'Gaza facing unprecedented levels of hunger' says UN agency

A United Nations expert has claimed there are "unprecedented levels of hunger" in Gaza and that "everything is needed" in order to prevent famine in the region. There are warnings that 90 percent of the population in besieged Gaza are facing a hunger crisis levels as the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues.

Israel launched its retaliatory operation after Hamas fighters crossed from Gaza into southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages. At least 20,000 people have been killed and 50,000 injured in Gaza since then, according to the Hamas-run health ministry. Israel has kept up its bombing campaign in Gaza - ordering civilians to flee.

Juliette Touma from the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees believes action is more urgent than ever to feed the people of Gaza.

"These are unprecedented levels of hunger. Gaza has never seen those. And this is only an indicator to how bad the situation has become very quickly but also the direct result of the siege and the lack of basic supplies, including food for two million people," she told CGTN.

Touma added that it is the basic provisions which are required after UN Secretary General António Guterres said Israel's offensive was creating "massive obstacles" to the distribution of aid in Gaza.

"Look, everything is needed," said. "And we're talking here about the basics. And what people need most is safety and protection. They also need everything that is super basic, because they have lost everything, because the vast majority of them are now displaced, including in United Nations shelters.

"And we are not getting the humanitarian supplies that we need to cater and respond to a humanitarian crisis this size and this scale. And so we need to get much, much more."

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Estimates suggest up to 85 percent of people in the region have been displaced as the population continue to leave their homes in a bid to flee the incoming Israeli troops, creating more and more problems.

Touma said: "It means that the more we have bombardments, the more the war continues. There will be more people who are forced to flee their homes. The more that we have these evacuation orders that Israeli authorities continue to issue, we will see an exodus of people continue to search for safety, for shelter, and they will come to UNWRA facilities, which are already at four or five times their capacity.

"And so the combination of the war and the siege and the lack of availability of basic supplies, including food, has led to the assessment that we've seen last night of unprecedented levels of hunger and starvation."

The UN passed a resolution on Friday to ramp up international humanitarian aid to Gaza, after days of negotiations amid a push from the U.S. to tone down the language. Both the U.S. and Russia eventually abstained from the vote.

How important could that motion be? "Very, very important and very critical. There needs to be, you see, a standard and regular flow of humanitarian supplies that should come into Gaza," added Touma.

"There also needs to be commercial supplies that come to the markets. Not one commercial commodity has been allowed into the Gaza Strip since the war began now 11 weeks ago. And it means two million people are now dependent on a humanitarian operation that does not have enough to be able to cater to the needs."

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