The Gaza Strip is experiencing an unprecedented famine, a top UN official has said.
People there are dying either from hunger or under bombardment, spokesperson of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Adnan Abu Hasna told Sky News Arabia yesterday.
Hundreds of thousands in the enclave are starving because of the severe shortage of food, he added.
Abu Hasna said that ‘300,000 Palestinians in Gaza are in severe danger... The strip is suffering from unprecedented famine’, calling on Israel to allow the entry of humanitarian aid.
“We demand urgent international intervention to prevent displacement and the confinement of Palestinians in the Rafah area.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a post on X on Friday that the aid reaching the Gaza Strip is ‘a needle in a haystack’.
Lazzarini noted that Palestinians in Gaza have suffered from hunger, deprivation and lack of basic necessities for more than 11 weeks because of the war.
He emphasised that “a consistent and effective flow of aid is the only way to prevent the catastrophe from exacerbating.”
He explained that Palestinians in the strip need at least “500 to 600 trucks daily, managed through the United Nations, including UNRWA.”
The government media office in Gaza said yesterday that 58 people have died due to malnutrition, and 242 others have died due to lack of food and medicine.
It also reported that 26 kidney patients have lost their lives due to the lack of nutritional and medical care, and more than 300 miscarriages have occurred due to the shortage of essential nutrients.
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