Gaza Residents Face Starvation Risk during Israeli Attacks

Gaza – The World Food Program (WFP) spokesperson for the Middle East and North Africa Abeer Etefa warned on Thursday that residents in the Gaza Strip, which is under Israeli siege, will soon face starvation.

"With the early arrival of winter and insecurity and overcrowded shelters without clean water, people will soon face starvation," Etefa said during a virtual press conference with Juliet Touma, communications director of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) on the situation in the Palestinian enclave. 

Etefa stated that Gazans are getting more desperate every day in their search for bread and main meals. "Bread is a luxury,"

"We are starting to find cases of dehydration and malnutrition, which are increasing rapidly every day. With only 10 percent of the main food and drink supplies in Gaza since the start of the conflict, we are now facing a huge food gap," Etefa remarked. 

Etefa emphasized that 2.2 million people, almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip, are currently in need of food aid," Food production has almost completely stopped," 

For those lucky enough to find something to eat, then this food most likely includes canned food. Etefa emphasized the importance of meeting the growing needs in Gaza, and hopes that the number of trucks that can cross the border with food aid can be increased.

"There is no way to meet the current hunger needs with the current situation. We have to have a different space that allows us to have safe access and flow goods into Gaza," Etefa explained. 

The cutting off of food supply lines is a disaster, and he said that the situation before the conflict was already difficult enough, but now it has become "catastrophic". 

"Meanwhile, Touma says Gaza is like being hit by an earthquake. This could have been avoided. We have witnessed over the past few weeks the largest displacement of Palestinians since 1948," Etefa said. 

Children in shelters beg for a sip of water and a piece of bread. They have to wait two to three hours to use the bathroom. "All this takes us back to medieval times," Etefa continued.

Israel has launched a relentless ground and air assault on the Gaza Strip since a cross-border attack by the Palestinian Hamas group on October 7. 

As a result, 11,500 Palestinians have been killed, including 7,800 women and children, and more than 29,200 injured, according to the latest official data from the Palestinian Authority.

A group of United Nations experts recently warned that Palestinians are on the brink of genocide as the Israeli government imposes a total blockade by cutting off water, food and electricity to Gaza.