A top UN official on Sunday accused Israel of continuing to deny the United Nations humanitarian access in the Gaza Strip, where the UN food chief warned a “full-blown famine” has taken hold in the north of the enclave of 2.3 million people.
While not a formal famine declaration, World Food Programme executive director Cindy McCain told NBC News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that based on the “horror” on the ground, “There is famine, full-blown famine, in the north, and it’s moving its way south.”
Israel has continued to enhance its efforts to boost aid to Gaza, said COGAT, an Israeli Defence Ministry agency tasked with co-ordinating aid deliveries into Palestinian territories.
“In talks between Israeli and UN representatives, including [the World Food Programme], none of the entities indicated a risk of famine in northern Gaza,” COGAT said in a post on X.
“Noting the improved situation, [international organizations] stated last week that the volume of goods transported to northern Gaza must be reduced since the quantities are too high in relation to the population.”
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), accused Israel of continuing to deny the UN aid access in Gaza as it tries to avert famine.
UNRWA commissioner general Philippe Lazzarini tells The National’s Adrienne Arsenault about the pressures of the unravelling humanitarian situation in Gaza and responds to allegations that some of the organization’s workers were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks in Israel.
“Only in the past two weeks, we have recorded 10 incidents involving shooting at convoys, arrests of UN staff including bullying, stripping them naked, threats with arms and long delays at checkpoints forcing convoys to move during the dark or abort,” Lazzarini posted Sunday on X.
Lazzarini also called on “Hamas and other armed groups to stop any attacks on humanitarian crossings, refrain from aid diversion and make sure assistance reaches all those in need.” The militants claimed responsibility on Sunday for an attack that shut down the main humanitarian aid crossing into Gaza.
‘Entirely preventable’
A UN-backed report in March said famine was imminent, likely by May in northern Gaza and potentially spreading spread across the enclave by July. Famine is assessed as at least 20 per cent of the population suffering extreme food shortages, with one in three children acutely malnourished and two people out of every 10,000 dying daily from starvation or from malnutrition and disease.
UN officials say that by the time a famine is formally declared, it is often too late to save many people. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said last week that the most vulnerable in northern Gaza “are already dying of hunger and disease.”
The UN has complained about a lack of humanitarian aid access throughout the seven-month-long war between Israel and Palestinian militants Hamas in Gaza. Guterres has said the UN is trying to avert “an entirely preventable, human-made famine” in northern Gaza.
Israel is retaliating against Hamas over the Oct. 7 attack militants killed about 1,200 people and took more than 250 people hostage. Gaza health authorities say Israel has killed more than 34,600 people in Gaza since then.
Hamas came to power in Gaza in 2006 after Israeli soldiers and settlers withdrew in 2005, but the enclave is still deemed as Israeli-occupied territory by the United Nations.
Hamas has said its attack was aimed against Israeli occupation and its blockade of Gaza.
As the occupying power, the UN human rights chief has said Israel is obligated to ensure the provision of food and medical care to the population and to facilitate the work of humanitarian organizations trying to deliver aid.
Hamas strike prompts border crossing closure
Israel closed the Kerem Shalom crossing, a main crossing point for delivering badly needed humanitarian aid for Gaza, on Sunday after Hamas militants attacked it.
The Israeli military reported 10 projectiles were launched at the crossing in southern Israel and said its fighter jets later struck the source.
Hamas said it had been targeting Israeli soldiers in the area. Israel’s Channel 12 TV channel said 10 people were wounded, three seriously.
It was unclear how long the crossing would be closed.
Israel vows Rafah operation in ‘very near future’
Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant claimed on Sunday Hamas wasn’t serious about a ceasefire deal and warned of “a powerful operation in the very near future in Rafah and other places across all of Gaza.”
Israel has been warning for months it plans to send troops into Rafah, the southern city bordering Egypt where more than a million displaced Gaza residents have taken refuge. Israel believes thousands of Hamas fighters are holed up in the city, along with potentially dozens of hostages.
Such an incursion would put hundreds of thousands of lives at risk and be a huge blow to the aid operations of the entire enclave, the UN humanitarian office said on Friday.
Prospects for a Gaza ceasefire appeared slim on Sunday as Hamas reiterated its demand for an end to the war in exchange for the freeing of hostages, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flatly ruled that out.
The two sides blamed each other for the impasse.
