UNRWA schools across Gaza shelter displaced people. Gaza: 1.7 million people failed to receive food aid in October Peace and Security
The besieged northern Gaza region is experiencing “nothing short of a catastrophe,” with dead bodies lying in the streets and hospitals running out of blood for transfusions, the UN Refugee Agency (UNRWA) said on Tuesday.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva from central Gaza, UNRWA spokeswoman Louise Wateredge warned that as winter approaches, displaced people in Gaza are sleeping on the ground in makeshift shelters surrounded by sewage.
“We are extremely concerned about what will happen to the 500,000 people in the flood zones when the rains come to Gaza,” she said.
Mass starvation
Wateredge noted that aid levels reaching the enclave were “the lowest they have been in months,” with just 37 trucks a day averaging food and essential supplies in October. According to UNRWA, this represents about six percent of commercial and humanitarian supplies before the war.
Last Friday, experts from the Famine Review Committee issued a warning of looming famine in the northern Gaza Strip.
Asked about a deadline set last month by the United States for Israel to improve its aid situation, an UNRWA spokeswoman said deliveries had only dwindled. Wateridge added that 1.7 million people, or about 80 percent of the enclave’s population, were unable to receive food aid in October.
Shortage of Essentials
UNRWA has been unable to access the besieged north of Gaza for more than a month, she said. According to her, residents of the northern regions lack the most basic necessities, including clean water.
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“Doctors tell us that they have run out of blood. They have run out of medicine… There are bodies lying in the streets,” she said. Eight UNRWA wells in Jabalia in northern Gaza have stopped working, leaving people without clean water, the agency employee added. She reiterated her call for Israeli authorities to grant access to besieged areas.
Wateredge also called on the parties to the conflict to cease fire. She noted that on October 7 last year, Hamas carried out “horrific attacks on Israeli civilians,” adding that the suffering of civilians must not be allowed to continue.