“The world must act to prevent the ‘ethnic cleansing’ that Israel is attempting in the Gaza Strip,” Antonio Guterres said after the bloodbath in Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, that left at least 100 civilians dead – mostly women, babies and children – from the Israeli bombing of an apartment building.

The massacre in Beit Lahia caused an international outcry while Israel was content to state that it was investigating the incident.

Local Palestinian media have been posting dramatic information and images on social media since the following day.

Bodies are still lying in the streets because relatives and services cannot retrieve them because of the armed Israeli drones constantly flying over the city.

At the same time, residents are leaving their homes carrying their few belongings, without actually having a safe place to go.

On Monday, the Palestinian Civil Protection indicated that around 100,000 people are trapped in Jabalia, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun without food or medical aid due to the blockade of the northern part of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army, which is carrying out intensive operations in the area. ground and air operations for more than three weeks.

Additionally, in the past 24 hours at least 102 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli military strikes across the enclave.

In a new shelling in Beit Lahia, near the flattened apartment building, eight people were killed.

At least seven people were killed in Israeli strikes in southern and central Gaza.

In the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City, five Palestinians were killed and others injured in an Israeli raid near a clinic.

At least 43,163 Palestinians have been killed and 101,510 injured in Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, according to a statement today from the enclave’s health ministry.

The UN is asking UNRWA to continue its work in Gaza

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, in a letter addressed to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday, requested that his government allow the agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, to continue its work, which was banned by law by the Israeli parliament yesterday Monday.

“I appeal to you and the government of Israel to prevent such catastrophic consequences by allowing UNRWA to continue its activities in the occupied Palestinian territories, including East Jerusalem, in compliance with (your) obligations under international law.”

In his letter, Guterres reiterates the position that implementing the law would have “catastrophic consequences” for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, given that “there is currently no realistic alternative to UNRWA that could offer in an adequate manner the services and assistance required’.

In his letter to the Israeli prime minister, the UN Secretary-General reminds that, by virtue of international law, the “occupying power” is obliged to allow the operation of mechanisms intended to help the population of occupied territories.

While ending “UNRWA’s activities would leave the Palestinian refugees without the absolutely necessary assistance they need,” Israel, “as the occupying power, remains obligated to guarantee that the needs of the population are met,” he points out.

It also recalls that Israel is bound to fulfill its obligations towards UNRWA under an agreement it entered into with the UN in 1967 and the Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of United Nations Officials, which “applies” to the case of .

Israel “cannot invoke provisions of its national legislation,” including the laws passed yesterday, “as an excuse not to fulfill its obligations under international law,” said Antonio Guterres, who has promised to inform the UN General Assembly to proceed with the “appropriate actions”, including a possible appeal to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague.

“Israel will continue to facilitate humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza in compliance with international law, but UNRWA has failed in its mandate and is no longer the right agency for the job,” countered Israel’s UN ambassador Danny Danon, equating once again UNRWA as an “arm of Hamas”.