UNRWA: Hunger Deepens in Gaza as Food Supplies Run Out
GAZA (Dispatches) – Food stocks have run out in the war-torn Gaza Strip, deepening hunger in the Palestinian enclave amid the Zionist regime’s destructive war, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Sunday.
“Hunger is deepening in Gaza,” UNRWA said in a statement.
“People, including many children, are hoping to get some food to survive during a warm meal distribution by charitable organizations.”
The refugee agency said that its flour supplies in the enclave have run out this week.
“Nearly 3,000 UNRWA trucks of lifesaving aid are ready to enter Gaza,” it said. “The siege must stop.”
UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said that Palestinian children in the blockaded Gaza are starving.
“Israel continues to block the entry of food and other basics,” he said. “A manmade and politically motivated starvation.”
“Calls to bring in supplies are going unheeded.”
The Palestinian group Hamas has condemned a recent U.S. decision to lift the immunity of the UNRWA, asserting that the move exposes Washington’s “blind bias” against Palestinians.
“The U.S. Justice Department’s decision to strip the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) of legal immunity embodies once again the American administration’s bias towards the Zionist occupation’s policies and its systematic attempts to liquidate UNRWA,” Hamas said in a statement.
The statement highlighted that UNRWA is a political and humanitarian symbol representing the Palestinian refugees’ right to relief and return to their home from which they were expelled.
The decision was made public in a legal document submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice to a federal court in New York on Thursday.
“The Hamas Movement strongly condemns this grave decision and demands the U.S. administration immediately reverse it,” the statement added.
“Hamas also urges the international community to reject it and highlight the importance of continuing to fund UNRWA and preserve its political and legal status as a UN body.”
Since March 2, the Zionist regime has kept Gaza’s crossings closed to food, medical, and humanitarian aid, deepening the humanitarian catastrophe, according to human rights, and international reports.
Nearly 51,500 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in a brutal onslaught by the Zionist regime since October 2023, most of them women and children.
Meanwhile, the Gaza Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Sunday that the Gaza economy has collapsed with prices of essential goods skyrocketing by 527% amid an Israeli blockade on the enclave.
“The (Israeli) occupation continues to prevent the entry of trucks of the private sector, causing almost a complete paralysis (of the economy),” the chamber said in a statement.
According to the statement, prices of essential goods and foodstuffs rose by 527% after the Zionist regime blocked the entry of supplies and humanitarian aid into the territory.
Gaza “is facing a catastrophic collapse of the economic system” due to the years-long Israeli blockade, the chamber said.
The territory has already been under a crippling Israeli siege since 2007, badly affecting livelihood in the strip.