Gazans face imminent starvation risk amid displacement, soaring death toll
17 Nov 2023 12:00pm
Gaza - Photo by AP
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"With winter fast approaching and the unsafe and overcrowded shelters that lack of clean water, people are facing the immediate possibility of starvation," Anadolu Agency reported Abeer Etefa, WFP spokesperson for the Middle East and North Africa, said.
Etefa spoke at a virtual UN news conference alongside Juliet Touma, communications director at the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), about the situation in the Palestinian enclave.
Etefa briefed reporters from Cairo and said Gazans are becoming more desperate every day in their search for bread and essential foods.
"Bread is a way of luxury," she said.
"We already started to see cases of dehydration and malnutrition, which is increasing rapidly and by the day," said Etefe.
"With only 10 per cent of necessity food supplies and drink in Gaza since the beginning of this conflict, we're now facing a massive food gap."
She stressed that 2.2 million residents, which is nearly the entire population of the Gaza Strip, are now in need of food assistance.
"Food production has come to an almost complete halt,” said Etefa.
Etefa stressed to meet the growing needs inside Gaza, the number of trucks that are crossing with food assistance needs to be increased.
"There is no way to meet the current hunger needs with the current situation," she said. "We have to have a different space that allows us to have safe access and to have the flowing of goods inside Gaza."
The collapse of the food supply chain is "catastrophic" and said the situation before the conflict was difficult but now it is "disastrous," she said.
Largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948
Anadolu Agency reported Touma said Gaza currently looks like it has been hit by an earthquake, "except it is man-made."
"It could have been totally avoided. We have just witnessed in the past week, the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948," she said.
Children in shelters are pleading for a sip of water and a piece of bread, she said. They have to wait two to three hours to go to the bathroom.
"All of this brings us back to the medieval age," she added.
A group of UN experts recently warned that Palestinians are "at a grave risk of genocide” as the Israeli government imposed a total blockade, cutting off the water, food and electricity supplies to Gaza.
Day 41: Death Toll in Occupied Gaza Strip, West Bank Continue to Soar
According to Palestinian news agency (WAFA), at least 11, 667 Palestinians in Gaza Strip and West Bank were killled in Israeli aggression.
Quoting the Health Ministry, it reported 11,470 people including 4,707 children, 3,155 women, and 668 elderly were killed in Gaza Strip, while over 29,000 were injured.
Among the dead were 203 health workers and 36 from the civil defense, while more than 210 health workers were injured.
Thousands of buildings, including hospitals, mosques, and churches, have also been damaged or destroyed in Israel's relentless air and ground attacks on the besieged enclave.
In the occupied West Bank,197 Palestinians were and 2,750 were injured. killed by Israeli army gunfire since Oct 7. - BERNAMA
