GENEVA: A spokesman for the United Nations humanitarian agency OCHA has warned that 100 percent of the population of Gaza is at risk of famine.
“Gaza is the hungriest place on earth,” said OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke. “It’s the only defined area, a country or defined territory within a country, where you have the entire population at risk of famine. 100 percent of the population at risk of famine,” he added.
At a press briefing in Geneva, Jens Laerke outlined the challenges the United Nations continues to face in delivering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip.
He noted that while Israel has recently eased the total aid blockade it imposed on March 2—an action that had caused critical shortages of food and medicine—significant obstacles remain.
Since the partial lifting of the blockade, Israel has authorized the entry of 900 humanitarian aid trucks into Gaza, he said.
Laerke said the mission to deliver aid was “in an operational strait-jacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history.”
Once truckloads enter Gaza, they are often “swarmed by desperate people”, he said.
Israel intensifies attacks on northern Gaza
Israel has issued new forced displacement orders for residents in northern Gaza, prompting families to wait until sunrise to begin fleeing as ground operations in the area intensify.
This escalation comes amid a US brokered ceasefire proposal, which includes a 60-day truce and a phased prisoner exchange involving Israeli captives.
While Hamas has yet to formally respond, the intensification of Israel’s military campaign is widely viewed as an attempt to pressure the group into accepting the deal.
New illegal settler outposts in Occupied West Bank
Israeli settlers have established new unauthorised outposts in the Umm al-Quba plain and the Balata area, located north of the town of Bruqin, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.
In a separate development, Wafa reported that settlers from the illegal Israeli settlements of Telem and Adora, northwest of Hebron, staged a provocative march along Route 35, reaching the entrance of the town of Idhna, west of Hebron.
The march followed actions by the Israeli army, which blocked all side roads leading to the town with earth mounds, severely restricting the movement of Palestinian residents.
Gaza death toll exceeds 54,200
At least 54,249 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s genocidal war since October 2023, the Health Ministry has said.
A ministry statement said that 67 bodies were brought to hospitals in the last 24 hours. It said the death toll rose after the names of 98 dead Palestinians were added to the registry after their data had been completed.
The ministry said 184 people were also injured, taking the number of injuries to 123,492 in the Israeli onslaught.
“Many victims are still trapped under the rubble and on the roads as rescuers are unable to reach them,” it added.
