300,000 Palestinians on the Brink of Famine: UNWRA

On Thursday, Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner of the United Nations Palestinian Refugee Agency (UNRWA), warned that at least 300,000 people in the northern Gaza Strip are on the brink of famine as a result of Israel's siege against the Palestinian territory.

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Currently, the survival of Palestinians depends on the help that United Nations agencies and international cooperation can offer them.

Since January 23, however, the Israeli army has not allowed UNRWA to deliver aid and food to the north of the Palestinian territory, Lazzarini denounced, adding that "since the beginning of the year, half of UNRWA's requests for relief missions aid to the north were rejected.

The northern area includes cities such as Gaza, Jabalia, Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahia, which have been severely destroyed by Israeli fighting and bombing.

Since October 2023, the inhabitants of those cities have been moving towards the southern area of Rafah, where over a million Palestinian civilians are crowded.

Currently, an average of 200 trucks with food and other basic goods enter daily to supply the population of Gaza. This amount, however, is clearly insufficient to avoid a huge crisis.

On Friday, the Islamic Resistance Movement (HAMAS) specified that the immediate entry of 1,000 trucks per day is needed to avoid a humanitarian catastrophe in northern Gaza, where some 800,000 Palestinians still remain trapped.

So far, Israeli occupation forces have killed over 28,000 Gazans and injured around 67,500 people. The death toll could be much higher given that there are still an unknown number of bodies unrescued under the rubble.