Famine ‘imminent’ in northern Gaza, warns World Food Programme
Famine is imminent in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned yesterday, as Israel wages war on Palestinian militant group Hamas. — AFP pic
Wednesday, 28 Feb 2024 8:03 AM MYT
NEW YORK, Feb 28 — Famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned yesterday, as Israel wages war on Palestinian militant group Hamas.
With a dire humanitarian emergency unfolding in the Gaza Strip and the main UN aid agency there struggling to cope, other bodies have called for help in reaching the thousands of Palestinians in desperate need.
“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” WFP’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council, while his colleague from the UN humanitarian office OCHA, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned of “almost inevitable” widespread starvation.
“Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza — one-quarter of the population — one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting,” Rajasingham said.
Some 97 per cent of groundwater in Gaza is “reportedly unfit for human consumption” and agricultural production is beginning to collapse, warned Maurizio Martina, deputy director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Aid is ready and waiting at the border, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said Tuesday.
“WFP colleagues also tell us that they have food supplies at the border with Gaza, and with certain conditions they would be able to scale up feeding up to 2.2 million people” across the Strip, Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
“Almost 1,000 trucks carrying 15,000 metric tons of food are in Egypt ready to move,” he said.
But Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to Gaza, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for OCHA, in Geneva earlier Tuesday.
All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks.
The last allowed in was on January 23, according to the World Health Organisation.
The main UN aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA, meanwhile, is “at breaking point,” its head said last week, as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the body and humanitarian needs soar.
The Security Council must take action, the other agencies told the 15-member body.
“We must all double down and live up to our responsibilities to ensure it does not happen on our watch,” Skau said. — AFP
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UN says Israel ‘systematically’ blocking Gaza aid access
Wednesday, 28 Feb 2024 8:03 AM MYT
NEW YORK, Feb 28 — Famine is “imminent” in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned yesterday, as Israel wages war on Palestinian militant group Hamas.
With a dire humanitarian emergency unfolding in the Gaza Strip and the main UN aid agency there struggling to cope, other bodies have called for help in reaching the thousands of Palestinians in desperate need.
“If nothing changes, a famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” WFP’s deputy executive director Carl Skau told the UN Security Council, while his colleague from the UN humanitarian office OCHA, Ramesh Rajasingham, warned of “almost inevitable” widespread starvation.
“Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza — one-quarter of the population — one step away from famine, with one in six children under two years of age in northern Gaza suffering from acute malnutrition and wasting,” Rajasingham said.
Some 97 per cent of groundwater in Gaza is “reportedly unfit for human consumption” and agricultural production is beginning to collapse, warned Maurizio Martina, deputy director general of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Aid is ready and waiting at the border, a spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said Tuesday.
“WFP colleagues also tell us that they have food supplies at the border with Gaza, and with certain conditions they would be able to scale up feeding up to 2.2 million people” across the Strip, Stephane Dujarric told reporters.
“Almost 1,000 trucks carrying 15,000 metric tons of food are in Egypt ready to move,” he said.
But Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to Gaza, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for OCHA, in Geneva earlier Tuesday.
All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks.
The last allowed in was on January 23, according to the World Health Organisation.
The main UN aid agency in Gaza, UNRWA, meanwhile, is “at breaking point,” its head said last week, as donors freeze funding, Israel exerts pressure to dismantle the body and humanitarian needs soar.
The Security Council must take action, the other agencies told the 15-member body.
“We must all double down and live up to our responsibilities to ensure it does not happen on our watch,” Skau said. — AFP
***
UN says Israel ‘systematically’ blocking Gaza aid access
Palestinians gather on a beach in the hope of getting aid air-dropped over Gaza, amid the ongoing the conflict between Israel and Hamas, in the southern Gaza Strip February 27, 2024. — Reuters pic
Tuesday, 27 Feb 2024 10:29 PM MYT
GENEVA, Feb 27 — Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to people in need in Gaza, complicating the task of delivering aid in what has become a lawless war zone, the UN said today.
It has become nearly impossible to carry out medical evacuations and aid deliveries in northern Gaza and increasingly difficult in the south, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.
All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks, with the last allowed in on January 23, according to the World Health Organisation.
Making matters worse, even convoys cleared in advance with Israeli authorities have repeatedly been blocked or come under fire.
Laerke pointed to an incident last Sunday when a convoy, jointly organised by the WHO and the Palestinian Red Crescent (PCRS), to evacuate patients from the besieged Al Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, was blocked for hours and paramedics detained.
“Despite prior coordination for all staff members and vehicles with the Israeli side, the Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital,” Laerke told journalists in Geneva.
“The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes,” he said, adding that the convoy, which was carrying 24 patients, remained blocked for seven hours.
“Three PRCS paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance,” Laerke said, adding that just one had been released so far.
“This is not an isolated incident,” he stressed.
“Aid convoys have come under fire and are systematically denied access to people in need.”
Such “inadequate facilitation for the delivery of aid throughout Gaza means that humanitarian workers are subject to unacceptable and preventable risk of being detained, injured or worse”, Laerke said.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry. — AFP
Tuesday, 27 Feb 2024 10:29 PM MYT
GENEVA, Feb 27 — Israeli forces are “systematically” blocking access to people in need in Gaza, complicating the task of delivering aid in what has become a lawless war zone, the UN said today.
It has become nearly impossible to carry out medical evacuations and aid deliveries in northern Gaza and increasingly difficult in the south, said Jens Laerke, spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA.
All planned aid convoys into the north have been denied by Israeli authorities in recent weeks, with the last allowed in on January 23, according to the World Health Organisation.
Making matters worse, even convoys cleared in advance with Israeli authorities have repeatedly been blocked or come under fire.
Laerke pointed to an incident last Sunday when a convoy, jointly organised by the WHO and the Palestinian Red Crescent (PCRS), to evacuate patients from the besieged Al Amal hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, was blocked for hours and paramedics detained.
“Despite prior coordination for all staff members and vehicles with the Israeli side, the Israeli forces blocked the WHO-led convoy for many hours the moment it left the hospital,” Laerke told journalists in Geneva.
“The Israeli military forced patients and staff out of ambulances and stripped all paramedics of their clothes,” he said, adding that the convoy, which was carrying 24 patients, remained blocked for seven hours.
“Three PRCS paramedics were subsequently detained, although their personal details had been shared with the Israeli forces in advance,” Laerke said, adding that just one had been released so far.
“This is not an isolated incident,” he stressed.
“Aid convoys have come under fire and are systematically denied access to people in need.”
Such “inadequate facilitation for the delivery of aid throughout Gaza means that humanitarian workers are subject to unacceptable and preventable risk of being detained, injured or worse”, Laerke said.
The Hamas attack that triggered the war resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Militants also took about 250 Israeli and foreign hostages, 130 of whom remain in Gaza including 31 presumed dead, according to Israel.
Israel’s military campaign has killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the Hamas-ruled territory’s health ministry. — AFP
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