‘Nowhere for civilians to find shelter in Gaza’

UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos expresses deep concern Thursday about the mounting civilian casualties in Gaza, warning that it was “almost impossible” for Palestinians to shelter from Israeli airstrikes.

“The reality in Gaza is, it doesn’t matter how hard Israel tries to minimize harm, this is an extremely overcrowded stretch of land,” Amos tells BBC radio.

“Forty-four percent of that land has been declared a no-go zone by the Israeli army so there aren’t that many places for people to go.”

She describes “people crowded into a sliver of land, almost impossible for them to move.”

“The trauma that they are experiencing is terrible, and one child killed every hour in the past two days — each and every one of us should sit up and take notice of this,” says Amos.

— AFP