The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, accused Israel of continuing to prevent UN aid from reaching the Gaza Strip, while the World Food Program warned of a “massive famine” in the northern Strip.
Lazzarini said in a post on To move during darkness or cancel (its mission).”
In an interview with NBC broadcast yesterday, Sunday, the Executive Director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said that based on the “horror” on the ground, “there is famine, total famine, in the north, and it is moving its way south.”
A UN-backed report published in March said famine was imminent and likely to occur in the northern Gaza Strip by May and could spread across the Strip by July.
A famine is declared when at least 20% of the population suffers from severe food shortages, when one in three children suffers from acute malnutrition, and two out of every 10,000 people die every day due to hunger, malnutrition, or disease.
UN officials say that by the time a place is generally declared officially famine, it is already too late to save many people.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres said last week that the most vulnerable people in northern Gaza are “already dying from hunger and disease.”
The United Nations complains of the lack of humanitarian aid during the 7-month-long Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip.
Guterres said that the international organization is trying to avoid a “totally avoidable man-made famine” in northern Gaza.
Considering Israel the occupying power, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, said that Israel is obligated to provide food and medical care to the population and facilitate the work of relief organizations trying to deliver aid.