LOC01:08
22:08 GMT
NEW YORK, Aug 18 (KUNA) -- The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) warned on Monday that the situation in the Gaza Strip is beyond catastrophic.
In a press release, OCHA said, "amid ongoing hostilities and extreme hunger, more deaths are recorded every day."
The statement noted, "in a social media post, the World Food Program (WFP) said that its teams are doing everything they can to deliver food to people.
However, supplies remain far below needs, less than half of WFP's daily target. The agency said that organized distributions, WFP-supported hot meals and bakeries depend on far more aid entering Gaza."
The statement added, "partners report that last week, in the north and south of Gaza, more than 80 community kitchens produced some 380,000 meals each day.
Back in April, the daily tally was more than a million meals.
Communities rely on hot meals once a day from these kitchens, but the amount they're able to cook remains insufficient to feed Gaza's starving population."
"Hunger-related deaths continue to be reported, including among children.
The Ministry of Health said that five people, including two children, died over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition and starvation," the statement added.
"To prevent such deaths, humanitarians must be able to deliver aid at scale, safely and consistently, through all available crossings and routes to reach the population of 2.1 million people, half of whom are children," OCHA warned. (end)
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