SRINAGAR: The humanitarian situation in Gaza is reaching “unimaginable, catastrophic proportions”, United Nations officials have warned, describing overflowing hospitals, critically malnourished children, and desperate civilians risking their lives to secure food.
According to UN News, Olga Cherevko of the UN aid coordination office, OCHA, said conditions at Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis were “shocking” during her visit on Sunday, with hallways crammed with patients, many transferred from militarised aid distribution points or convoy routes.
“Everyone who is trying to find food and take care of their family… these people are continuously being killed and injured,” she told UN News. She said she saw five injured people and three bodies brought in from food collection areas, including a young couple whose attempt to obtain flour ended in tragedy when the husband was critically injured.
The children’s ward at Nasser was filled with malnourished patients, and even injured adults were “extremely frail, extremely thin and very, very hungry,” she said, stressing that “the only thing that we really need at this point is a permanent ceasefire.”
Akihiro Seita, Director of Health at the UN agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA), told UN News that Gaza faces a near-total absence of sugar, fruit or sugary foods, with prices soaring to as much as $100 per kilogramme. The shortage is proving deadly for children with type 1 diabetes, for whom sugar is essential to treat hypoglycaemia, a potentially fatal condition.
“What wouldn’t even be a problem in a normal world is now a deadly reality in Gaza,” he said. Specialised nutrition supplies for malnourished children have also run out, with recent deliveries either exhausted or looted by people in desperate need.
The UN human rights office (OHCHR) condemned the killing of six Palestinian journalists in Gaza after their tent was targeted by Israeli forces, calling it a “grave breach of international humanitarian law”. Five of the victims worked for Al Jazeera, including 28-year-old correspondent Anas al-Sharif. Israel claims he was a Hamas operative, a charge denied by the network, which called the attack an “assassination” and “yet another blatant and premeditated attack on press freedom”.
Since 7 October 2023, at least 242 Palestinian journalists have been killed in the conflict, according to OHCHR.
Briefing the Security Council, Miroslav Jenča, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and the Americas, said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed plan to “defeat Hamas” by taking total military control of Gaza City risks “yet another dangerous escalation” that could destabilise the region. Israeli media reports suggest the plan includes the displacement of all civilians from Gaza City by 7 October, affecting 800,000 people, followed by a prolonged military siege and clearance operations in central Gaza.
“If these plans are implemented, they will likely trigger another calamity in Gaza… compounding the unbearable suffering of the population,” Mr Jenča told UN News, urging a full and immediate ceasefire and political frameworks for a two-State solution.
Ramesh Rajasingham, head of OCHA in Geneva, warned the Council that hunger-related deaths are already rising, with local authorities recording 98 child deaths from severe acute malnutrition – 37 of them since 1 July.
“This is no longer a looming hunger crisis – this is starvation, pure and simple,” he said. Over 500 humanitarian workers have been killed in Gaza since hostilities escalated, including at least 167 women, he added.
Rajasingham called for the protection of civilians, unconditional release of hostages, the freeing of arbitrarily detained Palestinians, and unhindered humanitarian access, noting that the International Court of Justice’s provisional measures in the genocide case against Israel remain in force.
“This marks a grave escalation in a conflict that has already inflicted unimaginable suffering,” he said. “States – all those with any influence – must summon the courage to end this inhumanity and pain.”
