(CLO) After visiting Gaza, a United Nations official said that many groups of women and children in this land are having to search for food from piles of garbage.
Ajith Sunghay, head of the UN Human Rights Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territories, expressed concern about the level of poverty, even in central Gaza areas where aid agencies have a presence on the ground.
“I am particularly concerned about the widespread poverty,” Mr. Sunghay said at a press conference in Geneva. “Shopping for basic necessities has become a daily, terrible struggle for survival.”
He said the UN was unable to get any aid to northern Gaza, where he estimated there were still about 70,000 people after "repeatedly being obstructed or denied aid convoys by the Israeli authorities".
Palestinian women and children line up to buy bread in Deir al-Balah, Gaza Strip, November 28. Photo: AP
Mr. Sunghay visited refugee camps for people recently displaced from northern Gaza. They are living in appalling conditions with severe food shortages and poor sanitation.
"It is clear that there is a need for significant humanitarian assistance but it is not happening. It is important that the Israeli authorities do this," he said. He did not say when UN agencies last sent aid to northern Gaza.
Meanwhile, Israel's aid watchdog Cogat said it facilitated the delivery of humanitarian aid into Gaza and accused UN agencies of failing to distribute it effectively.
Looting has also depleted aid supplies in the Gaza Strip, with nearly 100 trucks carrying food aid raided on November 16.
“The women I met had lost loved ones, were separated from their families, had relatives buried under rubble or were injured or sick themselves,” Mr. Sunghay said of his stay in the Gaza Strip.
"They fell before me, desperately begging for a ceasefire."
Ngoc Anh (according to Reuters)
Source: https://www.congluan.vn/phu-nu-va-tre-em-gaza-phai-di-kiem-thuc-an-tu-nhung-dong-rac-post323587.html
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