More Than 1.6Million Persons In Critical Need of Humanitarian Aid In Gaza-UN.
By Ferdinand Olise
The United Nations, and the Egyptian Red Crescent, have shipped life-saving humanitarian supplies in 20 trucks, passing through the Rafah Crossing into Gaza
Though the supplies are limited, but it will provide an urgently needed lifeline to some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians, mostly women and Children, who have been cut off from water, food, medicine, fuel, and other essentials.
According to a joint statement, October 21 2023, by the United Nations Development Programme, UNDP, United Nations Population Fund, UNFPA, United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, WFP, and World Health Organisation, WHO, more than 1.6 million people in Gaza are in critical need of humanitarian aid. Children, pregnant women, and the elderly remain the most vulnerable. Nearly half of Gaza’s population are Children.
With so much infrastructure in Gaza damaged, or destroyed in nearly two weeks of constant bombings, which include health facilities, the United States Embassy warned that urgent intervention be applied to avert mortality rates which can skyrocket due to disease outbreaks, and lack of health-care capacity.
According to the statement, nearly one-third of the population of Palestine was food insecure before the conflict in Gaza, and that with the conflict that broke out, stocks in shops are nearly exhausted, with bakeries closing, while tens of thousands of people are displaced, and unable to cook or safely purchase food.
The Embassy therefore called for a humanitarian ceasefire, along with immediate, unrestricted humanitarian access throughout Gaza, to allow humanitarian actors reach civilians in need, save lives, and prevent further human suffering.
It also called for safe, and sustained access to water, food, health, including reproductive health care, protection of all civilians, and civilian infrastructure in Gaza.
According to the Embassy, “We call for the protection of humanitarian workers in Gaza who are risking their lives in the service of others.
And we call for the utmost respect of international humanitarian law by all parties.
Gaza was a desperate humanitarian situation before the most recent hostilities. It is now catastrophic. The world must do more”.
