UN Palestinian refugee staff and doctors fainting from hunger in Gaza, says UNRWA

A man carries a sack as Palestinians gather to receive aid provided by UNRWA including food supplies, after Israel says it has ceased entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, outside a distribution centre, at Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip, Mar 2, 2025. REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa

The head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency said on Tuesday that its staff, as well as doctors and humanitarian workers, were fainting on duty in Gaza due to hunger and exhaustion.

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said it had received dozens of emergency messages from its staff describing grave conditions and exhaustion in the enclave, where Israel has been fighting a war against Hamas since Oct 2023.

"No one is spared: caretakers in Gaza are also in need of care. Doctors, nurses, journalists and humanitarians are hungry," UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement, shared by his spokesperson at a press briefing in Geneva.

"Many are now fainting due to hunger and exhaustion while performing their duties: reporting atrocities or alleviating some of the suffering."

Lazzarini also criticised a US-backed aid distribution scheme run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation that has been supplying aid since late May, when Israel, which controls supplies into Gaza, lifted an 11-week blockade.

"The so-called 'GHF' distribution scheme is a sadistic death trap. Snipers open fire randomly on crowds as if they are given a licence to kill," Lazzarini said.

The GHF uses private US security and logistics companies and largely bypasses a UN-led system, that Israel alleges has let Hamas-led militants loot aid shipments intended for civilians. Hamas denies the allegation.

More than 1,000 people have been reported killed while trying to receive food aid since the end of May, according to UNRWA estimates, Lazzarini said.

"UN has enough aid sitting in Gaza that they refuse to deliver and that could help end the desperation and help reduce or eliminate the violence around all aid distribution efforts if they would collaborate with us," the GHF told Reuters in a statement.

Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office OCHA, told reporters on Tuesday that claims that the UN has stopped working are "manifestly incorrect".

The GHF also claimed that the "deadliest attacks" on aid distribution in Gaza have been linked to UN convoys.

At least 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks in northern Gaza on Sunday, the Gaza health ministry said, as Israel issued new evacuation orders for areas packed with displaced people.

The UN said on Jul 15 it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza run by the GHF and convoys run by other relief groups. The majority of those killed were in the vicinity of GHF sites, while the remaining 201 were killed on the routes of other aid convoys.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and COGAT, the Israeli military aid coordination agency, were not immediately available for comment.