This Tuesday, UN humanitarian professionals warned that a growing number of children are “on the brink of death” due to acute famine in Gaza, caused by five months of intense Israeli bombing and constant denials of access to aid.
Speaking to journalists in Geneva, WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris said medical teams are increasingly witnessing the effects of famine, including newborn babies who simply die “because they have very low birth weight.”
Causes of hunger
In response to the findings of the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, IPC, report on Gaza, published on Monday, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk stated that the famine is the result of “extensive food restrictions.” Israel to the entry and distribution of food, humanitarian aid and commercial goods.”
Turk noted that “in the face of hunger” families have now resorted to sending children from the north to southern Gaza “unaccompanied, in the desperate hope that they will find food and support among the 1.8 million people already displaced there.”
The high commissioner’s comments about the worsening hunger crisis in Gaza echoed warnings from the UN secretary-general on Monday. António Guterres reiterated his appeal to the Israeli authorities “to guarantee complete and unrestricted access to humanitarian goods throughout Gaza”.
Speaking to journalists in New York, the United Nations leader called on the international community “to fully support” the UN’s humanitarian efforts.
He stated that “Palestinians in Gaza are enduring horrific levels of hunger and suffering”, describing the IPC report as a “terrible demonstration of conditions on the ground for civilians”.
A girl stands in front of her shelter in the city of Rafah
Malnutrition Stabilization Centers
The WHO said medical teams working in the war-torn enclave have been receiving an increasing number of dangerously underweight pregnant women.
According to Margaret Harris, Gaza was a territory “where the health system worked well” and malnutrition was “non-existent”.
To help the most vulnerable inhabitants and save lives, WHO’s goal is to establish emergency malnutrition stabilization centers. But the agency’s expert said progress has been hampered by a lack of security and continued obstacles to accessing aid.
Margaret Harris explained that a center has already been set up in the south, but the attempt to do the same in the north is limited by the difficulty of taking materials without guarantees of access and security.
She reinforced calls for aid to be allowed into Gaza on an “enormous scale” and stated that “the desperation is so great” that when this happens, relief supplies “will be absorbed like sand”.
Huge job losses
Highlighting the terrible impact of the war in Gaza and beyond, a new report from the International Labor Organization, ILO, indicated the loss of 507,000 jobs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
ILO spokesperson Zeina Awad said the situation has already had a “devastating impact” on the regional economy, adding that if the conflict continues, the unemployment rate in the territory is expected to reach 57%.
The new data, provided by the ILO and the Palestinian Central Statistics Office, estimates that as of January 31, around 201,000 jobs were lost in the Gaza Strip, representing around two-thirds of total employment in the enclave.
Additionally, 306,000 jobs, more than a third of total employment, were also lost in the West Bank, where economic conditions were severely affected.
