A Palestinian child in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, waits to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as Israel’s ongoing war against the besieged Gaza Strip continues     (Photo by Reuters)

Tel Aviv, February 26 (RHC)-- A recent opinion poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Israeli settlers oppose the transfer of humanitarian aid to Palestinian people in the besieged Gaza Strip, where the occupying regime has been waging a genocidal war since October.

The findings were published in a survey conducted by the so-called Israel Democracy Institute, saying over two out of three Jewish Israelis, which accounted for 68% of respondents, disapprove of “the transfer of humanitarian aid to Gaza residents at this time.”

The opinion poll said the numbers are even worse when it comes to far-right Jewish Israelis, where the opposition stands at 80% and four out of five.  The results of the Israeli survey come as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a recent report that 550,000 people in Gaza are currently facing “catastrophic” food insecurity levels.

Stressing that all the 2.2 million people in Gaza are in the top three hunger categories, from level three, which is considered an emergency, to level five, or catastrophe, FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol said, “We are seeing more and more people essentially on the brink of and moving into famine-like conditions every day.”

UN special rapporteurs also warned that one in four people is starving in Gaza and nine out of ten families in some areas spend a day and night without food.  Many humanitarian agencies, not least UNRWA, have had to halt operations in the Gaza Strip since October 7, 2023, meaning hundreds of thousands of people will not have access to aid.