United Nations envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, reiterated his call for all parties to move Gaza off the precipice and to honor their commitments made in the 2014 ceasefire.
"Gaza is imploding. It's not a hyperbole. This is not alarmism. This is a reality," UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Mr. Mladenov, told Security Council members meeting to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
With an unemployment rate of 53% - more than 70% among Palestinian youth - and one in two people living below the poverty line, the Gaza economy is in free fall, he said.
“We are on the precipice of another potentially devastating conflict, a conflict that no one claims to want, but a conflict that requires much more than words to prevent it," Mladenov said.
For Maldenov, easing humanitarian pressure in Gaza would reduce the threat of escalation on the ground and make room for Egypt's efforts to bring back "the authority of the legitimate Palestinian government."
Mladenov also lamented rising violence in the occupied West Bank, where the occupation authorities are continuing the demolition and confiscation of Palestinian-owned structures.
He pointed to the looming demolition of bedouin village Khan al Ahmar to make way for expanding Israeli settlements, with Israel’s end goal of cutting Palestinians off from Jersualem and splitting the West Bank in two.
A recent report by the World Bank gave an apocalyptic picture of the living conditions in the Gaza Strip and labelled it a "critical" economic situation.
Protests at the Gazan border have been ongoing each Friday since March.
Last Friday, seven Palestinians, the youngest eleven, were killed - the bloodiest day since the move of the American Embassy to Jerusalem.
The day before, the Israeli Defense Force had announced the reinforcement of personnel in the south of the Gaza Strip, readying for mass protests.
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