Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 03rd Jan. UN humanitarians on Tuesday voiced their concern over dire concerns for civilians caught up in the war in Gaza said everyone is hungry in Gaza now’ after reports of Israeli bombardment of the southern towns of Deir al Balah, Khan Younis and Rafah, direct clashes on the ground and the firing of rockets overnight by Palestinian armed groups Hamas into Israel.
UN relief agency for Palestinians and the World Food Programme issued latest warnings, WFP, highlighted the threat of starvation and disease in heavily built-up areas, where tens of thousands of people have fled intense bombing campaigns in the enclave’s north and centre.
WFP said in a post on X that “Everyone in Gaza is hungry! Skipping meals is the norm, and each day is a desperate search for sustenance,”
“People often go the entire day and night without eating. Adults go hungry so children can eat, ”WFP added
According to UNRWA, million people are seeking safety in the overcrowded southern city of Rafah with hundreds of thousands sleeping in the open with inadequate clothing or materials to keep out the cold.
UN humanitarians have warned in the latest food insecurity assessments that undernourished children are at particular risk, while “half of Gaza’s population is starving.
WHO warned of an “imminent risk” of communicable disease outbreaks.
It reported that since mid-October, there have been 179,000 cases of acute respiratory infection, 136,400 cases of diarrhea under fives, 55,400 cases of scabies and lice and 4,600 cases of jaundice, it reported.
According local health ministry in Gaza there have been 22,000 people dies, mainly women and children.
IDF figures from 30 December indicated that 168 Israeli soldiers have been killed since the start of the ground operation in Gaza and 955 injured.
Gaza’s health ministry stated that more than 200 Palestinians have been killed since Monday alone, with 338 wounded.
WHO said in its latest emergency update that an additional 7,000 people have been reported missing or buried under rubble.
The report noted that 600 people have been killed in 300 attacks on healthcare since 7 October that have damaged 26 hospitals and 38 ambulances.
WHO updated that of the 1.93 million displaced in Gaza, some 52,000 pregnant women are giving birth to around 180 babies every day.
It detailed that 1,100 patients need kidney dialysis, 71,000 have diabetes and 225,000 need treatment for high blood pressure.
UN aid coordination agency OCHA noted that the Gazan health authorities had managed to resume some hospital services in the north of Gaza.
These included Al Ahli Arab Hospital, the Patients Friends charity hospital, Al Helou International hospital, Al Awda hospital and a number of other primary care centres.
OCHA said “This occurred amidst great risks surrounding the movement and work of medical teams due to the continuous bombing of residential neighborhoods and the vicinity of health facilities,”.
“The Ministry of Health in Gaza, UNRWA and WHO are coordinating on a plan for the reactivation of health centres to meet the needs of displaced people in all places of displacement.”
OCHA reported the first case of the demolition of Palestinian property in the West Bank in 2024, in al-Maniya in Bethlehem.
Some 300 Palestinians including 79 children have been killed across the occupied West Bank since 7 October, in attacks by Israeli Security Forces and settlers that have been confirmed and condemned by UN human rights chief Volker Türk.
According to OHCHR, 200 Palestinians had been killed in the West Bank last year before October 7 attacks the highest number in a 10-month-period since the UN began keeping records in 2005.
According to a report by the UN human rights office encompassed 7 October to 20 November, the period saw a “sharp increase in airstrikes as well as in incursions by armored personnel carriers and bulldozers sent to refugee camps and other densely populated areas in the West Bank, resulted in deaths, injuries and extensive damage to civilian objects and infrastructure”.
According to OCHA in its first update of 2024 Israeli authorities oversaw the demolition of 1,119 structures a record since data collection began in 2009 uprooted 2,210 people.
“The threat of destruction of homes and sources of livelihood contributes to the generation of a coercive environment pressuring people to leave their areas of residence,” OCHA stated.
