Civilians in Gaza are unable to seek refuge from Israel's military assault because of the blockade and are denied “the universal right to seek and enjoy asylum,” the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Thursday. “In Gaza, the civilian population is not even allowed to flee to safety elsewhere,” said Guterres, who added that “this is the only conflict in the world in which people are not allowed [to] flee war and seek safety in other states.” Guterres said that while his agency is not directly responsible for Palestinian refugees—it is handled by a sister agency, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA)—“it is impossible for me not to make reference to the current political and humanitarian crisis.” There are more than 4.6 million Palestinian refugees, according to UNRWA and this number continues to increase because of natural population growth. There are almost 500,000 refugees in eight refugee camps in the Gaza Strip alone. Meanwhile, the U.N. Undersecretary General for Humanitarian Affairs told reporters at U.N headquarters in New York that the number of casualties in Gaza is now 758, of which 257—or 34 percent—are children and 56 are women. The number of wounded is now more than 3,100. The information was provided by the Gaza Ministry of Health, Holmes said. He added that as of Thursday, 20,000 Gaza residents had sought refuge in UNRWA shelters. UNRWA is mostly using schools as temporary shelters. One of these schools was shelled by Israel on Tuesday, killing 46 people and wounding more than 100.
