Gaza children sometimes go hungry for whole day

PARIS, June 04 (AFP): Palestinians displaced by the Gaza war are living in "appalling" conditions, with children sometimes going for a whole day without food and thousands sharing the same toilet, Oxfam warned on Tuesday.

Deadly Israeli bombardment and fighting has raged in the Gaza Strip's far-southern Rafah area near the Egyptian border in recent weeks, again displacing those who had fled there in search of safety.

More than one million people have fled Rafah for other areas, according to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA.

Oxfam said more than two-thirds of Gaza's population is estimated to be crammed into less than a fifth of the besieged territory.

"Despite Israeli assurances that full support would be provided for people fleeing, most of Gaza has been deprived of humanitarian aid, as famine inches closer," the aid agency said.

"A food survey by aid agencies in May found that 85 percent of children did not eat for a whole day at least once in the three days before the survey was conducted," it added.

Since Israeli troops launched their ground assault on Rafah on May 6, an average of eight aid trucks per day have entered, Oxfam said, citing UN figures.

While hundreds of commercial food trucks are estimated to be entering daily, the goods on board include non-nutritious energy drinks, chocolate and cookies, and are often very expensive, it added.

"By the time a famine is declared, it will be too late," Oxfam's Middle East and North Africa director, Sally Abi Khalil, said.

"Obstructing tonnes of food for a malnourished population while waving through caffeine-laced drinks and chocolate is sickening."

In an interview with French television last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected allegations of starvation in Gaza, saying everything had been done to avert a famine.

Gazans were eating 3,200 calories a day or 1,000 more than the daily requirement, he said.

UN rights chief backs

Biden's Gaza truce plan

The UN human rights chief said on Tuesday he backs the proposed US ceasefire plan for the conflict in Gaza and described the situation in the Palestinian territory as "beyond precarious".

Volker Turk, who arrived in Malaysia on Sunday as part of his Southeast Asia tour, said "any initiative that leads to a ceasefire that leads to an ending of what's happening now is of course welcome".

"We don't even know how to describe it any more. It is beyond precarious. It is beyond catastrophic," he told reporters.

Turk also said norms and standards on the conduct of war are being "brutally violated," adding there is "no safety within Gaza and it's a very tragic situation."

The UN rights chief has met Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and civil and rights groups to discuss a wide range of topics including human rights abuses in the region.

Turk's comments come after the US on Monday said it wants the United Nations Security Council to adopt a resolution supporting the proposal outlined by President Joe Biden to end fighting between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by the US, France, Britain, China or Russia to pass.

Previous frameworks presented by mediators have run aground over Hamas's demand that any truce lead to a permanent ceasefire, while Israel has said it must be allowed to pursue its war aim of destroying the militant group.