\u201cIt\u2019s been an extraordinary and wholly unwelcome aspect of the Gazan war,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has brought famine with such incredible speed to the front of the lines.\u201d <\/p>\n
Aid has been trickling into Gaza slowly from two border crossings in the south but agencies have been warning it is a fraction of what is needed. <\/p>\n
Last week, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs\u00a0said\u00a0Israel had denied critical supplies from entering northern Gaza. But Israel has accused the UN\u2019s Palestinian refugee agency of not doing enough and \u201cstalling\u201d the progress. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of the number of trucks that can get in,\u201d he said after listing a series of roadblocks stopping aid including unreliable \u201cdeconfliction of access routes\u201d, and civilians having to move \u201cfrom one place of insecurity to another place of insecurity.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you cannot rely on deconfliction of access routes of people in need, if you cannot rely on hospitals not being attacked \u2026 if you cannot rely on people having to move from one place of insecurity to another place of insecurity, those are the issues that make humanitarian aid deliveries,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not a matter of the number of trucks that can get in.\u201d <\/p>\n
More than 24,000 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 60,000 others injured since October 7, the Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Monday.\u00a0Meanwhile, nearly 90% of Gaza\u2019s pre-war population has been displaced, according to the UN. <\/p>\n
That campaign began after the October 7 murder and kidnapping rampage by Hamas gunmen that saw some 1,200 people killed in Israel and more than 240 taken hostage, more than 130\u00a0of whom are still in captivity, alive or dead. <\/p>\n
Israel\u2019s relentless bombing has wrought widespread devastation, as civilians live with the threat of\u00a0imminent death\u00a0\u2013 either by an airstrike, starvation\u00a0or disease. <\/p>\n
Griffiths warned Monday that the dire humanitarian situation in the enclave could create \u201cgenerational hatred.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cWe worry for the security of Israel as much as the security of Gaza,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
On Monday, UN agencies issued a joint appeal for greater aid access to Gaza, saying \u201ca fundamental step change in the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza is urgently needed.\u201d <\/p>\n
The heads of the World Food Programme (WFP), UN Children\u2019s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organization said that getting enough supplies into and across Gaza depends on the opening of new entry routes; more trucks being allowed through border checks each day; fewer restrictions on the movement of humanitarian workers; and guarantees of safety for people accessing and distributing aid. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food,\u201d said WFP head Cindy McCain. \u201cEvery hour lost puts countless lives at risk. We can keep famine at bay but only if we can deliver sufficient supplies and have safe access to everyone in need, wherever they are.\u201d <\/p>\n
The WFP warned in early December that the \u201ccatastrophic hunger crisis\u201d in Gaza\u00a0which \u201calready threatens to overwhelm the civilian population\u201d will only intensify. <\/p>\n
\u201cI felt bad for the kids, they had nothing to keep them warm and we were dying from the cold at night,\u201d Tibi said. <\/p>\n
Adults ration their meals so that children do not go hungry. \u201cI see people starving, literally starving,\u201d said Shadi Bleha, a 20-year-old student, displaced from northern Gaza to Rafah, who eats one meal a day. <\/p>\n
The Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Phase Classification (IPC) has confirmed that the entire population of Gaza \u2013 about 2.2 million people \u2013 is facing high levels of acute food insecurity or worse, with one in four households facing catastrophic conditions. <\/p>\n
The IPC said it is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity the initiative has ever classified for any given area or country. <\/p>\n
\u201cChildren at high risk of dying from malnutrition and disease desperately need medical treatment, clean water and sanitation services, but the conditions on the ground do not allow us to safely reach children and families in need,\u201d said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. <\/p>\n
Gaza\u2019s 350,000 children under the age of 5 are especially vulnerable, UNICEF said. The agency warned that in the next few weeks, child wasting, which is the most life-threatening form of malnutrition in children, could affect up to 10,000 children. <\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the material we desperately need to repair and increase water supply remain restricted from entering Gaza. The lives of children and their families are hanging in the balance. Every minute counts,\u201d Russell said. <\/p>\n
But the agencies echoed relief chief Griffiths\u2019 warning that humanitarian aid alone cannot reverse the worsening hunger among Gaza\u2019s population. <\/p>\n
Phillipe Lazzarini, Commissioner General for the UN\u2019s Palestine Refugee Agency (UNRWA), said \u201ccommercial supplies are a must to allow the markets and private sector to re-open and provide an alternative to food accessibility.\u201d <\/p>\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been an extraordinary and wholly unwelcome aspect of the Gazan war,\u201d he said. \u201cIt has brought famine with such incredible speed to the front of the lines.\u201d Aid has been trickling into Gaza slowly from two border crossings in the south but agencies have been warning it is a fraction of what is needed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":14125,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-14124","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}