UNITED NATIONS (AP) — U.N. humanitarian officials say aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months and warn critical lifelines in the territory’s north, where Israel has renewed its military offensivehave been cut off.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq broke the grim news on Friday and said the most important thing border crossings into northern Gaza have been closed since October 1 and no food or other essential supplies have arrived. More than 400,000 people who remain in the north are under increasing pressure to move south, he said.
“The situation is terrible” in northern Gaza, Haq said, adding that the entire area faces insecurity.
The United Nations has been saying that for months lawlessness in GazaWhat has led to the removal of supplies from help trucks and attacks on humanitarian care providers and drivers, are major obstacles to assistance – together with military operations, few border crossings and delayed and refused Israeli permission for convoys.
The UN’s independent researcher on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, last month accused Israel of carrying out a “hunger campaign” against the Palestinians during the war in Gaza, a claim Israel vehemently denies.
The Israeli UN mission did not immediately respond to a request for commentary on the UN Office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs, known as OCHA on Friday. But Israel has repeatedly insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.
“Israel has not stopped access to or coordination of humanitarian assistance entering the northern Gaza Strip from its territory,” said COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza. “As evidence shows, humanitarian assistance coordinated by COGAT and international organizations will also continue to invade the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day.”
The war in Gaza began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people kidnapped about 250 others during October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to local health authorities. They did not say how many fighters there were, but said women and children made up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced approximately 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, often several times.
The humanitarian organization Medglobal, which has been working in Gaza since 2018, said on Friday that the renewed military action of the Israeli army has brought the remaining health care facilities in the north ‘on the edge of the abyss’.
Three hospitals with hundreds of patients, including children in Intensive Care-Kamal Adwan, Al-AWDA and the Indonesian hospital-have been commissioned by the Israeli authorities to evacuate. They are also in danger of running out of fuel.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan and Chief Doctor of Medglobal in Gaza, said that “numerous injuries and fatalities have fallen as a result of the attacks in the Al Naji area.”
The intensive care department of the hospital is overcrowded and the “catastrophic situation … will worsen in the coming hours if there is no fuel for the emergency services,” he said in a statement.
Haq said that the UN world food program throughout Gaza reports that it has not been possible to deliver food packages to the more than 1 million Palestinians that they have received this month so far “because of the limited access to relief supplies.”
In the north, the WFP said that kitchens, distribution points and bakeries are forced to close or run the risk of closing if the conflict continues, Haq said, adding that the bakeries also have almost no wheat flour anymore.
Despite the challenges, Haq says that the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, and its partners are handing out bread, meals and flour to designated hiding places and beyond.
