UNITED NATIONS — UN humanitarian officials say aid entering Gaza is at its lowest level in months and warn that critical lifelines in the territory’s north, where Israel has renewed its military offensivehave been cut off.
UN Deputy Spokesperson Farhan Haq broke the grim news on Friday and said the most important thing border crossings into northern Gaza have been closed since October 1 and no food or other essential supplies have arrived. More than 400,000 people who remain in the north are under increasing pressure to move south, he said.
“The situation is terrible” in northern Gaza, Haq said, adding that the entire area faces insecurity.
The United Nations has been saying that for months lawlessness in Gazawhich has led to the removal of supplies from aid trucks and attacks on humanitarian workers and drivers, pose major obstacles to aid delivery – along with military operations, few border crossings and delayed and denied Israeli permission for convoys.
The UN’s independent researcher on the right to food, Michael Fakhri, last month accused Israel of carrying out a “hunger campaign” against the Palestinians during the war in Gaza, a claim Israel vehemently denies.
Israel’s U.N. mission did not immediately respond Friday to a request for comment on the aid reports from the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA. But Israel has repeatedly insisted that it has allowed food and other aid into Gaza in significant quantities.
“Israel has not stopped access to or coordination of humanitarian assistance entering the northern Gaza Strip from its territory,” said COGAT, the Israeli military body that oversees aid distribution in Gaza. “As evidence shows, humanitarian assistance coordinated by COGAT and international organizations will also continue to invade the northern Gaza Strip in the coming day.”
The war in Gaza began after Hamas militants killed about 1,200 people kidnapped about 250 others during October 7, 2023, attacks on Israel.
More than 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli offensive in Gaza, according to local health authorities. They did not say how many fighters there were, but said women and children made up more than half of the fatalities. The war has destroyed large parts of Gaza and displaced approximately 90% of the population of 2.3 million people, often several times.
The humanitarian organization MedGlobal, which has been working in Gaza since 2018, said on Friday that the Israeli army’s renewed military action has brought the remaining health care facilities in the north “to the brink of collapse.”
Three hospitals with hundreds of patients, including children in intensive care – Kamal Adwan, Al-Awda and the Indonesian Hospital – have been ordered to evacuate by Israeli authorities. They are also in danger of running out of fuel.
Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan and chief medical officer of MedGlobal in Gaza, said there have been “numerous injuries and fatalities as a result of the attacks on the Al Naji area.”
The hospital’s intensive care unit is overcrowded and the “catastrophic situation … will worsen in the coming hours if there is no fuel for the emergency services,” he said in a statement.
Haq said the U.N. World Food Program across Gaza is reporting that it has failed to deliver food parcels to the more than 1 million Palestinians they have received so far this month “due to limited access to relief supplies.”
In the north, the WFP said kitchens, distribution points and bakeries have been forced to close or risk closing if the conflict continues, Haq said, adding that bakeries are also running low on wheat flour.
Despite the challenges, Haq says the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, known as UNRWA, and its partners are distributing bread, meals and flour to designated shelters and beyond.