The United Nations has warned that it is becoming increasingly difficult to deliver desperately needed aid to Gaza.
The UN humanitarian chief on Friday denounced the “impossible situation” facing Gaza residents and those trying to help them, as the humanitarian situation on the ground worsens and dozens additional civilians would be killed in Israeli attacks.
“Do you think it’s easy to get aid to Gaza? Think again,” Martin Griffiths said in a post on social media platform
Griffiths listed 14 obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian aid to the enclave, including: constant bombing and aid convoys under fire; three levels of inspections before a humanitarian truck can enter Palestinian territory; a constant list of rejected articles; and aid workers themselves are killed and displaced by war.
“This is an impossible situation… The fighting must stop,” he said.
Do you think it is easy to get aid to Gaza? Think again. pic.twitter.com/CH4GuY6XUb
– Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) December 29, 2023
To illustrate his point, Israeli soldiers fired on a humanitarian convoy on Friday as it returned from northern Gaza along a route designated by the Israeli army, according to Thomas White, director of the UH refugee agency. Palestinians, UNRWA, in Gaza.
“Our international convoy leader and his team were not injured but one vehicle was damaged – aid workers should never be a target,” White said in a post on X.
The continued difficulty in delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza comes despite the United Nations Security Council passing a resolution last week to increase aid.
The Israeli war has killed more than 21,300 Palestinians and displaced 85 percent of the population since October 7. Amid the bombardments, the military blockade of the enclave and restrictions on aid shipments are putting the health of hundreds of thousands of people at risk.
Tel Aviv Tribune’s Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Rafah in southern Gaza, describes displaced and hungry people in the central and northern parts of the Strip forced to queue for hours for food aid.
“Five refugee families were staying with us, but now we are refugees just like them,” a man sheltering in a school in Rafah told Tel Aviv Tribune, without giving his name. ” I do not know what to do. We are peaceful civilians and have no connection to what is happening. We have children and we cannot find milk, food or water. We can’t even find a plastic sheet.
Mahmoud reported: “Most of Gaza’s population has been displaced repeatedly over the past three months, fleeing with whatever they could carry… UN facilities are full, several times beyond their maximum capacity. »
Aid groups say the situation is desperate and UN agencies have warned that 40 percent of Gaza’s population faces imminent risk of famine.
“Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warns that an outbreak is inevitable and that with most hospitals and clinics out of service, when people get sick they have nowhere to go,” Mahmoud said.
Continuous push
In central Gaza, Israeli forces continue to push people south, targeting sites including refugee camps, among which Tel Aviv insists Hamas fighters are hiding. Around 35 people were reported killed in airstrikes on the Nuseirat and Maghazi refugee camps on Friday.
“The Israeli army seems to be intensifying its aerial bombardments,” Mahmoud said. “There is a feeling of frustration because this happens a few days after the resolution was adopted by the UN Security Council. People now see more bombs, less food and less humanitarian aid. »
The UN says 150,000 people were forced to leave central Gaza after the Israeli military issued evacuation orders, ordering people to move further south again.
Meanwhile, on Friday morning in southern Gaza, 20 seriously ill patients are expected to be allowed to leave for medical treatment in Egypt, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on social media platform Telegram.
Among the patients listed is a one-month-old girl who suffers from head trauma.
Gaza medical officials have repeatedly called for patients with serious health problems to be allowed to leave the besieged territory to receive life-saving treatment.