The Amount Of Aid That Came In Was Only 10 Percent, The UN Agency Said Half Of Gazans Were Hungry

UNRWA Shelter in Zawaida, Gaza Strip. (Source: UN News/Ziad Taleb)

JAKARTA - HALF of Gaza's population is starving and residents often don't eat all day under Israeli bombings of the territory of more than 2 million people, the UN agency said on Tuesday.

"The amount of aid entering Gaza does not meet a small part of the need," the World Food Program (WFP) said in an upload on social media X, as reported by CNN December 20.

Meanwhile, in an interview with CBC News Canada on Sunday, WFP Regional Director for the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Coin Fleischer said only 10 percent of the food needs for Gaza had entered the region over the past 70 days.

Two weeks ago, WFP warned 97 percent of Palestinian households in the northern region and 83 percent in the southern region reported inadequate food consumption.

Since then, tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees have arrived in Gaza's southernmost region, Rafah, seeking refuge, according to the United Nations Humanitarian Affairs Coordination Office (OCHA).

On Tuesday, WFP delivered food packages to 2,350 people and hot food to 1,750 others in Rafah, which has become the most populous area in Gaza, OCHA said on Wednesday.

"Thousands of people (in Rafah) lined up at aid distribution centers that needed food, water, shelter and protection, amid the absence of latrines and adequate water and sanitation facilities at informal evacuation sites and temporary shelters," OCHA said.

Separately, Human Rights Watch released a report on Monday accusing Israel of using hunger as a weapons of war in Gaza, calling it a "war crime".

However, an Israeli government spokesman rejected the allegations and called them "lies" and blamed Hamas for the shortcomings.