112,000 FAMILIES IN THE GAZA STRIP HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO GET THEIR FOOD RATIONS THIS WEEK

Wed 11 October 2023:

More than a million people in Gaza already relied on food assistance from the UNRWA before the conflict, says Juliette Touma, director of communications for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

“That shows you the level of dependency on our systems and on our operations on the ground,” she said.

“60% of people live in poverty. Levels of unemployment have skyrocketed over the past few years, especially among young people.”

This year, before current hostilities, food insecurities had already been worsening with a big uptick in the number of people in receipt of food packages who were reliant on borrowing from friends and relatives, from around half in 2021 to nearly three quarters in 2023.

The UN food assistance programme is now on hold as a result of current events, and they report that 112,000 families (nearly half a million people – or a quarter of the population) have not been able to get their food rations this week.

Thousands of Gaza residents take refuge in UN schools

Since the Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip began on Saturday, thousands of Palestinian residents living along the eastern regions near the Israeli frontier have left their homes to take shelter in United Nations refugee agency schools.

According to Adnan Abu Hasna, a media spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), people are arriving from all parts of the Gaza Strip, as the area faces intense aerial bombardment.

“Residents have taken refuge in 64 schools, with more coming, as they believe that they are the safest places in the Gaza Strip because they are affiliated with the United Nations,” Abu Hasna said.

At the schools and other UN institutions in Gaza, Abu Hasna explained, Palestinians can receive healthcare, nutritional and psychological services.

“Some of the elderly are medical cases that need follow-up in light of the current tension, and children need psychological and social counsellors in order to overcome this difficult stage they have lived through,” he said.

Families in Gaza are fleeing to the UNRWA schools after an unprecedented attack by Hamas fighters caught the Israeli military establishment by surprise. Members of Hamas’s armed wing flew into Israeli military sites and towns using motorised paragliders, while others broke through the Israeli fence.

The Israeli government subsequently declared war on Gaza on Sunday. About 800 Israelis have been killed, with more than 2,000 others wounded. On Monday, Israel’s Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said a total siege will be imposed on Gaza, with no food, electricity, water or fuel allowed in.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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