In its warning, the World Food Program (WFP) described markets across the region as “declining.” “Fresh food, eggs and meat are virtually non-existent and prices of all available food have reached record highs.” The UN agency spoke in X just days after UN-backed hunger experts warned: In northern Gaza, the famine threshold may have already been crossed.Or soon will be.
starve the north
“As of November, the United Nations has rejected or thwarted all attempts to bring food and health missions to besieged areas in northern Gaza to support the tens of thousands of people who remain there,” OCHA, the U.N. relief coordination office, said. Latest update.
The development comes as the Israel Defense Forces continue its offensive in northern Gaza until Wednesday. UN aid teams have repeatedly said people who fled attacks and evacuation orders in Beit Hanoun to Gaza City are now taking shelter in unsafe schools that could collapse at any moment. In October alone, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) recorded 64 attacks targeting schools “which shelter most of the refugees.”
According to OCHA, up to 130,000 people have been displaced in the northern Gaza Strip amid intensifying Israeli attacks targeting residential buildings and repeated evacuation orders.
UN humanitarians have seen dogs pounce on corpses lying in the open ground and access to healthcare across Gaza remains precarious, with the UN’s reproductive health agency, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), and partners reporting a recent rise in premature births. I pointed out that there is. and maternal death.
‘Continuous struggle’
“More than 155,000 pregnant women and new mothers are trapped in a constant struggle with fatigue, trauma and extreme hunger,” UNFPA said. The situation is made worse by the fact that less than half of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are partially functioning, and only 47 hospitals are partially functioning. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), among 133 primary health care centers:
More than 43,469 people have reportedly been killed in Gaza since the Hamas-led terror attacks and Israeli hostage-taking that sparked the war in the Strip 13 months ago. WHO noted that at least 10,000 people, most of them civilians, were trapped under rubble in their homes and shelters.
Dozens of people die a day in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, UN aid agencies warned that at least 241 people were killed and 642 wounded in the week to November 11 “as a result of Israeli airstrikes”.
Citing Lebanese authorities, OCHA added in its latest update on the emergency: A total of 3,300 people died, including 203 children and 644 women. – The number of injured since October 8, 2023 is 14,222.
“At least one child was killed and 10 children were injured every day in Lebanon in October 2024 alone,” the UN agency continued, adding that UN children’s agency UNICEF urged the warring parties to “meet their obligations under international humanitarian law and “We appeal for protection,” he emphasized. Children”.
Despite such appeals, Israel continues to carry out attacks across Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah fighters along with attacks on Israel by Lebanon-based groups. OCHA said the violence continues to “claim lives, uproot communities, and destroy homes and critical infrastructure.”
“Israel’s intensified airstrikes have had a significant impact in southern Lebanon, Nabateeh, Bekaa, Balbek-Hermel and Mount Lebanon regions.
Lebanese authorities added that at least 18 people were killed and 14 wounded in an airstrike on a residential building in Aqar, northern Lebanon, on November 11. “On November 10, at least 23 people, including 7 children, were killed during a strike at a shelter for displaced people in Almat village, Jbeil, Mount Lebanon Province.”
Houses ‘repeatedly targeted’
over the past few weeks Residential buildings housing displaced people have been “repeatedly targeted”.U.N. humanitarian coordinators cited strikes in Aito-Zgarta, northern Lebanon, and Barha-Chuf, Mount Lebanon, which they claimed had “taken more than 40 lives in total.”
UNIFIL, the U.N. peacekeeping mission that monitors the Blue Line separating Lebanon and Israel, also reported “numerous violations” since the violence escalated in late September. “This includes At least 6 direct attacks on peacekeepers” OCHA reported.
The most recent incident occurred on November 8, when two Israeli military excavators and a bulldozer reportedly destroyed part of a fence and concrete structures at UNIFIL positions in Ras Naqoura.
Attacks on Healthcare Providers
In addition to attacks on areas protecting civilians, airstrikes on health facilities and workers continued to be documented by WHO, disrupting operations at 127 health facilities and eight hospitals and reducing the functioning of nine hospitals. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), attacks on health services occurred in the first week of November, killing two health workers and wounding seven.
Since mid-September 2024, the Healthcare Attack Surveillance System (SSA) has reported 44 attacks against healthcare, resulting in 63 injuries and 91 deaths, bringing the number of attacks against healthcare to 103 since mid-September 2024. There were 123 injuries and 145 deaths. October 2023.
Peacekeeping Force Commander Visits UNIFIL Headquarters
UN peacekeeping commander Jean-Pierre Lacroix on Wednesday met some of the thousands of ‘blue helmets’ serving in southern Lebanon through the UNIFIL mission.
“He spoke with peacekeepers who were injured in direct attacks and gun battles between the IDF and Hezbollah,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said while briefing reporters in New York.
“He visited the UN office in Mansouri and the mission headquarters in Naqoura.
He also met with UNIFIL staff and the mission’s senior leadership who continue to support the mission’s work in Naqoura. He also thanked all of UNIFIL’s military and civilian staff for their dedication and commitment to the critical work of the mission during these exceptionally difficult times.”
On Tuesday, he met Lebanon’s caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Special Coordinator for Lebanon Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert and General Aroldo Lázaro, head of Lebanon’s peacekeeping mission.
“The three emphasized the importance of UNIFIL’s role and the importance of resolution 1701,” Mr. Dujarric added.
