- The UN’s humanitarian chief has warned 14,000 babies in Gaza could die within 48 hours if no aid enters the territory.
- Five trucks allowed in yesterday are a ‘drop in the ocean’, says the UN humanitarian aid chief.
The UN humanitarian chief, Tom Fletcher, has warned that 14,000 babies face imminent death within 48 hours after a crippling 11-week total Israeli blockade of Gaza.
The UN’s undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs said, “We need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid.”
He also described the situation as “chilling.”.
All food, medicine and other life-saving aid had been blocked by Israel from entering Gaza since March 2nd until yesterday.
Fletcher said five aid trucks that entered Gaza on Monday were but a “drop in the ocean” and were yet to reach the communities in need.
The comments about the dire situation come after the UK, France and Canada released a first joint statement condemning Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s actions in Gaza while warning they would take “concrete actions” unless he changes course.
The joint statement also said: “Yesterday’s announcement that Israel will allow a basic quantity of food into Gaza is wholly inadequate.”
Before October of 2023, when the genocide in Gaza first began, more than 500 trucks were allowed to enter Gaza daily, and even with that number, child malnourishment was still relatively high.
Currently 500,000 people in Gaza are enduring “catastrophic” levels of hunger, meaning they are at risk of death by hunger or hunger-related diseases, while another one million are facing emergency levels.
