Humanitarian Organizations Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Gaza

The letter was signed by the leaders of the 18 organizations known as the Inter-Agency Standing Committee.

Meanwhile, Australian Greens senators walked out during question time in parliament after asking the incumbent Labor government to join calls for a ceasefire. In a statement, they said the walkout happened after "Labor's refusal" to "back the United Nations call for a ceasefire."

"Like millions of Australians, we're shocked, horrified, and angered by Israel's massacre of almost 10,000 people in Gaza," Senator Mehreen Faruqi, the deputy leader of the Australian Greens said in a post on X.

Australia was one of 45 countries that abstained from a UN General Assembly vote on a resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian truce, which received support from 120 countries on October 27.

Around 6:30 pm on Saturday (20:30 GMT), a communications blackout was imposed on the entire Gaza Strip, and about 2.3 million people lost contact even with each other. This was similar to the earlier blackouts. During this blackout, images of intense air strikes across Gaza, destroying entire neighborhoods, were witnessed on Al Jazeera Arabic.

The situation in Gaza has become increasingly dire, as every place in the region has become a legitimate target for Israeli air strikes. The promises of safe evacuation corridors have proven to be baseless.

Israel's military bombed at least three refugee camps in Gaza over the weekend, including al-Maghazi camp. At least 47 people were killed in the strike on the camp in central Gaza on Saturday, according to the Ministry of Health.

Al Jazeera Arabic reported on Monday that at least 45 Palestinians have been killed and a big number missing after Israel bombed two homes in Deir el-Balah and Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip. At least 10 people were also killed in Al-Zawaida in the central Gaza Strip, while two others were killed in a strike on a home in the Jabalia refugee camp.

Some areas of Gaza have not been reached by authorities or emergency services due to heavy bombardment early on Monday, and it is likely that the death toll could be higher.

In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic, the director of Save the Children in Palestine said that the ongoing Israeli bombardment of Gaza is not only an issue of deaths and injuries among Palestinians. Jason Ian Lee said that the situation is also "an issue of population displacement" under very difficult humanitarian conditions.

Since October 7, an estimated 1.5 million of the besieged enclave's 2.3 million people, roughly 65 percent, have already been internally displaced, according to the UNRWA.

The UN has said that 88 UNRWA staff members have now been killed in Gaza since October 7, making the conflict the deadliest ever for UN fatalities. The UN announced the deaths in a statement released on Sunday, adding that this is the "highest number of United Nations fatalities ever recorded in a single conflict."

The rare joint statement, issued together with several non-UN humanitarian organizations, acknowledged that the UN workers were among "scores of aid workers" who have been killed.

Palestinian Health Minister Mai al-Kaila says in the 31 days since the start of the Israeli war, a total of 175 medical personnel and 34 civil defense workers have been killed in the Gaza Strip. The health minister also said during the same period, 16 out of 36 hospitals and 51 out of 72 clinics have gone out of service due to the Israeli bombing or the lack of fuel and medicine to keep the facilities from operating.

Numerous incidents have been recorded of medical facilities, such as al-Ahli Arab Hospital, and ambulances being hit by Israeli air raids, killing patients as well as medical workers. Earlier, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Palestine, Francesca Albanese, described the collapse of the health system in Gaza as a "catastrophe."

Almost 9,922 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7.