World witnessing collapse of survival conditions in Gaza: UN official

By Muhammet Tarhan

ISTANBUL (AA) - The world is witnessing "a collapse of the conditions under which people are able to survive" without additional supplies and a functioning infrastructure, head of the United Nations Development Program told Anadolu.

"The situation as we meet today is getting more and more desperate. We have seen this week also extremely worrying statistics about famine conditions," Achim Steiner said in an interview.

Calling it a "man-made disaster," Steiner stressed that the solution would also be "man-made" by allowing enough humanitarian supplies to reach the over 2 million people in Gaza.

Noting that 70% of Gaza’s infrastructure has been destroyed and that most people are now internally displaced within Gaza, he stressed that sewage treatment facilities, electricity, and water resources in Gaza should be rebuilt in the future, when the guns fall silent.

"Tragically, (the war is) often killing women, children, people who are in a sense bystanders," he said. "They're innocent victims, they're civilians."

"Without additional supplies and a functioning infrastructure, we are witnessing literally a collapse of the conditions under which people are able to survive," he added.

He underlined that now the UN is focused on how can it help the people who have survived, who are internally displaced in Gaza, and who are still being forced to flee the fighting almost every day as there is "nowhere left to go."

Israel has waged a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 cross-border attack led by Hamas in which some 1,200 Israelis were killed.

Nearly 32,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have since been killed in Gaza, and more than 74,000 injured amid mass destruction and shortages of necessities.

The Israeli war has pushed 85% of Gaza’s population into internal displacement amid a crippling blockade of most food, clean water, and medicine, while 60% of the enclave's infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to the UN.

Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice. An interim ruling in January ordered Tel Aviv to ensure its forces do not commit acts of genocide, and guarantee that humanitarian assistance is provided to civilians in Gaza.