UN: Gazans Starving While World Watches

"For the past month, North Gaza has been under a near-total brutal siege," UN Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference, conveying Acting Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Joyce Msuya's, message.

"Israeli military ground operations have left Palestinians without the essentials to survive, forced them to flee for safety multiple times, and cut off their escape and supply routes," according to the message by Msuya.

Noting that "living conditions are deadly" in Northern Gaza, she added that "civilians are starving while the world watches on. These atrocities must stop".
Northern Gaza has been under siege by the Israeli military for almost a month. Hundreds of people have been killed, hospitals have been hit, and schools sheltering displaced families have been attacked.

A group of 15 United Nations heads warned on Friday that the situation in Northern part of the Gaza Strip is “apocalyptic”.

A letter signed by leaders from UN organizations including OCHA, the UN’s humanitarian affairs body, UNHCR, the UN’s high commissioner for refugees, and the World Health Organization (WHO), warned that “the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence".

People are desperate for food because “livestock are also dying, crop lands have been destroyed, trees burned to the ground, and agrifood systems infrastructure has been decimated”, the letter stated.

The UN leaders called on Israel to “cease its assault on Gaza and on the humanitarians trying to help”, adding that the area has been “denied basic aid and life-saving supplies while bombardment and other attacks continue".

“International humanitarian law, including the rules of distinction, proportionality and precautions, must be respected,” the letter read. 

International humanitarian law obligations “do not depend on reciprocity. No violation by one party ever releases the other from its legal obligations,” it noted.

The Israeli Army has intensified its military onslaught in Northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege that has left tens of thousands of people without food and water.

The Palestinian Civil Defense has announced that the Israeli Army has killed more than 1,800 Palestinians in the Northern part of the besieged strip, forced half of the population to flee from bombardments, and left the other half trapped without water or food for nearly four weeks.

According to several reports, genocide is unfolding in Northern Gaza and civilians are trapped in their houses and there’s a mass blackout. Food, water, and medicine have also run out.

Humanitarian workers and health authorities in the blockaded territory say most aid has not reached Northern Gaza due to heavy Israeli bombardment.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal offensive that has killed more than 43,000 people, mostly women and children, and injured over 102,000 others since October last year – although the numbers are likely to be far higher with thousands of victims buried underneath the rubble.

The figures exclude tens of thousands of dead who are believed to be buried in the bombed-out ruins of homes, shops, shelters and other buildings.

The military campaign has turned much of the enclave of 2.3 million people into ruins, leaving most civilians homeless and at risk of famine.