UNITED NATIONS (AP) – UN officials say aid flows into Gaza are at their lowest level in months and warn that vital supplies to the northern enclave, where Israel has renewed its military offensive, have been cut off.
Deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq delivered the grim news on Friday, saying the main crossing into northern Gaza has been closed and no food or other essential items have entered since October 1. More than 400,000 people remaining in the north are under increasing pressure to relocate. south, he said.
“The situation is dire” in northern Gaza, Haq said, adding that the entire area is facing insecurity.
For months, the United Nations has said that lawlessness in Gaza, which has led to the confiscation of goods from aid trucks and attacks on social workers and drivers, are major obstacles to the delivery of aid – as well as military operations, few border crossings and delays and denied by Israel. clearance of convoys.
The UN’s independent investigator on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, accused Israel last month of conducting a “starvation campaign” against Palestinians during the Gaza war, allegations Israel denies.
Israel’s UN mission did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the aid reports from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA. But Israel has repeatedly insisted on allowing food and other aid to Gaza in significant amounts.
“Israel has not stopped the flow or coordination of aid coming from its territory to the northern Gaza Strip,” said COGAT, the Israeli military organization that oversees the distribution of aid in Gaza. organizations will continue to enter the north of the Gaza Strip in the coming days as well. “
The war in Gaza began after Hamas terrorists killed about 1,200 people and kidnapped about 250 people during an attack on Oct. 7, 2023 in Israel.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, according to local health authorities, who would not say how many were soldiers but said women and children made up more than half of the dead. The war has devastated large areas of Gaza and displaced nearly 90 percent of its 2.3 million people, often multiple times.
The humanitarian organization MedGlobal, which has been working in Gaza since 2018, said on Friday that the resurgence of the Israeli army has led to the remaining health care facilities in the north “collapsing.
Three hospitals with hundreds of patients, including intensive care children – Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital – were ordered to evacuate by Israeli authorities. They are also about to run out of fuel.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan and MedGlobal’s lead doctor in Gaza, said they received “a large number of injuries and deaths due to the targeting of the Al Naji area.”
The hospital’s intensive care unit is overcrowded and the “catastrophic situation … will worsen in the coming hours if there is no emergency fuel,” he said in a statement.
Across Gaza, Haq said the UN World Food Program reports that it has been unable to deliver food parcels to the more than one million Palestinians it receives so far this month “due to the limited access of aid supplies.”
In the north, WFP said kitchens, distribution centers and bakeries have been forced to close or are at risk of closing if the conflict continues, said Haq, adding that bakeries are also running out of wheat flour.
Despite the challenges, Haq said the UN agency for Palestine refugees, known as UNRWA, and its partners are distributing bread, food and flour to selected shelters and beyond.
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