1.6 Million Palestinians in Gaza Suffering from Malnutrition and Occupation Blocking Aid Entry

The media advisor for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), Adnan Abu Hasna, stated that 1.6 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are currently suffering from dangerous or multiple levels of malnutrition or food insecurity amid the ongoing obstruction by the Israeli occupation of the entry of essential humanitarian materials for the winter season.

This dangerous warning comes coinciding with a severe weather depression striking the sector, uprooting thousands of dilapidated tents, while Israel is holding six thousand trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of tents, blankets, and food supplies at the gates of Gaza.

Abu Hasna added that the current weather depression leaves catastrophic direct effects on the lives of the displaced.

He explained that the weather depression caused the uprooting of thousands of tents and the flooding of residential areas with rainwater and sewage water, confirming that most of what are called tents were built haphazardly from plastic sheets and some fabric, and they are practically not real tents capable of protecting their inhabitants.

Abu Hasna pointed out that even the real tents have become worn out and worthless after repeated displacements dozens of times, and cannot withstand the storms or heavy rains currently hitting the sector.

The UN official confirmed that what people in Gaza feel is that the war continues, but in other ways and forms.

He explained that the continued deterioration of humanitarian conditions, the increase in the number of patients, and the non-entry of hundreds of types of food and non-food items, spare parts for sewage and water stations, medical devices, and medicines, all represent different forms of the continuation of the war on civilians.

Regarding the detained aid, Abu Hasna explained that Israel is preventing UNRWA from entering six thousand trucks loaded with hundreds of thousands of tents that the agency purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars and which people are now severely lacking.

He added that these shipments also contain hundreds of thousands of blankets and winter clothing, in addition to food supplies sufficient for the Gaza Strip for three months, all detained at the sector's gates.

On the deadly repercussions of the weather depression, three deaths have been recorded since the start of the current weather depression, the latest being an infant who died from the severe cold.