Gaza: ‘Worst-case scenario’ unfolds as brutal aid blockade threatens mass starvation

This article is published in association with United Nations.

Two months into a devastating aid blockade of Gaza food has run out and people are fighting over water amid relentless bombing, the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) said on Friday.

Speaking from Gaza City OCHA spokesperson Olga Cherevko told journalists in Geneva that a friend of hers “saw people burning a few days ago from the explosions – and there was no water to save them.”

Since all entry points into the war-torn enclave were “sealed by the Israeli authorities for the entry of cargo” in March, the “worst-case scenario” was triggered, Ms. Cherevko said: supplies are depleting while the conflict rages on.

“Food stocks have now mainly run out, water access has become impossible,” she told journalists in Geneva.

As the veteran aid worker spoke, she noted that a “very violent fight” for access to water was taking place downstairs from her, with people throwing rocks and firing shots at a water truck which was pulling away.

No childhood

The OCHA spokesperson said that every day she was seeing children “who have been deprived of their childhood for many months,” and elderly people “rummaging through piles of trash” in search of food and combustible material for cooking, in the absence of fuel.

During a visit on Thursday to Patient Friends Hospital, a paediatric hospital in Gaza City which had been attacked several times during the war, she heard reports of rising malnutrition rates.

“Hospitals report running out of blood units, as mass casualties continue to arrive,” Ms. Cherevko stressed, while precious fuel is being rationed.

© UNRWA

Malnutrition cases among children in Gaza are increasing due to a lack of food.

Running on empty

“Gaza is inching closer to running on empty,” she added.

Ms. Cherevko said that UN humanitarians are “in constant contact” with the Israeli authorities and are advocating for border crossings to reopen. “We have mechanisms that mitigate diversion [and] ensure that aid reaches the people it’s intended to reach,” she said.

“We are ready to resume delivery at scale as soon as the crossings reopen, Ms. Cherevko insisted. “We stand by our pledge to remain principled and continue relieving people’s suffering, wherever they may be.”

In an appeal to the Israeli authorities on Thursday, the UN’s top humanitarian official and OCHA chief Tom Fletcher said, “Lift this brutal blockade. Let humanitarians save lives”.

Mr. Fletcher reaffirmed the urgent need for the release of hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023, who “should never have been taken from their families” and stressed that “aid, and the civilian lives it saves, should never be a bargaining chip”.

Generational horror

Ms. Cherevko said that over the past one and a half months, 420,000 people have been “once again forced to flee, many of them with only the clothes on their backs, shot at along the way, arriving in overcrowded shelters, as tents and other facilities where people seek safety, are being bombed”.

“I worry that five, 10, 20 years from now, we will look at our children and grandchildren in shame and we will not be able to explain to them why we could not stop this horror,” she concluded.

“How much more blood must be spilled before enough becomes enough?”

UN rights chief urges international action

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights appealed on Friday for the world to prevent the total collapse of life-saving support in Gaza.

“As the complete blockade of assistance essential for survival enters its ninth week, there must be concerted international efforts to stop this humanitarian catastrophe from reaching a new unseen level,” said Volker Türk.

War crimes warning

Bakeries have ceased operations as flour and fuel have run out, and remaining food stocks are being rapidly depleted.

“Any use of starvation of the civilian population as a method of war constitutes a war crime, and so do all forms of collective punishment,” he warned.

Against proposed Rafah ‘humanitarian zone’

The High Commissioner and head of human rights office OHCHR denounced a reported Israeli plan to declare Rafah governorate in southern Gaza as a new “humanitarian zone.”

Palestinians would be required to move there to receive food and other aid.

“Such a plan will almost certainly mean large parts of Gaza and those who cannot easily move – including people with disabilities, those who are sick or injured, and women supporting entire families – will be forced to go without food,” he said.

© UNRWA

Gazans queue for food in January 2025 when it was more widely available in the enclave.

Strikes on shelters

Meanwhile, Israel continues to strike locations in Gaza where Palestinian civilians are sheltering. Between 18 March and 27 April, OHCHR recorded 259 attacks on residential buildings and 99 on tents of internally displaced persons (IDPs).

Most attacks resulted in fatalities, including of women and children. Among the strikes on IDP tents, 40 reportedly took place in Al-Mawasi area, where the Israeli army repeatedly directed civilians to seek refuge.