Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 8th March. UN humanitarians on Thursday reiterated deep concerns over a growing number of children are dying of starvation, as the holy month of Ramadan begins with no ceasefire agreement in sight for Gaza.
UN agency for Palestinians, UNWRA said in a tweet on X “The situation is appalling. Every minute, every hour, it is getting worse.”
The agency said that a maximum of 150 lorries have reached Gaza every day before the war began.
It noted that in the north, 1 in 6 children under the age of two is acutely malnourished and media reports have indicated that at least 20 youngsters have died from starvation in recent days, including a 14-day-old baby.
UN Security Council held consultations on the situation in Gaza behind closed doors with the Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag briefed the Council members.
Over 30,000 people have been killed after intenseIsraeli bombardment across Gaza, in response to Hamas-led terror attacks in Israel on 7 October that left some 1,200 dead and more than 250 taken hostage.
UN said that negotiations initially in Qatar and this week in Cairo for a ceasefire linked to the release of the remaining 100 hostages and far greater aid access throughout Gaza have not resulted in an end to the violence nor alleviated the humanitarian catastrophe.
UN aid teams planned to explore the feasibility of using an Israeli military access road to northern Gaza to transport a minimum of 300 aid trucks every day in the absence of a deal between Hamas and Israel.
UN top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory Jamie McGoldrick, announced the aid convoy initiative on Wednesday.
He explained that it would enable trucks laden with humanitarian supplies to reach vulnerable people in the north of the enclave without having to negotiate obstructions and insecurity.
Mr. McGoldrick said “We have to use this military road, this fenced road at the side, on the eastern side (of Gaza), to allow material to come from the crossing point at Kerem Shalom and Rafah, all the way up to the north and into the north, and to a crossing point there.
He spoke with reporters in New York via a video link said “We have to get up at least 300 trucks a day. Right now, we’re lucky if we are getting about 150.”
Mr. McGoldrick noted that relief supplies entering Gaza in February had fallen by half compared with January, despite the “enormous and growing needs for over 2.3 million people living in appalling conditions, ahead of the start of Ramadan on Sunday.
UN Special Rapporteur for food Michael Fakhri said that 75 per cent of Gaza fishing sector had been devastated by Israeli bombardment and the catastrophic food insecurity situation in Gaza received renewed attention at the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
He told the forum of the HRC body that “Israel has mounted a starvation campaign against the Palestinian people in Gaza. And one way it is doing this is by targeting small-scale fishers.”
He stressed that Israel had denied all access to the sea, impoverishing previously comfortable fishers.
“Israeli forces decimated the Port of Gaza, destroying every single fishing boat and shack,” he said.
“In Rafah, only two out of 40 boats are left. In Khan Younis, Israel destroyed approximately 75 small-scale fishing vessels.”
He said that the destruction of fishing livelihoods in the enclave had undermined the right to food for everyone in Gaza and pushed them “into hunger and starvation”.
“In fact, Israel has been strangling Gaza for 17 years through a blockade, which included denying and restricting small-scale fishers access to their territorial waters,” he concluded.
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