“No more truck convoys allowed”
UNRWA accuses Israel of blocking northern Gaza
March 25, 2024, 3:55 a.m
The transport of aid to the north of the Gaza Strip comes to a standstill. The UN Palestinian Relief Agency claims Israel has revoked permission for aid convoys. The military authorities deny this. Instead, it is UNRWA that is failing in the distribution.
According to the head of the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA, Israel no longer allows the organization to send humanitarian convoys to the north of the Gaza Strip, which is affected by a particularly dire emergency. UNRWA is being prevented from bringing life-saving aid to northern Gaza, wrote Philippe Lazzarini on Platform “This is outrageous, this restriction must be lifted,” wrote Lazzarini.
As a result of the war that Israel is waging against the Islamist Hamas, which has lasted more than five months, the supply situation for the Palestinians is considered catastrophic throughout the Gaza Strip, according to aid organizations. According to UN organizations, there is even a risk of famine in the northern part of the sealed-off coastal strip. Most people have fled the war from northern Gaza, which includes the city of Gaza, to other parts of the region. According to estimates, there are still around 300,000 people there, to whom humanitarian aid only rarely and sparsely reaches. The municipal infrastructure – electricity, water, sewerage – has collapsed as a result of the Israeli bombings.
Trucks carrying relief supplies are looted
The Israeli military agency Cogat, which is responsible for coordinating emergency aid, denies that it is hindering humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. She accuses the UN organizations of failing to distribute goods in the Gaza Strip. These in turn point out that the convoys lack the necessary protection. According to a spokeswoman for the World Food Program (WFP), trucks are being looted. She also referred to the lawlessness and chaos on the ground.
Israel accuses the UN Palestinian relief agency UNRWA of employing hundreds of members of the Islamist Hamas and other radical organizations. Employees were even directly involved in the attack on October 7th. The Gaza war was triggered by the unprecedented massacre committed by terrorists from Hamas and other extremist organizations in southern Israel.