“We have been approached by Israeli authorities to resume limited aid delivery, and we are in discussions with them now on how this would take place given the conditions on the ground,” OCHA said in a statement.
It is now 11 weeks since the Israeli authorities closed off all food, fuel and medicines to Gaza.
The decision has been widely condemned by the international community – including the UN Secretary-General – who on Sunday insisted that Israel’s “siege and starvation” of Gazans “makes a mockery of international law”.
According to news reports the Israel Government has taken the decision to resume “basic” levels of aid delivery to ensure against starvation, on the recommendation of the Israeli Defense Forces and in support of a renewed Gaza offensive.
“The situation for Palestinians in Gaza is beyond description, beyond atrocious and beyond inhumane,” António Guterres wrote online. “The blockade against humanitarian aid must end immediately.”
The aid blockade has created life-threatening hunger across Gaza – something that humanitarians have pointed out did not exist before the war started on 7 October 2023, sparked by Hamas-led terror attacks on Israel.
Basic principles
“I emphasize that the United Nations will not participate in any operation that does not adhere to international law and humanitarian principles of humanity, impartiality, independence and neutrality,” Mr. Guterres insisted, before underlining his “full support” for UNRWA, the largest aid agency in Gaza.
In an update on Monday, UNRWA reported that more than nine in 10 homes in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed. On Sunday the agency’s Commissioner-General, Philippe Lazzarini announced that more than 300 staff have been killed in the Gaza war. “The vast majority of staff were killed by the Israeli army with their children and loved ones: whole families wiped out,” he noted.
“Several were killed in the line of duty while serving their communities. Those killed were mostly UN health workers and teachers, supporting their communities.”
Ahead of unconfirmed reports on Monday that 20 aid trucks were expected to enter Gaza on Monday, UN agencies OCHA and the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that hungry and sick Gazans continue to live in terror because of ongoing bombardment.
In a new call to lift the blockade, both agencies rejected allegations of aid diversion to Hamas and highlighted the humanitarian nature of the goods being denied entry into Gaza, everything from children’s shoes to eggs, pasta, baby formula and tents.
“How much war can you wage with this?” asked OCHA spokesperson Jens Laerke.
Briefing Member States in Geneva, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned on Monday that the risk of famine “is increasing” as aid continues to be withheld deliberately by Israel.
Health system destroyed
The enclave’s health system is “already on its knees”, he insisted.
“Two million people are starving, while 116 000 tonnes of food is blocked at the border just minutes away,” he told the World Health Assembly.
In response to a resurgence of polio in Gaza, WHO negotiated a humanitarian pause for a vaccination campaign that reached more than 560,000 children, Tedros continued.
“We stopped polio, but the people of Gaza continue to face multiple other threats,” he said. “People are dying from preventable diseases as medicines wait at the border, while attacks on hospitals deny people care, and deter them from seeking it.”
At the same time, the WHO chief called out “increasing hostilities, evacuation orders, [the] shrinking humanitarian space and the aid blockade [that] are driving an influx of casualties”.
Tedros’s comments come as UN aid teams who remain committed to helping all Gazans confirmed intensifying bombing across the devastated Strip. “It has increased, of course,” said one worker, who wished to remain anonymous. They added that in the last 72 hours around 63,000 people have been uprooted.
