of these UN buildings.
"These facilities are inviolable and must be protected without exception under international humanitarian law," the UN chief said.
He further described the situation in the isolated coastal area as a horror scenario: "The scale of death and destruction is unprecedented in recent times, and malnutrition is increasing rapidly ." Furthermore, the humanitarian system is being deprived of the means to help hundreds of thousands of people in need.
The WHO announced on Monday that the Israeli military had attacked its facility in the town of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza and arrested staff. A staff accommodation was also attacked. Male WHO staff and male relatives were handcuffed, stripped, interrogated on site and searched at gunpoint.
The Israeli military said Israeli soldiers were shot in the area on Monday.
The soldiers responded by firing in the direction the shots came from. The military did not say explicitly whether the shots were fired from WHO facilities.
With Israel's latest evacuation orders, the population of the Gaza Strip has no choice but to flee to increasingly sparsely populated areas where hundreds of thousands of people have sought refuge, Türk stressed. He warned Israel that any permanent expulsion of residents could constitute a war crime or even a crime against humanity. (A2 Televizion)
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