A family from Gaza cooks in their destroyed home. Photo: Ali Jadallah/WFP.
This Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority asked the United Nations to do so The famine in the Gaza Strip is officially declaredas attacks by Israeli forces continue, claiming more than 20,900 lives since October.
The Palestinian Foreign Ministry posted a message on its social network account X, formerly Twitter: in which he denounces that hunger is part of the campaign of aggression against the people of Gaza.
In this sense, he called on the United Nations (UN) to officially declare that there is a severe famine in the Palestinian enclave due to the “genocidal war and blockade”.
At the same time, it calls on Israel to take responsibility for this situation and to take the necessary measures as quickly as possible to reverse the situation.
“The occupying state intends to exterminate our people, not only through brutal bombings, destruction, assassinations and direct executions, but also through extermination through starvation,” he denounced.
In this sense, the Spanish Executive Director of the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Raquel Martí, assured this Tuesday that the situation in the Gaza Strip is “terrifying”.
The official said a ceasefire was being imposed to address the “enormous needs” of a population forced to survive without humanitarian assistance.
Martí stressed that more funding is needed to help a population in which hundreds of thousands of people have to survive without humanitarian assistance. since Israel only allows ten percent of what is needed, and not in all areas.
In his opinion, a strong political response from governments is needed to put an end to this “bloody military offensive” and conclude a ceasefire that allows the population to receive supplies safely, since in this conflict “142 UNRWA colleagues lost their lives have”. .
Hostilities, including shelling, ground operations and the siege of the entire population, have resulted in catastrophic acute food insecurity across the Gaza Strip, which is now at high risk of famine, a report said.
The food safety phase classification study was prepared for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Food Program (WFP).
About 85% of the population (1.9 million people) are displaced; Many people have had to move several times and are concentrating on an ever smaller area.
There is a risk of famine and it is getting worse every day as the current situation with intense clashes and limited humanitarian access continues or worsens, the publication warns.
Israel denies visas to two UN employees
U.N. officials wait to inspect a man injured by gunfire from Israeli forces during the four-day humanitarian pause in Gaza City, Nov. 25, 2023. Photo: Mustafa Hassona / Gettyimages.ru
Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen has ordered the country's ministry not to renew the visa of any UN official in the country and to deny it to another. This was announced on December 25th on the social network X.
The decision comes in the context of the Israeli authorities' dissatisfaction with the actions of the organization, which criticizes the Israeli bombings in the Gaza Strip, in which many civilians died.
“We will no longer remain silent in the face of the UN's hypocrisy!” declared the minister. I accuse the head of the organization, the Commissioner for Human Rights and the UN Women's Agency of legitimizing “war crimes and crimes against humanity”, publishing “unfounded blood libels” and ignoring “rapes against Israeli women” for two months.
“We will stop collaborating with those who collaborate with the propaganda of the terrorist organization Hamas,” he added.
UN officials have repeatedly criticized Israeli bombings of residential areas, schools and hospitals and restrictions on aid deliveries during the total blockade on Gaza following the October 7 attacks. These attacks killed thousands of people, including dozens of journalists and more than a hundred employees of the organization.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres has repeatedly called for a ceasefire and condemned the severe humanitarian crisis that has pushed Palestinians to the brink of starvation.
(With information from TeleSur, RT en Español and agencies)
See also:
Christmas in the Gaza Strip