The head of the UN agency that provides aid to the Palestinians, Philippe Lazzarini, has accused Israel of preventing humanitarian aid from reaching the north of the war-torn Gaza Strip.
“Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian missions reaching the north with crucial supplies, including medicine and food for people under siege,” wrote Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). .
Injured people could not be treated because hospitals lost electricity after the blow, he wrote.
“The remaining shelters are so overcrowded that some displaced people are now forced to live in the toilets,” he said.
Lazzarini called for aid organizations to be given access to the northern Gaza Strip, including UNRWA.
“Denying and weaponizing humanitarian aid to achieve military objectives is a sign of how low the moral compass is… A ceasefire is the beginning to end this endless nightmare,” he wrote.
Sam Rose, deputy director of UNRWA in the coastal strip, told US broadcaster CNN on Sunday that “there is a three-month food supply waiting outside to feed the entire Gaza Strip.”
“Right now it’s just not possible to enter from the south,” he said.
But the Israeli authority responsible for Palestinian affairs, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), rejected these accusations. “This is a lie, Sam Rose, and you know it,” COGAT said on X.
“More than 500,000 tons of aid have entered Gaza on more than 26,000 trucks since May,” the X continued, adding that “three aid entry points are fully operational.”
Relations between UNRWA and Israel are tense, with Israel accusing the Palestinian aid agency in the Gaza Strip of being infiltrated by the Islamist organization Hamas, which launched the October 7, 2023 terrorist attacks on southern Israel.
Last week, the US gave Israel a 30-day deadline to improve aid to people in the coastal strip. Otherwise, American arms supplies to Israel could be in jeopardy.
