The United Nations says Israel continues to block aid from reaching northern Gaza, where famine is imminent and people, mostly children, are already dying of malnutrition and starvation. A senior UN official is warning of a catastrophic outcome for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in precarious conditions in the war-torn Gaza Strip unless humanitarian aid deliveries into the territory are massively expanded in the coming days.
The UN had planned two humanitarian missions to northern Gaza on Friday, but both were denied access by Israeli authorities. One of the missions was to deliver 20,000 liters of fuel to power emergency generators at Al Ahli Hospital, where medical staff are still working to provide basic medical services despite the lack of electricity.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reports that over the past week, more than 40 percent of aid missions to northern Gaza have been denied or obstructed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). Humanitarian missions planned for areas in southern Gaza on Friday were also denied access.
"We have to have a system that allows us to be safe and protected when we deliver aid, and that is the responsibility of Israel as we operate in the territory that they occupy," said Jamie McGoldrick, acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT).
Speaking from Jerusalem on Friday, McGoldrick told journalists in Geneva that it is difficult and dangerous for aid workers to move around and deliver aid in Gaza, noting that a United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) vehicle was hit by live ammunition on Tuesday as it waited to enter northern Gaza.
This incident followed the April 1 killing by Israel of seven World Central Kitchen workers who were delivering aid to Gaza, and the attack upon and looting of a 14-truck World Food Programme (WFP) convoy destined for northern Gaza last month.
Such developments illustrate that "the system that we use for our own protection and safety is not working," he said.
Referring to the convoys that were attacked, McGoldrick said, "I think the humanitarian workers there then feared for their own safety. And as far as we know, the deconfliction and notifications system has got flaws."
"We do not have communications equipment inside Gaza to operate properly as you would have in another situation, and secondly, we do not have a hotline or an emergency number to call in case of an emergency incident that arrives, and so it is important that we get that addressed."
In his remarks, McGoldrick noted that Israel's obligations to facilitate the flow of aid in Gaza do not end at the border.
In order for aid organizations to deliver aid safely throughout Gaza, the Israeli authorities must “ensure our facilities and convoys are not targeted, allowing and facilitating access for those convoys, not denying their movements, ensuring that humanitarian missions move quickly and predictably through checkpoints, allowing us to bring in the supplies we need: fuel, trucks, communications equipment.”
The Humanitarian Coordinator said he met with the head of the Southern Command of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), this week and presented him with a list of requests that would enable the delivery of humanitarian aid "safely, effectively and at the necessary scale throughout Gaza."
He said he told the Israeli military official that "we are working in a very hostile area, without the possibility of contacting each other. We do not have radios. We do not have mobile networks."
"If we have a serious security incident, we do not have a hotline. We have no way of communicating with the IDF that we are facing problems at a checkpoint or facing problems en route," he added.
McGoldrick said the Israeli official told him that he would move things forward and that a member of the IDF would be part of a new humanitarian coordination and deconfliction cell to improve the situation of Palestinians in Gaza.
"We have the commitment from the major general, and we are going to keep him to that commitment and make sure we get that set up and running as soon as possible," he said.
The Humanitarian Coordinator noted that not enough aid was entering northern Gaza to satisfy the enormous needs of tens of thousands of people who have been deprived of food, medical care and other lifesaving essentials.
"We can see by the health situation. We can see by the nutritional situation," he said. "Children are showing serious signs of malnutrition, and the fact that the IPC [Integrated Food Security Phase Classification] highlights that 70 percent of the population is in danger of slipping into famine, we need to see a change in that, but that is not happening."
Another area of great concern, one that is uppermost in the minds of humanitarians, is a potential incursion by Israel into Rafah. McGoldrick said people he met on a visit to Gaza a few days ago were extremely worried about a possible offensive, concerns he shared with the Israeli official.
"We have been insisting since day one that we would require time to prepare and pre-position supplies to places where people might move," he said. "We cannot do that right now because we do not have enough supplies coming in on a regular basis.
"We are barely able to feed the people and support the people currently. And if we were to add on another dimension of that contingency planning process for a Rafah incursion, we are nowhere ready for that," he said.
To counter a health system that no longer is functioning, he said, WHO is setting up emergency medical field hospitals all the way up north and in the middle part of Gaza, to try to provide services "if Rafah gets locked into some sort of military incursion and we cannot operate from there."
"We face a real dramatic situation ahead of us," he said.
"And if there were to be a Rafah incursion, figures being mentioned are that of evacuating some 800,000 people from Rafah. There is no space as we see it right now where you can accommodate that number of people," McGoldrick said.
"We are ringing the alarm bells that we are nowhere near ready to address the needs. We will not be part of helping any people move or be part of any evacuation, but we have to be ready to support them if they arrive at another destination," he said. "Some people have been displaced five or six times already."
Since October 7, more than 70 percent of Gaza's population, some 1.7 million people, have been forcibly displaced. More than 33,600 Palestinians, including at least 14,500 children, have been killed by Israeli security forces in the past six months. Thousands more are buried under rubble and presumed dead.
Among those killed are at least 244 aid workers, 181 UN staff, 489 health workers and 140 journalists.
More than 76,000 people have been injured, many with life-changing injuries that will leave them permanently disabled, including more than 1,000 children who have lost one or more upper or lower limbs.
Half of Gaza's population - some 1.1 million Palestinians - face catastrophic levels of hunger and starvation, with famine now imminent in northern Gaza. The entire population of the Gaza Strip - some 2.2 million people - is facing high levels of acute food insecurity.
On Thursday, more than 250 humanitarian and human rights organizations from around the world called for an end to arms transfers to Israel and Palestinian armed groups “while there is risk they are used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian or human rights law.”
“Israel’s bombardment and siege are depriving the civilian population of the basics to survive and rendering Gaza uninhabitable. Today, the civilian population in Gaza faces a humanitarian crisis of unprecedented severity and scale,” their statement said.
The organizations also demand an immediate ceasefire and call on the UN Security Council to fulfill its responsibility to maintain global peace and security.
Humanitarian agencies, human rights groups, UN officials, and UN member states have repeatedly called for an immediate ceasefire.
On April 5, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a resolution to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, ammunition and other military equipment to Israel. In its resolution, the Council also overwhelmingly called for Israel to be held accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza.
Meanwhile, the United States and Germany - Israel's biggest arms suppliers and closest allies - continue to provide political and military support for a war on civilians that is characterized by grave war crimes and other serious violations of international humanitarian law by Israeli forces.
These include collective punishment of the civilian population, use of starvation as a method of warfare, denial of humanitarian aid, indiscriminate killings of civilians, disproportionate attacks, forced displacement, torture, enforced disappearance and further atrocity crimes.
Some information for this report provided by VOA.
Further information
Full text: More than 250 humanitarian and human rights organisations call to stop arms transfers to Israel, Palestinian armed groups. An open call to all UN Member States to stop fueling the crisis in Gaza and avert further humanitarian catastrophe and loss of civilian life, NGO statement, released April 11, 2024
https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/more-250-humanitarian-and-human-rights-organisations-call-stop-arms-transfers-israel-palestinian-armed-groups