UNRWA official reveals shocking facts about Gaza deaths and widespread diseases

Adnan Abu Hasna, media advisor to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA),said that the death toll of sick and starving people in the Gaza Strip is much higher than what the Ministry of Health is announcing. He noted that the diseases spreading are “cross-border” and could reach the Israeli side.

Abu Hasna confirmed to Al Jazeera that the announced figures only concern Gazans who go to clinics and hospitals, stressing that UNRWA information confirms that many sick and starving people are dying silently.

He pointed out that these people are being buried around and inside tents and in shelters, and are not being reported. He expressed his belief that the death toll from this war is “much higher than what is being announced.”

The UNRWA media advisor warned of an accelerating rate of deaths in Gaza, given the so-called “Gaza Humanitarian Foundation” overseeing the entry of aid, as well as the looting of other aid.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of Health in Gaza announced that it had recorded 70 deaths, including 17 children, in the Gaza Strip since the official declaration of famine. The ministry revealed that 43,000 children under the age of 5 and more than 55,000 pregnant and breastfeeding women are suffering from malnutrition.

In a statement, the ministry confirmed the accelerating repercussions of the famine disaster in the Strip, with 185 deaths due to malnutrition recorded last August.

According to Abu Hasna, Palestinians’ bodies are no longer resistant to disease and are suffering from a collapse of their immune system. Viruses and bacteria are spreading dangerously, potentially leading to death, paralysis, or a host of other illnesses.

He pointed out that the spread of meningitis, a disease he described as extremely dangerous and had been eradicated before the war, and