UN agency says staff fainting from hunger as starvation spreads in Gaza

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

The head of the UN agency for Palestinians has said its staff are fainting from hunger as the starvation crisis in Gaza resulting from an Israeli blockade on most aid into the territory worsens.
'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,' Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (Unrwa) said in a post on X.
At least 113 people have died of hunger in Gaza, 45 of them in the last four days.
This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave … When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.
He added that Unrwa had the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food and medical supplies waiting in Jordan and Egypt and urged Israel to allow 'humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza'.
Reports of people fainting and dropping dead of hunger have emerged in recent days. Civil defence workers have released pictures of gaunt bodies with little more than skin covering their bones.
Palestinians carrying pans gather to receive hot meals distributed by a charity organization in Gaza City, where residents are struggling to access food due to the ongoing Israeli blockade and attacks. Picture: Khames Alrefi/Anadolu via Getty Images
As international pressure mounted for a breakthrough to end nearly two years of devastating war, Hamas said it had sent its response on the latest ceasefire proposal to mediators. An Israeli official told the Associated Press that the latest Hamas proposal was 'workable'.
The US envoy, Steve Witkoff, was scheduled to meet the top Israeli adviser, Ron Dermer, and the Qatari prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Sardinia, an Italian government source confirmed.
Mediators rejected a previous version of the deal, telling Hamas to come back with a more realistic proposal or risk jeopardising the negotiations.
A Palestinian official close to the talks told Reuters the Hamas response was 'flexible, positive and took into consideration the growing suffering in Gaza and the need to stop the starvation'.
Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, recalled the Israeli negotiators from Doha on Thursday for consultations. Israeli media reported that significant gaps remained between the two sides, including over to what point Israeli troops should withdraw during the ceasefire.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. File Picture: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin
International pressure for a deal is growing, as images of starving Palestinians provoke global condemnation of the Israeli blockade of the strip. An EU commission spokesperson said all options remained on the table if Israel did not improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Israel had agreed to expand aid access with the EU earlier this month.
The deal under consideration is expected to involve a 60-day ceasefire during which Hamas would release 10 living hostages and the bodies of 18 others in exchange for Palestinian prisoners. Talks would be held during the ceasefire period to reach a lasting truce and aid supplies to the besieged strip would be increased.
It has only been since the end of the war between Iran and Israel war last month that the serious prospect of a ceasefire in Gaza has emerged. The outcome of the 12-day conflict has given Netanyahu domestic breathing space to push for a deal.
As negotiations continue, Israeli attacks have increased. At least 89 people were killed in the last 24 hours as Israeli airstrikes pounded central Gaza, health authorities said.
Israel says the global media is exaggerating the scale of the hunger crisis, even though aid groups and pictures coming from Gaza show clear evidence of starvation and doctors who treat malnourished children say they are unable to get enough to eat themselves.
Israel only lets a trickle of aid into Gaza, the vast majority of which is distributed by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), a private US firm. GHF operates four food distribution points staffed by US mercenaries, a system which has been described as a death trap.
More than 1,000 people seeking aid have been killed trying to access supplies in the nearly two months since GHF began operating in Gaza.
Aid used to be distributed through more than 400 distribution points under a UN-led system, but Israel has all but stopped UN aid into the territory since March. Israel accuses Hamas of stealing UN aid, a claim for which humanitarians say there is little evidence.
People wait to receive food from a charity kitchen in Gaza.
Palestinians hold onto an aid truck returning to Gaza City from the northern Gaza Strip. Picture: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi
Aid groups say GHF, which was meant to replace the UN, lacks the capacity to do so and that its militarised model violates key humanitarian principles.
Restoring the UN aid system as a part of a ceasefire deal is a key Hamas demand. Israeli negotiators have softened their stance on the issue as pressure grows even within Israel to stop the starvation crisis, which the World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described on Wednesday as man-made.
Thousands of Israeli demonstrators carrying bags of flour and pictures of Palestinian children who died of starvation protested in Tel Aviv on Wednesday, calling for an end to the Gaza blockade.
Hamas is also calling for a ceasefire deal to include a permanent end to the Gaza war, something that Israel has refused. A ceasefire deal is unpopular among the more extreme members of Netanyahu's cabinet and Israel has sought to keep open the possibility of restarting the war after the ceasefire period.
- The Guardian
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