A quarter of Gaza’s population on the brink of famine: UN official

Tel Aviv: A senior UN aid official has warned that a quarter of the population of war-torn Gaza is on the brink of famine. According to reports available from UN aid agencies in Gaza, Rajesh Rajasingham, Director of the Coordination of UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, has informed the UN Security Council about the threat to the strip in the coming days.
A senior UN aid official has informed the Security Council that approximately 576,000 people are facing hunger and famine in the Gaza Strip. He also warned that widespread famine could be almost inevitable if appropriate action was not taken. He said one in six children under the age of two in northern Gaza suffers from severe malnutrition. The official said all 2.3 million people in the Palestinian territories depend on “grossly inadequate” food aid to survive. Karl Skau, deputy executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), told the 15-member council that the risk of famine is increasing due to the inability to bring critical food supplies into Gaza in sufficient quantities.
The UN official also said that the operational conditions WFP staff faced on the ground were next to impossible. Meanwhile, UN officials said 75 tonnes of goods, 10 ambulances, food rations, 300 family tents etc have reached Egypt’s Al-Arish airport near Gaza’s Rafah crossing. Nearly 30 thousand Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israel-Hamas war that started after the Hamas attack in southern Israel on October 7. In that surprise attack by Hamas, 1,200 people were killed in Israel and 250 people were taken hostage.