The head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) stated on Sunday that Israel has informed that it will no longer approve any aid convoys run by the agency. The decision comes days after a UN-backed report warned that famine was imminent in northern Gaza.
“This is outrageous [and] makes it intentional to obstruct lifesaving assistance during a man-made famine. These restrictions must be lifted”, Philippe Lazzarini wrote in an X post.
According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 27 children have died from malnutrition so far.
He warned that the move would speed up the coming of famine in the north of the Gaza Strip, and said that “many more will die of hunger, dehydration”.
World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus demanded Israel to “urgently reverse” its decision to block the entry of food convoys.
“The levels of hunger are acute. All efforts to deliver food should not only be permitted but there should be an immediate acceleration of food deliveries,” he said.
Israeli authorities have severely restricted the entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip for over five months, especially in the north.
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a multi-partner initiative, concluded that the hunger level in Gaza is the “highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country”.
