The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) warned on Saturday of the worsening levels of hunger in the besieged Gaza Strip, amid an increase in deaths from starvation in the Strip.
The Agency’s Commissioner General, Philippe Lazzarini, expressed in a press conference his concern about the spread of hunger that the Gaza Strip had never witnessed before, stressing that all residents of the Strip suffer from despair, hunger and panic.
He said that residents stop the aid trucks, take food from them, and eat it immediately, and this indicates their desperation and hunger, as he put it.
He added that he was horrified by what he called “smear” campaigns targeting the Palestinians and those who help them, considering that UNRWA is one of the targets of the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip as well.
Lazzarini also denounced the “ever-increasing levels of inhumanity” and the lack of global sympathy for what the people of Gaza are experiencing.
Activists reported during the past few days the death of starving children in the northern Gaza Strip, while a UN official reported yesterday, Friday, that half the population of the Gaza Strip is suffering from hunger.
The occupation authorities control the number of aid trucks entering the Gaza Strip from the Rafah crossing, as they must undergo inspection in Israel before entering, while thousands of tons of humanitarian aid accumulate on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing.
Every day, Gaza needs a thousand trucks of supplies and aid, such as infant formula, relief and catering supplies, basic goods and commodities for markets, medical devices, and rescue and civil defense mechanisms, according to the Government Information Office in Gaza.