UN says most humanitarian aid to Gaza blocked in last two months
The United Nations said on December 10th that humanitarian aid to northern Gaza, where Israel launched an offensive on October 6th, has largely been blocked for the last 66 days, according to AP.
It wet on to say that this has left between 65,000 and 75,000 Palestinians without access to food, water, electricity or health care.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, said that in the north, Israel has continued its siege on Beit Lahiya, Beit Hanoun and Jabaliya, with Palestinians living there mostly denied aid.
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It said about 5,500 people were recently forcibly displaced from three schools in Beit Lahiya to Gaza City, and that only four UN-supported bakeries are operating throughout the Gaza Strip, all of them in Gaza City, adding to the food crisis..
Senior UN humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza Sigrid Kaag told reporters after briefing the UN Security Council behind closed doors on December 10th afternoon that civilians trying to survive in Gaza face an “utterly devastating situation.”
She pointed to the breakdown in law and order and looting that has left the UN and many aid organizations unable to deliver food and other humanitarian essentials to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in need.
Kaag said she and other UN officials are continually asking Israel for a number of things. These include access for convoys to north Gaza and elsewhere, to allow in commercial goods, to reopen the Rafah crossing from Egypt in the south, and to approve dual-use items.
Israel’s mission to the UN said it had no comment on Kaag’s remarks.
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The said the UN has established the logistics for an operation across Gaza but there is no substitute for political will that humanitarians don’t possess.
“Member states possess it,” Kaag said, and this is what she keeps urging UNSC members and the broader international community to press for – the political will to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
AP
