United Nations officials have accused Israel of “systematically” preventing aid from reaching desperate Palestinians in Gaza, warning that at least a quarter of the enclave’s population is one step away from starvation without action urgent.
Tuesday’s warnings came as images from northern Gaza showed Israeli forces again opening fire on Palestinians gathered to collect food in the area.
It was not immediately clear whether the shooting caused any deaths or injuries.
Israel’s war on Gaza, now in its fifth month, has killed at least 29,878 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The assault began after Hamas – the armed group that governs Gaza – launched attacks in Israel on October 7, killing some 1,139 people and capturing 253 others.
The ensuing Israeli military campaign – which included daily air attacks, a ground offensive in northern and central Gaza and the closure of all but one crossing point into the territory – devastated much of the Palestinian enclave and triggered a worsening humanitarian crisis.
“Here we are, at the end of February, with at least 576,000 people in Gaza – a quarter of the population – one step away from famine,” said Ramesh Rajasingham, deputy head of the UN humanitarian agency (OCHA). United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
One in six children under the age of two in northern Gaza suffers from acute malnutrition and wasting and virtually all of the Palestinian enclave’s 2.3 million residents rely on “woefully insufficient” food aid to survive. survive, he said at the meeting on food security in Gaza.
“If nothing is done, we fear that widespread famine in Gaza is almost inevitable and that the conflict will claim many more lives,” he said.
Rajasingham added that the UN and humanitarian groups face “enormous obstacles just to get the bare minimum of supplies into Gaza.” These include level crossing closures, movement and communication restrictions, onerous control procedures, unrest, damaged roads and unexploded ordnance, he said.
In Geneva, Jens Laerke, another OCHA spokesperson, told reporters that Israel’s actions made it almost impossible to deliver aid to Gaza.
“Humanitarian convoys have come under fire and are systematically denied access to people in need. Aid workers have been harassed, intimidated or arrested by Israeli forces, and humanitarian infrastructure has been hit,” he said.
The World Food Program (WFP) said it was “ready to rapidly expand and intensify its operations in the event of a ceasefire agreement.”
At the same time, “the risk of famine is fueled by the inability to deliver essential supplies to Gaza in sufficient quantities and by the near-impossible operating conditions our personnel face on the ground,” Carl Skau said. , Deputy Executive Director of WFP. the UNSC.
“If nothing changes, famine is imminent in northern Gaza,” he added.
Earlier this month, the WFP suspended the delivery of food aid to northern Gaza, which has been almost completely cut off from aid since late October, after its convoys came under Israeli fire and were looted by Desperate and hungry Palestinians.
UN agencies say all planned aid convoys to the north of the territory have been refused by Israeli authorities in recent weeks. The last permitted entry was on January 23, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
A spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said hundreds of trucks carrying aid were ready and waiting at the Gaza-Egypt border.
“WFP colleagues tell us that they have food reserves on the border with Gaza and that, under certain conditions, they could feed up to 2.2 million people” throughout the Gaza Strip, he told the press Stéphane Dujarric.
“Nearly 1,000 trucks carrying 15,000 tonnes of food are in Egypt, ready to leave,” he said.
Israel, however, denied blocking the aid.
Speaking at the UN Security Council, Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Jonathan Miller, retorted that “it is not Israel that is blocking these trucks”, instead placing the blame on Israel. UN, which, according to him, must distribute aid “more effectively”.
“There is no limit to the amount of humanitarian aid that can be sent to the civilian population of Gaza,” he said, adding that since the start of 2024, Israel had not refused only 16% of requests for aid delivery and that these were due to the risk that the shipments would end up in the hands of Hamas.
The desperate situation in Gaza has drawn a rebuke from the United States.
Robert Wood, the deputy US ambassador to the UN, urged its ally Israel to keep border crossings open for humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza and to facilitate the opening of more crossing points.
“Simply put, Israel must do more,” he said. “We continue to call on Israel to improve deconfliction procedures to ensure that aid can flow safely. »