United Nations agencies described the situation in the northern Gaza Strip as “apocalyptic”, amid a bloody Israeli military aggression and siege for over three weeks, Reuters news agency reported.
The heads of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the World Food Programme (WFP) among other humanitarian aid organizations issued a statement warning of the looming risk of death of the entire population in northern Gaza.
“The entire Palestinian population in North Gaza is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine and violence,” the statement said as quoted by Reuters.
The UN officials voiced in their statement frustration over Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip despite the dire need.
“Humanitarian aid cannot keep up with the scale of the needs due to the access constraints. Basic, life-saving goods are not available,” they said.
The UN officials further slammed the constraints imposed by the Israeli occupation authorities on humanitarian aid agencies and workers.
“Humanitarians are not safe to do their work and are blocked by Israeli forces and by insecurity from reaching people in need,” they added.
The Israeli UN mission in New York reportedly declined to comment on the statement by the top UN officials.
Reuters also reported that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Administrator, Samantha Power, spoke on Friday with Israel’s Ambassador to the US, Michael Herzog regarding the devastating humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave.
USAID Spokesperson, Benjamin Suarato, said that Power and Herzog “discussed the need to get more aid to the Palestinian people,” adding that Power “raised serious concern on the humanitarian conditions in northern Gaza.”
Israel’s Relentless Operation
Several UN agencies and other international aid organizations have warned of the grave consequences of the massive military operation and tight siege imposed by Israel in northern Gaza for over three weeks.
The Palestinian Civil Emergency Service in Gaza announced on Monday that over 100,000 people are stranded in Jabalya, Beit Lahia and Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza deprived of food, water and medicine.
Along this line, the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med) warned on Monday that 400,000 Palestinians will be starved to death if they are not killed by the Israeli occupation forces’ relentless military operation in northern Gaza.
The rights group said in a statement that Israel’s obstruction of aid entry to the north for the last several weeks, along with the massive military operation it is carrying out in the area, have not only placed Palestinians at high risk of being killed by bombardment but also at starving the population to death.
“Due to the ongoing Israeli siege, about 200,000 Palestinians in the northern Gaza governorate have been without food or drinking water for 10 full days now,” the statement read.
In parallel, Save the Children said on October 14 that “Gaza is what can happen without the rules of war,” slamming world powers for continuing to send arms to Israel that are being used to “kill children and burn patients and families in hospitals and tents.”
“Humanity has lost its way if those with the ability – and legal obligation – to stop this slaughter choose not to,” Jeremy Stoner, the Middle East Regional Director for Save the Children said in a statement.
“What we’re seeing now in Gaza looks like the depths of hell with reports day after day of attacks on children and families. Nowhere is safe,” Stoner said of the situation in Gaza.
Genocide Continues
Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate ceasefire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza.
Currently on trial before the International Court of Justice for genocide against Palestinians, Israel has been waging a devastating war on Gaza since October 7.
According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, 43,259 Palestinians have been killed, and 101,827 wounded in Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza starting on October 7, 2023.
Moreover, at least 11,000 people are unaccounted for, presumed dead under the rubble of their homes throughout the Strip.
Israel says that 1,200 soldiers and civilians were killed during the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7. Israeli media published reports suggesting that many Israelis were killed on that day by ‘friendly fire’.
Palestinian and international organizations say that the majority of those killed and wounded are women and children.
The Israeli war has resulted in an acute famine, mostly in northern Gaza, resulting in the death of many Palestinians, mostly children.
The Israeli aggression has also resulted in the forceful displacement of nearly two million people from all over the Gaza Strip, with the vast majority of the displaced forced into the densely crowded southern city of Rafah near the border with Egypt – in what has become Palestine’s largest mass exodus since the 1948 Nakba.
Later in the war, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians began moving from the south to central Gaza in a constant search for safety.