NEW YORK, April 30, 2025 (WAFA) – A UN official warned of the dire situation in the Gaza Strip, as the specter of famine has returned to haunt Palestinians amid a humanitarian crisis that has entered its most dangerous phase due to Israel's ongoing war of extermination and the closure of crossings.

In a press interview on Wednesday, Jonathan Fowler, Director of Communications for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), pointed to the reality of food shortages in the Gaza Strip due to Israel's closure of all crossings, using food as a weapon in its war of extermination for 19 months.

Fowler said, "It is difficult to find words to describe the current situation in Gaza. It is similar to the horrors of the Day of Judgment and lacks the most basic standards of humanity."

He considered that the Palestinian Strip "is going through the worst phase of the humanitarian crisis it has witnessed since the beginning of the war" of extermination by Israel, indicating that the situation in Gaza "is not complicated, but rather very clear."

He pointed out that it is normal for Palestinians in the Strip to have nothing to eat as a result of Israel's prevention of food aid and supplies for more than 50 days.

The UN official stressed that the famine in Gaza is "entirely an Israeli political decision."

He added, "If aid were allowed in, it would arrive. But Israel is imposing a stifling blockade that doesn't allow anything to pass through." He noted that all international calls to lift the blockade have fallen on deaf ears.

The UN official described this stifling Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip and the international community's failure to address it as a "real scandal."

Y.S