AhlulBayt News Agency: Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Tom Fletcher has issued a dire warning over Gaza's worsening humanitarian crisis, stating that one in three people has been without food for days and children are “wasting away” due to the lack of aid.
In a statement released Monday, Fletcher described Gaza as facing an unprecedented humanitarian emergency, where people seeking food aid are being shot at and children are succumbing to extreme hunger.
He stressed that humanitarian assistance must not be obstructed, delayed, or distributed under violent conditions.
Fletcher emphasized the urgent need for safe and immediate access for aid convoys and demanded an end to attacks targeting civilians at distribution points.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has also spoken out, urging the global community to condemn the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
“Hunger fuels instability and undermines peace. We must never accept hunger as a weapon of war,” Guterres said in a virtual address.
Gaza is currently enduring one of the most severe humanitarian disasters in its history, triggered by the Israeli regime’s military campaign launched on October 7, 2023.
As of March 2, 2025, Israel has sealed off all border crossings into the Gaza Strip, blocking food and medical supplies and plunging the enclave into widespread famine.
Recent data shows that 134 Palestinians, including 88 children, have died from hunger and malnutrition since the war began.
UNRWA reports that the rate of malnutrition among children under five in Gaza has doubled between March and June due to the ongoing blockade.
The World Health Organization has confirmed critical levels of malnutrition, attributing the mounting deaths to Israel’s deliberate obstruction of aid.
Currently, one in five children under the age of five in Gaza City suffers from acute malnutrition.
Since October 7, 2023, the Israeli military offensive has killed at least 59,821 Palestinians—most of them women and children—and injured another 144,851.
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