UN efforts are vital for Palestinians in Gaza as Israel has maintained a total blockade on food and aid for the fourth consecutive week
News Desk - The Cradle
In a statement Monday, UN Secretary-General spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said that “based on the information currently available,” the strikes on the UN guesthouse “were caused by an Israeli tank.”
As a result, Dujarric said the UN “has made taken the difficult decision to reduce the Organization’s footprint in Gaza, even as humanitarian needs soar.”
He said the UN “is not leaving Gaza” but would withdraw one-third of its approximately 100 international staffers from the strip.
In addition, five staff members of the United Nations Palestinian relief agency, UNRWA, were killed last week, the agency's Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said on Thursday.
“In the past few days, another five UNRWA staff have been confirmed killed, bringing the death toll to 284. They were teachers, doctors, and nurses: serving the most vulnerable,” he said in a statement posted on X.
Nearly four weeks ago, Israel cut off all food, fuel, medicine, and other supplies to Gaza to collectively punish Palestinian civilians amid ceasefire negotiations with Hamas.
Last week, Israel unilaterally ended the ceasefire reached in January, launching renewed bombardments that killed 400 Palestinians in just one day. On Sunday, Palestinian officials said the official toll of those killed by Israel since the start of the war in October 2023 had now surpassed 50,000. Thousands more are missing and considered likely dead under the rubble from Israeli bombing.
The ongoing block and renewed bombing have caused malnutrition to spread, The Guardian reported on Monday.
"There has been no sign that Israel will open entry points to allow essential aid to flow or ease the new offensive in Gaza,” the British newspaper wrote.
“Aid officials said distributions would be reduced gradually if possible, while the provision of community kitchens that feed about a million people would get progressively more difficult,” the paper added.
“At some point, we will just run out, and things will get desperate … but even if we had supplies, it would be very difficult to distribute them because the security environment means we can’t operate,” said one UN official based in Gaza.
Six out of 23 bakeries operated by the UN World Food Programme have already closed due to a lack of cooking gas, while prices for food in shops and markets have skyrocketed.
The price of potatoes has increased by five times since Israel reimposed the blockade four weeks ago. Prices of cooking gas cylinders have increased by four times.
“It is very clear that people are underweight. The population is very young, and children need nutritious food,” said Khamis Elessi, a senior consultant doctor in Gaza City.
Feroze Sidhwa, a US-based volunteer emergency doctor in Gaza, said that Palestinians have suffered from over 18 months of Israel’s on-and-off-again siege blockade.
“We see very clearly that everyone has lost weight … I can see my surgical incisions are not healing well,” he said.
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