According to the UN, the conflict is to blame for more than 1 in 4 Palestinians in Gaza “starving

According to a study released on Thursday by the U.N. and other organizations, over half a million people in Gaza, or 25% of the population, are hungry as a result of Israel’s bombing and blockade of the region in retaliation for Hamas’ onslaught on October 7.

According to estimates in the article, the amount of hunger among the populace exceeded even the previous near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen. The danger of famine, according to the study, is “increasing each day,” and it attributes the hunger to the inadequate supply of assistance reaching Gaza.

The World Food Program’s head economist, Arif Husain, said, “It doesn’t get any worse.” “I have never seen anything like what is taking on in Gaza. and at this rate of pace.”
Israel claims to be nearing the end of its operation to drive Hamas terrorists out of northern Gaza, while months of conflict still remain in the southern region.

Nearly 20,000 Palestinians have died in the conflict that was started by Hamas’ murderous raid and hostage-taking in Israel on October 7. Over 80% of Gaza’s population, or 1.9 million people, have been forced from their homes; many of them are jammed into shelters run by the United Nations.

Gaza’s health system has collapsed as a result of the conflict. The World Health Organization reports that just nine of its thirty-six health facilities—all of which are in the south—are still partly operational. WHO humanitarian workers described “unbearable” circumstances at two hospitals in northern Gaza that they visited on Thursday:

Corpses are piled in the courtyard, bedridden patients with untreated wounds scream for water, and the few surviving physicians and nurses are without supplies.

Fighting and bombing resumed on Thursday, but it was difficult to establish specifics of the most recent bloodshed since Gaza’s internet and other connections were shut down for the second day in a row.

Members of the U.N. Security Council are drafting a resolution proposed by the Arabs calling for an end to hostilities so that more help may be delivered. Two times this week, the resolution’s vote has been rescheduled in an attempt to persuade the United States to back it or permit its passage after its rejection of an earlier cease-fire request.

The United Nations assessment released on Thursday highlighted the futility of weeks-long American attempts to guarantee that more money reached Palestinians. Israel cut off all supplies of gasoline, food, water, and medication into the region at the beginning of the conflict. It gave in to pressure from the United States and let some supplies pass through Egypt. However, according to U.N. organizations, barely 10% of Gaza’s food demands have been met for weeks.

Israel started allowing humanitarian assistance to reach Gaza via the Kerem Shalom border this past week. However, according to Juliette Touma, a spokesman for UNRWA, the organization that works with Palestinian refugees, an explosion that occurred on Thursday morning struck the Palestinian side of the bridge, forcing the United Nations to cease delivering supplies there.

The adjacent hospital claimed that at least four individuals had died. Although it was not immediately possible to determine what caused the explosion, Palestinian officials accused Israel.

According to U.N. authorities, the ongoing violence has made it difficult or impossible to deliver supplies to a large portion of the Gaza Strip.

According to a study published on Thursday by 23 U.N. and humanitarian organizations, 576,600 people in Gaza are at catastrophic, or starvation, levels, meaning that the whole population is experiencing a food crisis. “Almost everyone in Gaza is hungry,” said Husain, the economist with the World Food Program.

“People are very, very close to large outbreaks of disease because their immune systems have become so weak because they don’t have enough nourishment,” he said.

Israel has pledged to keep up the attack until it renders Hamas incapable of conducting military operations and releases a large number of captives taken by Palestinian terrorists during their October 7th rampage. That day, some 1,200 people—mostly civilians—were slain by Hamas and other terrorists, and about 240 more were taken prisoner.

Hamas demonstrated its continued military might on Thursday by launching a flurry of rockets toward central Israel. No immediate reports of injuries or damage were made.

The US has pushed for increased steps to safeguard civilians while also maintaining backing for Israel’s war. The United States wants Israel to switch to more focused attacks against Hamas commanders and tunnel systems.

In Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday that there had been over 19,600 deaths since the conflict began. It does not discriminate between fatalities of combatants and civilians.

The WHO sent supplies to the Ahli and Shifa hospitals on Wednesday in the northern Gaza region, where Israeli forces had destroyed large areas of the city in the course of battling Hamas terrorists.

In recent weeks, Israeli police have stormed several northern health institutions, taking detainees for questioning and ejecting others. According to U.N. and health experts, some hospitals have patients who cannot be evacuated and skeletal personnel who are limited to providing first assistance. Sean Casey, who was part of the WHO delegation that visited the two hospitals on Wednesday, described Ahli Hospital as “a place where people are waiting to die.”

He added that around 80 patients and five surviving physicians and nurses were still in Ahli.

He claimed that all of the hospital’s structures are destroyed, with the exception of the orthopedics ward and the chapel located on the premises, where patients are being housed.

The sight inside the chapel was “an unbearable scene,” he claimed. Infections plagued patients who had suffered severe injuries. Amputations had been performed on others. “Patients were crying out in pain but were also crying out for us to give them water,” stated the doctor.

According to Israel’s military, the ground battle in Gaza has claimed the lives of 137 of its troops. Israel claims, without presenting any proof, to have killed some 7,000 terrorists. It accuses Hamas of using civilians as human shields while waging war in residential areas, which explains the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza.