Hungriest place on Earth? It's Gaza. UN warns entire population of Palestinian territory is at risk of famine

United Nations has said that Gaza has become the “hungriest place on Earth” as the Palestinian territory is at the risk of famine after Israeli offensive. Gaza is “the only defined area – a country or defined territory within a country – where you have the entire population at risk of famine. One hundred per cent of the population at risk of famine,” a UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, Jens Laerke, said on Friday (May 30).

“Gaza is the hungriest place on Earth,” he said, The Guardian reported.

Laerke talked about the issues UN is facing in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza. He informed that 900 trucks of aid were authorised by Israel but so far, only 600 have been off-loaded on the Gaza side of the border.

The UN employee said the aim of the aid delivering was “in an operational straitjacket that makes it one of the most obstructed aid operations not only in the world today, but in recent history”.

After Laerke’s statement, Israeli UN ambassador rejected the claim saying UN agencies “cherrypick the facts to paint an alternative version of reality and demonise Israel”.

“In a desperate effort to remain relevant, they lambast the best efforts of Israel and its partners to facilitate delivery of humanitarian aid to the civilian population. UN feeds Hamas, we make sure aid gets to those in need,” Daniel Meron said.

This comes after Hamas said on Friday (May 30) that the Palestinian militant group was “thoroughly reviewing” Israel’s response to a US proposal for a Gaza ceasefire deal by Steve Witkof.