فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) has expressed deep concern over the worsening nutritional situation in the blockaded Gaza Strip, amid unprecedented increases in malnutrition cases. The agency has reportedly received “desperate messages reporting famine” from some of its staff within the war-torn territory.
More than 21 months after the conflict erupted following a Hamas attack on Israeli territory on October 7, 2023, the Israeli blockade on Gaza continues to cause severe shortages of food, medicine, and essential goods, with food prices reportedly soaring by up to 40 times, according to a statement published by UNRWA on its official social media account.
UNRWA warned that it holds stocks outside Gaza sufficient to feed more than two million people in the Strip for over three months, but it urgently called on Israel to lift the siege and allow humanitarian aid to enter safely and on a large scale.
The Gaza Health Ministry, run by the Hamas government, reported that 18 people died of hunger within 24 hours between Saturday and Sunday. Mohammed Abu Salmiya, director of Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, said, “Infants under one year old suffer from a severe lack of milk, resulting in significant weight loss and weakened immunity.”
In contrast, Israel denied any ban on the entry of infant formula or baby food into Gaza, affirming its commitment to support humanitarian aid for civilians and not for Hamas.
This humanitarian crisis unfolds amid a brutal wave of violence that has claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, while approximately 1,219 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Israel as a result of the October Hamas attacks and subsequent Israeli military operations.
International organizations and human rights groups have issued urgent warnings of a looming humanitarian catastrophe, calling for an immediate end to the blockade to prevent a famine that threatens millions in the besieged Gaza Strip.
