JERUSALEM (dpa-AFX) - Worrying alerts from United Nations staff in the Gaza Strip who have been fainting from hunger and exhaustion have increased fears for people's survival in the devastated enclave, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday.
'Doctors, nurses, journalists, humanitarians, among them UNRWA staff, are hungry.fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties,' said Juliette Touma, Director of Communications with the UN agency for Palestine refugees, UNRWA.
Speaking from Amman, she stressed that seeking food 'has become as deadly as the bombardments'.
The development comes as the UN human rights office, OHCHR, announced on Tuesday that more than 1,000 Palestinians have now been killed by the Israeli military while trying to get food in the Strip since the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) started operating on 27 May.
The foundation's hubs are supported by the US and Israeli authorities and started operating in southern Gaza on 27 May, bypassing the UN and other established non-governmental organizations.
'The so-called GHF distribution scheme is a sadistic death-trap,' Touma said. 'Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they're given a license to kill.'
Separately, dozens of international humanitarian organizations warned Israel's blockade of aid into Gaza is endangering the lives of doctors and aid workers, while a major news agency says it is trying to evacuate its remaining freelance journalists because the situation has become 'untenable.'
In a joint statement, 111 international humanitarian organizations called on Israel to end its blockade, restore the full flow of food, clean water and medical supplies to Gaza, and agree to a ceasefire.
The coalition warned Wednesday that supplies in the enclave are now 'totally depleted' and that humanitarian groups are 'witnessing their own colleagues and partners waste away before their eyes.'
'As the Israeli government's siege starves the people of Gaza, aid workers are now joining the same food lines, risking being shot just to feed their families,' said the statement, whose signatories include Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Amnesty International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council.
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