Dina Mahmoud (Gaza, London)
UN humanitarian relief organizations confirmed that Israel has prevented 83% of food aid from entering Gaza, nearly a year after the war in the Gaza Strip.
A press release issued by 16 relief organizations explained that the percentage of blocked aid rose from 34% in 2023 to 83%, which led to reducing the population’s meals from two meals to one meal per day.
The statement indicated that about 50,000 children between the ages of 6 and 59 months are in urgent need of treatment for malnutrition by the end of the year.
The signatory organizations stressed that providing aid is the only available option under the current circumstances, due to the inability to manage the humanitarian situation.
She added that coordination to provide aid is facing significant delays, explaining that only 37 out of 94 humanitarian missions were implemented in northern Gaza during the period from September 1 to 15, and 50% of 243 missions in southern Gaza.
Western experts warned that the continuation of the fighting, and the accompanying escalation of regional tension on various fronts, confirms the need to intensify efforts to stop the fighting and launch a broad operation to provide relief to more than two million civilians in the Strip.
Experts warned that the risks of a wider regional war still exist and are severe, especially in light of the absence of any horizon for a ceasefire, and the absence of a clear strategy that would bring the curtain down on the war.
Western experts pointed out that although the rate of casualties in Gaza may have slowed down recently, this does not negate the fact that it is still continuing unabated, amid worsening human suffering, scarcity of basic services, and the collapse of the health sector and sanitation facilities.
This crisis is exacerbated by the fact that the majority of the residents of this stricken Palestinian coastal enclave, who no longer have homes to return to, have been forced to flee several times since the outbreak of the war, after evacuation orders issued successively covered nearly 90% of the area of the Strip.
According to a report published by the British newspaper The Guardian, experts expressed their fears that reaching any ceasefire in Gaza, even if temporary, will not necessarily mean putting an end to the steady increase in the number of war victims there, due to the severely deteriorating humanitarian conditions in the Strip, and the spread of diseases and epidemics that threaten many of its residents.
Experts stressed that the continuation of the current catastrophic situation, and the United States’ preoccupation with its upcoming presidential elections, are fueling fears of an imminent expansion of the conflict, in light of the deterioration of the security situation in the West Bank, and the sharp escalation of tension between Israel and Lebanon.
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