UNITED NATIONS: UN humanitarian officials warned on Wednesday that Israel’s ongoing relentless bombardments, likely resulting in starvation and despair, continue to emerge from Gaza, where many basic daily staples now “barely exist.”
In an alert, the World Food Programme (WFP) described markets as being “in decay” across the enclave. “Fresh foods, eggs, and meat barely exist, and the prices of any food available have reached record highs,” the UN agency said on X, just days after UN-backed hunger experts warned that famine thresholds may have already been crossed in northern Gaza, or will be soon.
“So far in November, every attempt by the UN to access besieged areas of the northern Gaza governorate with food and health missions to support tens of thousands of people remaining there has either been denied or impeded,” the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) noted in its latest update.
This development comes amid continuing Israeli military strikes in northern Gaza, which persisted into Wednesday. UN aid teams have reiterated how people fleeing attacks and evacuation orders in Beit Hanoun for Gaza City are now sheltering in unsafe schools that could collapse at any time.
In October alone, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recorded 64 attacks on schools, “the majority of which were sheltering displaced people.”
According to OCHA, up to 130,000 people have been displaced from northern Gaza amid intensifying Israeli attacks targeting residential buildings and repeated evacuation orders.
UN humanitarian officials have told UN News, a media website, that dogs have been seen setting upon dead bodies left lying in open ground, while healthcare access across Gaza remains precarious. The UN reproductive health agency (UNFPA), together with its partners, has pointed to a recent rise in premature births and maternal deaths.
“Over 155,000 expectant and new mothers are caught in a relentless struggle marked by exhaustion, trauma, and severe hunger,” UNFPA said.
This situation is exacerbated by the fact that fewer than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functional, along with just 47 out of 133 primary health centres, according to the UN World Health Organization (WHO).
Since October 7, 2023, more than 43,469 Palestinians, mostly children and women, people have been killed in Gaza. At least 10,000 remain trapped under the rubble of their homes and shelters, WHO said.
Citing Lebanese authorities, OCHA’s latest update on the emergency added that a total of almost 3,300 people have been killed, including 203 children and 644 women, with 14,222 injured in Lebanon since October 8, 2023.
“At least one child was killed and 10 children were injured every day in Lebanon in October 2023 alone,” the UN agency continued, highlighting the UN children’s agency (UNICEF)’s appeal to the warring parties “to meet their obligations under international humanitarian law and protect children.”
Despite such appeals, Israeli strikes have continued across Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah fighters, along with strikes on Israel by the Lebanon-based group. The violence continues to “claim lives, uproot communities, and destroy homes and critical infrastructure,” OCHA said.
“Intensified Israeli airstrikes have had major impacts in South Lebanon, Nabatieh, Bekaa, Baalbeck-Hermel, and Mount Lebanon governorates.”
An airstrike on a residential building in Lebanon’s northern Akkar on November 11 reportedly killed at least 18 people and injured 14, it added, citing Lebanese authorities. “On November 10, a strike on a home sheltering displaced family in Aalmat town in Jbeil, Mount Lebanon Governorate, killed at least 23 people, including seven children.”
In previous weeks, residential buildings hosting displaced people have been “repeatedly targeted,” UN humanitarian coordinators insisted, citing a strike in Aito-Zgharta, north Lebanon, and in Barja-Chouf, Mount Lebanon, “which together claimed over 40 lives.”
The UN peacekeeping mission that monitors the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, UNIFIL, has also reported “numerous violations” since the escalation of violence in late September. “This includes more than half a dozen direct attacks on peacekeepers,” OCHA reported.
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The most recent incident occurred on November 8, when two Israeli army excavators and one bulldozer reportedly destroyed part of a fence and a concrete structure in a UNIFIL position in Ras Naqoura.
In addition to attacks on areas sheltering civilians, airstrikes on health facilities and workers continue to be recorded by WHO, interrupting operations in 127 health facilities and eight hospitals, reducing the functionality of nine hospitals. In the first week of November, there were attacks on health services, resulting in two deaths and seven injuries among health workers, according to WHO.
Since mid-September 2023, the surveillance system for attacks on healthcare (SSA) reported 44 attacks on healthcare, resulting in 63 injuries and 91 deaths. This brings the total number of attacks on healthcare to 103 incidents, resulting in 123 injuries and 145 deaths since October 8, 2023. – APP
