Hunger stalks everyone in Gaza as Israel uses food as 'weapon of war': UNRWA

The UN agencies have warned that Palestinians in the besieged strip face widespread hunger and dire conditions, amid Israel’s genocidal war.

“Hunger stalks everyone,” the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday, adding, “Too many people haven’t eaten now for two, three days in the Gaza Strip.”

The UNRWA slammed Israel for “systematically” using food, water and fuel “as weapons of war” in Gaza.

It came as the World Food Programme (WFP) revealed in a report published last week that 91 percent of households in Gaza reported going to bed hungry, while 63 percent reported enduring entire days without food.

The WFP conducted the rapid food security assessment during the seven-day truce that expired on November 30.

UN Special Rapporteur on Food Michael Fakhri also told Al Jazeera Arabic, “Every single Palestinian in Gaza is going hungry,” warning of a “genocide” in Gaza.

All these reports, which reflect the dire situation fellow human beings are undergoing in Gaza, have not deterred the US from “shamefully” vetoing a UN resolution calling for a ceasefire on Friday.

The US move drew wide condemnation from the Palestinian Authority and other global leaders and organizations, and even American lawmakers.

However, the United States turned a blind eye to the worldwide criticisms and once again defied calls for ceasefire in Gaza and reaffirmed its support for a “military solution” to the crisis, in an open endorsement of the genocide.

“We think there can be a military solution to taking out the leadership of Hamas that planned and carried out the attacks of October 7, in taking out the militants who crossed into Israel and carried out those attacks,” US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.

Iran to Turkey: ‘Maximum efforts’ needed to stop Gaza genocide, provide aid

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, in a phone conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan, called for “maximum efforts” to end the Israeli regime’s genocide of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

‘Gaza’s health system collapsing’

The World Health Organization Executive Board also warned of a total breakdown of Gaza’s healthcare system.

“Gaza’s health system is on its knees and collapsing, with the risk expected to worsen with the deteriorating situation and approaching winter conditions,” the WHO’s director-general said.

“As more and more people move to a smaller and smaller area, overcrowding, combined with the lack of adequate food, water, shelter and sanitation, are creating the ideal conditions for disease to spread,” he added.

The statement comes as up to 1.9 million Gazans, who account for more than 85 percent of the entire population of Gaza, have been displaced across the strip since the start of the aggression.

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, one in six people in Gaza are ill with an infectious disease.

Nicholas Papachrysostomou, the emergency coordinator in Gaza for Doctors Without Borders, told Al Jazeera, “Every other patient in Rafah has a respiratory infection, amid rainy and cold conditions.”

“In some shelters, 600 people share a single toilet. We are already seeing many cases of diarrhea. Often children are the worst affected,” he said.

Israel waged the brutal war on Gaza on October 7 after Hamas carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 18,205 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 49,645 others.

Thousands more are also missing and presumed dead under the rubble in Gaza, which is under “complete siege” by Israel.

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