Fears of famine in northern Gaza

By Nathan Morley

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has identified areas of famine and hunger in the northern Gaza Strip, where people are deemed to be on the brink of starvation.

UNRWA Chief Philippe Lazzarini said 300,000 people in the north depend on the agency's aid to survive, noting that access to life-saving humanitarian aid is being hindered.

Flour, rice, and tinned goods have been exhausted amid the continuous siege – a situation made worse by a lack of food, water, and nutrition reaching needy areas.

The situation is so desperate that residents of those areas are reportedly grinding animal feed to produce flour for bread.

The Palestinian death toll from constant Israeli attacks in Gaza now stands at 27,947, the Hamas-run Health Ministry announced on Friday.

Elsewhere, an Israeli missile attack targeted areas west of the Syrian capital of Damascus late on Friday. And a Hezbollah operative was killed, and three civilians hurt on Friday in confrontations on the Lebanese-Israeli border.