UN Says 875 Palestinians Killed Near Aid Sites As Malnutrition Among Children Doubles

The United Nations Rights Office on Tuesday said that at least 875 deaths within the last six weeks have been recorded at aid points in Gaza. The office stated that a majority of these killings were near the United States and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites whereas the remaining 201 were killed on the routes to other relief groups, including ones managed by the United Nations.

The GHF delivers aid by employing private US security and logistics. It passes the UN-system that Israel alleges to get looted by Hamas-led militants instead of reaching the civilians. The GHF commenced its operations in Gaza in May after Israel lifted its 11-week aid blockade in the region. 

"The data we have is based on our own information gathering through various reliable sources, including medical human rights and humanitarian organizations," Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told reporters in Geneva, reported Reuters. 

The GHF on Tuesday claimed to have delivered more than 75 million meals to Gaza Palestinians since the end of May, and that other humanitarian groups had "nearly all of their aid looted" by Hamas or criminal gangs.

According to recent reports, malnutrition rates among children in Gaza have nearly doubled since the Israel-imposed food blockade in March this year. 

UNRWA, the main UN agency caring for Palestinians in Gaza, said it had screened nearly 16,000 children underage 5 at its clinics in June and found 10.2 per cent of them were acutely malnourished. By comparison, in March, 5.5 per cent of the nearly 15,000 children it screened were malnourished, AP reported. 

Even after the blockade was lifted in Gaza, the UN called the aid to be a “drop in the ocean.”