Access to safe drinking water in Gaza has been severely compromised due to the ongoing war, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure, relentless displacementand severe restrictions on fuel and other supplies.
This article is published in association with United Nations.
UN aid teams in Gaza say that they’re only able to get less than half the lifesaving food support that is needed into the war-torn enclave.
In an alert from the World Food Programme (WFP), the agency said that half a million people “are on the brink of famine”, a claim backed up by multiple humanitarian agencies. The latest worrying data is showing widespread acute malnutrition.
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A ceasefire is the only way to scale up aid deliveries, the UN agency insisted. It explained that although teams are doing everything they can to deliver food assistance, only 47 per cent of the daily target amount is getting in.
No meals, no bread
Unless the fighting stops, organized aid distributions and WFP-supported hot meals and bakeries can’t restart, the agency stated.
The UN relief agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA, reported on Monday that instead of being able to prepare for the start of a new school year, children in Gaza are instead searching for water and queuing for food while their classrooms have “turned into crowded refuges”.
Three years of schooling has now been lost, the agency stressed in a tweet.
Starvation deaths in Gaza continue
The UN on Monday sounded the alarm over rising hunger in Gaza, after the Ministry of Health reported that five people – including two children – died in the past 24 hours from malnutrition and starvation.
“To prevent such deaths, humanitarians must be able to deliver food at scale, and consistently, through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people, half of whom are children,” UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told journalists in New York.
He said that of 12 aid missions requiring coordination with Israeli authorities on Sunday, eight went ahead without impediment, including the transfer of nutritional supplies and fuel to the north. One mission – to replace a water pipeline in Deir al Balah – was denied, while three others faced delays but were eventually completed.
Movement restrictions, including long waits inside the Strip, continue to hamper delivery of life-saving supplies.
Shelter supplies ban lifted
Mr. Dujarric welcomed Israel’s announcement that it will lift a five-month ban on shelter supplies, noting that more than 1.3 million people urgently need emergency shelter. But he voiced concern that this move comes amid plans for expanded military operations in Gaza City, which risk forcing thousands more into already overcrowded and under-served areas in the south.
UN chief expresses ‘deep sorrow’ over deadly flash floods in India and Pakistan
UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Monday expressed his deep sorrow at the tragic loss of life due to flash floods in India and Pakistan in recent days, with many still missing and forecasts showing the possibility of further flooding and landslides ahead.
Indian rescue services responded to a deadly flood on Friday which reportedly killed at least 60 after it crashed through a village in the Himalayas while in remote villages of northwestern Pakistan, torrents of water killed more than 300, according to news reports.
Hundreds were also injured, Pakistani authorities reported. Buner district was the worst hit, with more than 200 deaths reported there, said the provincial disaster management authorities.
Standing in solidarity
“The Secretary-General offers his sincere condolences to the victims’ families and stands in solidarity with those affected by this disaster,” said the statement issued by his Spokesperson.
UN country teams in India and Pakistan have also been placed are at the disposal of authorities although no request for assistance has been made so far.
Impacts of Somalia drought made worse by funding cuts: OCHA
In Somalia, severe drought and funding cuts are undermining lifesaving assistance there, the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said on Monday.
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Because of the reduction in the amount of support for aid work, food assistance has declined, health centres are closing and malnutrition is high, the UN agency warned.
OCHA said that 4.6 million people now face high levels of food insecurity while two million more are at risk from funding cuts.
Funding cuts mean ‘lives lost’
Without scaled-up support, “lives will be lost and progress reversed” across the east African nation, where cash shortfalls have left one million people without food assistance every month.
The global trend seeing less humanitarian assistance has curtailed vital support for healthcare across Somalia. So far this year, it has impacted at least 150 medical facilities and left hundreds of thousands of Somalis without the medical care they need.
OCHA noted that because of the cuts, the number of people being targeted for assistance in Somalia has had to be reduced by a staggering 72 per cent.
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