The undated photo by the official Palestinian news agency WAFA shows heaps of waste and rubbish accumulated near populated areas in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Gaza City, June 14 (RHC)-- The UN Palestinian refugee agency has warned of catastrophic environmental and health risks in the Gaza Strip amid the Israeli regime’s months-long war against the besieged territory. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) raised the alarm in a post on its X social media account on Thursday.
"As of June 9th, over 330,000 tons of waste have accumulated in or near populated areas across Gaza, posing catastrophic environmental & health risks. Children rummage through trash daily," the agency said. "Unimpeded humanitarian access + #CeasefireNow are crucial to restore humane living conditions," it added.
The latest development comes as Israel's genocidal war on Gaza has taken a heavy toll on Palestinian children and their health since October last year. The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said that nearly 3,000 children are at risk of dying before the eyes of their families as they have been cut off from treatment for severe acute malnutrition in southern Gaza.
According to medics, treating a child for acute malnutrition typically takes six to eight weeks of uninterrupted care and requires special therapeutic food, safe water, and other medical support while there are only two functioning stabilization centers that treat seriously malnourished children in Gaza.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has added Israel’s military to a global list of offenders that have committed violations against children.
Israel waged its brutal Gaza onslaught on October 7th after the Palestinian resistance groups carried out a historic operation against the occupying entity in retaliation for the regime’s intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.
So far, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 37,232 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 85,037 others in the Gaza Strip. The Zionist forces have imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.
