Hunger and malnutrition among millions of Palestinians are on the rise because of an Israeli blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the United Nations world food body said today.
The total blockade of the West Bank and Gaza Strip has paralysed the Palestinian economy, which is so vulnerably dependent on Israel and already severely weakened by frequent border closures, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a special alert.
It is now in a deep recession, with millions of people severely impoverished and extremely food insecure, the Rome-based FAO added.
The Israelis have imposed tight roadblocks on various Palestinian controlled areas since a Palestinian revolt against Israeli occupation began in September 2000. At least 1,272 Palestinians and 452 Israelis have been killed in the uprising.
The United Nations Commission on Human Rights condemned Israel today for mass killings of Palestinians and demanded it end its recent military offensive in the occupied territories.
FAO economist Mr Shukri Ahmed told reporters that the conflict was depriving people of jobs, incomes and access to food, but said Israel was not deliberately starving Palestinians.
He also denied that the United Nations was conducting a concerted attack on Israel with the FAO alert and the Commission on Human Rights resolution coming out on the same day, saying the timing was coincidental.
The FAO alert said malnutrition was on the increase, reflected in recent estimates of a 10.4 per cent rise in the incidence of low birth weights and a 52 per cent jump in the still birth rate in the West Bank.
Citing humanitarian agencies operating in the territories, the FAO alert said many homes were now without water and electricity, and what little food they had was rotting.
The UN food agency voiced serious concern about the large-scale destruction of important Palestinian infrastructure, including stores, irrigation systems, greenhouses, water facilities, orchards and even removal of topsoil from an estimated 8,000 hectares (80 sq km) of land.