UNRWA chief: Israel continues to deny humanitarian access to UN in Gaza

The commissioner general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, UNRWA, says the Israeli regime continues to bar the world body’s humanitarian access to the Gaza Strip.

Philippe Lazzarini made the comment in a Sunday post on X social media platform, after the regime prevented him from entering the besieged territory for the second time.

“The Israeli authorities continue to deny humanitarian access to the United Nations,” Lazzarini said, adding, “Just this week, they have denied - for the second time- my entry to Gaza where I planned to be with our UNRWA teams, including those on the front lines.”

He noted that there has been a recent “increase in the denial of humanitarian access & attacks on humanitarian workers and convoys” in Gaza.

“Only in the past 2 weeks, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN staff … & long delays at checkpoints forcing convoys to move during the dark or abort,” Lazzarini said.

The UNRWA chief noted that preventing the movement of aid convoys and restricting access to the territory come “at the time we are engaged in a race against the clock to avert famine in Gaza.”

“I call on the Israeli authorities to facilitate humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip, including to the north,” Lazzarini said, stressing, “The denial of humanitarian access is a violation of [international] humanitarian law.”

His remarks came after the World Food Program (WFP) said there is a “full-blown famine” in the northern Gaza Strip following months of Israel’s genocidal war against the blockaded Palestinian territory.

UN food agency: Northern Gaza in throes of ‘full-blown famine’

The UN World Food Program (WFP) says there is a “full-blown famine” in the northern Gaza Strip following more than six months of Israel’s genocidal war against the besieged Palestinian territory.

WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain raised the alarm in an interview with NBC, saying, “It’s horror.”

“There is famine — full-blown famine — in the north, and it’s moving its way south,” McCain warned.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) had warned in March that northern Gaza is on the brink of famine and likely to experience it in May.

Acute malnutrition rates there among children under five have surged from one percent before the war to 30 percent five months later, the USAID added, calling it the fastest such climb in hunger in recent history; more than in grave conflicts and food shortages in Somalia or South Sudan.

The Israeli genocide in Gaza as has killed 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 78,018 others since it started early last October.

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