MORE than one and a half million Palestinians are starving in Gaza this New Year’s Eve, as the Israeli army continues to block essential humanitarian supplies.
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA) spokesman Adnan Abu Hasna said yesterday that 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are suffering from dangerous or multiple levels of malnutrition and food insecurity as bad weather rages.
‘The current storm is having catastrophic and direct effects on the lives of displaced people,’ Abu Hasna said. ‘The storm ripped up thousands of tents, with rainwater and sewage flooding vast residential areas.
‘The ongoing deterioration of humanitarian conditions, the rising number of patients and the prevention of hundreds of types of food and non-food items, spare parts for sewerage and water stations, medical equipment and medicines all constitute different forms of ongoing war against the civilian population.’
Abu Hasna accused Israel of blocking UNRWA from bringing in 6,000 trucks carrying hundreds of thousands of tents, blankets and winter clothes, as well as food supplies sufficient for the Gaza Strip for three months, but all these truckloads remain blocked at the entrances to the Strip.
On Monday the Israeli Knesset (parliament) passed legislation to cut water, communication lines and energy to UNRWA facilities.
Philippe Lazzarini, Commissioner-General of UNRWA, said: ‘Yesterday’s vote by the Israeli parliament passing new legislation against UNRWA is outrageous.
‘It is a direct affront to the mandate granted to the Agency by the United Nations General Assembly and contrary to findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which oblige Israel to fulfil its responsibilities as a UN Member State to UNRWA and the broader UN system.’
According to Lazzarini, the law authorises Israeli authorities to cut water, electricity, fuel and communications to UNRWA facilities and allows for the expropriation of UN property in occupied East Jerusalem, including the agency’s headquarters and its main vocational training centre.
