UNICEF (United Nations Children’s Fund) warned on Sunday that children in Palestine are facing ‘extremely alarming’ conditions, living in ‘intense fear and anxiety,’ and suffering from the consequences of being deprived of humanitarian aid and protection.
This statement came from Edward Peppard, UNICEF’s Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, following a four-day field visit to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Peppard said that the situation in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, is ‘extremely alarming, as nearly all of the 2.4 million children are affected in one way or another.’
He added: ‘Some children live in intense fear and anxiety, while others face real consequences from being deprived of humanitarian aid and protection, or are displaced, facing destruction, or even death. They must be protected.’
It is ‘urgent’ to allow at least some water and electricity to reach the enclave in order to save children’s lives, said UNICEF regional director Edouard Beigbeder from Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
The desalination plant in Gaza, which was powered by an Israeli electricity line, as been cut in the past few days – that is how Israeli forces have reduced the amount of drinking water distributed to Palestinians.
The desalination plant was producing 17,000 cubic metres (17 million litres) of water. After the power cut, only 2,000 cubic metres (two million litres) is being produced.
It is not only the water. It has been 16 days since any aid truck has entered Gaza. No health supplies, medicine, fuel or cooking gas have entered. This has forced people to queue up again for water, bakeries, food distribution points and community kitchens.
What is available in the market is very little, and prices are skyrocketing, with most people even unable to purchase what is available. UN officials have been warning that the situation is catastrophic.
The operator of ten charity food kitchens and other humanitarian services in the Gaza Strip says only two food distribution centres are now open after Israel’s blockage of all humanitarian goods.
‘We had 80 pots every day that we were serving to people. Now we’re working on about 20,’ Omar Abuhammad, coordinator with the Heroic Hearts organisation, said.
He said that before Israel imposed the blockade, the kitchens were providing food for about 40,000 people in central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah. Now, just 10,000 Palestinians are receiving meals.
‘As the main source of food for them, we no longer have the ability to serve them,’ Abuhammad said.
Life-saving charity kitchens in Gaza continue to wind down services as essentials such as food, potable water, and cooking gas disappear because of Israel’s total blockade on humanitarian relief.
‘I used to rely on this simple community kitchen for food, but now even they are struggling to feed us,’ said Om Mahmoud, a displaced Palestinian woman in Deir el-Balah.
‘My children are crying at home from hunger and I have nothing to give them. I can’t afford to buy what we need. There’s simply no way to survive.’
Charities that have been feeding thousands of people are being forced to close as Israel’s complete blockade on Gaza continues.
Those still able to operate are winding down services, as essentials like cooking gas, water and other items are no longer available.
The markets are running out of products, and much of what little is available is now unaffordable.
Community kitchens, once feeding thousands, are now fighting their own battle against time, scarcity, and worsening starvation.
Mohammed Abu Hamza, owner of a local kitchen, said: ‘Community kitchens have been a lifeline for countless displaced families in Gaza, but with border crossings sealed, the humanitarian situation has worsened dramatically.
‘There is no food, no gas, no wood — nothing left to keep these kitchens running, as hunger tightens its grip on Gaza.’
Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani has emphasised the need to help Palestinians in Gaza during a meeting with the United Nations’ reconstruction coordinator for the enclave, Sigrid Kaag.
Mohammed said the international community must ‘shoulder its responsibilities to address the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and to firmly confront the starvation policy by the Israeli occupation in its brutal war against brotherly Palestinian people’, Qatar’s Foreign Ministry said.
He noted that about one million children in the Gaza Strip lack the basic necessities for survival due to restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid.
The bread crisis in Gaza Strip has resurfaced amid the continued closure of crossings and the loss of any energy sources necessary to operate bakeries.
Bakery owners have resorted to using firewood as a substitute for the fuel lost in the Strip due to the ongoing closure of crossings and the occupation’s refusal to allow its entry.
One bakery owner in Gaza said: ‘We operate the bakery on firewood to assist citizens with the basic necessities they suffer from amid the lack of electricity and fuel.’
He continued: ‘There are no basic life essentials necessary for preparing food or bread.
‘The bakery helps people prepare bread in addition to pastries and sweets, which alleviates the difficulty of lighting wood in their homes, which is available only with great difficulty.
‘The needs are not always available to us; the firewood is very scarce because everyone is now using it in their own homes and tents.’
There are signs of a real famine in the Gaza Strip because of the siege.
Israeli occupation authorities closed the crossings of Gaza Strip, the most important of which is the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing, and stopped the entry of humanitarian aid and commercial goods on the morning of March 2nd, coinciding with the end of the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, which lasted 42 days.
Local and international agencies estimate that more than 80% of the two million and four hundred thousand residents in the besieged Strip rely on humanitarian aid for their daily living and needs.
The World Food Programme (WFP) said in a statement that no food has entered the Gaza Strip since March 2nd, indicating that all border crossings remain closed and now the prices of some basic food items have increased by more than 200%.
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also issued a statement that Gaza is witnessing a shortage of food, water, and health services following the Israeli occupation authorities’ decision to stop the entry of aid and cut off water and electricity.
Meanwhile, UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, stated that the continued Israeli occupation authorities’ prevention of humanitarian aid from reaching Gaza is ‘a continuation of war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity,’ and that Israel starving the 2.3 million Gaza residents marks ‘the fastest starvation process in modern history’.