Geneva - Saba:
Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini warned on Thursday of the deepening humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip, saying the population is caught in a dire state between life and death.
In a post on “X” platform, Lazzarini stated: “The people in Gaza are neither alive nor dead — they are walking corpses. That’s what a colleague in Gaza told me this morning.”
He noted that one in every five children in Gaza City is suffering from malnutrition, according to the latest UNRWA reports, with cases rising daily.
“When malnutrition among children increases,” he added, “coping mechanisms collapse, access to food and care disappears, and the specter of famine creeps in silently.”
Lazzarini explained that most of the children seen by UNRWA teams on the ground are severely emaciated and extremely weak, and are at risk of dying if they do not receive urgent medical treatment. According to reports, more than 100 people — the majority of them children — have already died from starvation.
The crisis, he said, spares no one — not even those trying to save lives. UNRWA healthcare workers are reportedly surviving on a single small meal per day, often consisting only of lentils.
“Some of them are collapsing from hunger while on duty,” Lazzarini warned. “When those caring for others have nothing to eat, the entire humanitarian system falls apart.”
He reported that families in Gaza are so hungry they can no longer care for their children, and that patients arriving at UNRWA clinics lack the energy, food, and means to follow medical advice.
“Families can no longer cope,” he said. “They are breaking down and unable to survive. Their very existence is at risk.”
In a dire appeal to the international community, Lazzarini said: “Allow humanitarian partners to deliver aid to Gaza without restrictions or interruptions. UNRWA has 6,000 trucks loaded with food and medical supplies ready in Jordan and Egypt.”
Since October 7, 2023, and with U.S. and European backing, the Israeli occupation army has been committing acts of genocide in Gaza. These crimes have so far led to the martyrdom of 59,587 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, and injured 143,498 others — in figures that remain incomplete, as thousands of victims are still trapped under rubble or lying in streets inaccessible to emergency crews.