Gaza City: The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) confirmed on Tuesday that more than 66,000 children in the Gaza Strip are suffering from severe malnutrition due to the starvation policy that Israel continues to implement, after closing the crossings and preventing the entry of relief aid for more than two months. UNRWA spokesperson Adnan Abu Hasna added in a statement that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians eat one meal every two or three days.
According to Union of OIC News Agencies, since March 2, the Israeli occupation authorities have closed the crossings with the Gaza Strip to the entry of food, relief and medical aid and goods, causing a significant deterioration in the humanitarian situation of Palestinians, according to governmental, human rights and international reports. Commenting on the plan, the International Humanitarian Country Team in the occupied Palestinian territory said Israel has sought to shut down the current aid distribution sys
tem managed by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners. This plan contravenes international humanitarian principles, is dangerous, pushes civilians into military zones to obtain rations, threatens lives, and further entrenches forced displacement.
The humanitarian country team is a strategic body led by the United Nations, comprising representatives of UN agencies and Palestinian and international NGOs, and operates under the supervision of the UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the occupied Palestinian territory. Both UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher have previously announced that the organization will not participate in any plan that does not adhere to the universal humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence, and neutrality.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli occupation forces have waged an ongoing aggression on the Gaza Strip, which has so far resulted in the deaths of 52,567 civilians, the majority of whom are children and wom
en, and the injury of 118,610 others, in a preliminary toll, as it is not final. A number of victims are still under the rubble and in the streets, and ambulance and rescue crews are unable to reach them.
