Half of Gaza’s population ‘starving’, food relief a ‘drop in the ocean’ of need: WFP
The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has said half of Gaza’s population – estimated to be some 2.3 million people – are starving.
While WFP is providing food assistance to more than 1 million people in Gaza each month, the need was so acute that such efforts amount to “a drop in the ocean of needs”, the agency said in a post on social media.
The UN’s food relief agency also said a humanitarian ceasefire was needed immediately.
‘We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation’: WFP
Gaza could surpass famine thresholds of food insecurity, malnutrition and mortality in six weeks, said the Geneva director of the World Food Programme (WFP), Gian Carlo Cirri.
“We are getting closer by the day to a famine situation,” Cirri said, speaking at the launch of a report by the Global Network Against Food Crises, an alliance that includes UN agencies, the World Bank, the EU and US.
A UN-backed report published in March said famine was imminent and likely to occur by May in northern Gaza and could spread across the Strip by July. “As for Gaza, the conflict makes it difficult and sometimes impossible to reach affected people,” Cirri said.
“We need to scale up massively our assistance … But under the current conditions, I’m afraid the situation will further deteriorate.”
Displaced Palestinians living in makeshift shelters light a fire to boil a kettle
Hepatitis, meningitis spreading in Gaza: Health Ministry
Gaza’s Health Ministry warns that severe infections are rapidly spreading in the enclave because of unsanitary conditions, including the overflow of sewage into the streets and a lack of drinking water.
The ministry specifically highlighted an alarming rise in cases of hepatitis and meningitis. It appealed for urgent support from “all relevant national, international and humanitarian institutions”.
Doctors and aid workers have warned of epidemics, given the dire humanitarian situation and with the besieged enclave’s health system on its knees.
Lack of medication endangering lives of patients with blood diseases
The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights (PCHR) has said that over 300 people in Gaza are suffering from the blood disorder thalassemia, including 80 children. Because they lack the necessary medications, they are at risk of developing hemochromatosis, an iron overload in body organs.
PCHR noted that 18 thalassemia patients have already died since the war on the besieged coastal enclave began and another 10 are in critical condition.
The lack of medication, therapeutic milk formulas and vitamins is also endangering the lives of patients suffering from cystic fibrosis; 23 patients have died since October, and only six of about 20 critical patients referred for treatment abroad have so far been medically evacuated, added PCHR.
