35,000 Palestinian Lives Already Gone As Simultaneous Crises Mount In Gaza

(NationalUSNews.com) — As the war in Gaza continues, the people of Palestine suffer from increasingly dire living conditions.

On Sunday May 5, the Gaza Health Ministry released figures stating that roughly 35,000 Palestinians have been killed during the current conflict that began with the October 7 terrorist attack on Israel by Hamas. The United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) made a public statement the same day, highlighting the famine and sanitation crises affecting Gaza.

UNRWA mentioned that as the world moves into the summer months, hygiene and sanitation will only become worse issues. In the city of Jabalia in northern Gaza, as much as 40,000 tons of waste have already piled up. Access to landfills has been denied, and critical machinery has been damaged. Mosquitos, flies, mice and rats have been spreading throughout the region, causing outbreaks of disease. Gaza had also been experiencing a water crisis going back years, which has only worsened under current conditions.

Doctors Without Borders claims that Israel is proving to be an immovable obstacle to humanitarian aid. The humanitarian charity says that their requests to bring in medical supplies are often denied, and even when approved, they can be delayed by lengthy inspection processes at the border. The World Health Organization (WHO) has indicated that only 11 of Gaza’s 36 hospitals are operating at all, with some of those few only partially functioning.

Food supply is also becoming an increasingly serious issue. The World Food Programme (WFP) believes that approximately 1.1 million people are suffering from hunger in Gaza. Although there has not been a formal declaration of famine, which entails meeting certain criteria, WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain claims the situation in northern Gaza is a “full-blown famine.” Israel is facing more and more international pressure to both allow and provide more aid to Gaza. The U.S. is working to build a pier off of Gaza to allow more aid to flow in via the sea.