News / Palestine

Time for humanity to prevail, UNRWA says of Gaza catastrophe

Tuesday, 12 March 2024 6:47 PM [ Last Update: Tuesday, 12 March 2024 7:07 PM ]

The picture shows the damaged headquarters of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Gaza City on February 15, 2024. (Photo by AFP)

The UN agency for Palestinian refugees says the situation in the besieged Gaza Strip is “catastrophic” and deteriorating “by the minute.”

“We call the world to not look away. It’s time for humanity to prevail,” the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said in a post on X.

The situation in #Gaza is catastrophic and deteriorates by the minute.@OCHA reports that 25 people in north #Gaza have died of malnutrition and dehydration. 21 of them were children.

We call on the world not to look away. It's time for humanity to prevail.#Ceasefire now. pic.twitter.com/oFJ9kPJgLX
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 12, 2024

Reports of hunger and malnutrition are rife. By depriving Gaza of food and water, Israel's assault is literally starving children to death across the besieged Palestinian territory.

Aid agencies have sounded the alarm over child starvation in Gaza, which is witnessing the fastest deterioration in a population's nutrition status on record.

On social media, images from northern Gaza show kids scavenging through torn bags and on the ground to find grains for making soup. Videos show a severely dehydrated and malnourished boy crying.

Children in northern Gaza scavenge through torn bags and on the ground to find grains for making soup, amid severe starvation caused by the Israeli blockade. pic.twitter.com/rrlzRhCVcC
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) February 25, 2024

UNRWA ‘backbone’ of Gaza humanitarian response

Separately, UNRWA said in a statement there is no other agency that is able to respond to the humanitarian needs in Gaza at UNRWA’s scale.

“We are the backbone of the humanitarian response,” the statement read.

“With over two million people in dire need of life-saving humanitarian assistance in Gaza, no other agency is able to respond at the same scale.”

The UNRWA runs more than 150 shelters and has at least 3,000 working staff in Gaza.

🔹@UNRWA runs over 150 shelters & has +3,000 working staff in📍#Gaza - we are the backbone of the humanitarian response.

🔹With over 2 million people in dire need of life-saving humanitarian assistance in #Gaza, no other Agency is able to respond at the same scale.#Verified
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) March 12, 2024

Earlier this year, the regime claimed that 12 employees of the UNRWA were involved in the Hamas-led retaliatory attack on the occupied territories on October 7, 2023.

The regime’s allegations against UNRWA, which were not publicly backed by evidence, have prompted more than 10 donor countries, including the United States, Germany, the European Union, Canada, and Japan, to suspend financial support.

The UN agency says some of its employees were tortured by the occupying regime to falsely admit that the agency had ties with Hamas and its retaliatory operation in October last year.

Some of the countries that had previously stopped funding UNRWA, such as Sweden and Canada, recently announced their decision to resume funding the UN agency.

UNRWA has no replacement in Gaza, UN warns amid funding cuts

Several Western countries have suspended the funding over unproven allegations by Israel against the agency.

The UN aid coordinator for the Gaza Strip says no organization could ever replace the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees due to UNRWA’s “tremendous capacity” in handling the situation in the besieged Palestinian territory.

The death toll from Israel’s savagery in Gaza since October 7 stands at nearly 31,200, most of them women and children.

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