Philippe Lazzarini, the Head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), has reacted to the IPC famine alert, saying in a post on X, that the famine in Gaza is “entirely man-made.”
He added that the only way to “reverse this catastrophe is to flood Gaza with a massive scale up of aid.”
“The United Nations including UNRWA have the expertise & resources available. UNRWA alone has the equivalent of 6,000 trucks of food & medicine ready to cross into Gaza. Let us do our work without restrictions, in safety & dignity.”
Philippe Lazzarini
UNRWA has been the major distributor of aid in Gaza and has provided education, health and other basic services to millions of Palestinian refugees across the region.
However, an Israeli ban on the agency in Gaza and the occupied West Bank took effect earlier this year after Israel accused it of being infiltrated by Hamas, the Palestinian militant group. UNRWA denies this claim.
Also, UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres stated that the trickle of aid into the Gaza Strip must become an ocean.
He added that the IPC famine alert “confirms what we have feared,” that Gaza is on the brink of famine. “The facts are in – and they are undeniable,” he said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza are enduring a humanitarian catastrophe of epic proportions. This is not a warning. It is a reality unfolding before our eyes.”
Antonio Gutteres
The IPC report, issued earlier today, stressed that the “worst-case scenario of famine” is now unfolding in Gaza.
UN backed food security body’s report detailed how Israel’s “drastic restrictions” on the entry of food has limited shipments to far below the levels needed to cover basic needs in Gaza, without fresh foods such as vegetables and meat.
The report stated that the population needs an estimated 62,000 metric tonnes of food staples each month. It added that Israeli data shows no food entered Gaza in March or April, 19,900 tonnes entered in May and 37,800 tonnes entered in June.
The World Food Programme Emergency Director, Ross Smith, addressing reporters in Geneva via video link from Rome, said, “This is unlike anything we have seen in this century.”
“It reminds us of previous disasters in Ethiopia or Biafra in the past century. We need urgent action now.”
Ross Smith
At least 60,034 Palestinian people have been killed and 145,870 others injured in Israeli attacks on Gaza since 7 October 2023, the Gaza health ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
At least 113 Palestinian people were killed and 637 others injured in the last 24 hours alone, the ministry said, despite the Israeli military pause in parts of the Gaza Strip.
Airdrops Inadequate To Prevent Death In Gaza
Meanwhile, Oxfam’s policy lead in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Bushra Khalidi, said that air drops, and brief pauses for relative crumbs of aid, is nowhere near enough to prevent human death at an “unimaginable scale.”
“We need urgent forceful diplomacy and whatever restrictive measures are necessary in order to achieve an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, break Israel’s siege and allow humanitarian aid to flow freely and safely throughout Gaza. The hostages and unlawfully detained prisoners must be released.”
Bushra Khalidi
Also, Khalidi said that Israel’s genocide has thrown Gaza into the “final chaotic stages of a full-blown human catastrophe.”
He asserted that the IPC warning of an unfolding famine – “one created entirely by Israel’s murderous siege” – must finally rouse the international community to act with a clarity and “resolve that has so far been beyond it.”
Khalidi stressed that world leaders have been variously divided, complicit, uncaring, and collectively ineffectual in stopping Israel’s campaign of erasure. “In failing to protect the Palestinian people, they have no more excuses left,” he stated.
He noted that ending Israel’s genocide of Gaza is a “test not only of our world order but of our collective humanity.”
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