Top UN aid official urges daily ‘pauses’ in Gaza

UNITED NATIONS — The UN humanitarian chief calls for daily “humanitarian pauses” until a long-term ceasefire is reached between Israel and Hamas in order to deliver relief to hundreds of thousands in need in Gaza, rescue the injured, and give civilians a reprieve from the war.

Valerie Amos told the Security Council that the world has watched “in horror the desperation of children and civilians that have come under attack” in Gaza. Over 80 percent of the more than 1,300 Palestinians killed were civilians, including 251 children, she says by videoconference from Trinidad and Tobago.

Israel insists that hundreds of those killed were fighters. It launched the operation in Gaza on July 8 to stem rocket fire upon Israeli towns and to locate and destroy a network of tunnels used by Hamas operatives to infiltrate into Israeli territory and carry out deadly attacks.

“The reality of Gaza today is that no place is safe,” Amos says, reporting attacks on over 103 UN facilities, including one on a school Wednesday that killed 19 people and injured more than 100.

— AFP and Times of Israel staff

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