'Mass starvation' spreading across Gaza and people 'wasting away', 100 aid agencies warn
More than 100 international aid agencies have warned of mass starvation across Gaza, claiming workers and citizens are "wasting away" as access to tons of food and medical supplies is blocked.
In a joint letter, the organisations wrote that the UN-led humanitarian system had been "prevented from functioning", urging governments to help restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies.
Those agencies include Save the Children, Médecins Sans Frontières and Oxfam International.
The letter stated that there were "tons" of food, clean water, medical supplies, shelter items and fuel sitting untouched within Gaza or just outside the region, but that organisations had been blocked from accessing or delivering the stock.
"Humanitarian agencies have the capacity and supplies to respond at scale, but with access denied, we are blocked from reaching those in need, including our own exhausted and starved teams," the letter read.
"Survival is dangled like a mirage."
It claimed distributions in Gaza average about 28 trucks a day for a population of about 2.1 million.
Aid distribution has been complicated by a controversial Israeli-backed US-run contractor called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation.
More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed while seeking food, according to the UN.
"Aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families," the letter from the organisations stated.
"With supplies now totally depleted, humanitarian organisations are witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.
'Each morning, the same question echoes across Gaza: will I eat today?'
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Israel had refused the United Nations the space and safety to deliver aid.
"Malnourishment is soaring," he said on Tuesday.
"Starvation is knocking on every door. Now we are seeing the last gasp of a humanitarian system built on humanitarian principles.
"Around the world, we see an utter disregard for, if not (an) outright violation of, international law."
Israel denied deliberately targeting civilians and aid staff as part of its war with Hamas and said it was operating within international law, blaming UN agencies for failing to deliver food it had allowed in.
Earlier this week, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and his counterparts from 24 other nations, including France, Canada and Australia, urged Israel to lift restrictions on the flow of aid into Gaza in a joint statement, condemning the current aid model.
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