The head of the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Filipe Lazarini, warned that without a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, a “lost generation” is inevitable.
“Children are the first to suffer, they suffer the most in conflicts and wars. It is no different in Gaza. Children have gone through what no child anywhere in the world should. Too many have been killed, too many have been injured and too many will be scarred for life. Those who survived are deeply traumatized. The war robbed the children of Gaza of their childhood,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Lazarini wrote on Platform X.
Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since October 7 have killed 37,232 Palestinians, including at least 15,517 children and 10,279 women, and wounded 85,037 people.
According to reports, there are still thousands of dead under the rubble.
By mid-July, over a million people in Gaza will be faced with a shortage of all necessities and death, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) announced.
The FAO pointed to the dangers posed by the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in a report titled “Hunger Hotspots Report” stating that urgent action is needed to prevent famine in Gaza, adding that the situation is also worrisome in Sudan, Haiti, Mali and South Sudan. .
“The ongoing conflict in Palestine is expected to further exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of acute hunger, with starvation and death already occurring, with an unprecedented death toll, widespread destruction and displacement of almost the entire population of the Gaza Strip,” the report warned. .
It said that in mid-March famine was predicted to occur by the end of May in the two northern areas of the Gaza Strip unless hostilities ceased, humanitarian agencies were granted full access and basic services were restored.
“More than a million people, half of Gaza’s population, are expected to face death and starvation (IPC stage 5) by mid-July,” the UN agency warned.
The report also warns of wider regional consequences of the crisis, which could worsen the existing food security challenges in Lebanon and Syria.
