Gaza - New York: Europe and the Arabs
The Executive Director of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, said that two million people are facing severe hunger across the Gaza Strip, and that the Strip received only a third of the trucks needed by the program last month.
On the X website, McCain said that northern Gaza is the most affected and that only two trucks reached thousands of hungry people. She stressed the need to ensure safe and unhindered humanitarian access on the scale required to save lives and avoid famine.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said that the new Israeli evacuation orders in Gaza have once again led to large-scale displacement, leaving civilians vulnerable to hostilities and deprived of basic services. According to the UN daily news bulletin, a copy of which we received on Tuesday morning,
Stephane Dujarric, the UN spokesman, said that the Israeli authorities issued two evacuation orders on Friday and Saturday, affecting parts of Gaza City and the northern Gaza Governorate - an area extending for more than five and a half kilometers - in addition to 4.3 kilometers in the Deir al-Balah area, in the center of the Strip.
The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) said more than 8,500 infants had received formula milk through UNRWA, but warned that supplies were far from sufficient. It said one of its few functioning health centres had only six boxes left to distribute – the first in three months.
With more than 200,000 people relying on the centre for primary health care, the severe shortage of supplies is putting many, including children and infants, at great risk.
Despite the severe shortage of resources and the huge needs, UNRWA said it was continuing to provide support to the most vulnerable. At the UNRWA Rehabilitation Centre for Visually Impaired Children in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza, children received winter clothes and hygiene kits to help them cope with the extremely harsh winter conditions.
The agency stressed that immediate assistance and a ceasefire now are vital to save lives.