U.N. aid agencies are calling on Israeli authorities to take further steps to protect aid workers in the Gaza Strip and ensure that aid reaches those in need, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday.
Agencies are struggling to deliver food and other basic necessities. Comprehensive Food Security CategorizationThe IPC, a partnership of UN agencies and relief agencies, concluded on Tuesday that the Gaza Strip is at high risk of famine, and that around 500,000 people – nearly a quarter of the Strip’s population – are facing starvation.
Dujarric said U.N. security officials on Monday contacted the Israeli agency overseeing aid to Gaza to ask for better protection for aid workers, adding that a letter sent by the U.N. humanitarian coordinator to the agency this month made similar points.
Israeli officials have rejected the accusations. In a social media post on Tuesday, the Israeli agency that oversees aid to Gaza, the United Nations World Food Programme, said: Showed the photo The company said it had received about 10 percent of the supplies that were waiting at the unloading area, and called on the company to “stop making excuses and step up to the plate as heads of humanitarian food aid organizations and the logistics cluster.”
Monday’s IPC report found that the amount of food arriving in north Gaza has increased in recent months, but highlighted the dire conditions facing people in the area and the need for more aid to be delivered.
Aid groups say they are concerned about the safety of their staff. The U.N. World Food Program suspended aid deliveries from a U.S.-built dock off Gaza this month after it said an Israeli hostage rescue mission had killed dozens of Palestinians, including women and children, in an attack on one of its warehouses.
The United Nations said last week that Gaza has become the most dangerous place in the world for aid workers. Some 250 aid workers have been killed since the war began in a Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, according to the UN. That figure includes about 200 who worked for UNRWA, the UN’s main agency for the Palestinians.
Aid supplies have been stuck there ever since due to a temporary halt to deliveries from the dock, raising fears the UN may halt other operations.
Dujarric pointed to the dangers to aid workers, saying humanitarian efforts have been repeatedly targeted and pointing to Israeli forces attacking hospitals and other areas that were supposed to be “free from conflict” but which the army said were being used by Hamas fighters.
“Frankly, the risks are becoming increasingly unbearable,” Dujarric said, adding that the need to help millions of Palestinian civilians who rely on humanitarian assistance to survive was the top priority and that the UN was assessing the security situation daily to ensure it could operate safely.
UNRWA spokeswoman Juliette Touma said the humanitarian operation in Gaza was “now one of the most cumbersome and complex in the world and has become completely unnecessary.”