WFP/Ali Jadallah. A displaced Palestinian family now lives in a makeshift camp in southern Gaza, without water, electricity or enough food.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk today expressed deep concern about the growing risk of famine in the Gaza Strip. He urged Israel to take immediate action to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian food to meet the needs of civilians.
The international humanitarian community's comprehensive classification of food security phases, released on Thursday, said that besieged Gaza will experience catastrophic levels of hunger amid ongoing fighting. If the current intense conflict and restrictions on humanitarian assistance continue, famine is likely to occur within the next six months.
The entire population of Gaza (about 2.2 million people) is already living in crisis or worse, acute food insecurity. The report stresses that while Gaza has not yet "crossed the threshold of famine", humanitarian agencies are particularly concerned about malnutrition among children, pregnant and lactating women and the elderly.
In response, Türk said that hunger must not be a means or an end in war, and urged Israel to take immediate action to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian food to meet the needs of civilians.
▌UNRWA: Women are in dire need of hygiene products
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has warned that nearly 700,000 women and adolescent girls have little access to menstrual hygiene products, underscoring the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
UNRWA spokeswoman Tamara Alrifai said: "While UNRWA distributed sanitary napkins to these women, it was a drop in the bucket compared to the huge demand in Gaza, as with everything else we distributed. ”
▌OCHA: The conflict continues
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs continued to report that Israel carried out heavy bombardment of large parts of the Gaza Strip from land, sea and air on Thursday, and that Hamas also fired rockets at Israel.
With the exception of Rafah, ground operations and fighting continue in much of Gaza, with Palestinian armed groups continuing to fire rockets into Israel, the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said.