UN appeals for $2.8 billion for Gaza, West Bank aid

A Palestinian boy inspects the site of an Israeli strike on a house, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, April 17, 2024. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations appealed on Wednesday for $2.8 billion in funding to assist more than three million people in Gaza and the West Bank until the end of the year, to help ease food shortages and prevent looming famine in Gaza.

A flash appeal published by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said that sum was needed to help 3.1 million people and “reduce human suffering and prevent further loss of life.”

A major chunk of funding – $782.1 million – will be destined for food aid for 2.2 million people in Gaza and 400,000 people in the West Bank, the appeal said.

More than six months of war have created critical food shortages among Gaza’s Palestinians that in some areas now exceed famine levels, according to the United Nations.

A senior U.N. aid official said on Tuesday that the United Nations was struggling to prevent famine in the Gaza Strip and while there had been some improvement in coordination with Israel, aid deliveries in the enclave still faced obstacles.

Israel aims to wipe out Hamas in Gaza after a deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by the Palestinian militant group, in which it killed some 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage, according to Israeli tallies.

Gaza health authorities say Israel has killed more than 33,000 people since, in its assault on the enclave.

(Reporting by Gabrielle Tétrault-Farber; Editing by Ros Russell)