The Palestinian Foreign Ministry has called on the United Nations to officially declare famine in the Gaza Strip, as the world body expresses grave concern about the continued Israeli strikes on the besieged Palestinian territory.
“International reports show the spread of hunger among Palestinian families who spend entire days without food,” the ministry said in a statement.
More than a million people in the Gaza Strip are starving, it added.
“Some 1.9 million displaced people are in shelter centers and are exposed to severe hunger and 50,000 pregnant women are in shelter centers without water, medicine, or health care,” the ministry said.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said that four out of five of the hungriest people anywhere in the world are in Gaza.
The Israeli onslaught has left Gaza in ruins, with half of the coastal territory’s housing damaged or destroyed and nearly 2 million people displaced within the densely populated strip amid acute shortages of food and clean water.
In the past day, some 250 Palestinians have been killed across Gaza. Some Israeli strikes targeted an area in the vicinity of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Yunis, claiming the lives of several people.
Palestinians have no respite from the Israeli onslaught on Gaza as airstrikes and shelling have become a regular occurrence. They also have left the remaining shelters and minimally operational hospitals in critical overcrowding and resource shortages.
In the southern strip, people woke up to another day of bloodshed, mourning the loss of their loved ones.
Israeli warplanes also bombed a residential building in a refugee camp in the city of Rafah, located in the south.
The bombardment left two people dead and several more injured. The attack was carried out while the area is hosting Palestinians displaced from the north and central Gaza.
Those who witnessed the strikes say Israel has once again proved that no place is safe from the regime’s bombing campaign on the Palestinian territory.
Meanwhile, the United Nations has expressed grave concern about Israel’s continued bombardment of Central Gaza.
In a statement, the UN Human Rights Office warned against the heightened attacks, amid what it described as a deepening and already catastrophic humanitarian situation.
The statement further noted the latest attacks have obstructed relief aid from reaching those in desperate need.
Israel’s genocidal war is now in its 81 days.
The total death toll since October 7 is nearing 21,000. Tens of thousands of others have been injured. Most of the casualties are women and children.
