UNRWA director Philippe Lazzarini calls for the immediate lifting of restrictions.
Israel is preventing food aid shipments from entering the northern parts of Gaza, the UN aid organization for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, says. The head of the organization Philippe Lazzarini wrote message service in X on Sunday that the Israeli authorities told the organization that access to the northern part is now denied. Israel has so far not commented on Lazzarini’s writing.
Lazzarini calls for the restrictions to be lifted immediately.
The World Food Program WFP has been stressing since the end of February that people in the northern part of Gaza are threatened with immediate famine by May at the latest if aid cannot be given to the area.
– Despite the tragedy that is expanding before our eyes, the Israeli authorities told the UN that they will no longer allow UNRWA food aid shipments to the north, Lazzarini wrote in X, tagging the organization’s X account in his writing.
Lazzarini describes the decision as outrageous. The organization’s communications director Juliette Touma said on Sunday that the decision was announced on Sunday after the organization had met with, among others, representatives of the Israeli Armed Forces. Last week, Israel refused to allow two aid convoys into northern Gaza. According to Touma, Israel has not given reasons for its decision.
According to Touma, the organization has not been able to take food aid to the north since January 29.
Several UN bodies commented
Director of UN Humanitarian Aid Martin Griffiths wrote on Sunday in X, that UNRWA is the “beating heart of humanitarian aid” in Gaza. According to Griffiths, denying aid puts thousands of people closer to starvation.
– It must be repealed, Griffiths writes.
Director of the World Health Organization WHO Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in turn states In the X servicethat withholding aid denies those who are starving the chance to survive.
Earlier on Sunday, the UN Secretary General António Guterres appealed to end the nightmare that 2.4 million Gazans are suffering. Israel has accused some of the organization’s personnel of supporting the extremist organization Hamas in connection with the October terrorist attack. Israel has vowed to destroy Hamas because of the strike.
More than 32,000 Palestinians have died during the counterattack, which has lasted for about half a year. Most of them are children and women, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health has said.