Mass famine in the Gaza Strip amid Israel's offensive threatens the lives of more than 700 thousand people, the agency reported on Tuesday, February 20 Anadolu with reference to the press service of the enclave government.
“Hunger is getting worse day by day in the Gaza Strip, home to almost 2.4 million people. The occupiers are pursuing a policy of increasing exhaustion and thirst, leading to mass starvation, this is part of their war of extermination against the civilian population, children and women,” the agency quotes the statement.
The enclave authorities emphasize that more than 700 thousand Palestinians in northern Gaza, where the Israeli army carried out a ground offensive, face the threat of starvation.
The press service of the Gaza Strip authorities called for lifting the Israeli blockade and allowing the entry of 10 thousand trucks with humanitarian aid over the next two days.
Israel's war on Gaza has led to the internal displacement of 85% of the territory's population amid severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.
Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling issued in January ordered Tel Aviv to cease its acts of genocide and take measures to guarantee the provision of humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza.
According to the television company TRT World, 137 days of war have claimed the lives of at least 29,195 Palestinians and injured another 69,170. In the context of a statement by the Gaza Strip authorities, Jordan called for the restoration of funding to the UN Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).
“No other organization can do what UNRWA is doing in helping the more than two million Palestinians facing hunger in Gaza,” Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said during a joint news conference with Slovenian counterpart Tanja Fajon in Ljubljana.
On the same day, the UN World Food Program (WFP) stopped the supply of vital humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. The organization explains its decision by saying that the level of security in Gaza does not allow the UN GDPR and the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to carry out their work effectively and safely.
On January 29, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned that 2 million people could die in the Gaza Strip if they are not provided with humanitarian assistance from the international community. Fidan noted that Gazans are dying not only due to military action, but also from hunger and disease, which is “a tragedy on a different scale.”
Earlier, a number of countries, including Austria, Japan, the United States, Germany, Australia, Italy, Canada, Finland and the United Kingdom, announced the suspension of funding to UNRWA amid suspicions of its involvement in the October 7 attacks on Israel. In response, the agency said it would not be able to continue its activities in the Gaza Strip and the Middle East region after February unless funding was renewed.
The situation in the Middle East escalated on the morning of October 7, when Hamas subjected Israel to massive rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, and also invaded border areas in the south of the country and took hostages. That same day, Israel began retaliating against targets in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinians are seeking to return the borders between the two countries to the lines that existed before the 1967 Six-Day War. Palestine wants to create its own state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and make East Jerusalem its capital. Israel refuses the conditions set.
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