United Nations: Food shortage threatens 300,000 in northern and central Gaza

Gaza (Union)

The United Nations has warned that the lives of hundreds of thousands in the northern and central Gaza Strip are at risk due to food shortages, considering that a possible Israeli attack on the city of Rafah would constitute a “real disaster.”
The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Philippe Lazzarini, said yesterday that the last time the agency was allowed to deliver supplies to the northern and central areas of Gaza was more than two weeks ago, on January 23.
Lazzarini wrote on the X website: “Since the beginning of the year, half of our missions’ requests to send aid to the north have been rejected.”
He added: “The United Nations has identified deep pockets of famine and hunger in northern Gaza,” adding, “At least 300,000 people living in the region depend on our aid for their survival.” More than half of Gaza's estimated 2.4 million people now live in the city of Rafah in the south, but many remain in the Gaza Valley, in the center and north. “The region has turned into a wasteland of hunger and despair,” said Georgios Petropoulos, head of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Gaza.
He added, “Relief agencies are prevented from working, while the few trucks that succeed in crossing are intercepted by local residents who are in northern Gaza on the brink of famine.”
He continued, “They sometimes gather in thousands around trucks and other vehicles loaded with goods and unload them in minutes.”
“Blocking access prevents life-saving humanitarian aid,” Lazzarini wrote, adding, “With the necessary political will, this can easily be reversed.”
In turn, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wensland, said that the possible Israeli attack on the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip would constitute a “real disaster.”
Wensland stated, during a press conference, that he is at the United Nations headquarters in New York to discuss how to chart a way out of the current crisis in Gaza with the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. He pointed out that he “knows very well what are the obstacles that prevent this from happening politically,” stressing the need to overcome those obstacles. The UN coordinator believed that “the solution will not be quick or easy, and it will require some very hard diplomatic work,” calling for action with the active parties on the ground.
Regarding Israel’s readiness to launch an attack on the city of Rafah, he said: “Although the Israelis know the situation well, they are planning an active war in Rafah, where 1.2 million people are gathered.”
He pointed out that the Rafah and Kerem Shalom crossings are the only active entry points for aid, warning that the Israeli attack on Rafah would constitute a “totally catastrophic” matter. He said: “It is difficult to find words that can be said to the people in Gaza who have lost everything,” and continued: “It is very difficult to preach hope when you are sitting in a safe place, to people sitting in the middle of hell.”
Earlier yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned of the consequences of any Israeli action on the city of Rafah.
In turn, United Nations Humanitarian Aid Coordinator Martin Griffiths said: Gazans living in the city of Rafah lack the basic needs that keep them alive.
Griffiths noted, in a statement, that “the crisis in Gaza has entered its fifth month, and that the ongoing clashes in the city of Rafah have caused more casualties and exacerbated the loss of humanitarian needs.”
According to Griffiths, “More than half of Gaza’s population now lives crowded in Rafah, a city with a population of 250,000 people, and their living conditions are very poor, and they have to struggle to survive. They lack basic needs and struggle with disease, hunger and death.”