UN spokesman weeps on air for Gaza's 249 children, lost forever

A senior United Nations official broke down on TV during an appearance to discuss the Israeli air strike on the UN school in the Gaza Strip which killed 15 including four children. Yesterday, Israeli artillery shells tore through the walls of a UN school crowded with sleeping war refugees as Israel stepped up its campaign against the Hamas. Some 3,300 Gazans seeking refuge from the fighting had been crammed into the UN school at the Jebaliya refugee camp when a series of Israeli artillery shells hit before daybreak, turning a classroom where families had been sleeping into a tragic scene of bloodied clothing, bedding and debris. Chris Gunness, spokesman for United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) appeared on Al-Jazeera Arabic to discuss the strike on the UN school and the subsequent condemnation. However, as he started to discuss the shelling of the school in Jebaliya, his voice started breaking. “The rights of Palestinians, even their children, are denied and it’s appalling,” Gunness managed to say before breaking down into tears. The video shows Gunness sobbing uncontrollably before the camera turns away from him as he is comforted by colleagues.

Speaking to BuzzFeed after the interview, Gunness said he had no intention of leaving UNWRA and said he was not emotionally drained. “My feelings pale into insignificance compared to the enormity of the tragedy confronting each and every other person in Gaza at this time. It’s important to humanize the statistics and to realize that there is a human being with a heart and soul behind each statistic and that the humanity that lies behind these statistics should never be forgotten,”  BuzzFeed  quoted him as saying. Gunness also took to Twitter to talk about the desperate and dehumanising situation in Gaza.According to a UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) report , as of 30 June, nearly 2,45,000 Palestinians have fled their homes. The death toll oncreased dramatically yesterday–nearly 100 were killed in one of the bloodiest days in Gaza yet, pushing the death toll past 1,300, of which 249 were children. According to a report in The Telegraph , more children have been killed than fighters – as of yesterday, nearly 250 children have died  in a conflict that has showed no signs of de-escalating. [caption id=“attachment_1622141” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Representational Image. Reuters[/caption] The chief of the UN aid agency for Palestinian refugees expressed “anger and indignation” at Israeli forces firing toward a UN facility even after being told 17 times, including just hours before the shelling attack, that it was filled with civilians. “Enough is enough,” Pierre Kraehenbuehl told The Associated Press, noting that six UN schools have been hit since the fighting began. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also called the school shelling “outrageous” and “unjustifiable,” and demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire. “Nothing is more shameful than attacking sleeping children,” the UN chief said. Kraehenbuehl said Israel must try harder to ensure that civilians are not hurt, especially in Gaza where 1.7 million people are squeezed into a small coastal territory. His agency has opened 80 of its schools to more than 200,000 Gazans fleeing the violence. Yesterday’s school attack — is the latest in a series of strikes the United Nations says has hit UN facilities that are supposed to be safe zones in the 23-day-old war. “What maybe the world forgets … is that the people of Gaza have nowhere to go,” he said. “So when the fighting starts and they move, it is not as if they can cross a border to somewhere.” With inputs from AP