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Israel-Hamas War: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warns Gaza City faces a six-fold rise in child malnutrition as Israel intensifies its assault.
UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini warns malnourished children in Gaza face death without urgent aid.
The head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned that severely malnourished children in Gaza could die unless emergency aid is delivered immediately as Israel moves to speed up its assault on Gaza City. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said agency data show a six-fold rise in child malnutrition in Gaza City since March.
“We have a population that is extremely weak that will be confronted with a new major military operation,” he said, adding, “Many will simply not have the strength to undergo a new displacement… Many of them will not survive.”
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Calling the crisis “a manufactured and fabricated famine,” he said “food has been used as an instrument of war.”
The warning comes as Israel ramps up operations around Gaza City as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged a rapid push to seize what he called the Strip’s remaining “terrorist strongholds,” directing that timelines “for seizing control of the last terrorist strongholds and the defeat of Hamas” be shortened.
Brigadier General Effie Defrin, an Israel Defense Forces spokesperson, said “preliminary operations and the first stages of the attack on Gaza City” are underway, with Israeli forces reaching the city’s outskirts. Israel has announced plans to call up 60,000 reservists for the expanded campaign.
Amid the escalation, Hamas floated a new ceasefire proposal that includes a 60-day truce, phased exchanges of captives and Palestinian prisoners and expanded humanitarian access while Netanyahu reiterated that any agreement must ensure “all the hostages are released at once and according to our conditions for ending the war.”
Philippe Lazzarini cautioned that without immediate, large-scale relief, the combination of deepening malnutrition and renewed displacement could be catastrophic.
He said, “We are looking at people who no longer have the strength. Without emergency provisions put in place now, many children will not survive.”
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Israel
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