UN warns nearly 500,000 face 'catastrophic levels of hunger' in Gaza

Almost half a million people in the Gaza Strip are suffering from "catastrophic levels of hunger," the United Nations warned on Thursday.

"Limited access & supplies has meant families often don't receive the food assistance they need," the UN said in a post on X.

The UN World Food Programme remains on the ground, but needs reliable access and relief supplies, the post said.

After more than nine months of war and severe destruction in the Gaza Strip, the humanitarian situation for the population is in severe crisis, according to aid organizations. An end is not yet in sight.

Israel has been blockading and bombarding large parts of the Gaza Strip in a war launched after the Palestinian militant group Hamas led unprecedented attacks on Israel on October 7 that killed more than 1,200 people and included brutal massacres of civilians.

According to the Hamas-controlled health authority in Gaza, more than 38,000 people have been killed in the Palestinian territory since the start of the war. The figure, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants, cannot currently be independently verified by dpa.