ANKARA

In war-torn Gaza, Palestinians face dire hunger and health crises, relying on the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) for vital support amid ongoing displacement, the agency said on Thursday.

“Since the war began, Palestinians in #Gaza have faced immense suffering,” the UNRWA stated on X.

“They endure catastrophic hunger, with children dying from malnutrition and dehydration,” the agency said.

“Gazans are clinging to life, displaced repeatedly across a ravaged territory, and looking to @UNRWA for protection,” the statement added.

The UN agency also quoted words by Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA commissioner-general, on the issue: “Gaza has been decimated.”

“For more than two million Gazans, it is a living hell,” the agency quoted Lazzarini as saying, adding: “A nightmare from which they cannot wake.”

Israel, flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas.

More than 37,760 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and nearly 86,420 others injured, according to local health authorities.

More than eight months into the Israeli onslaught, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.

​​​​​​​Israel is accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where more than 1 million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.