UNRWA

“People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive — they are walking corpses.” One in five children in #Gaza City is malnourished. Most are weak, emaciated, at risk of dying. UNRWA teams are treating them while starving themselves — surviving on one small meal a day.

“We passed the threshold of concern long ago — it’s been 650 days of atrocities,” UNRWA Juliette Touma tells CGTN. A #ceasefire in #Gaza is long overdue. It’s a win-win: it would allow aid in, support our exhausted Palestinian colleagues, and help secure the release of hostages.

" 'People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses': a colleague in #Gaza told me this morning. Meanwhile, according to UNRWA latest findings: one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day. When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold. Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak and at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need. More than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger. This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave. UNRWA frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all. They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work. When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing. Parents are too hungry to care for their children. Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice. Families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened. Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted and uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza. We, at UNRWA, have the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food & medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt." —UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini

#Gaza: People are being starved, while a few kilometers away supermarkets are loaded with food. UNRWA has thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries, loaded with food and medicines. We are just waiting for the green light. Lift the siege and let aid in at scale.

“We need look no further than the horror show in Gaza —with a level of death and destruction without parallel in recent times,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres told the Security Council. In #Gaza, malnutrition is soaring. Starvation is at the door. UN facilities have been struck despite their coordinates being shared. The UN system is being denied space, safety, and the conditions to save lives.

“Where else in the world has this happened? #Gaza: starving and exhausted, medical and humanitarian workers are fainting while on duty. Our UNRWA staff are struggling to find food yet continue to work. How much longer until words turn into action? A ceasefire and a standard and at scale flow of aid under the coordination of the United Nations NOW!” —UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini #CeasefireNow

👂Listen to UNRWA’s Rida from inside #Gaza describe the horrors she has witnessed - from Israeli Forces' bombardments, seeing colleagues being killed, and now the lack of food. She’s one of the many determined and committed UNRWA colleagues trying to help the thousands of Palestine Refugees who are forcibly displaced. “Sometimes you find no words to say to the people”.

#Gaza: people are struggling to find the most basic items—soap, sanitary pads, diapers. Meanwhile, thousands of hygiene kits are packed and ready in UNRWA warehouses in Jordan and Egypt, just waiting for the green light. Open the gates. Let aid in.

“Gaza is hell on earth. Our own staff are fainting on duty from hunger and exhaustion,” says UNRWA Juliette Touma to BBC News. During the ceasefire, 500–600 trucks a day entered #Gaza with aid from the UN, including UNRWA. That’s what prevented famine before. That system must be restored.

People in #Gaza, including UNRWA staff, are fainting due to starvation and severe hunger. People including children are dying from severe malnutrition. People are being starved. UNRWA alone has thousands of trucks in neighbouring countries waiting to enter Gaza – banned by Israeli Authorities from entering since March. The siege must be lifted now to allow our lifesaving humanitarian aid in.