Children in Gaza are going to bed starving, says aid agency
The biggest UN aid agency in Gaza on Tuesday condemned the two-month Israeli blockade on Gaza that has left families sharing a single tin of food at mealtime and the sick and injured without lifesaving medical help, amid daily bombardment.
“The siege on Gaza is the silent killer of children of older people,” said Juliette Touma, spokesperson for the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA: “Families - whole families, seven or eight people - are resorting to sharing one can of beans or peas.”
In an update to journalists in Geneva, Ms. Touma stressed that thousands of trucks carrying relief supplies continue to be denied entry to Gaza. “We have just over 5,000 trucks in several parts of the region with lifesaving supplies that are ready to come in,” she explained.
“This decision is crippling the humanitarian efforts…and threatening the lives and survival of civilians in Gaza, who are also going through heavy bombardment day in, day out.”
Rafah ‘obliterated’
Destruction to the southern city of Rafah has left it “obliterated”, UNRWA said. Formerly the largest entry point for aid into the enclave via Egypt, aerial videos purportedly of Rafah show buildings levelled as far as the eye can see. “Rafah is nothing like the city it used to be…In every direction there is only destruction,” the UN agency said.
Today, 97 per cent of Rafah has been impacted by forced displacement orders, which have uprooted around 150,000 people. Almost 12 months ago, the Israeli military moved into Rafah, displacing 1.4 million people and leaving their homes, health facilities and shelters damaged or destroyed.
Starting from scratch
“More than 90 per cent of the population [of Gaza] have been displaced,” Ms. Touma continued. “Not once, not twice, some people have been displaced 12 times or 13 times, so on average, once a month - and so they have to start from scratch. The dependency on humanitarian aid is absolutely massive. We estimate that the entire population is reliant on humanitarian relief.”
Aid convoys ready and waiting
Before the war erupted in October 2023, Gazans relied on 500 trucks a day to deliver the food and other basic goods that they needed. But no humanitarian or commercial supplies have entered since 2 March this year, when Israel imposed a full blockade on the territory.
This is by far the longest ban on aid moving into the Strip since the start of the war in October 2023, following deadly Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel that killed some 1,250 people and left more than 250 taken hostage.
The blockade has emptied warehouses of food, medical supplies, shelter materials and safe water – fuelling a black market “where prices have increased from 10 to 20, sometimes 40 times, and you cannot give anything to your children and you’re seeing your children starving”, Ms. Touma said.
According to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) food prices rose 1,400 per cent in recent weeks compared to the ceasefire period from 19 January to 18 March 2025.
Last Friday, the UN agency delivered its last remaining stocks to community kitchens that provide hot – if basic – meals of lentil soup and rice. The kitchens are expected to fully run out of food within days while another 16 closed over the weekend. In addition, all 25 WFP-supported bakeries have now closed.
“We're likely to see more community kitchens closing down for the simple reason that they need supplies,” Ms. Touma explained.
Burning plastic
Daily challenges for Gazans include finding food and fuel to cook, because of a lack of cooking gas. “Families are resorting to burning plastic to cook their meals,” UNRWA’s Ms. Touma said. “Imagine not having anything to feed your children. Children in Gaza are going to bed starving. The elderly and sick are not able to take to get medical care because of shortages in supplies in hospitals and clinics.”
UNRWA staff’s ordeal
Nearly 300 UNRWA staff have been killed since the war began in October 2023 and more than 50 of the UN agency’s staff have been allegedly “detained and abused” by the Israeli authorities, Ms. Touma noted.
“We received this awful testimony from a colleague who was rounded up in Gaza, tortured while in Israeli detention and finally released,” she maintained. “He said to the Commissioner-General [Philippe Lazzarini], ‘I wished for death to end the nightmare I was living through.’”
Condemning the alleged ill-treatment of UNRWA staff in Israeli prisons, Mr. Lazzarini insisted that they had been “subjected to sleep deprivation, humiliation, threats of harm to them and their families and attacks by dogs. Many were subjected to forced confessions.”
Funding uncertainty
Meanwhile, UNRWA’s financial situation remains critical and “highly uncertain” based on current income forecasts and delays in forecasted contributions, Ms. Touma said. “Cashflow is managed monthly and we urgently require additional financial support if the agency is to survive.”
All partners that suspended funding to UNRWA in January 2024 amid allegations that some staff were involved in the 7 October attacks have now reinstated their support, except the United States.
However, in December last year, Sweden decided to stop all funding to UNRWA this year and the Netherlands will gradually decrease financial support to the agency over the next four years, starting in 2025 by reducing the amount from €19 million to €15 million, decreasing every year until 2029.
“The decision by Sweden and the Netherlands to stop/reduce funding to UNRWA in 2025 comes at the worst time for Palestine refugees,” the UN agency said.
ends
1
1
1
Edited News | UNRWA , WHO
Gaza: SOS messages describe people fainting from hunger; UN health worker detained
Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in Gaza who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion over the past 48 hours have increased fears for people’s survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | UNHCR , UNOG
Over 11.6 million refugees risk losing aid access due to funding cuts, says UNHCR
Approximately one in three refugees and other vulnerable individuals normally supported by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) are expected to lose out from funding cuts, it said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, made the following announcement on the Office’s opening of a new mission in Bangladesh.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
“The surge in the number of Afghans forced or compelled to return to Afghanistan this year is creating a multi-layered human rights crisis requiring the urgent attention of the international community,” UN Human Rights spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani said on Friday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Friday called for accountability and justice for the killings and other gross human rights violations and abuses in the southern city of Suweida.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNHCR
Syria: hundreds killed in Sweida, ‘widespread’ violations as civilians flee for their lives
Amid violent clashes in southern Syria’s Sweida governorate, a picture of grave human rights abuses and rising humanitarian needs is emerging by the hour, the UN said on Friday.
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva the UN Human Rights Spokesperson Liz Throssell made the following statement on the latest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The UN Human Rights Office on Tuesday called for investigations into hundreds of killings of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank by Israeli security forces and settlers, warning against ongoing forced mass displacement of the Palestinian population.
1
1
2
Edited News | OHCHR , UNRWA
Nearly 900 people have been killed in Gaza in recent weeks trying to fetch food, with most deaths linked to private aid hubs run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), the UN human rights office, OHCHR, said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
The United Nations Integrated Office in Haiti (BINUH) and the UN Human Rights Office have today released a report detailing the evolution of violent gang incidents beyond the capital Port-au-Prince since October 2024 up to June 2025, and the resulting loss of life and mass displacement.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO , OHCHR
Gaza: ‘Unacceptable’ choice between getting shot or getting fed – UN humanitarians
Following the deaths of several children in an Israeli strike on Palestinians waiting in line for nutritional supplements in central Gaza on Thursday, UN humanitarians have once again condemned the killings of people at aid distribution sites in the enclave.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
At the United Nations bi-weekly press briefing in Geneva, Ravina Shamdasani, Spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made the following comments on the recent violence in Kenya.