Anjali Sharma
GG News Bureau
UNITED NATIONS, 16th May. UN humanitarians on Wednesday warned that famine is still an imminent threat because of aid restrictions and a lack of safe access into Gaza, after some of the fiercest fighting in Gaza.
UNRWA warned that over 7 months into the war, babies are still being born too small.
The agency posted on X, “Habiba was born in a small tent. She’s two weeks old and weighs less than two kilogrammes,” added that over 150,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women continue to face dire sanitary conditions and health hazards.
WFP highlighted the massive challenge parents face keeping their children safe and fed. To stave off malnutrition, the WFP distributes fortified date bars, including to parents Khaled and Siham, who “some days go with nothing to eat to leave the little they have for their children”.
According to WFP, malnutrition among children is proceeding “at record pace”, with one in three children below the age of two now acutely malnourished or suffering wasting.
UN and its partners have the means to scale up aid to all 2.2 million people in Gaza, but only if a humanitarian ceasefire happens, the agency stated
The aid efforts have continued after reported gun battles between Israeli troops and Palestinian fighters in Jabalia in the north and Rafah in the south.
Over 450,000 people left Rafah last week, and 100,000 have been uprooted from the north of Gaza fresh evacuation orders by the Israeli military.
“Families keep fleeing where they can, including to rubble and sand dunes, in search of safety, but there’s no such thing in Gaza,” UNRWA said in a tweet on Tuesday, with images showing lines of vehicles heading to the coast, some laden with entire families’ belongings.
UN aid coordination office said relief teams were delivering lifesaving assistance “wherever and whenever possible”, although the main border crossing in Rafah remains closed, and there is “no safe access” at the nearby Kerem Shalom crossing, which is “not logistically viable”.
OCHA reported that Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis is expected to formally re-open in the coming days.
The hospital is in southern Khan Younis and one of the biggest in Gaza, was hit during intense Israeli shelling in February.
OCHA said in an update that the hospital has resumed providing kidney dialysis treatment last week to patients who can no longer be treated at An Najjar Hospital in Rafah, “which has ceased providing services”.
The aid teams inside and outside Gaza faced attack by Israeli settlers on Tuesday in the West Bank on trucks carrying humanitarian supplies bound for the enclave.
OCHA reported that “The settlers offloaded and vandalized the vehicles at the Tarqumiya checkpoint and near the Barrier by Beit ‘Awwa. Several trucks were damaged.”
It said that unconfirmed media reports showed protesters who have been calling for the release of Israeli hostages blocked the trucks from Jordan and stumped on boxes of relief items.
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