UNITED NATIONS, Jan. 21 (Xinhua) -- A United Nations official, who has just finished her six-day mission to Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory, told the Security Council on Tuesday that the unemployment situation in Gaza is "worrisome."
"The youth I met in Gaza simply ask for peace and the opportunity for a productive life," UN Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller told the Security Council quarterly open debate on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question.
The unemployment rate of 45 percent, with 60 percent among youth, is "worrisome," as are conditions that cause 46 percent of the population to live below the daily 5.50 U.S. dollars poverty line and 60 percent of households to be food insecure, said Mueller.
Acknowledging Israel's improvements in easing the movement of people and goods, she said that more must be done, particularly with regard to medical supplies and equipment.
In the West Bank and Gaza, half the population, some 2.4 million people, need humanitarian aid in 2020 due to a protection crisis stemming from the occupation, the Gaza blockade, recurring cycles of violence and more than a decade of Hamas being in control, which is "fueling divisions," said Mueller.
Raising concerns about Israel's excessive use of force and the instrumentalization of children by Hamas, Mueller said that, since March 2018, more than 210 Palestinians were killed and another 8,000 were shot with live ammunition at demonstrations at the Gaza fence.
Medical facilities are overstretched, with more than 1,200 people requiring limb reconstruction, and with the World Health Organization (WHO) reporting more than 200 incidents which have injured 270 staff members, she said.
Since the start of 2019, most multiple escalations of hostilities among armed groups in Gaza and Israel were contained "via joint United Nations-Egypt mediation efforts," she said, urging all parties to avoid civilian harm. Enditem
