UNITED NATIONS, Jul 29: As starvation worsens in war-torn Gaza, UN agencies repeated warnings on Monday that Israel\u2019s decision to support a \u201cone-week scale-up\u201d of aid is far from enough to reverse deadly malnutrition rates in the enclave.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The development comes as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that conflict-driven hunger is spreading \u201cfrom Gaza to Sudan and beyond\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,\u201d he said in a video message to the UN Food Systems Summit Stocktake in Addis Ababa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, citing reports Monday that \u201cmore children died today of hunger\u201d, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said that it hoped to receive permission to bring in thousands of trucks loaded with food, medicine and hygiene supplies that Israel has blocked from entering Gaza for months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are currently in Jordan and Egypt waiting for the green light,\u201d the UN agency explained, adding that \u201cat least 500\/600 trucks\u201d are needed every day to prevent more people from starving. More than 100 people have now starved to death in Gaza, UNRWA said, while local health authority reports indicate more than 40 deaths from malnutrition this month alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOpening all the crossings and flooding Gaza with assistance is the only way to avert further deepening of starvation among the people of Gaza,\u201d the UN agency maintained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Its comments follow a major policy shift over the weekend when the Israeli army announced the establishment of a daily humanitarian pause from 10am to 8pm local time, in areas where its troops are not active. Child malnutrition has been on the rise in Gaza, particularly since 2 March when Israel imposed a near-total blockade, UNWRA has said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to a map supplied by the Israeli authorities, the humanitarian pause applies to a thin strip of Gaza encompassing Al-Mawasi in the southwest, Deir Al-Balah in the centre and Gaza City in the north.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Sunday, a convoy of more than 100 trucks carrying aid supplies reportedly entered the Strip via the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While welcoming that development, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, highlighted the staggering scale of needs on the ground in Gaza.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One in three people \u201chasn\u2019t eaten for days\u201d, insisted Tom Fletcher, UN Emergency Relief Chief and head of OCHA. \u201cPeople are being shot just trying to get food to feed their families. Children are wasting away. This is what we face on the ground right now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In his statement, Fletcher acknowledged \u201cprogress\u201d on the aid front, but stressed that \u201cvast amounts of aid are needed to stave off famine and a catastrophic health crisis\u201d. He said that UN agencies and the humanitarian community remain mobilized \u201cto save as many lives as we can\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition to Israel\u2019s temporary boost for increased aid in Gaza, customs restrictions on food, medicine and fuel from Egypt have reportedly been lifted. Secure routes for UN humanitarian convoys have also been designated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe need sustained action, and fast, including quicker clearances for convoys going to the crossing and dispatching into Gaza,\u201d Mr. Fletcher said, underscoring the need for \u201cmultiple trips per day to the crossings so we and our partners can pick up the cargo; safe routes that avoid crowded areas; and no more attacks on people gathering for food\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile in New York, France and Saudi Arabia on Monday launched a new diplomatic initiative to push for a two-State solution between Israel and the Palestinian people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three-day conference began as President Emmanuel Macron announced that France will formally recognize Palestine in September, the first of the G7 nations to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A UN General Assembly resolution from 1947 established the partition of Palestine \u2013 then under British mandate \u2013 into two independent states, one Jewish and the other Arab. The State of Israel was declared in 1948.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS, Jul 29: As starvation worsens in war-torn Gaza, UN agencies repeated warnings on Monday that Israel\u2019s decision to support a \u201cone-week scale-up\u201d of aid is far from enough to reverse deadly malnutrition rates in the enclave. The development comes as UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres cautioned that conflict-driven hunger is spreading \u201cfrom Gaza to […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10238"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10238\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10238"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10238"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10238"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}