MANHATTAN: Days from the beginning of the holy month of Ramazan and with no ceasefire agreement in sight for Gaza, UN humanitarian officials reiterated deep concerns Thursday (7th March, 2024) that a growing number of children are dying of starvation.
A maximum of 150 lorries have been reaching Gaza every day. In the north, one in six children under the age of two is acutely malnourished and media reports have indicated that at least 20 youngsters have died from starvation in recent days, including a 14-day-old baby.
On Thursday, the UN Security Council was holding consultations on the situation behind closed doors at which Senior Humanitarian and Reconstruction Coordinator for Gaza, Sigrid Kaag, was expected to brief.
Well over 30,000 people, mostly women and children, have now been killed amid intense daily Israeli bombardment across Gaza since 7th Oct.
Negotiations initially in Qatar and this week in Cairo for a ceasefire linked to the release of the remaining approximately 100 hostages and far greater aid access throughout Gaza have so far not resulted in an end to the violence nor alleviated the humanitarian catastrophe.
UN aid teams on Thursday planned to explore the feasibility of using an Israeli military access road to northern Gaza to transport a minimum of 300 aid trucks every day.
The UN’s top aid official in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), Jamie McGoldrick, announced the aid convoy initiative on Wednesday.
He explained that it would enable trucks laden with humanitarian supplies to reach vulnerable people in the north of the enclave without having to negotiate obstructions and insecurity.
“We have to use this military road, this fenced road at the side, on the eastern side (of Gaza), to allow material to come from the crossing point at Kerem Shalom and Rafah, all the way up to the north and into the north, and to a crossing point there,” said McGoldrick,
Humanitarian Coordinator Ad Interim for the OPT, in a video briefing to reporters in New York. “We have to get up at least 300 trucks a day. Right now, we’re lucky if we are getting about 150.”
Ahead of the start of Ramazan on Sunday, the veteran humanitarian official noted that relief supplies entering Gaza in February had fallen by half compared with January, despite the “enormous and growing needs for over 2.3 million people living in appalling conditions”.
Newspakistan.tv
