The United Nations Emergency Rescue Coordinator has urged Israel to lift its aid blocking in Gaza, saying that the HERSA of humanitarian aid is equivalent to “cruel collective punishment”.
The UN said thousands of Palestinians had violated a humanitarian office in Gaza Wednesday in search of aid.
They took medication and damaged vehicles in the fray, but have caused no staff injury.
Israel has prevented any humanitarian aid from entering the territory since the end of a ceasefire in March, throwing Gaza in what would be the worst humanitarian crisis in almost 19 months of war.
Israel said the blockade and its renewed military campaign aimed to put Hamas to release the remaining hostages it still has.
Tom Fletcher, the United Nations Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs and the Emergency Rescue Coordinator, said that if the hostages should be released and should never have been taken in the first place, international law obliged that Israel authorizes humanitarian aid in Gaza.
“Help, and the civil life he saves, should never be a negotiation program,” he said in a statement.
“The locking of civilian aid of civilians. He leaves them without basic medical support. He strips them of dignity and hope. This inflicts cruel collective punishment. Blocking aid.”
The United Nations Office for Humanitarian Affairs Coordination (OCHA) has described serious shortages of food, water and medicine in Gaza while medical services collapse and charities have closed due to a lack of supplies.
Hospitals have reported that cases of pregnant and breastfeeding women have increased sharply and that most newborns are now born in weight insufficiency.
Fletcher stressed that “the humanitarian movement is independent, impartial and neutral. We believe that all civilians are also worthy of protective ”.
He said that a recent proposal from the Israeli authorities concerning the means of distributing aid “does not respond to the minimum bar for humanitarian support in principle”.
Israel has proposed to resume the distribution of assisted Gaza or to use private companies for distribution.
The United Kingdom has joined calls for help to be authorized in Gaza.
“The health system in Gaza is close to collapse,” was published on X.
ADVERTISEMENT“Aid supplies should be authorized, protected medical workers and patients and injured authorized to temporarily leave Gaza for treatment.”
A said 3,000 aid trucks waiting outside Gaza
The United Nations indicates that more than 3,000 aid trucks with rescue supplies are saved at the border outside Gaza.
The United Nations Agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said the Israeli blockade means that their trucks cannot reach a million children whose life is in danger without them.
The agency also said that around 660,000 Palestinian children are not educated due to the current war.
ADVERTISEMENTUNRWA declared in a post X that “the level passages must reopen, and the seat must be lifted”.
Food stocks of the United Nations have been exhausted and help groups say that thousands of Palestinian children are ill -fed.
Israeli strikes continue
The war began when Hamas activists attacked southern Israel on October 7, 2023, killing about 1,200 people, most civilians.
Hamas has taken 251 people in hostages and currently has 59, 24 of whom are considered alive.
ADVERTISEMENTA subsequent Israeli offensive to date has killed 52,400 Palestinians to date, mainly women and children, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health managed by Hamas whose figures do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.
The Israeli army said that 850 of its soldiers have died since the start of the war.
