AFP file photo
Doha, Qatar: Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine-like conditions. Desperate people, unable to feed themselves or their children, are being forced to eat weeds and leaves to stay alive, reported Al Jazeera.
The United Nations has warned that hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza are on the brink of starvation. About two million Palestinians are facing acute levels of hunger after many of them lost their homes and livelihoods.
Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Abu Azzoum reporting from Rafah said that many Palestinians are going days without food as Israeli assault continues. “People in the south of Gaza are depending completely on humanitarian supplies being delivered through Rafah.”
Meanwhile, Joyce Ajlouny, the general secretary of the American Friends Service Committee, a Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning Quaker organisation working in Gaza since 1949, has told Al Jazeera that the starvation is at “just enormous and truly catastrophic” level in Gaza.
“Our staff are telling us that they are seeing people hungry. Everyone is hungry in Gaza today. That is just enormous and truly catastrophic and we’ve never seen anything like that before.”
The World Food Programme (WFP) recently stated that "everyone in Gaza is hungry! Skipping meals is the norm, and each day is a desperate search for sustenance," adding that adults go hungry so children can eat. "People often go the entire day and night without eating."
A Palestinian woman stands at al-Najar hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on February 16, 2024. (Photo by Mohammed Abed / AFP)
Hundreds of thousands of people’s lives are at risk in north and central Gaza because of a lack of food, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned.
UNRWA commissioner-general Philippe Lazzarini said the last time the agency was allowed to deliver supplies to the area was more than two weeks ago on January 23.
