A United Nations official has warned that "all hope is gone" if Israel proceeds with a planned military offensive on Gaza City. Sam Rose, acting director of Gaza operations for UNRWA, told media that the operation would end any prospect of seeing an end to the conflict.
Israel has declared the evacuation of Gaza's most populated city "inevitable" and deployed tanks to the city's outskirts. The move has sparked international alarm for hundreds of thousands of people as documented famine threatens to spread after 22 months of war.
Humanitarian catastrophe deepens
Nearly half a million people face catastrophic hunger according to international food security experts. The Guardian reports that 313 Palestinians have died from starvation since the war began, including 119 children.
Rose described a population "living in abject fear, in abject cruelty, abject humiliation, that has no control whatsoever over their day-to-day, their minute-to minute lives." Many residents are too old, young, ill or incapacitated to evacuate, he added.
The UN official said 6,000 trucks full of lifesaving aid including food, medicine, fuel and water have been stuck outside Gaza for months due to Israeli restrictions. European Commissioner Hadja Lahbib described "mountains" of aid sitting at the Gaza border and pleaded for access to "save lives."
Aid restrictions continue
The Mirror reports that only 14% of required supplies have been allowed into Gaza in the past month, with 430 essential food items banned. This falls far below the roughly 600 trucks daily that entered before the war, when UNRWA was feeding 1.2 million people daily.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (Likud) has repeatedly denied starvation exists in Gaza, calling recent famine declarations by international experts "an outright lie." Israel's government blocked all aid for two and a half months earlier this year but asserts it has allowed sufficient aid during the war.
International response intensifies
The Guardian reports that church leaders are refusing to evacuate, saying displacement would be a "death sentence" for the malnourished population sheltering in religious buildings. Instead of military action, Rose urged that all efforts should focus on providing services to keep people alive.
Meanwhile, the Morning Star reports that the Trump administration is planning a comprehensive post-war Gaza vision, with White House meetings focusing on determining "Gaza's future" rather than hostage returns. The European Union's recent agreement with Israel to increase aid has not materialised as expected.
Sources used: "Associated Press", "The Guardian", "Mirror", "Morning Star", "Independent", "BBC" Note: This article has been edited with the help of Artificial Intelligence.
