At least 1,100,000 people in the Gaza Strip have exhausted their food stocks and are on the brink of a catastrophic famine, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said.
“With their food supplies completely depleted, almost 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza face a dire threat of starvation.”
Jerrymusa.com reports that the levels of starvation and misery experienced by Palestinians in Gaza are horrific,” he stated. “I call on the Israeli authorities to ensure complete and unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza and for the international community to fully support our humanitarian efforts,” he said.
More People Die of Hunger
“This is the highest number of people facing catastrophic hunger” in recorded history, the UN head noted. “The [UN] study makes clear that this is a completely man-made calamity and that it can be stopped. Exhibit A supporting the necessity of an immediate humanitarian ceasefire is today’s report, according to Guterres.
Tensions flared up again in the Middle East on October 7, 2023, when militants from the Gaza Strip-based radical Palestinian movement Hamas staged a surprise attack on Israeli territory from Gaza, killing residents of Israeli border settlements and taking over 240 hostages, including women, children and the elderly.
Hamas described its attack as a response to the aggressive actions of Israeli authorities against the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In response, Israel declared a total blockade of the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians before the crisis, and has been delivering air strikes on Gaza as well as some parts of Lebanon and Syria. Clashes have also been reported on the West Bank.