UNRWA teams continue to distribute flour in southern Gaza, but the aid received is not enough to meet the needs. Gaza crisis: famine claims more young lives Humanitarian assistance
U.N. humanitarian officials on Thursday expressed deep concern that an increasing number of children in Gaza are dying of hunger. “The situation is catastrophic. It is getting worse every minute, every hour,” the UN Relief Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a statement.
Currently, no more than 150 food trucks arrive in Gaza per day. In the north of the sector, one in six children under two years of age suffers from acute malnutrition. At least 20 children, including a 14-day-old baby, have died of starvation in recent days, according to media reports.
On Thursday afternoon, the UN Security Council is scheduled to meet closed consultations on the situation in Gaza, at which the UN Senior Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs and Reconstruction in Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, is expected to speak.
Since October 7 last year, intense daily Israeli bombing in Gaza has killed some 30,000 people. Negotiations in Qatar and Cairo on a ceasefire, the release of hostages and the expansion of humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza have not yet led to either a cessation of violence or an alleviation of the humanitarian situation.
Hope for northern corridor
In the absence of an agreement between Hamas and Israel, UN humanitarian teams are exploring the possibility of using the Israeli military road in northern Gaza to send at least 300 aid trucks into the strip every day.
UN Resident Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory Jamie McGoldrick announced an initiative to send humanitarian aid convoys on Wednesday. According to him, the new corridor will allow vehicles carrying humanitarian supplies to reach vulnerable populations in the north of the enclave without being exposed to danger.
“We need to use this military road fenced on both sides to allow cargo to travel from the Kerem Shalom and Rafah checkpoints to the north of the sector, McGoldrick said during a video briefing for journalists. – We must deliver at least 300 trucks per day. Now, if the situation is successful, we deliver about 150.”
On the eve of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the UN coordinator noted that humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza in February halved from January, despite “the enormous and growing needs of more than 2.3 million people living in appalling conditions.”