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SvennoJ on 23 March 2024
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Israeli government taunts UN aid agency on northern Gaza disaster

The head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) earlier said Israel has denied entry to a food convoy to northern Gaza – where infants are dying of starvation – for the second time this week.

He said the last time the organisation was able to send food to the north was nearly two months ago.

Now, the Israeli government’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is in charge of managing humanitarian aid to Gaza, is taunting the UN agency.

“Perhaps if your organisation wouldn’t be so deeply involved with a terrorist organisation and actually do humanitarian work as you should be, you would know that over the last month over 300 aid trucks were coordinated to northern Gaza,” it says on X, adding none of those were UN vehicles.

‘All our food convoys denied access’ to north Gaza: UNRWA

Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), says “all our food convoys have been denied access” to northern Gaza this week even as famine looms.

“With unimpeded access this man-made starvation can still be averted,” he wrote on X.

Israel continues to insist that it imposes no restrictions on entry of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, even as the UN says one-in-three babies under two years old are exposed to extreme malnutrition in northern Gaza, with lack of food rising rapidly across the enclave.



UN chief inspects rejected aid items at Rafah Crossing


Lotfi Gheith, the emergency operations centre director for the Egyptian Red Crescent, shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres inspecting items rejected by Israeli authorities at the El Arish International Airport in Egypt’s northeastern province of North Sinai on Saturday


‘Here from this crossing, we see the heartbreak and heartlessness of it all,’ said Guterres


‘A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates. The long shadow of starvation on the other,’ Guterres said


Israeli army has killed at least 560 Palestinians awaiting aid trucks: Rights group

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor says in a new report that the Israeli military has killed at least 560 and injured 1,523 other Palestinians in incidents involving aid trucks amid its war on Gaza.

The casualty tolls comprise Palestinian civilians who were awaiting humanitarian aid amid Israeli-imposed starvation, in addition to aid workers, and Palestinians responsible for aid protection and distribution.

“Israel uses hunger as a standalone war crime,” the rights group said.

The report comes after the latest Israeli attack on aid seekers at the Kuwait Roundabout earlier today killed at least 19 Palestinians, with Gaza officials saying the Israeli military used its tanks. The Euro-Med Monitor also reports that Israeli tanks and quadcopters were used.

The Israeli military again denied responsibility.

UN: Gaza famine imminent as agriculture sector ravaged

The latest analysis from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization shows famine is imminent in northern Gaza between now and May, says Rein Paulsen, the director of its Office of Emergencies and Resilience.

That is in part because of widespread damage caused by the Israeli military to the agricultural sector in the Gaza Strip.

“When it comes to livestock losses – obviously this is a sector we’re very concerned about as it’s indispensable for the livelihoods and the survival of families in Gaza – we estimate that 60 percent of the milk cows have been killed,” Paulsen says.

When it comes to meat production, as much as 70 percent of the cattle stock has been killed. About 60 percent of small ruminants such as goats and sheep have been killed.

“When we look at the trajectory of food security and nutrition statistics, we are facing a catastrophic situation in technical terms.”