Gaza: World must act with urgency to save starving population

Family travels through Rafah, southern Gaza Strip in vehicle packed with their belongings. Photo: UNICEF/UNI724643/El Baba

Source: OCHA

Top UN officials issued a statement on Monday urging the international community to act with urgency to save Palestinians in Gaza.

Across Gaza, Israeli attacks continue unabated, causing systematic, large-scale civilian casualties. People - including many children - are being killed, injured or maimed for life.

Humanitarian aid has not entered Gaza for a month. 2.1 million people are besieged as food, medicine and fuel pile up at blocked crossings.

The UN continues to distribute what remains inside Gaza to those most in need, but the humanitarian community cannot sustain this for much longer unless the crossings are opened for supplies essential for people's survival.

The full statement by heads of OCHA, UNICEF, UNOPS, UNRWA, WFP, WHO and IOM follows:

For over a month, no commercial or humanitarian supplies have entered Gaza.

More than 2.1 million people are trapped, bombed and starved again, while, at crossing points, food, medicine, fuel and shelter supplies are piling up, and vital equipment is stuck.

Over 1,000 children have reportedly been killed or injured in just the first week after the breakdown of the ceasefire, the highest one-week death toll among children in Gaza in the past year.

Just a few days ago, the 25 bakeries supported by the World Food Programme during the ceasefire had to close due to flour and cooking gas shortages.

The partially functional health system is overwhelmed. Essential medical and trauma supplies are rapidly running out, threatening to reverse hard-won progress in keeping the health system operational.

The latest ceasefire allowed us to achieve in 60 days what bombs, obstruction and lootings prevented us from doing in 470 days of war: life-saving supplies reaching nearly every part of Gaza.

While this offered a short respite, assertions that there is now enough food to feed all Palestinians in Gaza are far from the reality on the ground, and commodities are running extremely low.

We are witnessing acts of war in Gaza that show an utter disregard for human life.

New Israeli displacement orders have forced hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to flee yet again, with no safe place to go.

No one is safe. At least 408 humanitarian workers, including over 280 from UNRWA, have been killed since October 2023.

With the tightened Israeli blockade on Gaza now in its second month, we appeal to world leaders to act - firmly, urgently and decisively - to ensure the basic principles of international humanitarian law are upheld.

Protect civilians. Facilitate aid. Release hostages. Renew a ceasefire.

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator

Catherine Russell, Executive Director, UNICEF

Jorge Moreira da Silva, Executive Director, UNOPS

Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General, UNRWA

Cindy McCain, Executive Director, WFP

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, WHO

Amy Pope, Director General, IOM