GAZA, (PIC)
UNRWA has warned that every day without food inches Gaza closer to an acute hunger crisis, with potentially dire consequences for over two million people suffering from hunger in the midst of a suffocating blockade and ongoing genocide.
Since the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli occupation government has been banning the entry of humanitarian aid and merchandise into Gaza. This has led to a significant decrease in vital supplies.
Food supplies are expected to last only a few days unless aid shipments resume urgently entering Gaza, a senior UNRWA official told Al Jazeera Net on Thursday.
Inas Hamdan, director of UNRWA’s information office in Gaza, said that Israel’s persistence in not allowing aid into Gaza “constitutes collective punishment for the population, who has endured immense suffering long months of devastating war.”
Hamdan also said that the humanitarian crisis deepened in Gaza in terms of food security and the already deteriorating health situation as medical supplies and food provisions started to run out
Hamdan pointed out that Israel rejected most attempts by humanitarian organization to coordinate the delivery of aid to Gaza, calling for the immediate lifting of the blockade and the interrupted flow of aid and commercial supplies.
On Wednesday, UNRWA also warned that Israel’s blockade on war-ravaged Gaza has a “devastating impact” on children.
“It is over five weeks since the Israeli-imposed siege suspended the entry of aid and commercial supplies into Gaza,” UNRWA said. “Safe water, food, shelter and medical care have become increasingly scarce. The impact on children is devastating.”
“In northern Gaza, children are not looking for their toys or pencils, but for water,” UNRWA said. “They are not going to school, but pushing carts to help fetch something to soothe their thirst.”
On Saturday, the Israeli occupation army halted the flow of water to Gaza from Israeli company Mekorot, effectively cutting off 70 percent of the Strip’s water supply.
Since March 2, Israel has closed Gaza’s border crossings and blocked the entry of essential supplies, including food, drinking water and medicine, worsening the already deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the coastal enclave.
