"Food and water used as weapons of war", says UN

2023-11-02 02:32:46

The UN's relief agency for Palestinian refugees has at best a week’s supply left of wheat flour to feed Gaza’s population, and only three to four days’ worth of fuel, a spokeswoman said.

UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said water, food and fuel have been used as “weapons of war” in the Israel-Gaza conflict.

“If we want to be optimistic we have seven or eight days of stock [of wheat flour],” she said.

The displacement of Palestinians into UNRWA shelters has continued to increase over the past few days, she added.

The organisation will “very soon” be limiting the number in its shelters to 700,000 people, more than four times the number it originally planned for in a worst-case scenario for Gaza, she said.

“We ran out of hygiene supplies like mattresses,” Ms Touma said.

“And the other thing is we are running out of fuel. That’s because since the war began, almost four weeks ago, we have not had any shipment of fuel coming into Gaza at all."