Famine is "imminent" in northern Gaza, where no humanitarian group has been able to provide aid since January 23, the World Food Programme warned Tuesday, as Israel wages war on Palestinian militant group Hamas.The last allowed in was on January 23, according to the World Health Organization.
Global calls for a "humanitarian pause" in the Israel-Hamas war have gone unheeded, preventing anything more than a trickle of humanitarian aid from entering Israeli-besieged Gaza as shortages of food, fuel, drinking water and medicine worsen. Some 1.4 million people - more than half of the population, have fled their homes with nearly 700,000 sheltering in buildings run by the U.N. Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA), according to the U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA). Israel has called on civilians in north Gaza - the heart of Hamas' forces - to evacuate to the south for their own safety, though the south has also been hammered by Israeli air strikes that have killed and injured non-combatants.
With the war between Israel and Hamas raging, a UN humanitarian official urged the Security Council on Tuesday to "not lose focus" on Ukraine, especially as another brutal winter looms."While much international attention is rightly concentrated on the grave events in the Middle East, it is important that we do not lose focus on other crises," said Ramesh Rajasingham, director of coordination for the UN's humanitarian office, OCHA.
Speaking to the UN Security Council, Rajasingham said the humanit
The U.N. humanitarian office (OCHA) said early on Friday that more than 400,000 people had fled their homes in the Gaza Strip and 23 aid workers had been killed since the start of Israeli retaliatory strikes in response to a deadly Hamas incursion. The agency launched an appeal for nearly $294 million to help some 1.3 million people in Gaza and the West Bank, of which nearly half was programmed for food aid as supplies run out.