‘People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,’ says UNRWA

‘People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses,’ says UNRWA

A large crowd gathers during food distribution by a charity organization, as many Palestinians struggle to access food due to Israel’s blockade and ongoing attacks on the Gaza Strip, on July 16, 2025. (Ahmed Jihad Ibrahim Al-arini / Anadolu Images)

reposted from The Guardian

The Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency has said his workers are fainting at work from hunger.

Philippe Lazzarini wrote on ‘X’:

“People in Gaza are neither dead nor alive, they are walking corpses”: a colleague in Gaza told me this morning.

Meanwhile, according to UNRWA latest findings: one in every five children is malnourished in Gaza City as cases increase every day.

When child malnutrition surges, coping mechanisms fail, access to food & care disappears, famine silently begins to unfold.

Most children our teams are seeing are emaciated, weak & at high risk of dying if they don’t get the treatment they urgently need.

More than 100 people, the vast majority of them children, have reportedly died of hunger.

This deepening crisis is affecting everyone, including those trying to save lives in the war-torn enclave.

UNRWA frontline health workers, are surviving on one small meal a day, often just lentils, if at all.

They are increasingly fainting from hunger while at work. When caretakers cannot find enough to eat, the entire humanitarian system is collapsing.

Parents are too hungry to care for their children. Those who reach UNRWA clinics don’t have the energy, food, or means to follow medical advice.

Families are no longer coping, they are breaking down, unable to survive. Their existence is threatened.

Allow humanitarian partners to bring unrestricted & uninterrupted humanitarian assistance to Gaza.

We, at UNRWA, have the equivalent of 6,000 loaded trucks of food & medical supplies in Jordan and Egypt.

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