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Israel continues to ban humanitarian aid entry into Northern Gaza

Palestinians with children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 13, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians with children wait to receive food cooked by a charity kitchen amid shortages of food supplies, as the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, February 13, 2024. (Reuters)
October 21, 2024 06:29 PM GMT+03:00

Israel continues to ban the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip amid a massive offensive on the area, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said on Monday.

“The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian missions to reach the north with critical supplies including medicine and food for people under siege,” UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said in a statement.

“Hospitals have been hit and are left without power while injured people are left without care.”

The UNRWA chief said shelters run by the agency in northern Gaza are so overcrowded.

“Some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets,” he said, adding that Gazans trying to flee “are getting killed, their bodies left on the street.”

“Missions to rescue people from under the rubble are also being denied,” Lazzarini said.

GAZA. CITY, GAZA - OCTOBER 12: Palestinian residents, carrying their personal belongings with them, are on their way to migrate for safer areas following the Israeli army's orders evacuation of the area called D5 in Gaza City, Gaza on October 12, 2024. ( Dawoud Abo Alkas - Anadolu Agency )DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - AUGUST 07: Palestinians wait in line to receive food distributed by charities while Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continue unabated in Deir al-Balah on August 07, 2024. Due to the complete embargo imposed on the area, Palestinians are unable to secure many essential needs, including basic food supplies. ( Hassan Jedi - Anadolu Agency )KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - AUGUST 06: Miada Abu Anza (32), who was displaced for the 7th time due to the Israeli attacks, takes shelter with her 5 children in a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 6, 2024. Anza, whose husband and father are imprisoned; brothers and uncles are lost their lives in Israeli attacks, struggles under war conditions as the humanitarian crisis in the region is gradually deepening due to the Israeli army's attacks on Gaza. ( Doaa Albaz - Anadolu Agency )Palestinians collect water, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 14, 2023. (Reuters Photo)
GAZA. CITY, GAZA - OCTOBER 12: Palestinian residents, carrying their personal belongings with them, are on their way to migrate for safer areas following the Israeli army's orders evacuation of the area called D5 in Gaza City, Gaza on October 12, 2024. ( Dawoud Abo Alkas - Anadolu Agency )DEIR AL-BALAH, GAZA - AUGUST 07: Palestinians wait in line to receive food distributed by charities while Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip continue unabated in Deir al-Balah on August 07, 2024. Due to the complete embargo imposed on the area, Palestinians are unable to secure many essential needs, including basic food supplies. ( Hassan Jedi - Anadolu Agency )KHAN YUNIS, GAZA - AUGUST 06: Miada Abu Anza (32), who was displaced for the 7th time due to the Israeli attacks, takes shelter with her 5 children in a school belonging to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) in Khan Yunis, Gaza on August 6, 2024. Anza, whose husband and father are imprisoned; brothers and uncles are lost their lives in Israeli attacks, struggles under war conditions as the humanitarian crisis in the region is gradually deepening due to the Israeli army's attacks on Gaza. ( Doaa Albaz - Anadolu Agency )Palestinians collect water, amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, October 14, 2023. (Reuters Photo)

The UN official called for allowing humanitarian assistance to all people in Gaza.

“Humanitarian agencies, including UNRWA, must get access to north Gaza,” he said. “Denying and weaponizing humanitarian assistance to achieve military purposes is a sign of how low the moral compass is.

“No one should beg to assist or to be assisted,” Lazzarini said. “A cease-fire is the beginning to putting an end to this endless nightmare.”

Last week, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor said Israel’s ban on the entry of aid has left 200,000 people in northern Gaza without food or drinking water.

https://twitter.com/turkiyetodaycom/status/1847988891346669632

The Israeli army has continued a massive offensive, now in its 17th day, in northern Gaza amid a suffocating siege on the area.

The onslaught was the latest episode in Israel’s brutal onslaught that has killed more than 42,600 people, mostly women and children, and injured 99,800 others since last year following a Hamas attack.

The Israeli war has displaced almost the entire population of Gaza amid an ongoing blockade that has led to severe shortages of food, clean water, and medicine.

Israel faces a genocide case at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.

October 21, 2024 06:29 PM GMT+03:00
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