Israel continues to block aid into northern Gaza amid famine

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - GAZA — Israeli forces are blocking aid deliveries into famine-stricken northern Gaza as the five-month-long war grinds on despite recent strong demands from the top UN court and the Security Council for open aid access into the enclave and for a temporary ceasefire and the return of all hostages taken in October, as the UN plans a assessment mission into Al-Shifa Hospital, which had been occupied by Israel for two weeks.

More than a dozen Palestinians have been killed related to airdrops by multiple nations who are trying to deliver desperately needed aid in the face of Israel’s slow walking food shipments at border crossings into Gaza, according to news reports.

The victims reportedly either died by drowning while trying to retrieve food packages from the sea or were fatally struck by falling boxes of aid.

At the same time, reports from UN agencies on the ground in Gaza indicate a continuation of airstrikes and attacks.

This comes alongside ever louder calls for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire and for Israel to comply with both a Security Council resolution for a cessation of hostilities during Ramadan, which ends on April 10, and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) orders last Friday, asking the country to respect its obligations as a signatory of the Genocide Convention and open border crossings to allow sufficient aid into the enclave.

In its latest situation report, the specialist UN Palestine relief agency UNRWA said Israeli Security Forces (ISF) continued military operations across the Gaza Strip, resulting in further civilian casualties, displacement and destruction of houses and other civilian infrastructure.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 32,000 people in Gaza since the war began in October, according to the Health Ministry there, following a Hamas-led incursion into Israel that left almost 1,200 dead and more than 240 taken hostage.

Airstrikes and bombardment continued in north Gaza, Khan Younis and Rafah, where UNRWA estimates a total of 1.2 million people are now living, the vast majority in formal and informal shelters, the UN agency reported.

Over 100 UNRWA schools have been directly or indirectly hit, with some being severely damaged. Many have been used as shelters for displaced families since the war began.

“No place is safe in #GazaStrip. This is a war on children. On their childhood and their future. Ceasefire now,” UNRWA posted on social media.

Access impediments continue to severely compromise the ability of humanitarians to reach people in Gaza, UNRWA said.

According to the UN humanitarian coordination office, OCHA, since March 1, 30 percent of humanitarian aid missions to northern Gaza have been denied by Israeli authorities.

UNRWA is disproportionately impacted, with Israeli authorities continuing to deny the agency access to northern Gaza to deliver emergency food assistance since announcing last week that it would no longer approve these shipments.

There has been no significant change in the volume of humanitarian supplies entering Gaza or improved access to the north, UNRWA reported, noting that from March 1 to 20.

In terms of aid shipments, there have only been 159 aid trucks entering Gaza on average per day, well below the operational target of 500 trucks needed daily, the UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric told reporters at headquarters on Monday.

UNRWA continues to provide storage and distribution capacity for other agency food and commodities, and reported that since the war broke out, 1.8 million Gazans have received flour, and nearly 600,000 people have received emergency food parcels, he said.

The UN World Food Program (WFP) is providing desperately needed food to 1.45 million people in Gaza, but says “it’s not enough.”

“Without a ceasefire and full access, lives are at risk,” the UN agency said.

Responding to media reports that Israel had sent the UN Secretary-General a formal plan to dismantle UNRWA, the UN spokesperson said on Monday that no senior UN official in the region has received any plan from Israel and neither has the UN chief.

“Our position on UNRWA remains unchanged, that it is a line of hope for millions of Palestinians in the region, including in Gaza,” he said. “Currently, it’s the backbone, the spine, the arms and the legs of our humanitarian operation there.”

UN Emergency Humanitarian Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths slammed any efforts to limit UNRWA’s lifesaving work, which is mandated by the UN General Assembly. “Attempts to sideline UNRWA must stop,” he said.

“UNRWA is the backbone of the humanitarian operation in Gaza. Any effort to distribute aid without them is simply doomed to fail.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) chief reported at the weekend that at least four people were killed and 17 injured after an Israeli airstrike hit Al-Aqsa Hospital in middle area of the Gaza Strip.

The “WHO team was on a humanitarian mission at Al-Aqsa Hospital in Gaza, when a tent camp inside the hospital compound was hit by an Israeli airstrike on Sunday,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a social media post.

“WHO staff are all accounted for,” he explained, adding that the team was at the hospital assessing the needs and collecting incubators to be sent to the north of Gaza.

“We again call for protection of patients, health personnel and humanitarian missions,” he urged. “The ongoing attacks and militarization of hospitals must stop. International humanitarian law must be respected.”

He called for an immediate end to the hostilities. “We urge parties to comply with the UN Security Council resolution and ceasefire!”

The WHO chief spoke out against the Israeli siege of Al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza. The two-week-long military operation left many dead and injured, according to media reports.

"Hospitals must be respected and protected; they must not be used as battlefields," he said.

The UN is looking into the two-week siege of Al-Shifa Hospital, the UN spokesperson said on Monday. “We’re planning a mission to the hospital as soon as we can get there,” he said.

The mission will help people get medical assistance and assess the state of the hospital, he explained, adding that WHO had reported that 21 patients had died during the siege. — UN News