UNRWA, which has faced financial sanctions due to Israeli accusations of its staff being involved in the October 7 resistance operation, said it has the “largest presence” among all humanitarian organizations in Gaza.
Israel has denied the head of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) entry into the Gaza Strip, with Egypt calling the move “unprecedented” for a “representative at this high position.”
“On the day new data is out on famine in Gaza, the Israeli Authorities deny my entry to Gaza,” said Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General, on X on Monday.
UNRWA, which has faced financial sanctions due to Israeli accusations of its staff being involved in the October 7 resistance operation, said it has the “largest presence” among all humanitarian organizations in Gaza.
Lazzarini said the new data found famine “is imminent in the northern Gaza Strip, expected to arrive between now and May.”
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He stressed that “Two million people = the entire population of Gaza is facing crisis levels of food insecurity or worse.”
Half the population, Lazzarini added, “has completely exhausted food supplies and coping capacities. They are struggling with catastrophic hunger (IPC Phase 5) and starvation.”
“This is the highest number of people ever recorded as facing catastrophic hunger by the IPC system and double the number just three months ago.”
Earlier, UNICEF warned that the number of children under two years old suffering from acute malnutrition has doubled in one month, the UNRWA chief said.
“Children are now dying of dehydration & hunger,” he added.
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Political Will Required
“My visit today was supposed to coordinate & improve the humanitarian response. This man-made starvation under our watch is a stain on our collective humanity. Too much time was wasted, all land crossings must open now. Famine can be averted with political will,” Lazzarini stated.
Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shoukry, told Lazzarini: “You were declined by the Israeli government, refused the entry which is an unprecedented move for (a) representative at this high position,” the Middle East Monitor reported.
UNRWA has warned that “hunger is everywhere in Gaza,” adding that “humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip and an immediate ceasefire are imperative to save lives.”
The Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip has resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the enclave, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 31,819 Palestinians have been killed, and 73,934 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7.
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Moreover, at least 7,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire.’
(The Palestine Chronicle)
If the West believed in itself, all Israeli Embassy’s and consulates around the world would be closed tomorrow and all staff sent back to Tel Aviv. And no more aid of any kind given to Israel. But, of course that will never happen and the misery continues in Gaza.