A multistory residential building lies in ruins following an Israeli attack in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip on November 17, 2024.   (Photo by Reuters)

United Nations, December 16 (RHC)-- The United Nations has once again warned that Palestinian people in Gaza, particularly women and girls, are living in dire conditions as the Israeli regime continues its genocidal war on the strip.

“An unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe continues to unfold in Gaza as hostilities rage on,” the UN said in a post on its X account on Monday.  It pointed to “severe challenges” that the Palestinian women and girls are facing and added that 50,000 pregnant women have been left without the essentials to survive.

Nearly 1.9 million were displaced multiple times, amid relentless Israeli bombardments while over 70 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure – from health services to water and sanitation – has been destroyed, the UN said.

Gaza’s health ministry said on Monday that at least 45,028 people have been killed and 106,962 others wounded during more than 14 months of Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians.  According to the ministry, the toll includes 52 deaths in the previous 24 hours.

'Most dire situation in northern Gaza with hungry, traumatized people'

Rosalia Bollen, communications specialist at the United Nations agency for children (UNICEF), said on Monday that the situation in northern Gaza is “most dire” after nearly two months of an Israeli siege.

“Across northern Gaza, including Gaza City, the situation is very difficult for hospitals that lack medical supplies and medicines and doctors, but also for the people who are still there,” she said.   She added that after driving around the area with colleagues last week, she saw some market activity in improvised stalls with very few had any food.

“The little that is available is canned food. The people are hungry, cold and traumatized,” she emphasized.  She said despite a risk of famine alert, no supplies have entered most northern parts of Gaza “so the situation will further deteriorate for the families there.”  Bollen emphasized that she saw the children who were “all hungry.”
 
Also on Saturday, Catherine Russell, executive director at UNICEF, said the world remained indifferent, while Gaza’s children were daily victims of violence and deprivation.

The UN official called on the Israeli regime and “those with influence” over it to “take decisive action to end the suffering of children…to ensure children’s rights are upheld, and to adhere to obligations under international humanitarian law.”