Risk of famine, illness, death growing each day in Gaza: UNICEF

UNICEF, originally the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, has sounded the alarm, warning that the risk of famine, illness, and death for the children in the besieged Gaza Strip is growing each day.

In separate posts on Sunday, UN agencies decried the daily sufferings and deaths of children in Gaza, buried under relentless airstrikes compounded by the Israeli regime forces’ ongoing blockade of emergency aid, including food and medicine, to the besieged Palestinian territory.

“Children in the Gaza are facing relentless bombardments while being deprived of essential goods, services and lifesaving care since the beginning of the conflict.

“For the past two months, the situation has further deteriorated, due to the imposed blockade of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.

“Aid MUST enter Gaza now. The ceasefire MUST be reinstated NOW,” UNICEF emphasized in a posting on X, formerly Twitter.

The WFP raised the alarm that the threat of famine in Gaza is real. It called on the international community to find a means to get food past the Israeli blockade as soon as possible.

“We call on the international community to act urgently to get aid flowing again. 

“If we wait until after a famine is confirmed, it will already be too late for too many,” it emphasized.

The Israeli regime forces launched a genocidal war against the Palestinians in Gaza on October 7, 2023, killing 53,272 mostly women and children and injuring another 120,673.

In the past days, the Israeli military announced that it intended to intensify its attacks on Gaza, using its newly recruited fresh reserve troops to expand its occupation area and force the dislocated Palestinians to new places.